1. Epstein ran his business out of a house Les Wexner owned and sometimes resided in while Advisor of Victoria's Secret.
44 Facts About Les Wexner
1. 2.
Les Wexner was born in Dayton, Ohio, on September 8,1937, to parents Bella nee Cabakoff and Harry Louis Les Wexner.
3.
Les Wexner's father was born in Russia and his mother was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
4.
Les Wexner initially expressed an interest in architecture but graduated in 1959 with a major in business administration.
5.
When his father refused to adjust the inventory, Les Wexner decided to open his own store.
6.
In 1963, Les Wexner's aunt lent him $5,000, which he combined with a matching loan from a bank in order to start The Limited.
7.
Les Wexner opened the first store on August 10,1963, in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.
8.
One year later, Les Wexner's parents closed their store and joined their son in running The Limited.
9.
Les Wexner opened the second Limited store in August 1964.
10.
Les Wexner took Limited Brands public in 1969, listed as LTD on the NYSE.
11.
Alfred Taubman served as a mentor for Les Wexner, starting in the mid 1960s, and the two partnered on many deals involving Taubman's shopping malls.
12.
Les Wexner expanded The Limited considerably in the 1970s, having opened the 100th store in 1976.
13.
Les Wexner took on significant debt in 1978 to purchase the importer and manufacturer Mast Industries, which provided him with essential business advantages over competitors.
14.
Les Wexner bought the company for $1 million, and by 1992 it was worth an estimated $1 billion.
15.
In 1993, Wexner hired Len Schlesinger, a Harvard Business School professor, whom he later appointed as a company director, to advise him.
16.
Les Wexner was on Harvard Business Review's Top 100 Best Performing CEOs in the World, ranked number 11 in 2015, and number 34 in 2016.
17.
In February 2020, Les Wexner announced that he was transitioning from CEO of L Brands into the role of chairman emeritus.
18.
Les Wexner hired Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager from 1987 to 2007.
19.
Les Wexner was the primary client of Epstein, who claimed to only work with clients with a net worth of one billion USD or greater.
20.
In July 1991, Les Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney and instated him as a trustee on the board of the Les Wexner Foundation.
21.
Les 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 Les Wexner by posing as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret models.
22.
The New York Times reported that 18 months after the charges were filed, Les Wexner cut his ties with Epstein.
23.
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.
24.
Les Wexner was profiled in New York Magazine in August 1985, where he felt he had a dybbuk, a malevolent spirit from Jewish folklore.
25.
Les Wexner said the spirit continually poked him to succeed, and that it looked like himself.
26.
In 2022, Les Wexner was mentioned in the pop song "Victoria's Secret", for profiting off women and contributing to their toxic body ideals.
27.
Les Wexner was listed by Forbes in 2017, the wealthiest of seven billionaires from Ohio who made the list.
28.
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.
29.
In 1991, Wexner formed with billionaire Charles Bronfman the Study Group, which is more widely known as the Mega Group.
30.
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.
31.
Les Wexner served on the Board of Trustees of Ohio State University from 1988 to 1997.
32.
In December 2005, Les Wexner was appointed to his second term and was elected chairman in 2009.
33.
On May 11,2004, Les Wexner received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship at a dinner in Columbus.
34.
On February 16,2011, Les 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 Les Wexner Center for the Arts and other areas.
35.
On January 23,1993, Wexner married Abigail S Koppel, an attorney.
36.
Les Wexner owns a 30-room, $47 million, Georgian-inspired estate, on nearly 336 acres, that was built in 1990.
37.
In February 2018, Abigail Les Wexner announced the end of the event, citing the growing number of equestrian competitions.
38.
Les Wexner has owned the mid-18th century Foxcote House in Warwickshire, England, since 1997.
39.
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.
40.
Les Wexner was inducted as an honorary member of the 104th Sphinx Senior Class at Ohio State University on May 7,2010.
41.
Les Wexner hosted a fundraiser in 2012 for Mitt Romney and donated $250,000 to Restore Our Future, Romney's super PAC.
42.
In 2015, Les Wexner donated $500,000 to the Right to Rise USA super Pac that supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush.
43.
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.
44.
Les Wexner made his comment shortly after former President Barack Obama gave a speech on the same Columbus Partnership panel that Les Wexner addressed.