Clement Del Vecchio is one of six children of Leonardo Del Vecchio, the late Chairman (died 2022) of EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eyewear firm. At just 18 years old, he became the world’s youngest billionaire.
After his father’s death on June 27, 2022, at age 87, the teenager inherited a 12.5% stake in Delfin holding companybased in Luxembourg, a property he now shares with his stepmother and six siblings.
In addition to EssilorLuxottica, Delfin also owns shares in insurance company Generali, banks Mediobanca and UniCredit, and real estate developer Covivio.
After inheriting his share of his father’s fortune in 2022, Clemente became the world’s youngest billionaire at age 18.
The young Clemente, born in 2004, is one of the two children Del Vecchio had with Sabina Grossi, former director of investor relations at Luxottica. The eldest of this couple’s children is called Luca and was born in 2001.
Clemente Del Vecchio ranks number 818 among the world’s “billionaires” in the Forbes ranking in 2023.
His father, Leonardo, born May 22, 1935 in Milan, Italy, and died last year, was the founder and president of Luxottica, a luxury chain that handles brands such as Sunglass Hut, Lens Crafters, Ray-Ban and Oakley, among other.
Surprisingly, in terms of education, Leonardo is only a high school graduate, but due to his innovative thinking and great marketing skills, he rose to become the second richest man in Italy according to the magazine survey Forbes. But his childhood was not very comfortable: he started in an orphanage.
Born to a mother who could not afford to care for him, Vecchio had a difficult childhood. His father died five months before he was born, which made the situation worse. He was sent to an orphanage at the age of seven, where the orphanage’s nuns took care of him.
EssilorLuxottica is a $65 billion French-Italian group that owns iconic brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley
Leonardo Del Vecchio was married three times; he has a son and two daughters from his first wife Luciana Nervo. His second marriage was with Nicoletta Zampillo and as a result of that union they had a son. He eventually married his last wife and the couple had two children, Luca and Clemente.
The 12.5% inherited is identical to what remains for the children Claudio, Marisa and Paola, who had his first wife Luciana Nervo -who together own 37.5% of Delfín- and Leonardo María, son of his last wife Nicoletta zampillo. Del Vecchio then left another 12.5% to Rocco Basilico, the son of Nicoletta Zampillo with the financier Paolo Basilico. The mechanism designed by Del Vecchio to prevent the “safe” from collapsing establishes that each decision must be made by at least 88% of the capital. In other words, it would not be enough to gather the 7 brothers which together come to own 87.5% of Delfín. The contribution of the eighth heir, last wifewhich holds the remaining 12.5%.
Forbes magazine released its annual billionaires report, updating the fortunes of 2,640 businessmen and family clans with assets of at least $1 billion worldwide. The ranking, led by the king of luxury bernard arnault For the first time in the 37 editions that the annual publication accumulates, it shows a party ending for the great fortunes of the planet with a reduction in the total number of people who reach sufficient holdings to be included and a reduction in the total values that add up to the richest people in the world, mostly because of the fall of the technology sector.
Six Argentines make up this exclusive list: Marcos Galperin (Free market), Paolo Rocca (Techint Group), Gregorio Perez Companc (Río de la Plata mills), Eduardo Eurnekian (Corporation America), Alexander Bulgheroni (Pan American Energy) and Eduardo Constantini (Consultation).
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