9. Leonardo Del Vecchio
Company: Luxottica
Net Worth: $32.3 billion*
Leonardo Del Vecchio is the founder of Luxottica, which is the largest retailer and producer of glasses, frames, and anything eyewear-related. The company is massive, with more than 8,000 stores around the world and 77,734 employees in total. Del Vecchio’s net worth is $32.3 billion, thanks to Luxottica’s massive hold over the eyewear industry.
Leonardo Del Vecchio @TrungTPhan / Twitter.com
Del Vecchio certainly deserves his own Netflix documentary, as he has an amazing “rags to riches” story. He grew up poor and fatherless in Milan, and he was sent to a Catholic orphanage from seven to fourteen. At fourteen, he began working to support his poverty-stricken family. He learned metalworking, and he began making frames, starting Luxottica in 1961. Decades of growth passed, and now Luxottica brings in $8.7 billion in revenue a year.