The former head of Leonardo SpA and the U.S. Ambassador to Italy enjoy a close relationship.
Gianni De Gennaro was appointed head of Leonardo in July 2013. He served until May 2020. U.S. Ambassador to Italy Lewis Eisenberg was appointed to his post in October 2017.
In that time the two often attended public events together.
De Gennaro was the first person Eisenberg thanked, for example, when starting his remarks at the Transatlantic Forum on Russia in October 2019. De Gennaro invited Eisenberg to speak at the event where Eisenberg made several remarks critical of Russia.
“Russia’s record over the past several years is not a good one. We cannot turn a blind eye to Russia’s violations of borders — most recently, its land grabs in Crimea and its violent and destabilizing actions in eastern Ukraine,” Eisenberg said.
“As Secretary Pompeo has said, Crimea is Ukraine. The United States will maintain respective sanctions against Russia until the Russian government returns control of Crimea to Ukraine and fully implements the Minsk agreements. In that vein, we support continued EU sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Crimea,” he added.
Eisenberg has also toured many Leonardo plants in the time De Gennaro was the head of the firm. Leonardo has contracts to build fuselage sections of U.S.-based Boeing aircraft.
Information has been revealed that voter manipulation in the Nov. 3 election was carried out from the second floor of the U.S. Embassy in Rome using military satellites owned and operated by Leonardo SpA.
Photo by U.S. State Dept