Leonardo del Vecchio, the chairman of spectacles maker EssilorLuxottica and one of Italy’s wealthiest business figures, has died aged 87, Italian media reported on Monday.
There was no immediate comment from his company but a source confirmed the reports.
Del Vecchio rose from a childhood in an orphanage to amass a fortune of tens of billions of euros in one of the most famous rags-to-riches stories in Italy’s post-war economic recovery.
The Italian businessman founded Luxottica in 1961 and built up a company which owns the Ray-Ban brand and combined forces with France’s Essilor in a major merger in 2018.
His influence extended beyond his own business.
His Delfin holding company is the largest shareholder in Italian financial services group Mediobanca and has a stake of just under 10% in Italy’s largest insurer Generali.