Leonard A. Lauder was born on the 19th March 1933, in Manhattan, New York City, USA, and is a businessman who is most famous for being the heir and the former chairman of the cosmetics giant – The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., and the creator of the lipstick index. He is also widely recognized as a passionate art collector.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this “cosmetics king” has accumulated so far? How rich Leonard Lauder is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Leonard Lauder’s net worth, as of May 2017, revolves around the sum of $9.6 billion. Yes! You read it well – $9.6 billion! Part of his enormous wealth is an impressive art collection which includes numerous Cubism masterpieces from artists such as Georges Braque and, of course, Pablo Picasso. All of these have been acquired through his business career in the cosmetics industry, which has been active for almost six decades, since 1958.
Leonard Lauder Net Worth $9.6 billion
Leonard is the elder of two sons of Estée and Joseph Lauder, and apart from American is also of Jewish ancestry. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, as well as Graduate School of Business at Columbia University from which he obtained his Master of Business Administration degree. Subsequently, Leonard joined the US Navy in which he served as a lieutenant. After finishing his military service, in 1958, Leonard joined the Estée Lauder Companies – a cosmetics company based in New York City, founded in 1946 by his parents. This engagement provided the basis for Leonard Lauder’s current, impressive net worth.
What began as a small cosmetics firm, offering only four products with annual revenues of $800,000, under Leonard’s careful guidance it was rapidly boosted, and over the years managed to establish itself as the leader on the market. Between 1972 and 1995, Leonard served as the company’s president while in 1995 he became its chairman. Besides these, he also served as company Chief Executive Officer from 1982 ’til 1999 when he officially resigned. Ever since, besides being a member of the board, Leonard serves as the company’s chairman emeritus. In 2001 he attracted the mass media’s attention when he created and publically presented the lipstick index – an economic indicator which describes how cosmetics sales affect economic certainty.
Leonard Lauder managed to develop The Estée Lauder Companies to become the cosmetics giant with annual sales of over $10 billion, containing a wide range of cosmetics including prestigious and luxurious skincare and hair care products as well as makeup and fragrances, presented on the market through the company’s 28 brands such as Estée Lauder, La Mer, MAC Cosmetics, Clinique and Aveda among many others. It is certain that all these successful business accomplishments have provided the majority of Leonard Lauder’s net worth.
Apart from business, Leonard is an avid art collector, particularly focused on Cubism masterpieces. His abundant art collection, which has been valued at over $1 billion, includes famous Picasso’s 1909 painting “Nude Woman in an Armchair” as well as another 80 works of Cubist masters such as Fernand Léger, Georges Braque and Juan Gris. It also include the works of Gustav Klimt as well as around 120,000 Art Deco postcards.
In 2008, Lauder donated the sum of $131 million to the Whitney Museum of American Art, while in 2013 he donated 78 Cubist painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Besides all these, Leonard Lauder is also a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and Aspen Institute as well as a co-founder of Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies and a co-founder of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. He is also involved within organizations such as the President’s Council of Foreign Relations and the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center. Leonard is also holder of the National Order of Merit given by the French Government, Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters as well as the Officier de la Légion d’Honneur given by France.
When it comes to his personal life, Leonard has married twice, firstly in 1959 to Evelyn Hausner, with whom he welcomed two sons, both of whom followed their father’s footsteps – William who is the Estée Lauder Companies’ executive chairman and Gary who serves as the managing director of Lauder Partners LLC. This marriage ended in 2011 when Evelyn died of breast cancer. However, since 2015, Leonard has been married to photographer Judy Ellis Glickman.
