The Lauder Family

A visionary entrepreneur who believed all women could be beautiful, Estée Lauder instinctively understood the power of makeup and the importance of skin care. Her dedication to offer women the highest-quality cosmetics transformed the fledgling business she started in 1946 with four products into today’s global leader in prestige beauty.

Born Josephine Esther Mentzer to immigrant parents in Queens, New York, Estée Lauder started out selling skin care products developed by her uncle, a chemist, in local beauty salons and hotels. She landed her first major order from Saks Fifth Avenue in 1947. She believed in the power of word of mouth, and sampling products was a cornerstone of her philosophy. She acted as a one-woman research department, pioneering personalised beauty consultations and offering 'Gift With Purchase' promotions.

Estée Lauder also developed some of the most successful fragrances of all time, including Youth Dew, Aramis and Beautiful. Expanding upon her vision, five more innovative brands were launched during the next two decades – Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Lab Series and Origins – all backed by iconic advertising campaigns and revolutionary marketing strategies.

She received many prestigious honours, including France’s Legion of Honour in 1978 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. The American Society of Perfumers gave her its first Living Legend award. She travelled and entertained extensively and socialised with world leaders, Hollywood royalty and celebrities. She had homes in Manhattan, Long Island, Palm Beach, London and the south of France, drawing inspiration from each location.

When she retired in 1995, her greatest wish was fulfilled: having her children and grandchildren immersed in the family business. “Living the American dream has been intense, difficult work, but I couldn’t have hoped for a more satisfying life,” she wrote in her 1985 biography, Estée: A Success Story. “I believe that potential is unlimited – success depends on daring to act on dreams.”

Estée Lauder died in 2004 at age 95.

Joseph Lauder was a co-founder of the Company in 1946 with his wife, Estée Lauder, and at the time they were the only employees. Joseph Lauder’s background had been in silks, buttons and textiles.

A native New Yorker born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Joseph met Josephine Esther Mentzer in Westchester County, near where her parents had a summer home. They married in 1930.

In the early days of the Company, Estée and Joseph developed skin care creams using a stove, and hand-delivered the products to their customers. As the Company grew, Mr. Lauder took charge of the manufacturing operations and finances, while Estée oversaw product development, sales and marketing.

The Lauders travelled around the world for business and to socialise with friends including artists, world leaders, actors and social figures, among them the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The couple was also extremely philanthropic; Joseph Lauder was vice president of the family’s charitable organisation, The Lauder Foundation. A lover of opera and the fine arts, he served on the board of the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy.

In 1983, the year he passed away, The Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management & International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania was created in his honour by his sons, Leonard and Ronald.

At the time of his passing, Leonard A. Lauder was Chairman Emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. For more than six decades of leadership, he helped transformed the company, founded by his parents in 1946, from a brand with eight products in one country to a multi-branded and beloved global icon. Today the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of prestige skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products. The well-diversified portfolio of distinctive brands across four product categories is sold in approximately 150 countries and territories.  
 
Mr. Lauder was born in New York City in 1933, the elder son of Estée and Joseph H. Lauder. Growing up during the Great Depression, he helped his mother, Estée Lauder, as she started the business in the family kitchen. He attended the Bronx High School of Science (’50), then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (‘54). After serving in the U.S. Navy, in 1958 Mr. Lauder officially joined The Estée Lauder Companies, where he built the company’s first research and development laboratory and helped to grow the business.
 
Mr. Lauder initiated the company ’s international expansion, which began in 1960 with the opening of an Estée Lauder counter at Harrods in London. An industry pioneer, he coined the phrase “Lipstick Index” (when the economy goes down, lipstick sales go up) and created the now-standard shape of lipstick after slicing the rounded lipstick top at an angle with a razor.
 
He was President of The Estée Lauder Companies from 1972 to 1995 and Chief Executive Officer from 1982 to 1999. He took on the role of Chairman in 1995 and served in that position through June 2009. In July 2009, Mr. Lauder became Chairman Emeritus and continued to be deeply involved in the business and day-to-day operations until his death. 
 
Known internally as the company’s “chief teaching officer,” Mr. Lauder believed that a company’s wealth was its people and focused on fostering growth within the company’s diverse talent pool. A tireless advocate for employees and passionate about employee growth and creativity, he imbued the company culture with his own personal values of kindness and respect for others.
 
Mr. Lauder was involved deeply in the worlds of art, education, and philanthropy.
 
An acclaimed art collector, Mr. Lauder was Chairman Emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he was a trustee from 1977 to 2011. One of its most significant benefactors, he gave a milestone gift of $131 million in 2008 to the museum’s endowment. He also helped the Whitney acquire 948 works of art, 760 of which he gifted personally; another 188 pieces were acquired with the assistance of acquisitions committees and other generous collectors. In 2016, Mr. Lauder was presented with the inaugural Whitney Collection Award as the museum announced that the Whitney’s new home in the Meatpacking District was being named the Leonard A. Lauder Building in his honour.
 
In 2013, Mr. Lauder pledged a transformational gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: his collection of 78 Cubist paintings, drawings, and sculptures. He later added five major works to that promised gift and growing collection. In concert with the donation of his Cubist collection, he helped establish the Leonard A. Lauder Research Centre for Modern Art, the first such centre dedicated exclusively to modern art within an encyclopaedic museum, which supports fellowships, focused exhibitions, and public lectures.
 
Renowned for his philanthropy, Mr. Lauder was Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, with his brother, Ronald S. Lauder, of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF). He was Honorary Chair of the board of directors of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), founded by his late wife, Evelyn H. Lauder. He was also a major supporter of the University of Pennsylvania, Council on Foreign Relations, Aspen Institute, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. 
 
Mr. Lauder’s passion for education resulted in his support for many academic institutions. He was an 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, along with his brother, Ronald. He was inducted into the Bronx High School of Science Hall of Fame in 2017. When the pandemic in 2020 magnified the nation’s acute shortage of quality primary care in underserved communities, Mr. Lauder worked with the University of Pennsylvania to create a tuition-free programme to educate nurse practitioners. His $125 million donation, the largest gift ever to an American nursing school, made possible the Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Programme at the University of Pennsylvania.    
 
Over his lifetime, Mr. Lauder was honoured with a myriad of awards, including the “Lone Sailor” Award given by the U.S. Navy Supply Corps Foundation, the Légion d’Honneur given by the government of France, the Women’s Leadership Award given by the Lincoln Centre Corporate Fund Women’s Leadership Council, and the Palazzo Strozzi Renaissance Man of the Year Award. In 2020, he was inducted into the Retail Hall of Fame by the World Retail Congress. 

The Lauder family received the esteemed 2011 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of its long-standing commitment to philanthropy and public service. In 2014, Mr. Lauder was named a Living Landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Mr. Lauder and Ms. Glickman Lauder received the Gordon Parks Foundation’s Patron of the Arts Award in 2016. 
 
Mr. Lauder shared many of the lessons he learnt in business and life in his memoir, The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty, published in 2020 by Harper Business, an imprint of HarperCollins.
 
Mr. Lauder was married to Evelyn H. Lauder, Senior Corporate Vice President at The Estée Lauder Companies and the Founder of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, from 1959 until her passing in 2011. Together, they had two sons, William (Chair of the Board of Directors, The Estée Lauder Companies) and Gary (Managing Director, Lauder Partners, LLC; member of the ELC Board of Directors), five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. On January 1, 2015, Mr. Lauder married Judy Glickman Lauder, a philanthropist and internationally recognised photographer whose work is represented in more than 300 public and private collections, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the United States Holocaust Museum.

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 and served until January 2025.

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.

Evelyn H. Lauder (1936–2011) was the Senior Corporate Vice President and Head of Fragrance Development Worldwide for The Estée Lauder Companies. During her more than 50 years with the Company, she held many positions while contributing her invaluable insights about fashion trends, consumers' changing needs and new approaches to the development of innovative skin care, makeup and fragrance products. She also helped name the Clinique brand. As Head of Fragrance Development Worldwide for The Estée Lauder Companies, she led the development of the Company’s most globally successful fragrances, including the best-selling Beautiful and Pleasures.

She was perhaps best known to the public for her work addressing the stigmas in women’s health. At a time, when breast cancer wasn’t spoken about openly, Evelyn H. Lauder saw an opportunity to bring awareness to the disease. Her personal experience with early-stage breast cancer in 1987 led her in 1992 to co-create — with Alexandra Penney of Self magazine — the now ubiquitous Pink Ribbon, recognised as the worldwide symbol of breast health. In conjunction, Mrs. Lauder launched The Estée Lauder Companies Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, which is now known as The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign.

In 2000 she launched its annual Global Landmarks Illumination Initiative through the Campaign, whereby historic landmarks are illuminated in pink lights during October to focus global attention on breast health. In 2010 The Campaign illuminated 38 global historic landmarks within a 24-hour time frame and achieved the first-ever Guinness world record for “Most Landmarks Illuminated for a Cause in 24 Hours.” Included were the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel in India, the Tokyo Tower in Japan, the Hotel Majestic in France and the Empire State Building in New York City.

Mrs. Lauder was also Chairman of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), which she founded in 1993. She was passionately committed to preventing breast cancer and finding a cure in her lifetime by funding the most innovative clinical and translational research at leading medical centres worldwide. Today, BCRF is the world’s largest private funder of breast cancer research and BCRF-funded investigators have been deeply involved in every major breakthrough in breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.

To date, The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign and The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation have funded more than $144 million USD for lifesaving global research, education and medical services, with more than $114 million USD funding medical research through BCRF.

In 1989, Mrs. Lauder initiated the fundraising drive that established the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Centre at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City. As the first breast and diagnostic centre, it became a model for similar facilities around the world. The expanded Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Centre opened in September 2009 and is three times the size of its predecessor. It provides the most up-to-date breast cancer prevention, diagnosis and outpatient treatment services and serves as a worldwide model for offering coordinated supportive services under one roof for one disease, a concept which has been replicated in other institutions and for other diseases.

Mrs. Lauder’s achievements have garnered global recognition. In 2002, she received France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In June 2007, Mrs. Lauder received the prestigious 2007 Partners in Progress Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for her efforts to increase public awareness about cancer. In 1999 and 2007, she was featured in Crain’s New York Business magazine as one of New York’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business, and in 2008 she was nominated to the International Best Dressed List. In 2010, Mrs. Lauder received the Fashion Group International Humanitarian Award in recognition for her work with BCRF and her tireless efforts towards eradicating breast cancer. In October 2011, the Lauder family received the prestigious Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for their longstanding commitment to philanthropy and public service.

Mrs. Lauder was a dedicated photographer, whose art has been represented in many public and private collections, including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and leading medical facilities worldwide. She’s had two photography books published of her own work, The Seasons Observed and An Eye for Beauty. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally, including at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City, Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, Duran Exposiciones de Arte in Madrid, The Red Gate Gallery in Beijing and at the Galerie des Galeries at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Her most recent photography exhibition “Salon Beauties” opened at the Gagosian Gallery in London on September 29, 2011. In September 2006, Mrs. Lauder published her first cookbook, In Great Taste: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Eating and Living Well. All of Mrs. Lauder’s royalties from her books and exhibitions are donated to BCRF.

Evelyn Lauder passed away from complications of non-genetic ovarian cancer on November 12th, 2011. She is survived by her husband Leonard A. Lauder, Chairman Emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies; her son William, Executive Chairman of the Estée Lauder Companies; her son Gary, Managing Director of Lauder Partners LLC and his wife Laura; and her five grandchildren.

William P. Lauder is a son of Leonard and Evelyn Lauder and a grandson of Estée and Joseph Lauder. Mr. Lauder is Chair of the Board of Directors. He was Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors from July 2009 to November 2024; and he was Chief Executive Officer from July 2004 through June 2009. During his five-year tenure as Chief Executive, he expanded the Company’s international presence and distribution channels and greatly strengthened the brand portfolio.

He joined the Company in 1986 as Regional Marketing Director of Clinique U.S.A. in the New York metro area. In 1990 he led the creation of the Origins brand and its innovative store-within-a store concept. He subsequently was promoted to several senior leadership positions; he led the worldwide businesses for Clinique and Origins and oversaw the Company’s free-standing stores and Internet business. In 2003 he became Chief Operating Officer, with oversight of all the Company’s global operations, as well as nine speciality brands and the retail business.

Under his leadership, Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion became the best-selling prestige skin care product in U.S. department stores and Clinique launched its first anti-ageing product.

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Lauder completed Macy’s Executive Training Programme in New York City and was Associate Merchandising Manager of the New York Division/Dallas store when it opened in 1985.

He is a member of the Boards of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and an Emeritus Trustee on the Trinity School Board in New York City, his alma matres. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Fresh Air Fund, a member of the Boards of Directors of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the 92nd Street Y, the Partnership for New York City and the Advisory Board of Zelnick Media. In 2012, Mr. Lauder received a lecturer appointment to the faculty of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches “Decision Making in the Leadership Chair,” a course he designed for second-year MBA students.

Aerin Lauder is the Founder and Creative Director of the luxury lifestyle brand AERIN, and Style and Design Director for Estée Lauder Re-Nutriv.

Aerin began her career with The Estée Lauder Companies in 1992 as a member of the Prescriptives marketing team. She proceeded to hold various positions in product development, advertising and creative, including Creative Director, shaping the Estée Lauder brand's image globally for 20 years.

Aerin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communications. She serves on the Education Committee for the Board of Trustees at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is a member of the International Committee of the Museum of Modern Art. Additionally, Aerin is actively involved in the Neue Galerie, a museum founded in 2001 by her father, Ronald Lauder, which is dedicated to German and Austrian art from the early 20th Century.

Jane Lauder, member of The Estée Lauder Companies’ Board of Directors, shareholder and family member, holds a unique role in the 75-year plus prestige beauty company founded by her grandmother, Estée Lauder. Her recent, 28-year tenure working within the company ranged from leadership of some of ELC’s most beloved brands, including Clinique and Origins, to strategy and build out of its AI and data transformation, both critical drivers of the company’s future growth.

In her role as Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Enterprise Marketing, which she held from 2020-2024, Jane accelerated ELC’s enterprise-wide innovation strategy, including deployment of AI and ground-breaking technology tools to advance the way the company gathers and applies consumer insights, trends and high-touch experiences. She led ELC’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force and was instrumental in defining and deploying the company’s global AI strategies in support of enterprise operations and consumer outreach. Jane leveraged her deep understanding of data and consumer marketing using a “math and magic” approach to drive ELC’s marketing, media, digital and data. 

Prior to her 2020 appointment to the dual ELC enterprise roles, Jane had extensive brand experience with the company, serving as Global Brand President for Clinique, where she tripled the beauty giant’s online business and launched the brand’s breakthrough digital skin diagnostic tool, Clinique Clinical Reality, which uses 50 years of proprietary clinical data and dermatologist expertise. As Brand President for the Origins, Ojon, and Darphin brands, Jane helped reposition the Origins brand to focus on nature powered by science and launched two of the brand’s bestselling products, Plantscription and Ginzing. 

A passionate advocate of talent, Jane led ELC’s gender equity strategy and served as the executive chair of the company’s global women in leadership efforts. Her commitment to support women in STEM extends beyond ELC with an endowed Data Science professorship at Stanford University, her alma mater, focused on educating next gen leaders’ development of analytical and quantitative insights for tackling data driven problems in science, industry, and society. 

Jane joined the ELC Board of Directors in 2009. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library, the Board of Directors of the Friends of the High Line in New York City, and the Board of Directors of Silicon Valley-based Eventbrite. Jane is a member of the Council of the School of Humanities and Sciences, a strategic advisory group to the Dean of Humanities and Science at Stanford University, which includes strategic input into the University’s AI policies and processes. 

Jane earned a B.A. in History from Stanford University and currently resides in New York City. 

Gary M. Lauder is the Managing Director of Lauder Partners LLC, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. He has been a venture capitalist since 1985, investing in over 170 private companies across diverse industries. In the 1980's, he worked at two different venture firms in NYC. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania; a BS in Economics from the Wharton School; and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is the co-creator of the Aspen Institute's Socrates Society with Laura, his wife, and is a member of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute's Henry Crown Fellowship Programme.

Presently, he invests in technology companies in biomedical, IT, law enforcement, security, and other fields. Mr. Lauder is serving or has served as a board member or observer of many private companies and one government body. In addition, he currently serves on the advisory boards of several non-profits and on the Board of Governors of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

As a family member, Mr. Lauder has been informally involved with the company his whole life. In 2023, he became a member of the Board of Directors.