The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty

(Hardback)

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In his much-anticipated memoir, The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty, Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of The Este Lauder Companies Leonard A. Lauder shares the business and life lessons he learned as well as the adventures he had while helping transform the mom-and-pop business his mother founded in 1946 in the family kitchen into the beloved brand and ultimately into the iconic global prestige beauty company it is today.

In its infancy in the 1940s and 50s, the company comprised a handful of products, sold under a single brand in just a few prestigious department stores across the United States. Today, The Este Lauder Companies constitutes one of the worlds leading manufacturers and marketers of prestige skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. It comprises more than 25 brands, whose products are sold in over 150 countries and territories. This growth and success was led by Leonard A. Lauder, Este Lauders oldest son, who envisioned and effected this expansion during a remarkable 60-year tenure, including leading the company as CEO and Chairman.

In this captivating personal account complete with great stories as only he can tell them, Mr. Lauder, now known as The Este Lauder Companies Chief Teaching Officer, reflects on his childhood, growing up during the Great Depression, the vibrant decades of the post-World War II boom, and his work growing the company into the beauty powerhouse it is today. Mr. Lauder pays loving tribute to his mother Este Lauder, its eponymous founder, and to the employees of the company, both past and present, while sharing inside stories about the company, including tales of cutthroat rivalry with Charles Revson of Revlon and others. The book offers keen insights on honing ambition, leveraging success, learning from mistakes, and growing an international company in an age of economic turbulence, uncertainty, and fierce competition.

Author Bio

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.