EssilorLuxottica restructures its management

Essilor’s CEO Hubert Sagnières has decided to step down from his executive duties within the EssilorLuxottica group and its subsidiaries and will remain as non-executive vice president. 

In order to respect the equal powers principle, Luxottica’s founder Leonardo del Vecchio will voluntarily step down from his executive responsibilities at EssilorLuxottica and will remain at the business as non-executive chairman, the business said in a statement. 
 
Executive powers at the business have been entrusted to Luxottica CEO Francesco Milleri and Paul du Saillant until the business’ annual general meeting in 2021. Milleri has been appointed as CEO and du Saillant as deputy CEO, according to the business’ statement. Paul du Saillant has also been appointed as CEO of Essilor International. 

Essilor and Luxottica merged in 2017 but the merger was weakened for months due to disputes between Leonardo Del Vecchio and Hubert Sagnières. The group had given itself until the end of 2020 to find a general manager for the business and considered potentially hiring externally. The group did not wish to specify what would become of this plan in the wake of its new reorganisation. 
 
“The incredible progress made over the last two years, and most recently under the impetus of Francesco and Paul, gives me confidence that this is the right time for me to step back and transfer my executive powers to them, to facilitate a smoother governance transition,” said Sagnières, according to the group’s press release.
 
EssilorLuxottica has also announced the payment of an interim dividend for the 2020 financial year of €1.15 ($1.40) per share. “I’m also pleased that the resilient and disciplined approach we took to running our company during a challenging year allowed us to make this dividend possible,” said Leonardo Del Vecchio.