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Estee Lauder Chairman Emeritus Leonard Lauder Dies at 92

His stewardship turned a New York startup into a multibillion-dollar global beauty empire with a pioneering brand management model.

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Overview

  • Leonard Lauder died on June 14 at age 92 surrounded by family, according to a company statement.
  • He joined Estee Lauder in 1958 and rose to president in 1972, CEO in 1982 and chairman in 1995 before becoming chairman emeritus in 2009.
  • Under his leadership the company’s annual revenue grew from about $800,000 to over $7.3 billion and its shares rose 33 percent on their 1995 debut.
  • He championed a strategy of brand autonomy that drove growth for labels including Clinique, Aveda, MAC Cosmetics and La Mer.
  • An avid art collector and philanthropist, he donated more than $1 billion in Cubist works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and co-founded foundations for Alzheimer’s and breast cancer research.