Les Wexner

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Leslie Herbert Wexner<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (born September 8, 1937) is an American billionaire businessman, the co-founder and chair emeritus of Bath & Body Works, Inc. (formerly Limited Brands).<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> He has been the principal in Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret and La Senza, amongst other retail corporations.

Wexner retained Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager from 1987 to 2007 and was initially the "main client" of Epstein's money-management firm, according to Bloomberg. Epstein ran his business from a house Wexner owned and sometimes lived in.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life and education

Wexner was born in Dayton, Ohio,<ref name=JBN$100MM>Template:Cite web</ref> on September 8, 1937, to parents Bella née Cabakoff (1908–2001) and Harry Louis Wexner (1899–1975).<ref name="bach"/><ref name="Cabakoff">Template:Cite news</ref> Both his parents were of Russian-Jewish origin.<ref name=":2" /> His father was born in Russia and his mother was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.<ref name=":2" /> She moved to Columbus, Ohio, as a toddler.<ref name="Cabakoff" /> Wexner has a younger sister, Susan.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref>

Wexner attended Bexley High School and Ohio State University.<ref name=":3" /> In 1953, he won a minor award for his essay, published in the Ohio Jewish Chronicle, titled "Why I Love and Respect Judaism".<ref>https://www.oldnews.com/en/record?record_id=record-11024-185744288, Ohio Jewish Chronicle, June 12, 1953</ref>

He initially expressed an interest in architecture<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref> but graduated in 1959<ref name=":4" /> with a major in business administration.<ref name=JBN$100MM /> While a student at Ohio State University, he joined the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. Wexner served in the Air National Guard.<ref name=":2" /> He briefly attended the Moritz College of Law.<ref name=":3" />

Career

Wexner began his retail career working in his parents' clothing store, "Leslie's", which had been named after him.<ref name=":5" /> According to Wexner, he began working at his parents' store so they could take a vacation.<ref name=":5" /> Wexner analyzed the sales and inventory, identifying the most and least profitable items. When his father refused to adjust the inventory, Wexner decided to open his own store.<ref name=":0" />

In 1963, Wexner's aunt lent him $5,000, which he combined with a matching loan from a bank in order to start The Limited.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /> The store took its name from its focus on moderately priced merchandise, such as skirts, sweaters and shirts, that sold quickly and quickly generated revenue.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Wexner opened the first store on August 10, 1963, in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. One year later, Wexner's parents closed their store and joined their son in running The Limited.<ref name="Cabakoff" /> He opened the second Limited store in August 1964.<ref name=":5" /> He took Limited Brands public in 1969, listed as LTD on the NYSE.<ref name=":5" />

A. Alfred Taubman served as a mentor for Wexner, starting in the mid 1960s, and the two partnered on many deals involving Taubman's shopping malls.<ref name=":3" /> In 1972, Robert H. Morosky sold his house and moved into a small apartment to serve as Vice Chairman of the board of The Limited having full confidence and belief in Wexner.<ref name="bach"/> Morosky resigned in 1987 and gave a number of interviews decades later criticizing Wexner's closeness with Jeffery Epstein.<ref>https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2022/10/25/what-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-means-to-columbus-and-les-wexner/69589703007/</ref>

Wexner expanded The Limited considerably in the 1970s, having opened the 100th store in 1976.<ref name=":3" /> He took on significant debt in 1978 to purchase the importer Mast Industries, which provided him with essential business advantages over competitors.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="cath"/>

In 1982 Wexner spent $105 million to purchase the much larger retail Lane Bryant chain of plus-sized clothing which came with $30 million in debt<ref name="cath">The Catholic Press Apr 29 1984 • Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut,, https://www.oldnews.com/en/record?lang=en&record_id=record-10618-1425137</ref> and acquired the lingerie business Victoria's Secret from Roy Raymond for an undisclosed amount of stocks, and $1 million<ref name=":6"/><ref name="cath"/> with Raymond later describing Wexner as "very guarded", stating, "When I met him, it was as if he met the devil."<ref name=":5" /> Six months later, when Raymond was facing bankruptcy, he contacted Wexner and offered to sell Victoria's Secret.<ref name=":5" />

By 1992 Victorias Secret was worth an estimated $1 billion,<ref name=":6">Template:Cite news</ref> and became known for the use of supermodels featured in an annual fashion show, overseen by Ed Razek.<ref name=":6" />

In 1993, Wexner hired Len Schlesinger, a Harvard Business School professor, whom he later appointed as a company director, to advise him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Over the years, Wexner built L Brands, a retailing and marketing conglomerate that included Victoria's Secret, Pink (Victoria's Secret for teens), Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, The White Barn Candle Company, and La Senza. Previous brands that were spun off include Lane Bryant, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lerner New York, The Limited Too (now Tween Brands, Inc.), Structure 9, Aura Science, The Limited (which closed its brick-and-mortar stores while retaining its online presence), and Express (which closed its Canadian stores and hundreds of its U.S.-based stores).

In 2012, CNN Money described Wexner as the longest serving CEO of a Fortune 500 company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was on Harvard Business Review's Top 100 Best Performing CEOs in the World, ranked number 11 in 2015,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and number 34 in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In February 2020, Wexner announced that he was transitioning from CEO of L Brands into the role of chair emeritus.<ref name=":2" />

Corporate board memberships

Wexner was on the board of directors of Banc One from at least 1986 to 1991.<ref name="wsop23a">Template:Cite news</ref> He also served on the board of Sotheby's, American Ballet Theatre and the Whitney Museum of American Arts.<ref name="bach"/>

Shapiro murder investigation

In 1985, Arthur Shapiro was a lawyer and partner in a prominent Columbus law firm, assigned to the Les Wexner account. Shapiro was to appear before a grand jury to testify about an illegal tax scheme Shapiro was involved with – the scheme had no connection to Wexner.

Days before his testimony, Shapiro was assassinated in a way that witnesses described as similar to a Mafia hit. Because of a potential nexus between Shapiro, Mafia, and Wexner, as part of the police investigation, many people and entities connected to Wexner were looked at for any connections to the mob. This was detailed in a police report, later dubbed "The Arthur Shapiro Murder File", which found some tenuous connections between Wexner and the mob, in some of Wexner's businesses such as a trucking company. A local police chief said the report's theories were highly speculative and not based on hard evidence.

The main suspect in Shapiro's murder remained Shapiro's business partner Berry Kessler – no connection to Wexner – who had a history of murdering his (Kessler's) business partners by contracting Mafia hit men. Kessler was involved with Shapiro in the illegal tax avoidance schemes, had a motive to silence him, had a history of knocking off business partners, and was seen giving someone a lot of cash the day after the murder, who matched witness descriptions of the killer. Kessler died in prison in 2005 for a different murder, and never admitted to the killing. The Shapiro murder was never officially solved.<ref name="coldesp">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Bredderman">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="freep">Template:Cite news</ref>

Jeffrey Epstein association

Wexner hired Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager from 1987 to 2007.<ref name="nymag">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was the primary client of Epstein, who claimed to only work with clients with a net worth of one billion USD or greater. Wexner purchased his New York property, the Herbert N. Straus House, in 1989 and sold it to Epstein in the mid-1990s following Wexner's marriage to Abigail.<ref name="nymag" /> In July 1991, Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney<ref name=":7" /> and also instated him as a trustee on the board of the Wexner Foundation.<ref name="epstein1">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Herbert N. Straus House on the Upper East Side

Wexner has been accused of failing to take action when complaints were raised against Epstein, after executives of L Brands reported in the mid-1990s that Epstein was abusing his power and connection to Wexner by posing as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret models.<ref name=":7" /> Maria Farmer contacted local and federal authorities about an assault she allegedly endured by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell while working as an artist-in-residence on Wexner's Ohio property in 1996. Within a year of Farmer's complaint, actress Alicia Arden filed a police report in Los Angeles detailing that Epstein had misrepresented himself as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret prior to another alleged assault.<ref name=":7" />

In early 2006, Epstein was charged in Florida with "multiple counts of molestation and unlawful sexual activity with a minor".<ref name=":7">Template:Cite news</ref> The New York Times reported that 18 months after the charges were filed, Wexner cut his ties with Epstein.<ref name=":7" />

In August 2019, following Epstein's second incarceration and prior to his death, Wexner addressed the Wexner Foundation, releasing a written statement that his former financial advisor, Jeffrey Epstein, had "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him and from his family.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Wexner retained the services of Debevoise & Plimpton criminal defense attorney and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Mary Jo White.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wexner faced additional public scrutiny in late 2019 and early 2020, when a group of wrestlers who are survivors of the Ohio State University abuse scandal publicly called on state and federal officials to conduct further inquiry into Maria Farmer's allegations of sexual assault at the Wexner property.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":9">Template:Cite web</ref> The wrestlers called for accountability for the Wexner family's alleged involvement in Epstein's abuse and raised the issue of the continuing influence of Abigail and Leslie Wexner serving as the "biggest and best-known benefactors" of the university.<ref name=":9" />

L Brands shareholders filed a complaint in the Court of Chancery of Delaware on January 14, 2021, stating that Wexner, among others, created an "entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying, and harassment", and was aware of abuses being committed by Jeffrey Epstein, which breached Wexner's fiduciary duty to the company and devalued the brand. The complaint also names Wexner's wife, current chair Sarah E. Nash, and former marketing officer Ed Razek, whose "widely known misconduct" was allegedly allowed at the company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On July 30, 2021, L Brands agreed to a $90 million settlement to resolve derivative lawsuits stemming from claims that combine Ohio and Delaware actions.<ref>Montgomery, Jeff. "L Brands Inks $90 M Global Deal for 'Toxic' Workplace Suits." *Scott + Scott Attorneys at Law LLP*, 9 Aug. 2021. https://scott-scott.com/l-brands-inks-90m-global-deal-for-toxic-workplace-suits/.</ref>

In the media

In 2022, he was mentioned in the pop song "Victoria's Secret",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for profiting off women and contributing to their toxic body ideals.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When Jax sings that "I know Victoria's secret, and girl, you wouldn't believe. She's an old man who lives in Ohio making money off of girls like me", she refers to Wexner.

Wexner's relationship with Epstein was one of the subjects of the 2022 Hulu documentary Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Philanthropy

In 1989, Wexner and his mother Bella were the first to make a $1 million personal donation to the United Way. Both of their names were inscribed in marble and are on display in the lobby of the United Way Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wexner was listed by Forbes in 2017, the wealthiest of seven billionaires from Ohio who made the list.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was a major funder of the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, which is named in honor of his father.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wexner explained that because "growing up, my folks moved around a lot, and I never got a good Jewish education", he felt unprepared to take leadership roles in his Orthodox Jewish community.<ref name="bach"/><ref name="Wexner Heritage Program">Template:Cite web</ref> So, in 1985, he joined Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman to establish the Wexner Foundation's first core program, aimed "to educate Jewish communal leaders in the history, thought, traditions, and contemporary challenges of the Jewish people".<ref name="Wexner Heritage Program"/>

Wexner receives Woodrow Wilson award in 2004

In 1991, Wexner formed with billionaire Charles Bronfman the Study Group, more widely known as the Mega Group.,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> a loosely organized club of some of the country's wealthiest and most influential businessmen who were concerned with Jewish issues. Max Fischer, Michael Steinhardt, Leonard Abramson, Edgar Bronfman, and Laurence Tisch were some of the members. The group would meet twice a year for two days of seminars related to the topic of philanthropy and Judaism. In 1998, Steven Spielberg spoke about his personal religious journey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The group, which Wexner co-chaired with Charles Bronfman, went on to inspire a number of philanthropic initiatives such as the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, Birthright Israel, and the upgrading of national Hillel.<ref name=":1" />

Wexner served on the Board of Trustees of Ohio State University from 1988 to 1997. In December 2005, Wexner was appointed to his second term and was elected chair in 2009. It was announced in June 2012 that Wexner's chairship was to end, eight years before his appointment would have ended.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On May 11, 2004, Wexner received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship at a dinner in Columbus. The award was presented by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

On February 16, 2011, Wexner pledged a donation of $100 million to Ohio State, to be allocated to the university's academic Medical Center and James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, with additional gifts to the Wexner Center for the Arts and other areas. This gift is the largest in the university's history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Through the L Brands Foundation, Wexner and L Brands contributed $163.4 million to the Columbus Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On February 10, 2012, the Ohio State University board of trustees voted to rename the Ohio State University Medical Center to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, commemorating "Mr. Wexner's indelible, lifelong legacy of leadership at Ohio State", according to university president E. Gordon Gee, during over 30 years of "ardent support" of the institution.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

In a 1985 article, Wexner discussed that he had trouble sleeping which he attributed to his dybbuk spirit that he dubbed shpilkes, "the demon that always wakes up in the morning with Wexner and tweaks and pulls at him".<ref name="bach"/> He noted it had been intermittently appearing since childhood, and attributed his driving, his bachelor lifestyle, his business drive to trying to escape the anxiety it caused and always had music playing as he couldn't stand the sound of silence.<ref name="bach">Baumgold, Julie. "The Bachelor Billionaire: On Pins and Needles with Leslie Wexner". https://ia800700.us.archive.org/10/items/les-wexner-dybbuk-demon-article/Les%20Wexner%20dybbuk%20demon%20article_text.pdf</ref>

One girlfriend converted to Judaism and changed her name to "Cohen" after a year of dating Wexner.<ref name="bach"/> On January 23, 1993, Wexner married Abigail S. Koppel, an attorney.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The couple has four children.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Formerly of the Bexley area, Wexner now lives in New Albany, a community northeast of Columbus. He owns a 30-room, $47 million, Georgian-inspired estate, on nearly Template:Convert, that was built in 1990. The estate was, for 20 years, the location of the Annual New Albany Classic Invitational Grand Prix & Family Day (an equestrian show) benefiting The Center for Family Safety and Healing. In February 2018, Abigail Wexner announced the end of the event, citing the growing number of equestrian competitions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wexner has owned the mid-18th century Foxcote House in Warwickshire, England, since 1997.<ref name="TelegNov15">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> He carries a "lucky" 1880 silver dollar.<ref name="bach"/>

George W. Bush appointed Wexner to serve in the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Wexner was inducted as an honorary member of the 104th Sphinx Senior Class at Ohio State University on May 7, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Political activities

Wexner hosted a fundraiser in 2012 for Mitt Romney<ref name="Fundraiser">Template:Cite news</ref> and donated $250,000 to Restore Our Future, Romney's super PAC.<ref name="Victoria">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2015, Wexner donated $500,000 to the Right to Rise USA super Pac that supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Columbus Dispatch reported on September 14, 2018, that Wexner had renounced his affiliation with the Republican Party due to changes in its nature.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of billionaires

Further reading

• Template:Cite magazine

External links

• The Wexner Foundation