Diego Della Valle

Diego Della Valle (born 30 December 1953) is a controversial Italian businessman who is the chairman of Tod's. He is the former owner of ACF Fiorentina which he sold after a criminal conviction for match fixing as part of the Calciopoli scandal.

Early life Della Valle was born and raised in Sant'Elpidio a Mare in Italy’s Marche region. He is the elder son of Dorino Della Valle and grandson of Filippo Della Valle. Filippo started his shoemaking business in the 1920s; Diego later expanded it into Tod's.

Della Valle studied Law at the University of Bologna, obtaining a degree in 1975.

Career Della Valle joined the family business in 1975 That same year, he named the company J.P. Tod's. From 1996, he started converting the company's stores in the United States to J. P. Tod's boutiques. The brand later dropped the "J.P." in 1999 after the brand became inadvertently known as solely "J.P.'s" instead of the preferred Tod's. Della Valle manages Tod's with his brother Andrea.

In 1993, Della Valle joined forces with Montezemolo and Paolo Borgomanero on reviving the Acqua di Parma brand. Since 2001, he has been a minority shareholder in funds Charme Investments (Luxembourg) and Charme II (Rome), both of which were founded by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and control knitwear brand Ballantyne and furniture firm Poltrona Frau.

In 1999, Della Valle raised his stake in British shoemaker Church's to 9.5 percent, setting off the speculation about a takeover; he ultimately decided against bidding against Prada which ended up acquiring the company. He agreed to sell his holding to Prada. In 2004, Della Valle and his brother Andrea took a 40.6 percent stake in eyewear company Marcolin through their holdings. Between 2009 and 2010, Della Valle increased his stake in luxury department store operator Saks, Inc. just above 19 percent, becoming the company's largest shareholder and sending its shares to a two-year high. When Hudson's Bay Company bought Saks, Inc. for US$2.4 billion in 2013, He was said to have made around $136 million on the deal. In 2013, he made a failed offer for Italy’s La7 television network.

In 2014, Ferrari director Lapo Elkann attacked Della Valle in a series of posts including the common accusation that Tod's flagship gommino shoe (launched in 1979) was an imitation of The Original Car Shoe (founded in 1963, now owned by Prada), declaring “Car Shoe founded in 1963…The original!"

In 2023, luxury handbag brand Tribe of Two sued Tod's for trademark infringement after it introduced a "double-T" logo that was confusingly similar to Tribe of Two's logo which had been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 2013. According to the lawsuit, Della Valle had been “looking for a logo-based T that could represent TOD’S, much as Louis Vuitton and its LV, or Gucci and its GG” but did not have such a logo until he began infringing Tribe of Two's logo. Between 2003 and 2015, Roger Vivier was owned by the Della Valle family via holding companies in Portugal and then Luxembourg, but that the licence was held by Tod's, which was controlled by the same family (with a stake of more than 50%). Despite opposition from Tod's minority shareholders, the company paid royalties to the Della Valles amounting to €52 million from 2004 to 2015, personally enriching the executives.

Legal issues Calciopoli scandal and criminal conviction In 2002, Della Valle bought the Tuscan football club ACF Fiorentina. Fiorentina was initially to be relegated to Serie B as punishment but the punishment was changed to 30 penalty points in the 2005–06 Serie A resulting in a final placement of sixth instead of third. As part of the Calciopoli trials, Della Valle was criminally convicted of sports fraud with prosecutors seeking a 5 year prison sentence and permanent ban from sports management.

Della Valle was found guilty in November 2011 and sentenced to 15-month prison sentence. In December 2013, his appeals were rejected and the conviction was upheld but he was not required to serve his prison sentence due to the statute of limitations expiring during his appeals. He was also suspended for three years and nine months. He subsequently exited his ownership of ACF Fiorentina with Rocco Commisso buying the club. In February 2022, Della Valle was among those ordered to pay over 200,000€ in compensation to the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio for legal costs due to their culpability in the scandal.

Mandelson bribery accusations In 2006, The Daily Mail reported that Della Valle had given the EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, a free yacht holiday and lavish meals as Mandelson imposed tariffs on Chinese shoes that benefitted him. The appearance of corruption given the suspicious timing was widely reported in the British media. Ferrari, Member of the Board of Directors (–2012) LVMH, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2002)

Recognition 1996: Order of Merit for Labour 2025: Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Political views In 1993, Della Valle supported and financed Silvio Berlusconi’s populist Pole of Freedoms coalition, Della Valle describes himself as a political moderate and publicly attacked Berlusconi for the over-taxing of big business and his failure to support smaller Italian businesses. In 2015, Italian weekly newsmagazine L'Espresso reported that Della Valle had registered a logo proclaiming “Noi italiani [We Italians]” to the trademark office of the country’s Ministry of Economic Development, for categories related to a political party.

Personal life Della Valle is married to architect Barbara Pistilli, his third wife. Described as a "familial philanderer", he was previously married to her older sister, Simona. He has a son with both sisters making his sons simultaneously half brothers and cousins.

He is known as a womanizer. He also has a child with the journalist Barbara Parodi Delfino.

Della Valle lives in Sant'Elpidio a Mare, and a 12-acre compound in Capri. Della Valle’s defences was dismissed as baseless. For his travels, he owns a helicopter (first a Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin, and a private jet (first a Dassault Falcon 2000, later replaced with a Gulfstream G550).