Luxottica founder to relinquish executive powers

Leonardo Del Vecchio, the 79-year-old founder of Luxottica Group SpA, will relinquish the executive powers he assumed earlier this month and become non-executive chairman,

the

Wall Street Journal

reported.

Luxottica also announced that Adil Mehboob-Khan, the president of Procter & Gamble Co.’s Global Salon Professional business, would become its co-CEO in January, serving with Massimo Vian, who had been Luxottica’s group chief operating officer, the


Journal


article said.

“With the appointment, Luxottica, maker of Ray-Ban and Oakley eyewear, is seeking to close a tumultuous chapter for a company that has long been considered the gold standard of balancing the virtues of family ownership with strong, independent management,” the article said.

After Andrea Guerra became Luxottica’s CEO in 2004, Del Vecchio “rarely attended board meetings,” the


Journal


report said. But the two men’s relationship grew tense this year when Guerra made a deal to help develop Google Glass without consulting Del Vecchio. Guerra resigned in September after Del Vecchio told Guerra that he wanted to return to active management with two co-CEOs reporting to him. The company’s finance director, Enrico Cavatorta, was named CEO, but Cavatorta quit shortly thereafter because of disagreements with Del Vecchio. “The resignations sparked a boardroom rebellion,” the


Journal


article said. One independent director resigned, and the rest of the board said more directors would quit if Del Vecchio didn’t fill the co-CEO posts by the end of October, according to the


Journal


report.

The succession question at Luxottica is still unresolved, “a complex issue given Mr. Del Vecchio’s age and complex family situation, with six children from three different relationships,” the


Journal


article said.

“The billionaire has been speaking with advisers about a possible solution in which family members would receive dividends but wouldn’t have a direct say on decision making in Luxottica,” the report said.

The family has not yet agreed on an plan to appoint new independent directors to the board of Delfin, the holding company that controls Luxottica, the


Journal


article said.  (Source:


Wall Street Journal


, Oct. 23, 2014.)