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 university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

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) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which 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, founded in 1909 as Max Factor & Company by Maksymilian Faktorowicz. Max Factor specialized in movie make-up. Until its 1973 sale for US$500 million (approximately $ billion in 2017 dollars), Max Fa ...

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

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

. Smilow led Playtex through four

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...

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) is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, and Dubai. He is best known for his eponymous restaurant Daniel, opened in Ne ...

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

Daniel Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the acti ...

, 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 (1814–18 ...

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 the second-largest hospital in the United States and one of the largest in the world. It is the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Med ...

, his largest donation.

New York University School of Medicine The New York University 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, the other being the NYU G ...

'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 autono ...

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 Ci ...

schools in New Haven.

Early life

Career

Philanthropy

References

Further reading