Leonardo Del Vecchio

Leonardo Del Vecchio

Leonardo Del Vecchio in 2011
Born 22 May 1935 (1935-05-22) (age 81)
Milan, Italy
Residence Milan[1]
Citizenship Italy[1]
Education High school[1]
Occupation founder and chairman of Luxottica
Known for Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Ray-Ban, Oakley
Net worth Increase US$18.7 billion [1]
Spouse(s) married[1]
Children Claudio, Marisa, Paola, Leonardo Maria, Luca, Clemente

Leonardo Del Vecchio (born 22 May 1935 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian businessman, founder and chairman of Luxottica Group. The group is the world's largest producer and seller of glasses and lenses, with a total of 77,734 employees and over 7,000 stores.[2] According to Forbes magazine, he is the second richest man in Italy with a net worth of $18.7 billion, making him the 37th richest person in the world.[1]

Biography

He was born in Milan, Italy in 1935 as a child of an impoverished family. His father died five months prior to his birth. He was given to an orphanage by his mother because she was unable to support him financially. 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. So 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 complete eyeglass frames under the Luxottica brand, which proved successful enough that by 1971 he entered the contract manufacturing business.

Convinced of the need for vertical integration, in 1974 he acquired Scarrone, a distribution company. In 1981 the company set up its first international subsidiary, in Germany, the first in a rapid period of international expansion. The first of many licensing deals with designers was struck with Armani in 1988.

The company 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. Most recently, they acquired Oakley in a US$2.1bn deal in November 2007.[3][4][5][6]

Shareholdings

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Leonardo Del Vecchio Profile - Forbes.com". Forbes. 11 March 2016.
  2. ↑ "Luxottica Group on the Forbes World's Most Innovative Companies List". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  3. ↑ http://www.famous-entrepreneurs.com/leonardo-del-vecchio
  4. ↑ http://www.bornrich.com/leonardo-del-vecchio.html
  5. ↑ http://www.wealthx.com/billionaires/leonardo-del-vecchio/
  6. ↑ http://successstory.com/people/leonardo-del-vecchio
  7. ↑ "Holding Luxottica".
  8. ↑ "Holding Foncière des Régions".
  9. ↑ "Holding Generali=12 agosto 2014".

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.