Tag Archives: CEO

Jew of the Week: Irene Rosenfeld

Irene Rosenfeld

Irene Rosenfeld

Irene Blecker Rosenfeld (b. 1953) was born in New York to a Jewish family of Romanian and German descent. She studied psychology at Cornell, then earned a Master’s in business, followed by a Ph.D. in marketing. Soon after, she got a job with an ad agency in New York, then worked in consumer research for General Foods, the company famous for its cereals, Jell-O, and Maxwell House coffee (and now owned by Altria Group Inc., formerly known as Philip Morris). In 2004, Rosenfeld was elected CEO of Frito-Lay, the company that makes Cheetos, Doritos, Tostitos, Lay’s, and Ruffles. During her successful tenure, she shifted the focus of the company towards healthier ingredients and products. Two years later, she moved on to become CEO of Kraft Foods (also owned by Altria). After overseeing a great deal of growth within Kraft, including the acquisition of Cadbury, the largest confectioner in the UK, Rosenfeld engineered the company’s split into two new corporations. She remained as chairwoman and CEO of the snacks division, now known as Mondelez International. This new multi-billion dollar company employs over 100,000 people globally, and makes popular foods like Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, Peek Freans, Toblerone, Halls, Ritz, and both Trident and Dentyne gums. Not surprisingly, Rosenfeld has been ranked by Forbes among the world’s most powerful women on multiple occasions. She currently lives in a Chicago suburb, where she is a central member of the local Reform synagogue. Rosenfeld is a noted philanthropist, too, known for discretely donating large sums of money to hospitals, schools, and other institutions. She is also an avid basketball player, tennis player, and rollerblader.

Today is the 3rd Day of Sukkot. Chag Sameach!

Words of the Week

Just as it is incumbent upon every Jew to put on tefillin every day, so is there an unequivocal duty which rests upon every individual, from the greatest scholar to the most simple of folk, to set aside a half-hour each day in which to think about the education of his children.
Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn, the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe

Jew of the Week: Les Wexner

Les Wexner

Les Wexner

Leslie H. Wexner (b. 1937) was born in Ohio to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He dropped out of law school to help his parents, who opened a small clothing shop after struggling for many years in low-level jobs in the garment industry. At 26, he loaned $5000 and opened his own sportswear store for young women, called ‘The Limited’. The store was a hit, pulling in $160,000 in sales in its first year. Just 6 years later, the company went public. Wexner has been its CEO since then, making him the all time longest-serving CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Over that time, he has taken his company to new heights, starting a number of new businesses, and acquiring others, including Victoria’s Secret, La Senza, Pink, Bath & Body Works, and Abercrombie & Fitch. He now oversees 3000 locations around the world, and his net worth is estimated at around $6 billion. A sizable portion of this wealth goes to charitable causes. Wexner has donated millions to the United Way, Hillel, Birthright, and Ohio State University. He has given over $160 million to the Columbus Foundation, and pledged $100 million for medical and cancer research. His own Wexner Foundation provides funding for Jewish leadership programs, master’s degrees in rabbinics and Jewish studies, Jewish day schools in the US and universities in Israel, as well as sponsoring Israelis studying at Harvard. For his extensive philanthropic work and business acumen, Wexner has won numerous awards and honourary degrees.

Shavuot Begins Tonight!

Words of the Week

Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.
– Friedrich Nietzsche

Jew of the Week: Edward Sonshine

Ed Sonshine - Outstanding CEO of the Year

Ed Sonshine – Outstanding CEO of the Year

Edward Sonshine was born to Holocaust survivors in a displacement camp in Germany. When he was two years old, the family moved to Canada where Sonshine studied to become a real estate lawyer. After 15 years working as a lawyer, he realized that he knew far more about real estate than his clients and wanted to get into the business. However, it was the early 1990s, Canada’s real estate market was in a terrible slump, and Sonshine was in deep debt. Nonetheless, he founded RioCan in 1993, and over 20 years developed it into Canada’s largest real estate investment trust. It now has $14 billion in assets, investing in some 350 commercial properties across North America, including malls, supermarkets, office buildings, and movie theatres. Over the years, Sonshine has become famous for his solid business ethic, as well as active community involvement, and charity work. For these reasons, he was awarded Canada’s Outstanding CEO of 2013. He credits his wife of 45 years for being responsible for much of his success, as well as his tough upbringing as both a Jew and an immigrant, all of which ensured that he worked hard. “I spent the first three or four years,” he describes, “going around knocking on a lot of doors explaining to people what a REIT [Real Estate Investment Trust] was… I was just looking at making a living. I was worried about bringing home groceries.”

Words of the Week

Money is fire: it can destroy and annihilate, or illuminate and warm, depending on how it is used.
– Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk