Leonard Norman Stern (born March 28, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman, and philanthropist.

He is the chairman and CEO of the privately owned Hartz Group based in New York City. The company's real estate portfolio was owned and operated under its Hartz Mountain Industries subsidiary company, of which he is also chairman and CEO.

Early life and education

Stern was born to a Jewish family, the son of Hilda (née Lowenthal) and Max Stern. By 1984, Hartz Mountain Corporation (HMC) controlled 75% to 90% of the U.S. market for most U.S. pet supply goods . Its pet supply business was estimated to be worth $400 million and was earning $40 million in annual profits. In the mid-1980s Leonard Stern bought the alternative New York City weekly alternative newspaper The Village Voice. Additional alternative weeklies were also purchased, forming Stern Publishing, which was sold in 2000 to a venture capital group.

According to the unsigned cover article, "Dynasty In Distress" in the February 9, 2004 issue of Business Week, Stern was "intensely engaged" as a board member of Rite Aid in the mid-to-late '90s when the drugstore chain admitted to overstating net income by $1 billion over two years.

Philanthropy

Stern made a $30 million donation to the then named New York University College of Business and Public Administration and the Graduate School of Business Administration, resulting in the creation of the New York University Stern School of Business. He has continued supporting New York University, and made an additional $50 million donation to NYU Stern to support undergraduate scholarships in 2021.

He was the founder in 1986 and is chairman of Homes for the Homeless. According to its website, it serves over 630 homeless families and over 1,200 homeless children each day at five separate sites across New York City.

Stern collected Cycladic antiquities in the 1980s–now under custodianship of the Hellenic Ancient Culture Institute, lending objects to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

Personal life

Stern has been married twice:

  • Judith Stern Peck, is a family therapist and family business consultant in New York. They divorced in 1980 and she later remarried to Stephen M. Peck. They had three children:
  • Emanuel T. Stern ("Manny") (b. 1964) - runs the family's real estate business and known for losing a $1.3 billion deal to redevelop a sports and entertainment complex at New Jersey's Meadowlands Sports Complex.
  • Edward J. Stern (b. 1966) - who ran the Canary Capital Partners LLC hedge fund and was the first fund manager to be charged by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for "fraudulent" late trading and market timing of mutual funds.

New York University's business school is named after him.

See also

  • 2003 mutual fund scandal
  • List of billionaires

References