Miriam L. "Mimi" Haas | |
|---|---|
| Born | Miriam Ruchwarger 1946 (age 78–79) |
| Education | George Washington University (BA) |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Board member of | Levi Strauss & Co. |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, including Daniel Lurie |
| Relatives | Peter E. Haas Jr. (stepson) |
Miriam "Mimi" Lurie Haas (born 1946) is an American billionaire businesswoman. She is the widow of Peter E. Haas, who was the great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, the founder of denim manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co.
She was born Miriam Ruchwarger in 1946 in New Jersey, the daughter of Nancy (née Zdenka) and Avram Ruchwarger, Jewish refugees from Yugoslavia. [1] [2] She was raised in Annapolis, Maryland and then in the Washington D.C. suburbs [1] where her father was a psychiatrist. [1] She attended Oxon Hill High School, in Oxon Hill, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and graduated in the class of 1964. [3] She earned a degree in political science from George Washington University. [4] [5]
Haas is president of the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, since August 1981. [6] [4]
In July 2004, Haas was elected as a director of Levi Strauss & Co, succeeding her husband, who stood down as chairman emeritus. [4]
Haas is[ when? ] vice chair of the board of trustees and chair of the committee on painting and sculpture of the Museum of Modern Art [7] , and vice chair of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. [6]
In 2019, Haas owned nearly 17% of Levi Strauss & Co, making her a billionaire, following the February 2019 plan for the company to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. [8] [9] As of 2024, she owned 11%. [10] In 2021, Forbes estimated her net worth to be around $1.4 billion. [10]
On June 12, 1968, she married Brian Lurie, who she had met in Israel when on an American Friends of the Hebrew University program. [2] Rabbi Brian Lurie was president of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco [11] for many years. He is a past board president and serves on the board of directors of the New Israel Fund. [12] They had two sons, Ari Lurie and Daniel Lurie, mayor of San Francisco and former CEO of Tipping Point Community. [13] [14]
She was married to Peter E. Haas (his second marriage) from 1981 until his death in 2005. [14] [15] [11]
She lives[ when? ] in San Francisco. [16]
In 2010, she bought one of the apartments owned by Charles R. Schwab at 834 Fifth Avenue, New York, for $12.5 million. [16]
Around 2024, she donated $1 million to a committee supporting the candidacy of her son Daniel Lurie for mayor of San Francisco. [10] A report by The San Francisco Standard concluded that this was possibly "the largest contribution to a committee in support or opposition of a candidate in San Francisco history." [17]
I dated Jewish girls, though I went around with non-Jewish girls, That was one of those things you went through. My first wife was not Jewish.