Who is Francesco Milleri, the manager that Del Vecchio wanted at the head of his empire

If they were still alive, Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means, the American scholars who theorized the separation between shareholders and managers in the last century, would say that their prophecy has also come true in an apparently improbable place and company, namely in Italy and in Luxottica. Were Bruno Visentini still among us, a bourgeois, jurist, republican senator and president of Olivetti in the era of Ivrea’s decline, he would thunder against “nobody’s company” to reiterate that only where there is “the virile presence” of business flourishes and does not wither. The fact is that today in one of the richest families in Italy and in one of the best known and most appreciated companies, the last confrontation is taking place between those who own the property and those who put it to good use. They are the Del Vecchios, he is Francesco Milleri who, after the death of his mentor Leonardo, is the head and guide of an 80 billion euro colossus between 32.2 percent of Essilor Luxottica which alone is worth about 26 billion on the stock exchange, 19.4 per one hundred of Mediobanca, at least 10 percent of Assicurazioni Generali, yachts, villas, buildings of the Convivio company (a vast heritage between Milan, Rome and Montecarlo where Del Vecchio loved to reside when he wasn’t traveling between the historic headquarters in Agordo and half the world) . The manager plays three different, but closely intertwined games. The first in France with Essilor, the lens manufacturing company married to Luxottica which produces and markets frames with the most diverse and renowned brands (think of the legendary Ray Ban which protected the eyes of the American century). The second is purely financial, an all-Italian risk involving Mediobanca and Assicurazioni Generali, where Delfin can now rise to 20 percent. Finally the third power game, the one with the family.