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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 650 Paola Del Vecchio|# 652 Margot Birmingham Perot ➡

# 651 Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio 

$4.80B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 7/2/2024
-$47.8M (-1.00%)

# 651 Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio 

$4.80B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 7/2/2024
-$47.8M (-1.00%)
OccupationPartial Owner, Luxottica
Source of WealthEyeglasses
Age29
ResidenceMilan, Italy
EducationBachelor of Business Administration, Bocconi Univerisity
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$39.1B
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio
Italy
Net worth: $4.80B

Self-Made Score 

Biography

Overview

Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio is a billionaire known for his involvement in the eyewear industry, particularly as part of the Luxottica Group S.p.A., now a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica, the world's largest company in the eyewear sector.
He inherited a significant stake in his father's Luxembourg-based holding company Delfin, which owns shares in EssilorLuxottica, insurer Generali, banks Mediobanca and UniCredit, and real estate developer Covivio.
Del Vecchio serves as the chief strategy officer of EssilorLuxottica and is also the CEO of Salmoiraghi & Viganò, an eyeglasses retailer acquired by EssilorLuxottica in 2016.

Early Life and Education

Born into the Del Vecchio family, Leonardo Maria is one of six children.
He began his career as an apprentice to a tool and diemaker in Milan, honing his metalworking skills.
In 1961, he shifted his focus to the eyewear industry, moving to Agordo, Italy, the hub of Italian eyewear manufacturing.

Luxottica Foundings and Growth

In 1961, Leonardo Del Vecchio founded Luxottica in Agordo, initially focusing on manufacturing spectacle parts.
By 1967, Luxottica began selling complete eyeglass frames under its own brand.
Recognizing the importance of vertical integration, Luxottica acquired distribution company Scarrone in 1974, marking the beginning of its expansion.

Expansion and Acquisitions

Luxottica initiated international expansion in 1981 with its first subsidiary in Germany.
The company went public in New York in 1990 and subsequently listed in Milan in 2000, using its shares to acquire various brands including Vogue Eyewear, Persol, and LensCrafters.
Notable acquisitions include Ray-Ban from Bausch & Lomb in 1999, Sunglass Hut in 2001, and Oakley in 2007 for US$2.1 billion.

Merger With Essilor and Formation of Essilorluxottica

In January 2017, Luxottica announced a merger with Essilor, forming EssilorLuxottica.
The merger, completed on 1 October 2018, resulted in a combined market capitalization of approximately €46.3 billion.
Del Vecchio became the executive chairman of EssilorLuxottica, solidifying his position as a key figure in the global eyewear industry.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.06% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio's net worth of $4.80B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 48.24% compared to 16.19% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, Eyeglasses is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey