Eddie Lampert | |
---|---|
Born | Edward Scott Lampert July 19, 1962 Roslyn, New York, US |
Education | Yale University |
Occupation | Hedge fund manager |
Title | Chairman, Transform Holdco LLC |
Term | February 2019- |
Board member of | |
Spouse | Kinga Lampert (m. 2001) |
Children | 3 [1] |
Chairman, Sears Holdings | |
In office January 2013 –February 14, 2019 | |
Preceded by | Herman Darling |
Succeeded by | Office abolished(assets sold to Transform Holdco LLC) |
Chairman,Transform Holdco LLC | |
Assumed office February 2019 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Edward Scott Lampert (born July 19,1962) [2] is an American billionaire businessman. He is the former chief executive and chairman of Sears Holdings,the founder of Transformco,and the founder,chairman,and chief executive of ESL Investments. Until May 2007,he was a director of AutoNation. [3] He was a director of AutoZone from 1999 to 2006. [4] As of October 2021,his net worth was estimated at US$2 billion. [1]
Lampert was born in 1962 to Dolores Lampert and Floyd M. Lampert. He is Jewish. [5] His mother was a housewife. His father was a senior partner in the law firm of Lampert &Lampert in New York City. He has a younger sister Tracey. [6] Lampert's grandmother was a passive investor and a fan of Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week television program. She instilled in him an interest in investing. His mother would later recall that young Eddie would sit with his grandmother reviewing and evaluating the performance of her stock picks in the daily newspaper. [2]
Lampert's father died in 1977, [7] and his mother took a job as a clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue. [8] His mother would later say:"Eddie really assumed the responsibility,knowing that life had changed and we had to accomplish something by ourselves now." [2] In order to help support his family,Lampert worked after school and on weekends at various warehouses,stocking shelves and filling orders. Despite working,he earned good grades,played both soccer and basketball,and won the scholar athlete award at his high school. He received financial aid to help pay for college. [8] Lampert graduated from Yale University in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in economics, summa cum laude ,where he was a member of Skull and Bones [2] [9] and Phi Beta Kappa.
In July 1984,Lampert worked as an intern at Goldman Sachs, [10] and then worked in the firm's risk arbitrage department from March 1985 to February 1988. While there,he worked directly with Robert Rubin. When Lampert decided to go out on his own,Rubin warned him it would be a bad career decision.
In April 1988,Lampert left the bank to form ESL Investments,based in Greenwich,Connecticut (the name derives from Lampert's initials). Richard Rainwater,whom Lampert had met on Nantucket Island,gave him $28 million in seed money and introduced him to clients,such as David Geffen.
A 2004 profile by Businessweek likened Lampert's investment style to that of financier Warren Buffett. [2] Lampert's earnings in 2004 were estimated to be $1.02 billion,making him the first Wall Street financial manager to exceed an income of $1 billion in a single year. [11] In 2006,Lampert was featured on the Time 100 list for most influential people in the world for being one of the "brightest minds on Wall Street" and leading a new class of activist hedge funds. [12] Lampert was the richest person in Connecticut in 2006 with a net worth of $3.8 billion. [13]
In March 2012,Lampert was No. 367 on the Forbes world's wealthiest people list with a net worth of $3.1 billion. [14] By August,2016,Lampert had fallen to No. 810 on the list,with a net worth of $2.2 billion. [1]
In January 2013,it was announced that Lampert would take over as chief executive officer at Sears after Louis D'Ambrosio stepped down due to family health matters;this took effect in May 2013. [15]
Lampert restructured Sears into approximately 30 separate business units,which were evaluated based on individual profits,rather than any estimation of their effect on Sears' overall profit. These units were to buy and sell services among themselves through competitive bidding. [16] Some sources say these policies were based upon the ideas of Ayn Rand. It is generally agreed that they failed to slow Sears' decline. [17]
In July 2016 he held 28% of shares in Sears Holdings Corp,worth approximately $408 million. [18]
In early 2017,Lampert,then president,chief executive officer and top shareholder of Sears Holdings,was estimated to have personal assets of $2 billion,primarily in the hedge fund ESL Investments. [19] Early in the year,he committed to providing an additional loan of $500 million to Sears and said he would provide letters of credit to Sears for additional amounts,reportedly totaling $200 million and possibly increasing to a half billion dollars in the future. [20]
Lampert was criticized by employees and corporate staff for "shredding" his employees in corporate meetings and "being out of touch with reality",as well as for failing to invest in the physical stores,as many of them were deteriorating. [21] During his tenure as chief executive,Sears lost around half its value within five years,and closed more than half of its physical stores.
On October 15,2018,Lampert stepped down as chief executive of Sears Holdings,while remaining chairman of the board,as part of Sears Holdings bankruptcy actions. On December 6,2018,Lampert,through his company ESL Investments,offered to buy all of Sears for $4.6 billion in cash and stock. [22] The offer would be financed by $950 million in added debt, [22] but no additional cash. [23] In early 2019,five hundred stores remained in operation;the remainder were in liquidation. [22] According to a company filing,Lampert stepped down as chairman of Sears Holdings Corp on February 14,2019. [24]
In January 2019,a group of Sears' creditors hoping to persuade a federal judge to force Sears to liquidate alleged that Lampert had orchestrated a "multiyear and multifaceted scheme" to strip away the company's assets and benefit from its decline. [25] In May 2019,Lampert,months after purchasing the remains of Sears from the holding company,threatened not to pay out the $43 million in pension payments [26] owed to 90,000 former Sears and Kmart employees and retirees. [27]
In 2001,Lampert married Kinga Keh,an attorney with whom he has three children. [1] [2] They own houses in Indian Creek Village,Florida, [28] and Greenwich,Connecticut. [29] The couple are active members of their local Chabad house. [30]
Lampert is the owner of the Fountainhead ,an 87.78 m (288 ft) motor luxury yacht. [31]
In 2003,Lampert was kidnapped from the parking lot of his Greenwich office but persuaded his captors to let him go after two days of captivity by promising to pay them a ransom. [2]
Lampert is a self-proclaimed supporter of free market economics and is a fan of Objectivism writer Ayn Rand. [32]
Warren Edward Buffett is an American businessman,investor,and philanthropist who currently serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his investment success,Buffett is one of the best-known investors in the world. As of October 2024,he had a net worth of $147 billion,making him the eighth-richest person in the world.
Kmart,formerly legally registered as Kmart Corporation,now operated by Transformco,is a soon-to-be defunct department store chain,and a current online retailer in the United States and its territories and operates five remaining Kmart big-box department stores —3 in the US Virgin Islands and one each in Kendale Lakes,Florida;and Tamuning,Guam.
Sears,Roebuck and Co.,commonly known as Sears,is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald,with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925,the first in Chicago. In 2005,the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart,which upon completion of the merger,formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s,Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018,it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales,Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15,2018. It announced on January 16,2019,that it had won its bankruptcy auction,and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open,including 223 Sears stores.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha,Nebraska. Founded in 1839 as a textile manufacturer,it transitioned into a major conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger.
Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican business magnate,investor,and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2013,Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by Forbes business magazine. He derived his fortune from his extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate,Grupo Carso. As of December 2023,the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranked him as the 11th-richest person in the world,with a net worth of $105 billion or about 7% of Mexico's GDP,making him the richest person in Latin America.
Jeffrey Robert Immelt is an American manufacturing executive working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He previously was the CEO of General Electric from 2001 to 2017,and the CEO of GE's Medical Systems division from 1997 to 2000. Immelt's tenure saw GE's largest divestments in the company's history,as the company sold almost two-thirds of its subsidiaries and assets.
Gary Weiss is an American investigative journalist,columnist and author of books that examine the ethics of Wall Street. He was also a contributing editor for CondéNast Portfolio. His Businessweek articles exposed organized crime on Wall Street and the Salomon Brothers bond trading scandal in the 1990s,and he covered the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Weiss is co-founder of The Mideast Reporter.
ESL Investments is a privately held hedge fund based in Greenwich,Connecticut.
Raymond Thomas Dalio is an American investor and hedge fund manager,who has served as co-chief investment officer of the world's largest hedge fund,Bridgewater Associates,since 1985. He founded Bridgewater in 1975 in New York.
Kenneth D. Lewis is the former CEO,president,and chairman of Bank of America,currently the second largest bank in the United States and twelfth largest by total assets in the world. While CEO of Bank of America,Lewis was noted for purchasing the failing companies Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch,resulting in large losses for the bank and necessitating financial assistance from the federal government. On September 30,2009,Bank of America confirmed that Lewis would be retiring by the end of the year. Lewis was replaced by Brian Moynihan as president and CEO and Walter Massey as chairman of the board.
John Aglialoro is an American businessman and film producer. He is an entrepreneur who has owned and operated a variety of businesses,primarily in the health and fitness industries,as chairman and co-founder of UM Holdings Ltd. of Haddonfield,New Jersey. Owner of the movie rights to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged,Aglialoro is CEO of Atlas Distribution,which he founded to distribute films using the technology developed to bring Rand's best-selling novel to the screen.
Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates,Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th-largest retailing company in the United States in 2015. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15,2018,and sold its assets to ESL Investments in 2019. The new owner moved Sears assets to its newly formed subsidiary Transformco and after that,Sears Holdings Corporation was closed.
Robert A. Schriesheim is an American business executive. According to a published interview with FTI Consulting in November 2021 he has served as a board director of 11 public companies,including as board chairman,and as a CFO of 4 public companies with revenues from approximately $1 billion to over $40 billion. He is chairman of Truax Partners LLC and has partnered with institutional investors leading large enterprises through complex transformations serving in various executive leadership and board roles. According to a 2016 Wall Street Journal article,he has a "history of working in partnership with private equity firms,hedge funds and institutional investors in special situation circumstances". According to Barron's and CFO magazine,Schriesheim has "spent most of his career at the high end of the strategy spectrum,embroiled in complex restructurings" focused on capital allocation. He is also an adjunct professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he teaches a course titled "Corporate Governance and Activism:The Role of Boards in Critical Decisions".
Richard Lockwood Chilton Jr. is an American businessman. He is the founder,chairman,CEO and chief investment officer (CIO) of Chilton Investment Company,a global investment management firm,which as of June 2014 had roughly $4 billion assets under management. Chilton is also the founder,chairman,and CIO of Chilton Trust Company,a private wealth management company.
Kenmore is an American brand of household appliances,cookware,floorcare,grills,HVAC equipment and other home items owned and licensed by Transformco,an affiliate of ESL Investments. Previously they were a subsidiary brand of Sears Holdings,but after Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15,2018 they were acquired by Transformco,formed in 2019 after acquiring the assets of Sears Holdings Corporation.
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. was an American retail company that sold home appliances,lawn &garden equipment,apparel,mattresses,sporting goods,&tools. The company had four subsidiary store formats:Sears Hometown,Sears Outlet,Sears Hardware and Appliance,and Sears Home Appliance Showrooms. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores was based in Hoffman Estates,Illinois. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores was founded in April 2012. The company was a spun off from Sears Holdings in 2012. By May 2019,Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores &its independent dealers &franchisees operated a total of 639 stores across 49 states as well as in Puerto Rico &Bermuda. On June 3,2019,it was announced that Transform Holdco would acquire Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores. As per the deal,Sears Hometown needed to divest its Sears Outlet division to gain approval. The company ceased to exist on October 23,2019,when Franchise Group acquired the Sears Outlet division and Transform Holdco acquired the rest of the company.
Fountainhead is a motor yacht built in 2011 by Feadship for American billionaire Eddie Lampert. With an overall length of 87.78 m (288.0 ft) and a beam of 13.90 m (45.6 ft).
Transform SR Brands LLC is an American privately held company formed on February 11,2019,to acquire some of the assets of Sears Holdings Corporation. The new company is owned by ESL Investments. Following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Sears Holdings on October 15,2018,Transformco purchased the surviving assets owned by Sears Holdings for $5.2 billion.
American Freight Appliances &Furniture,or American Freight,is an American retail furniture chain founded by Steve Belford in Lima,Ohio in 1994. The company was acquired in 2020 by Franchise Group and combined with former Sears Surplus and Sears Outlet stores under the American Freight name.
Warren Beatty Kanders is an American businessman and investor. From 1996 to 2007,he was chairman of Armor Holdings,a company involved in the defense and law enforcement industries. He has been chairman and CEO of Cadre Holdings since 2012.
...took over as Sears CEO in 2013 ... has presided over a remarkable dismantling.
The company may need $2.5 billion in cash to get through 2017 amid sales declines and store closures, including almost $600 million in minimum pension contributions.
{{cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)