Leonardo Del Vecchio (22 May 1935 – 27 June 2022) was an Italian

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, the founder and chairman of

Luxottica Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian glasses, eyewear multinational corporation headquartered in Milan. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands through its own subsidiaries ...

, the world's largest producer and retailer of

glasses Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically u ...

and frames, with 77,734 employees and over 8,000 stores. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated at US$24.1 billion, the second richest person in Italy, and 54th in the world.

Life and career

Leonardo Del Vecchio was born on 22 May 1935 in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy to an impoverished family from Barletta,

Southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

. His father was a street vendor of vegetables who died before his birth and his mother already had four other children; he grew up in an orphanage. He began his career as an apprentice to a tool and die maker in Milan, but decided to turn his metalworking skills to make spectacle parts. In 1961, he moved to Agordo in the province of Belluno, which is home to most of the Italian eyewear industry. The new company was Luxottica s.a.s., a limited partnership. In 1967, he started selling parts to assemble spectacle frames under the Luxottica brand, and by 1971 he exited the contract manufacturing business to focus solely on the manufacture and distribution of finished eyeglass frames. In 1974, he acquired Scarrone, a distribution company. In 1981, the company set up its first international subsidiary in Germany. A licensing deal with the designer

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer and a billionaire. He first gained renown working for Cerruti 1881. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expanded into music, sport, and luxury hotels. By 200 ...

was settled in 1988. The company was listed in New York in 1990, and in Milan in December 2000, joining the MIB-30 (now S&P/MIB) index in September 2003. The listing enhanced the company's ability to acquire other brands, starting with Italian brand Vogue in 1990, Persol and US Shoe Corporation ( LensCrafters) in 1995, Ray-Ban in 1999 and Sunglass Hut, Inc. in 2001. They went looking for more retail companies, acquiring Sydney-based OPSM in 2003, Pearle Vision in 2004, Surfeyes in 2006, and Cole National in 2004. They acquired Oakley in a US$2.1 billion deal in November 2007. Del Vecchio owned a 10% stake in Italian

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

Mediobanca.

Shareholdings

Delfin S.à r.l., the financial holding company of Leonardo Del Vecchio. Through his holding company he held the shareholdings: *61.90% of

then 38.4% of

EssilorLuxottica EssilorLuxottica SA is a Franco-Italian Vertical integration, vertically integrated multinational corporation, multinational holding company registered in Charenton-Le-Pont and headquartered in nearby Paris. It designs, produces and markets opht ...

, born from the merger of

with the French company

Essilor Essilor International is a French multinational corporation specialized in the design, manufacture and sale of ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment and instruments. It is the world's largest manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. Founded in 197 ...

; *28% of Covivio, a French property management company; *13% of Luxair, Luxembourg airline; *19.8% of Mediobanca, Italian investment bank; *9.77% of

Assicurazioni Generali Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. ( , ; meaning 'general insurances') or commonly known as Generali Group is an Italian insurance company based in Trieste. As of 2022, it is the largest insurance company in Italy and ranks among the world's largest i ...

, Italy's biggest insurance company

Personal life

Del Vecchio was married three times. He had a total of six children, and lived in Milan. He had one son, Claudio Del Vecchio, and two daughters, Marisa and Paola, with his first wife. With his second wife he had another son, Leonardo Maria; and with his third wife two sons, Luca and Clemente. He remarried his second wife in 2010.

Death

Del Vecchio died from pneumonia at San Raffaele Hospital in Segrate, an eastern suburb of Milan on 27 June 2022 at the age of 87. The news of his death was announced by his company in a statement. "EssilorLuxottica sadly announces today that its chairman has passed away," the group said in a statement, adding that the board would meet to "determine the next steps".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Del Vecchio, Leonardo 1935 births 2022 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Lombardy Vecchio Italian billionaires Luxottica Brera Academy alumni Businesspeople from Milan People of Apulian descent