Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio stepped down as chairman of Ray-Ban and chief strategy officer at EssilorLuxottica on undisclosed terms, ending a two-year tenure that began months after his father's death. The €42 billion eyewear conglomerate confirmed the exit following reports of sustained friction with CEO Francesco Milleri, who now consolidates operational authority over brands generating €25.4 billion in trailing revenue.
The move removes the only Del Vecchio family member from executive management at the world's largest eyewear manufacturer. Leonardo Maria, 32, retains his board seat and the family's 32 percent stake through Delfin S.à.r.l., the Luxembourg holding vehicle controlling brands from Oakley to Persol. The operational withdrawal surfaces eleven months after Milleri secured a contract extension through 2028, a timeline that effectively froze succession planning until the next decade.
For luxury hospitality developers and heritage-house operators, the departure exposes the mechanics of founder-succession failure at scale. Leonardo Del Vecchio Sr. died in June 2022 worth €25 billion, leaving six children and no formal succession blueprint. Leonardo Maria assumed the Ray-Ban chair in 2023 as part of an unwritten compromise—Milleri kept the CEO office, the heir took brand oversight. That structure lasted eighteen months. The dissolution signals that operational control and equity control now run on separate tracks at EssilorLuxottica, a template that single-family offices financing hospitality rollups should note. When the operating CEO holds the institutional trust and the heir holds the shares, the heir loses the operating role unless they bring irreplaceable commercial skill. Leonardo Maria brought lineage. Milleri brought LensCrafters and a forty-year tenure under the founder.
The brand portfolio remains intact but the command structure tightens. Ray-Ban generated approximately €8 billion in 2024 revenue, making it the conglomerate's largest consumer brand by a factor of three. Milleri now directs that franchise without family oversight, a clean hand that luxury allocators pricing LVMH-comparable multiples will read as governance clarity. The stock trades at 22x forward earnings, a 30 percent discount to Hermès but a 15 percent premium to Kering, reflecting investor ambivalence about post-founder momentum. The heir's exit may compress that ambivalence into a binary: either Milleri executes a five-year plan to lift EBITDA margins from 19.8 percent to LVMH's 28 percent, or the family recruits an external CEO before 2028 and the cycle restarts.
Watch for two follow-on events. First, whether Delfin redistributes the CSO mandate to another family member or abolishes the role outright, a decision expected by mid-2025. Second, whether Milleri accelerates M&A now that internal negotiation drag disappears. The company entered 2025 with €6.2 billion in net debt and room for a €3 billion acquisition without breaching covenants. Strategic targets include Marcolin, the Italian licensee for Tom Ford eyewear, and Safilo, a mid-tier manufacturer trading at 0.4x sales after losing the Dior license. Either move would require Delfin board approval but not operational input, a cleaner governance path than existed six months ago.
The family still owns the company. They no longer run it. That's the transition EssilorLuxottica needed to price like a public luxury conglomerate instead of a founder-led anomaly, and the market will test Milleri's thesis within twelve months.
The takeaway
Del Vecchio family exits EssilorLuxottica operations, CEO Milleri consolidates control of €42B eyewear portfolio, M&A runway clears by mid-2025.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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