In February 2020, Les Wexner announced that he was transitioning from CEO of L Brands into the role of chairman emeritus.
39 Facts About Les Wexner
2.
Les Wexner hired Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager beginning sometime in the 1980s and continuing until 2007.
3.
Les Wexner had a very close relationship with Epstein that began in the 1980s and continued until Epstein's death.
4.
Les Wexner allowed Epstein to run his business out of a house he owned and resided in whilst CEO of Victoria's Secret.
5.
Leslie Wexner was born in Dayton, Ohio, on September 8,1937, to parents Bella and Harry Louis Wexner.
6.
Les Wexner's mother, a first generation American, was born in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn and moved to Columbus, Ohio, as a toddler.
7.
Les Wexner attended Ohio State University, and although he had expressed an interest in architecture he graduated in 1959 with a major in business administration.
8.
In 1963, Les Wexner was lent $5,000 from his aunt Ida, which was then matched by a bank in order to start The Limited.
9.
Les Wexner opened the first store on August 10,1963, in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.
10.
One year later, Les Wexner's parents closed their store and joined their son in running The Limited.
11.
Les Wexner opened the second Limited store in August 1964.
12.
Les Wexner took Limited Brands public in 1969, listed as LTD on the NYSE.
13.
Alfred Taubman reportedly served as a mentor for Les Wexner, starting in the mid 1960s, and the two partnered on many deals involving Taubman's shopping malls over the years.
14.
Les Wexner expanded the Limited considerably in the 1970s, having opened the 100th store in 1976.
15.
Les Wexner took on significant debt in 1978 to purchase the importer and manufacturer Mast Industries, which later was regarded to have provided him with essential business advantages over competitors.
16.
Les Wexner bought the company for $1 million and by the 1990s it was worth an estimated $1 billion.
17.
In February 2020, Les Wexner was described as the longest serving CEO of a Fortune 500 company, with his 57 years at the helm of L Brands.
18.
Les Wexner was called out in the pop song "Victoria's Secret", for profiting off women and contributing to their toxic body ideals.
19.
Les Wexner hired Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager beginning sometime in the 1980s and continuing until 2007.
20.
Les Wexner was the primary billionaire client of Epstein, a financier who claimed to only work with clients with a net worth of one billion USD or greater.
21.
In July 1991, Les Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney and instated him as a trustee on the board of the Les Wexner Foundation.
22.
Les Wexner has been accused of failing to take action when complaints were raised against Epstein, including after executives of L Brands reported that Epstein was abusing his power and connection to Les Wexner by posing as a recruiter of Victoria's Secret models.
23.
Les Wexner was listed by Forbes in 2017, the wealthiest of seven billionaires from Ohio who made the list.
24.
Les Wexner was a major funder of the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, which is named in honor of his father.
25.
In 1991, Wexner formed with billionaire Charles Bronfman the Study Group, which is more widely known as the Mega Group.
26.
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.
27.
Les Wexner served on the board of trustees of Ohio State University from 1988 to 1997.
28.
In December 2005, Les Wexner was appointed to his second term and was elected chairman in 2009.
29.
On May 11,2004, Les Wexner received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship at a dinner in Columbus, Ohio.
30.
On February 16,2011, Les Wexner pledged a donation of $100 million to Ohio State, which will be allocated to the university's academic Medical Center and James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, with additional gifts to the Les Wexner Center for the Arts and other areas.
31.
Les Wexner owns a 30-room, $47 million, Georgian-inspired estate, on nearly 336 acres, that was built in 1990.
32.
In February 2018, Abigail Les Wexner announced the end of the event, citing the growing number of elite equestrian competitions.
33.
Les Wexner has owned the mid-eighteenth century Foxcote House in Warwickshire, England, since 1997.
34.
President 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.
35.
Les Wexner was inducted as an honorary member into the 104th Class of Sphinx Senior Class Honorary at The Ohio State University on May 7,2010.
36.
Les Wexner hosted a fundraiser in 2012 for Mitt Romney and donated $250,000 to Restore Our Future, Romney's super PAC.
37.
In 2015, Les Wexner donated $500,000 to the Right to Rise USA Super-Pac that supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush.
38.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on September 14,2018, that Les Wexner had renounced his affiliation with the Republican Party due to changes in its nature.
39.
Les Wexner made his comment shortly after former President Barack Obama gave a speech on the same Columbus Partnership panel that Les Wexner addressed.