Luxottica founder's son resigns, says company has lost its soul

Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio is stepping down from all his managerial roles at EssilorLuxottica to focus on new entrepreneurial projects.

The 31-year-old fourth child of Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio has announced his resignation as chairman of Ray-Ban and as chief strategy officer of the Italian-French giant.

The resignation, submitted in a letter to the group's chairman and chief executive, Francesco Milleri, and to the board, will take effect on 31 August and follows those tendered last year by his half-brother, Rocco Basilico.

In his letter, reported by Milano Finanza (MF), Del Vecchio addresses Milleri and speaks of a corporate management that is "distant" and "impersonal," far removed from the people "who must once again be put at the centre" of the group, as in "Luxottica twenty years ago".

A spokesperson for the group confirmed the resignation, thanking "Leonardo Maria for contributing to the group's growth and to the implementation of the strategic vision pursued by his father" and wishing him "equal success in his new venture".

The resignation letter

In the letter, Leonardo Maria, known by his initials LMDV, writes about the importance of personal contact within the company.

"I keep talking to people in the company. I did it when I was a store manager and I have never stopped doing it," writes the founder's son, but today "the enthusiasm is not what it was. The sense of belonging is not what it was. The distance can be felt. And people sense it before the markets. Always," Del Vecchio writes.

"I am not leaving after a defeat. I am leaving after doing my job." LMDV explains that the three-year mandate he was given at Ray-Ban "came to an end this year with the targets exceeded," leaving "a stronger brand, projects that will continue and, above all, a team that does not need me to know what it has to do. For me that matters more than any title".

Del Vecchio Jr nonetheless reiterates his intention to continue following the group as a shareholder.

"I will continue to fully exercise my responsibility as a shareholder through Delfin. I will continue to defend the company's independence, its ability to grow and the need for it to have stable ownership and a long-term vision."

Remembering his father

LMDV linked back to his father's story as founder of the company and to the importance he always attached to contact with employees.

He recalls that his father built Luxottica "by asking a great deal of people" but knowing that asking for loyalty meant knowing how to give it back.

"You cannot be a team only when you are presenting results," he explains, nor can you "put people at the centre of presentations and at the margins when they become inconvenient".

"This is not the Luxottica I grew up in. And it is not the Luxottica I remember alongside my father."

His father, he recalls, "could be extremely tough. Anyone who knew him knows that." But beyond the discipline he demanded, the founder had an "almost physical" relationship with his company and the people who are part of it, always knowing what was happening and when it was necessary to step in and correct course.

For Del Vecchio, the transition to a multinational should not lead to a "depersonalisation" of personal relationships, because this also means losing the sense of belonging that is one of the key principles on which the company was founded.

"People must be put back at the centre. Not in slogans. In behaviour. Because my father did not just build one of the biggest Italian companies. He built a place where hundreds of thousands of people believed they could build something together with him. Losing that would be far more serious than missing a budget target," LMDV writes.

The Del Vecchio empire

The eyewear giant, created in the 1960s, generates more than €28 billion in revenue.

LMDV also owns a 12.5% stake in the controlling holding company Delfin, which, together with around 32.4% of Essilux, holds more than 17% of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, roughly 10% of Generali, 2.7% of UniCredit and de facto control of the international property group Covivio.

The eight heirs of Leonardo Del Vecchio have never reached an agreement on how to execute the founder's will, more than four years after his death.

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