Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio announced his resignation as president of Ray-Ban and as chief strategy officer of the Italian-French giant in a letter to the president and CEO of the group Francesco Milleri and to the board. In the letter, the founder’s son – as reported by ‘Milano Finanza’ – addresses Milleri and speaks among other things of a “distant” and “impersonal” company management, far from the people “who must return to the center” of the group, as in “Luxottica twenty years ago”.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio is also a 12.5% shareholder in the controlling holding company Delfin, which together with approximately 32.4% of Essilux, holds over 17% of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, approximately 10% of Generali, 2.7% of UniCredit and de facto control of the international real estate group Covivio. The eight heirs of Leonardo Del Vecchio have never reached an agreement on the execution of the will of the founder, who died over four years ago.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio leaves all the positions held in EssilorLuxottica to dedicate himself to new business projects. This was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Italian-French group. «We thank Leonardo Maria for having contributed to the growth of the group and to the realization of the strategic vision desired by his father. We wish him equal success in his new adventure”, adds the Essilux spokesperson after the preview of ‘Milano-Finanza’.