Francesco Milleri

"Glasses, which have long been seen as prosthetics and later as fashion accessories, are poised to become the central device in people's lives, possibly replacing smartphones. We could foresee in the near future hundreds of millions of smart glasses interconnected with each other, and with the people who wear them creating huge communities."

— Francesco Milleri

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Overview

Francesco Milleri
Born	1959 (age 66–67) Città di Castello, Italy
Citizenship	Italy
Education	Law; MBA; corporate finance
Alma mater	University of Florence; Bocconi University; New York University Stern School of Business
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	EssilorLuxottica
Known for	Leadership of EssilorLuxottica and smart eyewear strategy
Title	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EssilorLuxottica
Term	CEO, 2020–present; Chairman, 2022–present
Board member of	EssilorLuxottica; Delfin; Leonardo Del Vecchio Foundation; European Institute of Oncology
Children	1 son (Matteo)
Awards	CEO Today Europe Award 2023
Website	https://www.essilorluxottica.com/en/governance/board-directors/francesco-milleri/

👤 Francesco Milleri (born 1959) is an Italian business executive who serves as chairman and chief executive officer of EssilorLuxottica, the global eyewear group formed from the merger of lens-maker Essilor and frame and retail specialist Luxottica. A former academic and consultant who founded his own digital automation company before joining Luxottica as a technology adviser, he became a close protégé of founder Leonardo Del Vecchio and gradually rose to lead first Luxottica and then the combined EssilorLuxottica group. Under his stewardship, EssilorLuxottica has pursued vertical integration across lenses, frames and retail, invested heavily in smart eyewear and other technology-driven products, and seen its stock market value more than double to over €125 billion by the mid-2020s.

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Early life and education

🎓 Early years and studies. Milleri was born in 1959 in Città di Castello, a town in the Umbrian region of central Italy, far from the corporate centres that would later dominate his professional life. He developed a reputation for academic excellence, earning a law degree with highest honours from the University of Florence and remaining there after graduation as an assistant professor of political economy for around two years.

📚 Advanced finance training. Seeking to broaden his skills beyond law and economics, Milleri completed an MBA at Bocconi University in Milan in 1987 and then won a Donato Menichella scholarship from the Bank of Italy, which financed two years of advanced study in corporate finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. This combination of legal and financial training helped shape an analytical, cross-disciplinary approach to business issues, and by the late 1980s he decided to leave academia in order to apply his ideas in the private sector.

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Early career and entrepreneurship

💼 Consulting career. After moving into management consulting in 1988, Milleri advised companies across a wide range of sectors, including engineering, consumer goods, banking and pharmaceuticals, gaining a broad view of how different business models and organisational cultures operated. The experience of working with varied clients gave him a toolkit for diagnosing corporate problems and designing process improvements, skills that would later prove valuable in large-scale transformation projects at Luxottica and EssilorLuxottica.

💻 Founding of Abstract. In 1996, anticipating the impact of digitalisation on corporate workflows, he founded a technology company later known as Abstract, which specialised in digital automation solutions and document-management platforms. Over roughly two decades he built the business by developing software such as the Lucy Star digitisation system, attracting customers including consumer groups Campari and Barilla and, significantly, eyewear group Luxottica, which relied on his tools to streamline internal processes. The relationship with Luxottica brought him into contact with founder Leonardo Del Vecchio, who took notice of the lawyer-turned-entrepreneur’s technological expertise and began to draw him into discussions about the group’s future direction.

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Career at Luxottica and EssilorLuxottica

🏭 Digital transformation at Luxottica. In the mid-2000s, as Luxottica sought to modernise its systems and global operations, Del Vecchio asked Milleri to lead a long-term digital overhaul of the company, making him a key architect of its information-technology and process transformation behind the scenes. Over roughly a decade he worked closely with the founder on integrating technology into design, production and retail activities, strengthening the trust between the two men and positioning himself as a strategic adviser rather than a traditional line manager.

🤝 Boardroom ascent and merger. By 2016 Del Vecchio invited Milleri into Luxottica’s boardroom and named him a deputy, effectively signalling him as a potential successor; the founder even described him publicly as his “natural successor” in media interviews the following year. When chief executive Massimo Vian resigned in December 2017 amid a reshuffle, Del Vecchio briefly assumed the CEO title himself but entrusted day-to-day management to the trusted lieutenant, who was appointed chief executive of Luxottica just as the group was finalising its merger with French lens manufacturer Essilor. The 2018 combination created EssilorLuxottica, a global leader in prescription lenses, frames and eyewear retail, but also brought to the surface tensions between the French and Italian halves of the new group.

👔 Chief executive and chairman roles. In the early years after the merger, disputes over governance and succession led to a public Franco-Italian feud between Essilor and Luxottica camps, with Del Vecchio and his allies, including Milleri, on one side and Essilor’s leadership on the other; the parties eventually agreed in 2019 to drop litigation and focus on integrating the business, initially postponing decisions over the top role. By late 2020 the balance of power had shifted: Essilor’s chairman Hubert Sagnières had stepped back, and Milleri was formally appointed chief executive of EssilorLuxottica, a position shareholders confirmed at the 2021 annual meeting. Following Del Vecchio’s death in June 2022, he was elected chairman of the board the next day, effectively uniting the roles of chair and chief executive at the head of the group and consolidating his position as steward of the founder’s industrial legacy.

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Strategy and innovation

🔍 Vertical integration and global reach. As chief executive, Milleri has emphasised continuity with Del Vecchio’s model of vertical integration, in which EssilorLuxottica controls much of the value chain from lens design and frame manufacturing to distribution in owned retail chains such as LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut and supply relationships with tens of thousands of independent opticians worldwide. The group also manages an extensive portfolio of owned brands, including Ray-Ban and Oakley, and licensed fashion labels such as Prada and Armani, a combination that gives it significant pricing power and reach across both mass-market and luxury eyewear segments. Under Milleri this structure has been reinforced through acquisitions such as the purchase of GrandVision, which added more than 7,000 stores to the company’s network when the deal closed in 2021, and through selective moves into adjacent lifestyle areas, including the acquisition of streetwear brand Supreme in 2024 to strengthen appeal among younger consumers.

🕶️ Smart glasses and wearable technology. At the same time, Milleri has championed a push into technology-rich products, notably smart eyewear that combines optical correction with digital functionality, drawing on his own background in software and automation. EssilorLuxottica has partnered with Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to develop Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses and related devices, and Milleri has argued that glasses are poised to become a central personal device that could one day replace smartphones as interfaces for communication and information. The company has ramped up production of its Ray-Ban Stories line and associated products, with investment banks such as Barclays estimating that revenues from the Meta collaboration could rise from hundreds of millions of euros in the mid-2020s to potentially several billion annually by 2030 if adoption scales as projected. More broadly, Milleri has framed this agenda as part of a plan to “futurise” the business by combining hardware, software and services in a vision-care platform while continuing to serve traditional eyewear demand.

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Financials and wealth

💶 Compensation structure. As head of a company with a stock-market capitalisation in excess of €100 billion, Milleri receives a substantial pay package dominated by variable elements linked to performance. Analyses of company disclosures for 2022 indicate that his total remuneration for that year was around €23 million, of which only about 9 per cent corresponded to fixed base salary, with the remainder made up of annual bonuses and long-term equity incentives that vest subject to meeting performance targets. In respect of 2022 results, EssilorLuxottica’s board granted him an annual bonus of approximately €2.44 million and has periodically awarded large tranches of performance shares, including a grant of around 70,000 shares in 2023 designed to align his interests with those of shareholders.

📈 Shareholding and inheritance. Beyond salary and incentive schemes, Milleri’s personal wealth is closely linked to EssilorLuxottica’s share price through both accumulated holdings and a significant bequest from Del Vecchio. According to shareholder analyses, his direct stake in EssilorLuxottica accounts for a material shareholding among non-founder managers, and his net worth places him among Europe’s centimillionaire executives rather than billionaire founders. Del Vecchio’s will left him approximately 2.15 million EssilorLuxottica shares, worth about €340 million at mid-2022 prices and representing around 0.5 per cent of the company’s equity, further cementing his alignment with long-term shareholders.

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Other roles and philanthropy

🏛️ Delfin holding company. After Del Vecchio’s death, Milleri was appointed chairman of Delfin S.à.r.l., the Luxembourg-based family holding company through which the Del Vecchio heirs control their industrial and financial interests, including a roughly 32 per cent stake in EssilorLuxottica. Delfin’s assets, valued at about €27 billion in 2022, also include major shareholdings in Italian investment bank Mediobanca, insurer Assicurazioni Generali and other real-estate and private-equity holdings, placing the holding at the centre of several of Italy’s corporate power structures. As chair, Milleri is seen as a guarantor of continuity for Del Vecchio’s industrial vision, while day-to-day management of Delfin is entrusted to professional executives such as chief executive Romolo Bardin.

❤️ Foundations and medical institutions. In addition to his corporate roles, Milleri serves on the board of the Leonardo Del Vecchio Foundation, which supports initiatives in fields such as education, health and culture, and he is a director of the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, a major cancer research and treatment centre. These positions reflect both his connection to Del Vecchio’s philanthropic legacy and a personal interest in healthcare and social issues linked to vision and ageing.

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Personal life

🏡 Low-profile lifestyle. Despite leading a high-profile global corporation, Milleri is widely described in Italian media and corporate profiles as a reserved figure who prefers to avoid the limelight, granting relatively few interviews and maintaining a discreet personal life away from public events. Colleagues depict him as meticulous and intensely focused on work but personally courteous and analytical, more inclined to listen and probe than to raise his voice in public settings.

🎵 Family and son Matteo. Milleri is in his mid-60s and is known to be a family man, though he keeps details of his private life largely confidential. He has at least one child, a son, Matteo, from a previous marriage; Matteo Milleri has pursued a career far from the corporate world as an electronic-music DJ and producer, famed as one half of the techno duo Tale of Us under the stage name Anyma, and has attracted media attention for both his audiovisual art projects and high-profile personal relationships. The contrast between father and son has often been noted in media coverage, with the elder Milleri orchestrating boardroom integrations while the younger performs at nightclubs and festivals around the world.

📖 Interests and personal style. Public information about Milleri’s hobbies is limited, but profiles suggest that he retains a strong interest in technology, economics and the future of Italian industry, and that he is an attentive observer of scientific and social trends. Commentators describe him as “quietly relentless”, a leader more likely to spend late evenings refining a strategy or studying data than cultivating a celebrity persona, who favours understated dress and a focus on substance over spectacle at investor events. Italian press reports have occasionally suggested that he enjoys the tranquillity of the countryside, perhaps returning to his native Umbria for respite, reinforcing the image of an executive whose private life remains grounded despite his elevated corporate status.

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Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Franco-Italian governance feud. One of the earliest tests of Milleri’s leadership came in the governance conflict that followed the Essilor–Luxottica merger: disagreements between the French Essilor camp and the Italian Luxottica–Delfin camp over control and succession spilled into public view in 2018 and 2019, with each side accusing the other of seeking to dominate the combined company. Del Vecchio’s desire for Milleri to become chief executive of EssilorLuxottica was one of the flashpoints, prompting legal manoeuvres including arbitration requests and court actions before a settlement was reached in May 2019 in which all litigation was dropped and both sides agreed to look for an outside CEO by 2020 while Milleri focused on integration work. Although at the time some observers interpreted the compromise as a setback for him, the board later chose him as chief executive, and analysts have noted that his relatively low-key public stance during the feud helped to ease tensions among investors and employees once the dispute was resolved.

💼 Dual role and pay debates. As his influence has grown, corporate-governance specialists and some shareholders have raised concerns about the concentration of power in Milleri’s hands as both chairman and chief executive and about the scale of his remuneration package. In 2024 proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommended that investors vote against his pay at the annual meeting, citing steep increases in his compensation for a second consecutive year “without any further significant rationale” and pointing to the potential risks of combining the roles of chair and CEO. Earlier advisory votes on remuneration have also attracted significant opposition, prompting EssilorLuxottica’s board to adjust certain elements of his package and to highlight the performance-linked nature of most of his rewards, while instituting a lead independent director role to bolster oversight.

🕵️ Espionage investigation. Separate from corporate governance debates, Milleri’s name surfaced in 2024–2025 in connection with an Italian hacking and espionage probe dubbed the “Equalize” affair, in which prosecutors in Milan investigated a network of cyber-investigators accused of illegally accessing data on prominent figures, including business leaders close to the Del Vecchio circle. Reports indicated that Milleri had been questioned in Rome as a persona informata sui fatti – a witness providing information – about alleged surveillance activities and dossier-building related to the Luxottica and Delfin environment, while members of the Del Vecchio family featured in the case in various capacities. He has not been accused of wrongdoing, and EssilorLuxottica publicly expressed support for its chief executive, but the episode illustrated the complex environment surrounding the inheritance of a billionaire’s business empire.

🌱 Strategic and ESG challenges. Beyond discrete controversies, analysts note that Milleri faces ongoing strategic challenges in steering a large, vertically integrated group through rapid technological change and shifting expectations around sustainability, diversity and governance. EssilorLuxottica’s push into smart glasses entails execution risks and competition with technology giants, and the company must manage concerns about agility, capital allocation and potential overreach in further acquisitions, especially given Delfin’s large ownership stake and the scrutiny of the Del Vecchio heirs. At the same time, the group has made commitments to move towards carbon-neutral operations and more sustainable materials while maintaining programmes to increase female representation and broader diversity in leadership, goals that Milleri supports but often prefers to communicate through results and corporate reporting rather than high-profile personal advocacy.

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Legacy and outlook

🔭 Assessment and future direction. Observers often frame Milleri’s career as a bridge between different worlds: from small-town scholar and assistant professor to technology entrepreneur, from outsider consultant to the inner circle of one of Italy’s most influential industrialists, and ultimately to the helm of a global eyewear and vision-care leader. His tenure at EssilorLuxottica has been associated with strong share-price performance, the consolidation of a powerful vertical-integration model and a bold bet on smart eyewear and other technology-driven products, even as debates over governance, pay and strategic risk continue. As EssilorLuxottica navigates the coming years – balancing fashion, healthcare and consumer technology – analysts see Milleri as a central figure in determining whether the group can translate its industrial heritage and founder’s legacy into leadership in a future where eyewear may serve not only as a medical necessity and fashion accessory but also as a primary digital interface.

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