Leslie H. Wexner Founder, Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands, Inc

A Leader of Leaders Essays in Honor of Leslie H. Wexner Founder, Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands, Inc. A Publication of THE WEXNER FOUNDATION and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life On the Occasion of the Presentation of HILLEL’S RENAISSANCE AWARD May 21, 2008 w 16 Iyar 5768 New York City Hillel is pleased to partner with the Wexner Foundation to publish this important book of essays in honor of our dear friend Leslie H. Wexner. A member of Hillel’s International Board of Governors, Les has helped to revolutionize Hillel through his longstanding support for Hillel at The Ohio State University and around the world. These articles are not just tributes to Les, they are also an explication of the values that underlie his life, his company, and his foundation. We present this book in the hope that it will serve as a source of inspiration today and tomorrow. Edgar M. Bronfman Chairman Hillel International Board of Governors Julian Sandler Chairman Board of Directors Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Wayne L. Firestone President Published May 2008. Additional copies of this book may be obtained from the Hillel Communications Department, [email protected], 202-449-6531. Communications Department Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building 800 Eighth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001 This book may be downloaded from www.hillel.org/wexner “The most critical challenge facing the North American Jewish community today is recognizing the value of leaders and cultivating leadership.” Leslie H. Wexner, Chairman & CEO, Limited Brands, Inc. “Wexner leadership alumni are Jewishly and professionally diverse, but at the same time hold in common a passionate and overarching sense of Jewish peoplehood, and an understanding that creating change always generates resistance and invariably requires large measures of strategy and courage.” Larry S. Moses, President, The Wexner Foundation “The mission of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life is to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world. Hillel pursues its mission by: Creating a pluralistic, welcoming and inclusive environment; Fostering student growth and the balance in being distinctively Jewish and universally human; Pursuing tzedek (social justice), tikkun olam (repairing the world) and Jewish learning; Supporting Israel and global Jewish peoplehood; A commitment to excellence, innovation, accountability and results.” Wayne L. Firestone, President, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Leslie H. Wexner: A Leader of Leaders by LARRY S. MOSES President, The Wexner Foundation I began my professional career as a Hillel Director, and later was privileged to serve as Hillel’s International Director. It is therefore with more than a little nostalgia, and an abiding commitment to Jewish life on campus, that I share the following reflections as Leslie Wexner is honored with Hillel’s coveted Renaissance Award. It began over twenty-five years ago with a singular, compelling vision and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. From the very beginning, Leslie Wexner believed in the power of leadership. He viewed it as the decisive factor in human affairs, the element that always makes the difference in business, government, and community life. Long before private foundations became a force in the Jewish world, Les created his foundation not as a “department store” of multiple interests and interventions, but rather as a laser-like endeavor to address the Jewish people’s need for a new breed of leaders, leaders who could address the unprecedented challenges of an entirely different era in Jewish life. Les knew then what many have only come to realize over time, that the Jewish community will stagnate or flourish based upon the quality of its leadership; that with effective leaders, all things are possible, and that if we do not invest in leadership, we will endanger our future. The Wexner leadership initiatives were born one after the other, first the Wexner Heritage Foundation for outstanding North American volunteer leaders, then the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program for promising new rabbis, educators, and communal professionals, and finally the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program at Harvard University, for gifted mid-career Israeli public leaders. Each program emerged only after long and thoughtful periods of debate and design. Each program emphasized both the power of individual leaders to effect change, and the compounding benefit of leaders situated within ideologically and professionally diverse communities of practice. Each program views the diversity of the Jewish people as a strength to be celebrated, as a way of both learning about and embracing the wide expanse of Jewish life. Some ten years ago, after the three Wexner leadership initiatives had matured, Leslie and Abigail joined forces with Ron Heifetz and David Gergen to develop Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, an academically-based leadership center designed to provide leadership education at Harvard, throughout the country, and worldwide. The Wexner leadership programs themselves have derived great benefit from the Center for Public Leadership, as have thousands of educational professionals, government officials, and business leaders globally. Just as the Wexners stimulated the Jewish people to take the cultivation of leadership seriously, so too did they introduce a serious approach to leadership education at Harvard University, and through Harvard elsewhere. And to this day, some of Les’ most satisfying teaching opportunities come when he visits Harvard to engage undergraduates and graduate students alike as to the complexities, theories, and skills of leadership. Wexner leadership alumni, and there are now approximately 2,000 from the three programs, are Jewishly and professionally diverse, but at the same time hold in common a passionate and overarching sense of Jewish peoplehood, and an understanding that creating change always generates resistance and invariably requires large measures of strategy and courage. Wexner leadership alumni understand that in an age when Jewish life is increasingly decen- tralized, competitive, and beleaguered, new leaders need to draw inspiration and strength from each other, and need to take the study and practice of leadership seriously as a lifetime proposition. The following essays represent a range of voices from Wexner leadership programs: men and women, volunteers and professionals, teachers and students. The voices are distinctive yet harmonious. They pay tribute to one man, Leslie Wexner, who, with his wife Abigail, pioneered a new and vital field, that of Jewish leadership. The Jewish people has survived over thousands of years because in impossible situations we adapted and flourished; because in the face of discrimination and persecution we persevered and struggled; because when others could only look backward, we kept our eyes on the future. Leslie and Abigail Wexner have been at the front of the line. These essays attest to the impact they have achieved. And as for me, working by their side has been the privilege of a lifetime, and one that I will forever cherish. From the very beginning, Leslie Wexner, believed in the power of leadership. he viewed it as the decisive factor in human affairs, the element that always makes the difference in business, government, and community life. Joseph Kohane Executive Director, Wexner Jewish Center, Ohio State University HilleL One big reason why I enthusiastically continue at my post at Hillel in Columbus, Ohio, year after year, is due to the remarkable environment of creative possibility that Les Wexner has a knack for provoking around anything that he touches, be it a single initiative, or a plan for an entire city. As executive director of the Wexner Jewish Student Center for The Ohio State University Hillel, I have numerous wonderful partners who have high expectations of our institution. But the Hillel ally who for me most personifies excellence is Les Wexner and the Foundation he created. These expectations are never dictated, but live solely through my awareness of Les’ and the Foundation's record of notable achievement. In fact, not once in 15 years have I been told how to run my agency, not even obliquely. But neither have I taken for granted that OSU Hillel must aspire to be a leader in its field. I just assumed it went with the job because Les Wexner’s name is on the Hillel building and the Wexner Foundation and Hillel inhabit the same city. Today, Wexner Hillel at Ohio State is at the center of innovation, piloting new methods and initiatives that are transforming how programs and services are delivered to Jewish college youth. The Wexner Foundation’s decision ten years ago to collaborate with Hillel’s international headquarters to dramatically boost the fundraising capacity of Hillels nation- wide was instrumental in launching the current Hillel resurgence. OSU Hillel was an early participant in that experiment. Within five years its development achievement zoomed from $100,000 to $500,000. It eventually became the first Hillel at a state university with $1 million budget. There are several Hillels (although not nearly enough) with budgets in excess of $1 million now able to serve students at levels undreamed of just a decade earlier. The Wexner Foundation has also impacted me in a somewhat different vein, through the unforgettable experience of my facilitating the intensely personal farewell sessions of the graduating class of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship during its final Winter Institute. The sessions, which take place over three and a half days, are deeply self-reflective. Each fellow offers a teaching before the class that poignantly conveys something of their profound journey during their years in the program. The lectures can be brilliant and the comments touching and revelatory. Emotions run high as fellows recount how much of their new self- understanding was gained at the expense of strongly held preconceptions.

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