Leonard A Lauder

Leonard Lauder spent three decades running his family's publicly traded cosmetics giant, Estee Lauder. The eldest son of the eponymous makeup maven, Lauder joined his mother's company in 1958. He created the company's first R&D laboratory and started acquiring brands like MAC, Bobbi Brown and Aveda in the mid-1990s. Lauder stepped down as CEO in 1999 but remains chairman emeritus. He is known around the company as "Chief Teaching Officer." He and his brother, Ronald, co-chair the Alzheimer's...See more

Leonard Lauder spent three decades running his family's publicly traded cosmetics giant, Estee Lauder. The eldest son of the eponymous makeup maven, Lauder joined his mother's company in 1958. He created the company's first R&D laboratory and started acquiring brands like MAC, Bobbi Brown and Aveda in the mid-1990s. Lauder stepped down as CEO in 1999 but remains chairman emeritus. He is known around the company as "Chief Teaching Officer." He and his brother, Ronald, co-chair the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, which has awarded over $100 million to fund trials in 18 countries. See less