Joel E. Smilow is an American philanthropist and former CEO of

Playtex Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...

Early life

Joel Smilow was born in Washington, D.C. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1954. As a student, he was sports director at the campus radio station, WYBC. While he did not play football, he was a strong supporter of Yale's team. He received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

and served in the Navy.

Career

Smilow, an executive of Esmark/Beatrice, purchased its Playtex division in the late 1980s. He kept Playtex and sold

Max Factor Max Factor is a line of cosmetics from Coty, Inc. It was founded in 1909 as Max Factor & Company by Max Factor, Sr., Maksymilian Faktorowicz. Max Factor specialized in movie make-up. Until its 1973 sale for US$500 million (approximately $ billio ...

Ron Perelman Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman and investor. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, cars, photography, t ...

Revlon Revlon, Inc. is an American multinational company dealing in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care. The headquarters of Revlon was established in New York City on March 1, 1932, where it still remains. Revlon was founded by brothe ...

. Smilow led Playtex through four

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

s between 1985 and 1988. during which he earned $186 million. He spun out Platex's bra business, Playtex Apparel, for Playtex to focus on tampons and baby bottles. He retired in 1992 and stepped down as chairman in 1995. He was

Daniel Boulud Daniel Boulud (born 25 March 1955 in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu) is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Berkshires and Dubai. He is best known for h ...

's sole partner for the chef's first restaurant,

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

, opened in 1993 with an investment of $2 million.

Philanthropy

Smilow is a major donor to Yale University athletics. His 1989 endowment of the football head coach position was the university's first. In 2003, he endowed the head coach positions for men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's lacrosse. Another gift expanded and renovated the

Lapham Field House Lapham may refer to: People * Bill Lapham (1934–2016), American football player * Dave Lapham (born 1952), former player and current announcer for the NFL Cincinnati Bengals * David Lapham (born 1970), cartoonist * Elbridge G. Lapham (1814–189 ...

as the Smilow Field Center. He received the Yale Medal in 1992 for service to the university. He is the lead donor and namesake for the 14-story Smilow Cancer Hospital in the

Yale New Haven Hospital Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) is a 1,541-bed hospital located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the Yale New Haven Health System. YNHH includes the 168-bed Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, the 201-bed Yale New Haven ...

, his largest donation.

New York University School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

's Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center opened in May 2006. He is the Boys and Girls Clubs' largest living donor and was the lead donor for a Bridgeport location. Smilow has also donated to

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

s including a network in Washington, D.C., and expansions of the

Achievement First Achievement First is a charter school network in the United States. Achievement First operates schools in Connecticut (beginning with Amistad Academy in New Haven in 1999 along with other schools in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford), New York Cit ...

schools in New Haven.

Early life

Career

Philanthropy

References

Further reading