Leonard Lauder, former CEO of Estée Lauder cosmetics company, died in New York on June 14 at the age of 92.
According to an announcement from Estée Lauder Companies Inc. on June 15, former CEO Leonard Lauder passed away surrounded by his family. "Mr. Lauder was a visionary, a courageous leader and a valued friend to so many. He was a beacon of light for our company and a north star for an entire industry. The world is a better place because of Leonard Lauder," the announcement said.
Leonard Lauder was born in 1933 in New York City. His parents were Estée and Joseph Lauder, who founded the Estée Lauder Company in 1946. In his 2020 memoir, “The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty,” Leonard Lauder wrote, “My mother was not like other mothers. When I was growing up in the 1930s, I remember sitting in the kitchen watching her cook lotions on the stove.” While he and his younger brother Ronald ate lunch and did homework, many women would come to the apartment to get facials and buy products.
Leonard Lauder graduated from Bronx Science High School and then completed his undergraduate degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1956.
After his discharge, he joined Estée Lauder. According to the company’s website, Leonard Lauder was uncertain whether he wanted to join the company and considered re-enlisting in the Navy. But he eventually decided to join the company and served as chairman from 1972 to 1995. In 1982, he became CEO, a role he held until 1999. In 1995, he became chairman of the board, and in 2009, he moved to chairman emeritus. Leonard Lauder is also known as the company's chief training officer.
Under Leonard Lauder's leadership, Estée Lauder transformed into the global company it is today. He created the company's first research and development lab, and in the 1990s, they began acquiring other companies, including MAC, Bobbi Brown, and Aveda.
According to Forbes, in December 2024, Leonard Lauder had a net worth of $10.8 billion, making him the 234th richest person in the world.
Leonard Lauder married Evelyn Hausner in 1959 and had two sons, William and Gary Lauder. Evelyn was a teacher when she and Leonard married, but she later became senior vice president of Estée Lauder and founded the Clinique product line. She was in charge of the company’s biggest social causes, co-creating the iconic pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness. Leonard and Evelyn worked together with New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital and helped establish the hospital’s Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Cancer Center.
Leonard Lauder and his brother Ronald co-founded the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation in 1998, which has awarded more than $209 million to fund trials in 19 countries, according to Forbes.
Leonard Lauder is also passionate about the visual arts and is a major collector. He wrote in his memoir that his love of collecting began with postcards, eventually amassing a collection of more than 125,000 vintage postcards. He then began collecting posters before moving on to fine art.
After Evelyn died in 2011, Leonard married Judy Ellis Glickman in 2015. Like Leonard, Glickman also lost her spouse after more than 50 years of marriage. “We were fortunate that the end and the beginning of the next chapter of our lives coincided,” Leonard told The New York Times in 2015.
When asked if he had any regrets in his life, he told the Brunswick Group in 2020: "I can't think of anything that I really regret. Now, could I have done a few things a little better? Of course. You can always try to do better. But do I have any regrets? Not a single one. Move on!" (People)