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Ray-Ban's Billionaire Owner Leonardo Del Vecchio Dies At 87
- By The Financial District
- Jun 28, 2022
- 2 min read
Leonardo Del Vecchio, the chairman of spectacles maker EssilorLuxottica (ESLOF) and one of Italy's wealthiest business figures, died at age 87, his company said on Monday, June 27, 2022, Reuters reported.
Photo Insert: An illustration of the late del Vecchio
"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." Del Vecchio rose from an orphanage youth to acquire a fortune in the tens of billions of euros in one of Italy's most famous rags-to-riches stories of the post-war economic rebound.
"Leonardo Del Vecchio was a great Italian. His story, from orphanage to leadership of a business empire, seems like a story from another time. But it is an example for today and tomorrow. RIP," European Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Twitter, according to CNN.
The Italian entrepreneur started Luxottica in 1961 and grew it into a corporation that controlled the Ray-Ban brand before merging with France's Essilor in a major merger in 2018.
He was EssilorLuxottica's executive chairman until December 2020, when he turned over day-to-day control to Chief Executive Francesco Milleri. When the Franco-Italian eyeglasses conglomerate was formed, he personally endorsed Milleri as CEO.
Del Vecchio's power expanded beyond his own company, and according to Forbes, he was Italy's second richest man at the end of 2021, trailing only Giovanni Ferrero of the Nutella-making group.
His Delfin holding company is the largest shareholder in the Italian financial services group Mediobanca and owns just under 10% of Generali, Italy's largest insurer. It also owns roughly 7% of the real estate company Covivio, which is listed in both Paris and Milan.
"With the death of Del Vecchio, Milan has lost one of its most emblematic individuals in recent history," stated Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala on Twitter.
