Romano Minozzi Net Worth

Romano Minozzi has an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Romano Minozzi profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $1.6 billion in 2020.

Romano Minozzi is an Italian businessman and the founder and president of Iris Ceramica Group, a ceramics company based in central Italy. He was born in 1935, and Forbes describes him as self-made.

He earned a degree in economics from the University of Bologna and began his career at a bank in Modena, where he developed a lasting interest in the stock market. That interest would later become the main source of his fortune.

He stepped back from daily management of Iris in December 2017 and named his daughter Federica as CEO, though he remains president. He also served a three-year term on the board of Ferrari.

Minozzi is a rare example of a manufacturer who became an even more successful investor. His banking background taught him to read markets, and in his later years he turned the profits from tiles into large positions in Italy's energy networks.

How Romano Minozzi made his money

In 1961, with a loan of 300 million lire from Mediobanca, Minozzi bought a struggling ceramics company and renamed it Iris. The business grew during Italy's postwar boom, making products such as bathroom tiles and wall slabs, and it now owns subsidiaries in the United States, Mexico, Spain and Portugal.

His bigger fortune came from investing. In the early 2000s he bought a minority stake in Mediobanca. In 2010 he bought a 4.2% stake in the power grid operator Terna for $173 million and sold it three years later for about $465 million.

In 2016 he bought a 3% stake in the gas network company Snam for about $660 million and received shares in Italgas after it was spun off. Forbes says most of his wealth now comes from his holdings in Snam and Eni, two listed Italian energy companies.

How Forbes has valued Romano Minozzi

Forbes first counted Minozzi as a billionaire in 2020, at $1.6 billion. His figure rose to $1.8 billion in 2021 and $1.9 billion in 2022, then eased to $1.5 billion in 2023 and $1.6 billion in 2024 and 2025.

It doubled to $3.2 billion on the 2026 World's Billionaires List. As of October 20, 2026, the Forbes real-time billionaires tracker showed $3.5 billion, his highest figure. His wealth now depends far more on Italian energy stocks than on tiles.