LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO

1935–

Self-reliant and determined, Italian businessman Leonardo Del Vecchio escaped his childhood poverty to found Luxottica, the largest producer and distributor of glasses and lenses in the world.

Dispatched to an orphanage by his widowed and impoverished mother at the age of seven, Leonardo Del Vecchio soon learned to rely on his own resources. At 14, he began work as an apprentice toolmaker in Milan, using his wages to attend design school at night. Discovering he had an aptitude for making parts for glasses, he moved to Agordo—the center of the Italian eyewear industry—and founded his own business, Luxottica, in 1961. Initially, the company made frames on contract for other firms, but in 1967, Del Vecchio began issuing his own brand designs. By the 1980s, he had global sales and licensing deals with fashion companies such as Armani. An inspired businessman, Del Vecchio’s detailed knowledge of frame design, production methods, and the eyewear market allowed him to control every aspect of Luxottica’s growth and to make canny acquisitions of other famous brands, including Ray-Ban and Oakley.