Paolo Rocca steps down as Tenaris chief after tensions with Milei

Billionaire businessman Paolo Rocca will step down as CEO of Tenaris SA, the Techint Group company dedicated to manufacturing steel pipes for the oil industry.

The company confirmed that the Italo-Argentine billionaire will be replaced by current chief operating officer (COO) Gabriel Podskubka, in the group’s most significant leadership change in decades.

Rocca will continue to hold key roles within the group, remaining president of the Techint Group and chairman of Tenaris, thereby maintaining influence over strategic decisions.

Podskubka served as Tenaris’ chief operating officer since 2023, coordinating sales and market, supply chain and production operations, and product and service development, the company said in a statement. He joined Tenaris in Argentina in 1995. 

Rocca has been CEO since 2002, also the year the company went public in Milan. Tenaris’ shares have soared more than 1,000 percent since then, and the company now has a market capitalisation of around US$32 billion. 

He is also chairman of steelmaker Ternium.

Rocca “has been the architect of the continuous growth of the company over the past 25 years, during which he has reinforced the solid industrial values which are the foundation of its success,” Tenaris said in the statement. 

The decision marks the end of an era at the helm of Tenaris, which is controlled by Argentine holding company Techint, founded by Rocca’s grandfather Agostino Rocca. 

The Rocca family wealth is estimated at US$23.4 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. 

Tensions with Milei

The decision to step down comes after months of tension between Rocca and President Javier Milei over a tender linked to the energy industry.

In the process, an international company prevailed with a lower bid than Tenaris, prompting criticism from the government towards the industrial group. 

The dispute escalated after public remarks by the President on March 10, who criticised business leaders in the sector – including Rocca – during a high-profile speech in New York at the opening of the Argentina Week investment roadshow. 

“We have bad people, but they are also creative when it comes to doing wrong. Everyone knows that in recent weeks I have had open confrontations with Paolo Rocca, with [Fate tyre-manufacturer owner] Javier Madanes Quintanilla and with the textile sector, but as no-one has put a face to it, I cannot attack them directly. What I can say is that the other two are businessmen living off the public purse.”

“Rocca and Madanes, in collusion with thieving politicians, attacked many Argentines, but that’s over. Corrupt politics is over. Who is in favour of corruption? It’s uncomfortable to ask these questions, but I’m willing to do so for a better Argentina.”

– TIMES/NA/BLOOMBERG