The managing director of Audi Italia has met a tragic end while doing something he loved. Fabrizio Longo, who was also an experienced mountaineer, fell on a solo climb up Cima Payer, a 10,000-foot mountain in Italy's Adamello-Presanella Alps, a few miles from the Swiss border, on Sunday, according to reports. The 62-year-old apparently lost his footing while headed toward the summit on a protected climbing route, which included "fixed steel cables, ladders, and other aids," Fortune reports. Another mountaineer witnessed the fall and called emergency services.
Officials from Pinzolo Alpine Rescue were helicoptered in and confirmed Longo's death. His body was found some 650 feet below the summit and recovered, People reports. The death is viewed as "a significant loss both to the automotive industry and the climbing community," per Newsweek. Longo got his start in the former in 1987 with a marketing job at Fiat. He rose to vice president of sales in Europe before moving to Toyota Italia, BMW Italia, and finally Audi Italia, which he led from 2013 on, per Fortune.
"It is with great dismay and deep sadness that we have to acknowledge that our long-standing and highly valued colleague ... Fabrizio Longo, died in a fatal accident on Saturday while touring his beloved mountains," the company said in a statement. Flavio Roda, head of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, described Longo's death as "a terrible loss," noting the federation had "collaborated fruitfully with Longo for years," per the New York Post. Longo's last Facebook post, dated two weeks prior to his death, shows the Anderta Alps in the Sesto Dolomites near the Italy-Austria border, Newsweek reports. (More Italy stories.)
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