[21][22][23] Later that same year, he moved to Italy to attend the Polytechnic University of Turin, where he graduated with a degree in management engineering in 2000;[24][25] his thesis was entirely dedicated to e-commerce and online auctions.

[25] Among the people who have influenced his education and career, supporting him in his professional journey from a young age, John Elkann has cited Gianluigi Gabetti, Sergio Marchionne, Warren Buffett, and the Wallenberg family.

They included a headlight plant in Birmingham, England (1996); a production line in Tychy, Poland (1997); a car dealership in Lille, France (1998); and at General Electric's corporate initiatives group where he worked on a thesis on e-auctions (1999).

[43] In 2008, Elkann was seen as "the great unknown",[44] and he replaced 83-year-old Gabetti as the head of IFIL, which managed a portfolio worth eight billion euros.

[49] The Financial Times called Elkann's appointment "a confirmation of change that could prove to be the making of a new Fiat and also of the Agnelli family's future fortunes.

[53] Since 2017, Elkann became chairman of Ferrari,[54] GEDI Gruppo Editoriale,[55] and the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation [it], a philanthropic institution supporting education.

[56] He is an active member of several non-profit organizations and think tanks engaged in the global geopolitical debate, one of the founders of the Collège des Ingénieurs Italia,[57] and a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art.

"[68] Guido Corbetta, a professor at Bocconi University in Milan and a family business expert, said that one of the biggest achievements at Exor was the management of the succession to Elkann from his grandfather.

[73] In June 2017, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian newspaper La Stampa, which was acquired by the Agnelli family in 1926, he organized an international conference, "The Future of Newspapers",[72] which was attended by The Washington Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and other media representatives, such as Lionel Barber, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Mark Thompson, and Robert Thomson.

[86][87][88] In May 2021, Elkann was nominated Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour in the automotive industry by Italy's president Sergio Mattarella.

[90] In two January 2023 interviews to La Repubblica and La Stampa,[91] in remembrance of the twenty years since Gianni's death,[92][93] Elkann said: "If we compare the company in 2003 and today's we see that revenues go from 22 billion to 130 in the first nine months of 2022 alone; there were 22 car models produced then, which employed 49,000 people, for 4 brands: today 280,000 people produce over 100 models for 14 brands.

[99][100] As Executive Chairman of Ferrari, Elkann has a controlling interest in the auto racing team Scuderia Ferrari, which most notably competes in Formula One as a constructor[101] and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where it returned as a protagonist in 2023, winning the centenary edition of the race after a fifty-year period of absence as a car manufacturer,[102] and achieving the same result the following year.

Since 2014, Fondazione Agnelli has offered Italian students and their families a free online portal where they can find which secondary schools in their area provide the best preparation for university and the workplace.

[104] Together with Compagnia di San Paolo through Fondazione Agnelli he launched Torino fa scuola, a project dedicated to the renovation of school buildings in the city area.

[105] Starting from July 2020, Elkann supported the launch and expansion of the Arcipelago Educativo project, co-designed and promoted by the Agnelli Foundation, Exor, and Save the Children to fight the risk of dropping out of students due to the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[108] On 21 June 2021 he celebrated a further step forward with the laying of the first stone, and then attended the official inauguration in October 2023, where he remembered Sergio Marchionne, to whom the auditorium of the structure is dedicated.

[111][112] In March 2020, to help Italian citizens suffering from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the leader of the Agnelli family he deliberated a €10 million donation to the national Civil Protection Department and to La Stampa Foundation – Specchio dei tempi, a social assistance organization that operates in Piedmont, to respond to the local health and social needs in the city of Turin and Piedmont.

[113] Elkann and his wife Lavinia are also among the supporters of Crescere Insieme al Sant'Anna, a philanthropic project aiming at expanding and improving the neonatal intensive care unit of the main public pedriatic hospital of Turin.

Since 2009, Elkann has been attending the annual media and tech conference organized in July every year by Allen & Co at Sun Valley, Idaho.

[129] He is also a regular contributor to the Google Camp,[72] which every year gathers tech entrepreneurs, investors, representatives of institutions and pop stars in Sciacca, Agrigento, and other places around Sicily.

[134] In June 2018, he invited Hoffman, Xavier Niel, Peter Thiel, and other global tech leaders to the SEI Torino Forum for the international launch of the new School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation of Turin,[135] an initiative supported by the Agnelli Foundation helping university level students to start new businesses; it opened on 21 March 2018.

[143] In December 2021, he was included in Bloomberg's list of the "50 most influential people and ideas that defined global business in 2021" for the merger of FCA with the PSA Group to form Stellantis, which started its trading with a $52.7 billion market value.

[169] In the 2014 edition of Cape2Rio, which goes from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, Elkann was a member of the team of Soldini that won and set the new speed record of the regatta.

[174][175] In January 2020, he participated in the 16th edition of the Cape2Rio aboard Soldini's VOR70 Maserati, sailing 3.600 miles from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro.

[176][177] In October 2020, once again aboard with Soldini, he conquered the first position at the 41st edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race with the Maserati Multi 70.