Miriam "Mimi" Lurie Haas (born 1946) is an American
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The ...
businesswoman. She is the widow of
Peter E. Haas
Peter E. Haas (December 20, 1918 – December 3, 2005) December 14, 2005 was an American bill ...
, who was the great-grandnephew of
Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss (; born Löb Strauß ; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisc ...
She was born Miriam Ruchwarger in 1946 in New Jersey, the daughter of Nancy (née Zdenka) and Avram Ruchwarger, Jewish refugees from Yugoslavia. She was raised in
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...
and then in the Washington D.C. suburbs where her father was a psychiatrist. She attended
Oxon Hill High School
Oxon Hill High School (OHHS) is a public senior high school, located in Oxon Hill, an unincorporated area in Prince George's County, Maryland, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. in the United States.Oxon Hill, a suburb of Washington, DC, and graduated in the class of 1964. She earned a degree in political science from
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, presi ...
.
Career
Haas is president of the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, since August 1981.
In July 2004, Haas was elected as a director of Levi Strauss & Co, succeeding her husband, who stood down as chairman emeritus.
Haas is vice chair of the board of trustees and chair of the committee on painting and sculpture of the New York Museum of Modern Art, and vice chair of the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
.
Haas owns 16.7% 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.
Personal life
On June 12, 1968, she married
Brian Lurie
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meanin ...
, who she had met in Israel when on an American Friends of the Hebrew University program. Rabbi Brian Lurie was head of the
Jewish Community Federation
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
for many years, and now runs the progressive New Israel Foundation. They had two sons, Ari Lurie and
Daniel Lurie
Daniel Lurie (born 1976/1977) is an American philanthropist who is the founder and CEO of Tipping Point Community.
Biography
Lurie was born and raised in a Jewish family in San Francisco, the son of Mimi (née Ruchwarger) and Rabbi Brian Lurie. ...
Peter E. Haas
Peter E. Haas (December 20, 1918 – December 3, 2005) December 14, 2005 was an American bill ...
(his second marriage) from 1981 until his death in 2005.
She lives in San Francisco.
In 2010, she bought one of the apartments owned by
Charles R. Schwab
Charles Robert Schwab Sr. (born July 29, 1937) is an American investor and financial executive. He is the founder and chairman of the Charles Schwab Corporation. He pioneered discount sales of equity securities starting in 1975. His company be ...