The man with an eye for business

Leonardo Del Vecchio’s legacy is unassailable after building not only the world’s largest eyewear group, EssilorLuxottica, but the modern eyewear industry as we know itItaly's post-war industrial titans have left behind mixed legacies. Will Leonardo Del Vecchio's be different? Picture: BLOOMBERG

It wasn’t without controversy. EssilorLuxottica’s dominance attracted accusations of anti-competitive activity and price gouging. And Del Vecchio’s mettle was just as steely. In one interview I did with him in 2014, he dismissed Google Glass with the short phrase: “It would embarrass me going around with that on my face.” In another interview over lunch in 2019, he explained in four words why he would win a wrangle with top managers at Essilor: “It is my life.” He was victorious.

With Italy’s post-pandemic economy promised €260bn in EU funding, Del Vecchio called for his compatriots to use the infusion to make “revolutionary choices” that would stem their country’s decline. His own attempt at post-pandemic revolution was to take stakes in and force management changes at Milanese financial groups that once dominated Italy but now have a dwindled relevance. He was thwarted. It was a rare misstep into an industry he did not know.

Del Vecchio had six children from three wives and spent the last decade trying to get his house in order in terms of shareholder structures for his heirs. As for the company itself, he dispatched several CEOs in his last years before settling on Francesco Milleri, a former IT consultant.

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