CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France—During the EssilorLuxottica (Reuters: ESLX.PA) annual general meeting that took place today, shareholders approved all the names of the proposed directors who now sit on the company's new board of directors. They include: Leonardo Del Vecchio, Francesco Milleri, Paul du Saillant, Romolo Bardin, Jean-Luc Biamonti, Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette, Juliette Favre, José Gonzalo, Swati Piramal, Cristina Scocchia, Nathalie von Siemens and Andrea Zappia. During its first meeting today, the board appointed Leonardo Del Vecchio as chairman of the board, Francesco Milleri as CEO and Paul du Saillant as deputy CEO of EssilorLuxottica. Also at the meeting, the board was informed of the appointment of Stefano Grassi as the CFO of the company, an announcement said.





“I want to thank the board members and the entire company for trusting in me and our outstanding executive team. I am very pleased to continue working with Paul to lead EssilorLuxottica into its next chapter, where we will reach new heights while creating value for all our stakeholders. Beside us, we will have the thousands of talented women and men whose contributions will allow us to deliver on our inspiring Mission to help people see more, be more and live life to its fullest,” commented Milleri.

“I am very honored to have been appointed as deputy CEO of this wonderful company, and would like to express my gratitude to the chairman and the entire board. In the past year, we have demonstrated EssilorLuxottica’s strong resilience and growth potential. I look forward to continuing to work alongside Francesco and our 140,000 employees to combine and leverage our unique assets, for the benefit of our customers and consumers,” stated du Saillant.

The EssilorLuxottica's annual shareholder meeting was held today behind closed doors, chaired by Juliette Favre, director of EssilorLuxottica and president of Valoptec, the association of EssilorLuxottica employee-shareholders. EssilorLuxottica shareholders, who were invited to submit their votes prior to the meeting, approved all the 32 resolutions submitted by the board of directors, including the members of the new board of directors and the compensation policy applicable to the company’s executive corporate officers.

In a letter to shareholders also posted today, Del Vecchio stated, “I’d like to offer our shareholders a warm thank you for standing by us throughout the pandemic and helping us achieve our goal of combining lenses and frames under the same roof. Our focus now is leading the company into its next stage of integration where our management team will use its strength and experience to realize our vision. Never before have we been as well-equipped and motivated by our mission as we are today—this is exactly where we want to be at the start of a new era.”







In a jointly signed letter to shareholders today, Milleri and du Saillant stated, "2020 was a year of profound change for all of us, for EssilorLuxottica, it was also a year that highlighted our resilience and agility as we were pushed to rethink, relook and readjust the way we live and work. From the onset of the pandemic, our priority has been crystal clear: to ensure the health and safety of our 140,000 employees and the communities around us, while supporting our customers during this challenging period.

"We reinvented our ways of working, shifted resources overnight and doubled our commitment to social responsibility by donating millions of units of personal protective equipment to hospitals, public institutions and partners. This was our first test as EssilorLuxottica and, in many ways, it helped to define us. Facing it head on with the right priorities, 2020 brought to life our Mission and affirmed our leadership role in the industry."

They added, "Our solid 2020 results demonstrate the strength of our business model and the benefits of our integration. We succeeded in strengthening our innovation pipeline by leveraging the assets of both Essilor and Luxottica. One trailblazing project that we are particularly proud of is the combination of our iconic Ray-Ban frames and Essilor’s advanced prescription lenses, to create the ultimate complete pair.

"Other milestones include the launch of Varilux Comfort Max, the VR-800 measuring instrument, the Stellest lens, designed to lead the fight against myopia in children, as well as our partnership with Facebook, which will define the next generation of smart glasses. In parallel, we continued the digitalization of our entire business, from production to consumer journey online, in-store and through teleoptometry. We further enhanced our e-commerce platforms and made it a priority to be closer to our consumers during the pandemic. As a result, our online business reached a record high in 2020, totaling €1.2 billion in revenues and growing by approximately 40 percent year over year."

Milleri and du Saillant's comments in the letter continued, "We made great strides on the integration front, activating 28 workstreams across the business that are already showing results. As a result, we can confirm cumulative synergies of €300 million to €350 million by the end of 2021 and of €420 million to €600 million by the end of 2023. We did all this while bringing the teams closer together professionally and culturally.

“A key example is the recent expansion of our employee shareholding, with almost one in two employees now holding a financial stake in EssilorLuxottica—a record high that demonstrates both our employees’ desire to contribute to EssilorLuxottica’s long-term development and value creation, as well as their dedication to the company’s purpose."

Additionally, the Group’s boards confirmed three committees, the Audit and Risk Committee, the Nomination and Compensation Committee and the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. The company's directors' profiles are posted here.