Del Vecchio Jr and Francesco Milleri: the financial and family history behind the Luxottica split

Everything is in turmoil in the Del Vecchio household, but nothing and no one more so than Nicoletta Zampillo. Before her lies a stage populated by masks that do not conceal the faces she was accustomed to: Leonardo Maria, known as LMDV, Leonardino or Junior in American style, the favourite scion; Rocco Basilico, her eldest son, now relegated to the bench; two half-brothers destined to cross swords; her trusted friend of many talents, Francesco Milleri; three families unable to become a single unit; a legacy disowned yet so fiercely contested; so many truths in conflict with one another – “a huge farce”, as Luigi Pirandello might have put it. When, on Tuesday evening, following a day full of dramatic twists, an explanation of the explanations was released by sources close to LMDV, one was left to wonder at the true meaning of those words: “I’m not leaving (EssilorLuxottica, ed.) after a defeat. I’m leaving after having done my job,” he wrote in his impassioned letter. It is not a flight, but a “governance clean-up operation”, almost a warning to the man who mentored him, introduced him to the business world and paved a golden path for him to the top of Ray-Ban, the coolest brand. Leonardino becomes plaintive: “You cannot put people at the centre of presentations and then push them to the sidelines when they become a nuisance.” Then he even turns threatening: “If you ask (implicitly addressing Milleri, ed.) people for loyalty, sacrifice and a sense of belonging, you must be prepared to give them back.” The wound runs deep; it is (effectively) a farewell to his father’s company and to the hope of being its true follower, not merely its rightful heir. But what exactly happened to warrant such a painful turning point? A great deal has been written about Leonardo Maria, and even more has been gossiped about him. He was photographed looking emaciated and heavily tattooed, fiddling with a DJ console; he was pictured dressed as a guru at his mock Hindu wedding to the model Jessica Michel in 2023, two years after his divorce from his first wife, Anna Castellini Baldissera – a member of Milan’s upper middle class – whom he left amid a storm of accusations that were soon hushed up after just three turbulent months. He had been forgiven for almost everything – not because his name allowed him to do as he pleased, but because he too had ‘got his act together’, in true Milanese style. 

The death of his father Leonardo had opened up a path for him, strewn with the flowers of ambition and the thorns of reality. The founder of Luxottica had divided his estate equally amongst his six children by three different mothers; 12.5 per cent each, but he had left 25 per cent to Nicoletta. No one in the family trust, the Luxembourg-based Delfin, can make decisions without the consent of the others; however, his second wife was entitled to a double right of approval. His first marriage to Nicoletta took place when he, having been divorced, was 62 and she was 38, but he had known her all his life as she was the daughter of one of his eyewear representatives, Vincenzo Zampillo from Campania. Leonardo Maria was born on 6 May 1995; Nicoletta and Leonardo married in 1997. The marriage lasted only until 2000, when he fell head over heels for Sabina Grossi, who worked for the company; he had two children with her, Clemente and Lucca, but never married her. In 2010, they rekindled their romance and married for a second time.

Meanwhile, for three years prior to that, Francesco Milleri from Perugia had been working with Luxottica as an IT consultant, although he did not officially join the company until 2016. Did Nicoletta Zampillo act as a godmother? As neighbours on the same landing, they had met in 1991; their children played together, and the two couples would chat. Here is her account: “I became friends with his wife, and when I got engaged to Leonardo, we socialised with the Milleris for several years. Then we both went our separate ways, and from 2000 to 2009 I didn’t see Francesco again, although he continued to socialise with my husband and his partner at the time (Sabina Grossi, ed.).” Then, to cut a long story short, she explains: "We’re friends, but I didn’t suggest it; Leonardo decides for himself." And so he did: he trusted Milleri completely, took him to the top of EssilorLuxottica, and then, before he died, entrusted him with the chairmanship of Delfin without any term limits, plus a block of shares. A decision that did not sit well with the other heirs, but it seemed clear to everyone that the patriarch had chosen the line of succession. Until Leonardino took a step too far: by buying out his two brothers’ shares, he would have reached 37.5 per cent; combined with his mother’s 25 per cent, he would have held two-thirds of the capital – insufficient to decide alone, but enough to become the controlling shareholder. At the time, Milleri viewed this favourably, seeing it as a way of streamlining what he considered an unmanageable shareholding structure. LMDV, however, deluded itself into thinking that its name alone would be enough for three major banks (UniCredit, Agricole, BNP) to lend it 10 billion euros. Meanwhile, the takeover bid for Mediobanca by MPS lands the manager in legal hot water; Essilux loses almost half its market capitalisation on the stock exchange; the French shareholders grow restless; and Milleri is no longer able to sustain Leonardino’s meteoric rise. At the last board meeting on 30 June, the board voted in his favour, but he found himself pitted against Romolo Bardin, the only person at Delfin with signing authority. Leonardino reacted – or, as a Zen master might say, ‘did not act’ – out of anger and frustration, not rational calculation, but he knows full well that nothing will ever be the same again.