Executive Leadership

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Leonard A. Lauder is Chairman Emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Mr. Lauder also studied at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He formally joined the Company in 1958, when it had annual sales of $800,000. Mr. Lauder consistently developed and implemented innovative sales and marketing programmes and increased the Company’s sales and profits. He created its first research and development laboratory and brought in professional management on every level. He also initiated The Estée Lauder Companies’ international expansion, which began in 1960 with the opening of the Estée Lauder account at Harrods in London.

Mr. Lauder served as President of The Estée Lauder Companies from 1972 to 1995 and as Chief Executive Officer from 1982 to 1999. He added the title of Chairman in 1995 and served as Chairman through June 2009. Under his leadership, the Company launched many brands, including Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series and Origins. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the company also began expanding through acquisitions, including Aveda, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Jo Malone London, La Mer and M·A·C.

In addition to his activities with The Estée Lauder Companies, Mr. Lauder is extremely involved in the worlds of education, art, politics and philanthropy. He is Emeritus Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and a founding member of the Board of Governors of its Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies. Mr. Lauder became a Trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 1977 and currently serves as its Chairman Emeritus. He is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation; Co-Chairman of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation Board of Directors; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Chairman Emeritus and Lifetime Trustee of the Aspen Institute Board of Directors, as well as former Chairman of the Aspen Institute International Committee; and a member of the President’s Council of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. Mr. Lauder served on the Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations under President Ronald Reagan. Among his honours, he has been named an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by France and recognised by the U.S. Navy Supply Corps Foundation with its Distinguished Alumni Award. The Lauder family received the esteemed 2011 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of its long-standing commitment to philanthropy and public service. Mr. Lauder was the 2013 recipient of the Palazzo Strozzi Renaissance Man of the Year Award. Most recently, he was named a 2014 Living Landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

Mr. Lauder was married to Evelyn H. Lauder (Senior Corporate Vice President for The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.) from 1959 until she passed away in 2011. They had two sons together, William (Executive Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies) and Gary (Managing Partner, Lauder Partners LLC), and five grandchildren.

On January 1, 2015, Mr. Lauder married Judy Glickman Lauder, an internationally recognised philanthropist and photographer whose work is represented in more than 300 public and private collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Ronald S. Lauder is the younger son of Estée and Joseph Lauder and, like his brother, Leonard, learned the family business at the dinner table. He formally joined the company in 1964, beginning his career in the Oevel, Belgium factory. His executive roles began when he became General Manager of Clinique Laboratories in 1985, and he has served as Chairman since 1994. Mr. Lauder was instrumental in the creation of Prescriptives and served as Chairman of Estee Lauder International from 1992 to 2002. He also served as a member of The Estée Lauder Companies’ Board of Directors from 1968 to 1986 and 1988 to 2009. He was re-elected to the Board in November 2016.

In 1983, Mr. Lauder took a leave from The Estée Lauder Companies to serve in the U.S. Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for European and NATO Affairs. In 1986, he was appointed Ambassador to Austria by President Ronald Reagan. Upon his return from Vienna in 1987, he established the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which now has 35 Jewish schools, kindergartens and summer camps throughout 15 countries in Eastern Europe. Over 7,500 children attend these schools today, and 2,500 children attend the summer camps. Over the years, the Foundation has educated more than 30,000 children in a region that was devoid of Jewish scholarship and has helped build thriving Jewish communities throughout this area. Mr. Lauder also created an International Student Exchange Programme between Jewish high school students in New York and Vienna.

In addition to his international interests, Mr. Lauder has long been committed to civic causes and public policy issues at home. A political activist on the state and national level, he was a contender for Mayor of New York City in 1989.

In June 2007, Mr. Lauder was elected to lead the World Jewish Congress, and has served as the organisation’s President ever since. In this capacity, Mr. Lauder meets with heads of countries, diplomats and religious leaders, representing Jewish communities in 100 countries around the world.

In February of 1999, Mr. Lauder was elected Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations. His selection by the Conference followed his election in 1997 as President of the Jewish National Fund of which he now serves as Chairman.

Mr. Lauder also serves as Chairman of the International Public Committee of the World Jewish Restitution Organisation; Chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Committee; Chairman of the Jewish Heritage Council; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sakharov Archives at Brandeis University; Director of the International Board of Governors of the International Society for Yad Vashem; and is a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the Board of Directors of the Jewish Theological Seminary; the Board of Directors of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; the Board of Trustees of the Anti-Defamation League Foundation; the International Auschwitz Council; and the International Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum.

Mr. Lauder is the Founder and Chairman of the New York based Water Holding Group RWL Water, LLC, an international water company. He is also Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1998, Mr. Lauder co-founded the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation together with his brother, Leonard A. Lauder. They serve together as co-Chairmen of the Foundation.

A renowned art collector, Mr. Lauder has established one of the world’s greatest private collections. He was Chairman of the Museum of Modern Art from 1995 to 2005 and now serves as the museum’s Honorary Chairman. In 2001, he established the Neue Galerie New York, of which he is President. The museum is dedicated to German and Austrian art. Mr. Lauder established the Commission for Art Recovery in 1997, which advocates and fights for the recovery of Nazi looted art.

Among his honours, Mr. Lauder received the International Emmy Directorate Award by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2006. He received, together with his wife, Jo Carole Lauder, the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2011, and in 2013, Mr. Lauder was named an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by President Hollande of France. He was decorated with Germany’s highest honour, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit, in 2015 and was awarded the Guardian of Zion prize by the Ingeborg Rennert Centre for Jerusalem Studies at Bar Ilan University in 2016. Mr. Lauder also received honorary doctoral degrees from Ben Gurion University in 2009 and from Yeshiva University in 2011.

Mr. Lauder was born on February 26, 1944. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in New York and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studied at the University of Paris and received a Certificate in International Business from the University of Brussels. Mr. Lauder married Jo Carole Knopf in July of 1967. They have two children and two grandchildren. The family resides in New York City.

Rashida La Lande is Executive Vice President and General Counsel at The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), where she leads the company’s global Legal organisation. In her role, Ms. La Lande acts as a strategic adviser to ELC’s leadership and Board of Directors on global legal issues, and oversees legal strategy, practices, and policies. 

Her responsibilities extend to overseeing ELC's Global Privacy Office and Global Security Team, making her a critical partner in guiding the organisation through a wide range of legal matters, including corporate strategies, compliance, risk mitigation, governance, and business transactions. Additionally, she leads the company’s legal review of potential acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures.

Before joining ELC, Ms. La Lande held several leadership roles at The Kraft Heinz Company, including Executive Vice President and Global Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer. Earlier in her career, Ms. La Lande was a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she practised from 2000 to 2018. She began her legal journey at Chadbourne & Parke LLP.

Ms. La Lande holds a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in New York City.

Meridith Webster is Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs at The Estée Lauder Companies, a position she assumed in 2021. In this role, Ms. Webster leads the Company’s communications and public affairs strategies, advancing and protecting its business interests and corporate reputation globally, while strengthening relationships to drive value for key stakeholders. She also serves as a strategic advisor to the Company’s senior leadership on a variety of critical topics.

A highly talented and respected leader, Ms. Webster has an exceptional background across business, government, media and philanthropy. She joins ELC from the Biden White House, where she served as Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Domestic Policy Council. In the Obama Administration, she served as Senior Advisor to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Deputy Chief of Staff to Susan Rice, then the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

Prior to serving in the Biden Administration, Ms. Webster served as Vox Media’s first-ever Chief Communications Officer, overseeing strategic communications and media relations across a growing and successful modern media company. While at Vox Media, Ms. Webster led the communications for the company’s merger with New York Media, among other notable accomplishments. Ms. Webster also served in several roles at Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, including as the Global Head of Public Affairs, where she oversaw climate and public health communications and public affairs campaigns as well as strategic communications initiatives for the company. Ms. Webster began her career working at the Clinton White House and the US State Department before earning her law degree at Georgetown University Law Center.