The governance of EssilorLuxottica, the Italian-French luxury eyewear group, is changing. It was the Board of Directors who decided it, also in view of the already agreed retirement of the French manager Hubert Sagnieres, who currently serves as executive vice president. However, Sagnières leaves the executive office and the same does, by virtue of the pact to maintain equality of powers, the Italian counterpart Leonardo DelVecchio, who therefore becomes non-executive chairman of the group. Until the appointment of the next board of directors, on the occasion of the shareholders' meeting scheduled for spring 2021, the current board has conferred all executive powers on Francesco Milleri, who becomes managing director, and Paul du Saillant, who will be his deputy. Du Saillant also becomes president and chief executive officer of Essilor International.
The Board of Directors has also decided to pay an interim dividend for the 2020 financial year equal to 1,15 euros per share on 28 December 2020. This decision was taken in light of the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the company to contain costs and preserve liquidity and given the solid recovery in the second half of the year. “I would like to thank Hubert for how he has led Essilor to become a global benchmark company and for his contribution in making EssilorLuxottica the strong company it is today,” commented Leonardo Del Vecchio.
“The significant progress made over the past two years, and more recently under the leadership of Francesco and Paul, gives me confidence that now is the right time for me to step back and hand over my executive powers to them to ensure a transition of more fluid governance,” added Hubert Sagnières.
