Ohio State donors Les, Abigail Wexner to step down from L Brands board

Ben Blavat
Thu, 18 Mar 2021 23:18:35 +0000
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Les and Abigail Wexner, prolific Ohio State donors, will not seek reelection to L Brand’s board of directors in May. Credit: Fred Squillante/Dispatch via TNS

Les and Abigail Wexner will retire from L Brands leadership after 58 years of calling the shots.

The couple will not seek reelection to the company’s board of directors at its May meeting, according to a Thursday L Brands press release.

“Now is an ideal time for Abigail’s and my transition from the Board. When I retired from the business last year, I said that creating this business and working with so many talented associates, literally millions of them, was a source of great pride,” Les Wexner said in the release. “I am deeply honored to have been a part of the lives of so many associates and customers since I first opened the doors in 1963.”

Les Wexner stepped down as CEO and chair of L Brands in February 2020 after heading the company for nearly six decades. His first shop in 1963, The Limited, expanded into a retail empire including Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret and PINK.

Les Wexner has donated more than $200 million to Ohio State over the years, earning recognition as the university’s most prolific donor and namesake of the Wexner Medical Center and Wexner Center for the Arts. Abigail Wexner currently serves as vice chair of the Ohio State Board of Trustees, according to the board’s website.

On Jan. 14, shareholders filed a complaint against Les and Abigail Wexner, L Brand’s board chair Sarah Nash and former marketing officer Ed Razek in the Delware Court of Chancery regarding a culture of misogyny and knowledge of abuse by deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was Les Wexner’s friend and former financier.

Epstein, who was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and solicitation in Florida in 2008, died by suicide in a New York City jail in August 2019 after he was indicted on multiple federal charges of sex trafficking. The charges were later dropped by a judge.

Les Wexner started the company now known as L Brands with his parents, Bella and Harry Wexner. Both served on the board until their deaths.

“I am so appreciative of everything that Les and Abigail have done to serve this board and L Brands’ stakeholders,” Nash said in the release. “With the strong foundation we have in place, we are so excited to move forward with the company’s next chapter and our plans to create two businesses in the future.”

The board plans to separate the more-profitable Bath & Body Works from the rest of L Brands, according to a May 2020 press release.

Francis Hondal, president of loyalty and engagement at MasterCard, and Danielle Lee, chief fan officer of the National Basketball Association, will be appointed as new members to the board of directors, according to the release.