At 87, Leonardo Del Vecchio, Billionaire Who Once Lived In An Orphanage, Sets New Targets For EssilorLuxottica

Leonardo Del Vecchio’s mother would not have had the slightest idea that he would one grow up from being a street urchin adopted by an orphanage to being the head of EssilorLuxottica SA, the French-Italian eyewear giant.

EssilorLuxottica SA is famous for developing sunglasses, eyeglasses and eyewear and is home to brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley and also designs and makes frames for luxury houses like Armani and Prada. Valued at over $70 million, Del Vecchio is running to be the richest family in Italy, inching closer to scions of the Nutella-making Ferrero family.

Del Vecchio shares commonalities with other Italian multimillionaires like Silvio Berlusconi, Luciano Benetton and Giorgio Armani, who were all born in the 1930s when the entire Europe and the world was undergoing social and political upheavals caused by pandemics and the first World War and the Great Depression.

Giorgio Armani once said that his generation was given nothing and had to start from scratch. “Our generation experienced hard times that tempered us, the years of war and reconstruction. There was nothing, and we had to start from scratch,” Armani once said during an interview, according to news agency Bloomberg.

However, Del Vecchio does not have time for nostalgia. He turned 87 last Sunday. Before that in 2014 he returned to an operational role ousting then-Chief Executive Officer Andrea Guerra and sparking rumors among the business-elite that he was an old Italian corporate founder unwilling to let go.

Del Vecchio, however, views this move differently. “The company has changed more in the last 10 years than in the previous 50. We were stuck, I had to return to embrace change,” Del Vechhio was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

His appetite for success and dream to make his eyewear company a global behemoth speaks through his actions. After founding Luxottica in 1961 to listing it in the US stock exchange in 1990 to acquiring Ray Ban in 1990, Del Vecchio has come a long way. It also acquired French eyewear company Essilor in 2017, three years after the return of Del Vecchio at the helm.

Del Vecchio made many sacrifices too throughout his life. From losing a part of his finger in the early days of Luxottica to not being able to spend time with his family and children, Del Vecchio is still keen on fighting for more.

Del Vecchio was part of the investor group that challenged management at Italy’s biggest insurer group. He came short in his bid to win control at Assicurazioni Generali SpA but he insists that wants to help create a global leader in the finance industry.

The boy who once struggled to find food in the war-torn streets of Milan also aims to push EssilorLuxottica into the exclusive club of companies valued at more than $100 billion.

(with inputs from Bloomberg)

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