Luciano Benetton (born 13 May 1935) is an Italian billionaire businessman and one of the co-founders of

Benetton Group Benetton Group S.r.l. () is a global fashion brand based in Ponzano Veneto, Italy, founded in 1965. Benetton Group has a network of about 5,000 stores worldwide. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Benetton family's holding company Edizio ...

, an Italian fashion brand. He served as the chairman of Benetton from 1978 to 2012.

Early life

Luciano Benetton was born on 13 May 1935 in

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

. His father had a small business and following his death, Benetton dropped out of school at the age of 14 to work in a clothing shop. He saved money to buy a $200 knitting machine and teamed up with his sister to produce a collection of twenty pieced of yellow, green and pale blue sweaters.

Career

In 1965, together with his siblings Giuliana, Carlo and

Gilberto Gilberto is the Iberian and Italian version of the originally Norman-French given name ''Gilbert'', used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages. In Galician, it's spelled Xilberto or Xilberte. ''Gilbert'' is ultimately derived from the Germ ...

, he founded

. In 1992, he was elected to the Italian Senate. In 2003, he announced that his family is stepping down from running the company, due to decreasing sales and increased competition. In May 2015, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' estimated the net worth of Luciano Benetton and each of his three siblings at US$2.9 billion.

Personal life

He is married with four children and lives in

. His son

Alessandro Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Alessandro * Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter * Alessandro Baricco ...

chaired Benetton Group from April 2012 to May 2014.

References

External links

*Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian)
XI
legislature 1935 births Living people Luciano Italian billionaires Italian Republican Party politicians Formula One team owners Italian motorsport people Benetton Formula Compasso d'Oro Award recipients {{Italy-business-bio-stub