MILAN -- A few years ago, Jonella Ligresti might never have been given a board seat at the family-controlled business, Italy's largest casualty insurer, let alone become chairwoman.

The job, at Fondiaria-SAI SpA, likely would have gone to her husband or brother. But as a new generation takes over in corporate Italy, women are getting their say. Along with Marina Berlusconi, vice chairwoman of Italy's largest media group, Fininvest SpA, and Azzurra Caltagirone, vice chairwoman of Italy's fifth-largest publisher, Caltagirone Editore, Ms. Ligresti is one of a new breed of women named to leading roles at family-held companies.

Business Smarts

Now the 36-year-old Ms. Ligresti must prove she has the business smarts to match her new position as one of the most powerful women in Italian business. Investors are watching to see whether she can deliver the three-year profitability targets promised in April following last year's acquisition of La Fondiaria SpA by Ligresti-family-owned insurer SAI SpA.

Just as important for Italian industry could be what sort of attitude she will take to the new management regime at Mediobanca, where she is the first woman to sit on the powerful investment bank's board. "Jonella Ligresti is a capable person but has no good role model, background or training to prepare her for her role, unlike, say, [media mogul Silvio] Berlusconi's kids," said a person who has had dealings with the Ligresti family. "Her father [Salvatore Ligresti] hasn't understood that he shouldn't have handed the business over to his children. It's a big risk."

So far, she has kept a low public profile and turned down an interview request. When Fondiaria-SAI's new management unveiled its three-year plan to a crammed presentation of analysts in April, Ms. Ligresti was nowhere to be seen. She rarely appears in public now that she no longer competes in equestrian events; her management duties and her two children keep her too busy for that. She occasionally appears at charity events for Andos, which benefits women who have suffered from breast cancer.

But she did preside over the Fondiaria-SAI shareholders' meeting in late April. Tiny, energetic, with long straight hair and a small bird tattooed between her index finger and thumb, she moved the meeting along efficiently and then stopped to chat with journalists afterward. She is studying English but would be the first to admit she needs practice.

Analysts say they are focusing more closely on well-regarded SAI veteran Fausto Marchionni, Fondiaria-SAI's chief executive, than on Ms. Ligresti. The two have worked together for some time and he is considered to be her mentor.

Ms. Ligresti was directly involved in the drawn-out talks with regulators and lawyers that were needed to clear SAI's merger with Fondiaria, which was opposed by the stock-market regulator, said a person familiar with the company. "The difficult, stressful experience hammered home the point that sometimes it takes a long time to get results," the person said.

With €8.6 billion in premiums in 2002 and 3,150 branches across Italy, Fondiaria-SAI's 19.1% share of Italy's auto and casualty market, as well as years of cost cutting, position it well for growth. But should Ms. Ligresti and her management team fail to cut €1.8 billion in debt, as called for in its industrial plan, the group's stretched capital ratios will likely force it to ask shareholders for a capital increase.

So far, Mr. Marchionni appears to have convinced investors the group will avoid that step.

On the broader stage of Italian finance, the Ligresti family, particularly Ms. Ligresti, is being watched for indications of how it will use its newfound freedom from Mediobanca's grip. After the Fondiaria-SAI merger, the family's financial ties with Mediobanca were severed for antitrust reasons and the Ligrestis recently clinched a banking relationship with Mediobanca rivals Capitalia SpA and Lazard Italia.

Papa as Peacemaker

For now, it seems Papa Ligresti is more interested in a role as peacemaker than in trying to flex his muscle through the family's holdings at RCS MediaGroup, which publishes Italy's largest newspaper, or Generali, Italy's largest insurer. "Salvatore Ligresti played the role of mediator between Mediobanca shareholders and management when shareholders were pushing for management change," said Paolo Panerai, editor and publisher of business weekly Milano Finanza. "He wants to transmit that role to his children."

One relationship to follow is that between the Ligresti family and Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, who also controls Telecom Italia SpA. The Ligrestis will hold a 3% to 4% stake in Pirelli after it merges with its parent company, Pirelli & C. SpA, and see the investment as "strategic." Giulia Ligresti, Jonella Ligresti's younger sister and the chairwoman of the family holding company Premafin, told shareholders on Monday she hopes to see "synergies and collaboration" between the two groups (read "family dynasties").

The family is being watched for signs that it is acting as an envoy for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is an indirect shareholder in Mediobanca. Messrs. Ligresti and Berlusconi have no business dealings together, but they were both close to former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.

At Mediobanca, it is unclear whether Ms. Ligresti will cast her lot with "reformers" such as Unicredito Italiano SpA Chief Executive Alessandro Profumo, who led the boardroom revolt at Mediobanca that ousted CEO Vincenzo Maranghi.

Mediobanca's shareholders are remodeling the bank's role in Italian finance, where it has called the shots for the past 50 years. The Ligresti family's ties with the bank's founder, Enrico Cuccia, who died nearly three years ago, go back to the 1980s, so some believe it is unlikely Ms. Ligresti would press for huge changes to Mr. Cuccia's legacy.

Ms. Ligresti also has a voice in Italian business through voting stakes in Fondiaria-SAI's blue-chip investment portfolio, with 16.1%% of Swiss Life, 3.4% of merchant bank Mediobanca, 4.9% of Italian publisher RCS MediaGroup, 2.7% of Capitalia, 5.6% of Pirelli & C. and 2.4% of Assicurazione Generali.

'Catapulted Into Reality'

Mr. Ligresti founded the family's business empire as a successful real-estate developer in the 1970s. But he was forced to step down in 1996, following eight years at the helm of SAI, after being convicted of bribing state-held Eni SpA to win a contract to supply insurance to the group's employees.

While Mr. Ligresti was one of hundreds of Italian business leaders who were investigated during the 1990s in Italy's "Clean Hands" anticorruption campaign, his was one of the few convictions to be upheld.

"Me and my brother and sister were catapulted into reality," Ms. Ligresti was quoted as saying in an interview in 1997. Both younger siblings have management roles at the group.

Mr. Ligresti sold his stake in Premafin, his holding company, to his three children in 1996. Ms. Ligresti's business experience then consisted mostly of a junior-management position at SAI. She dropped out of Milan's Bocconi business school to join the family firm. She became vice chairwoman of Premafin in 1997, when she was 30, and chairwoman of its SAI unit in 2001. That year, she gave her first public speech -- at an annual gathering organized by a religious group. "My father is my role model, my guide, and the person who advises me in strategic choices," she told the crowd.

Her father has reciprocated, calling her "my personal consultant."

By all accounts, Mr. Ligresti's management style was in the tradition of Mediobanca -- family-held companies are to be run like fiefdoms with scant regard for minority shareholders. Investors want to know if his daughter will continue that particular tradition or try to improve the company's value for the benefit of all shareholders.