Lillian Vernon
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| Greenwich resident, successful entrepreneur, and the first woman to found a company publicly traded on a stock exchange.
Lillian Vernon was born in Leipzig, Germany, moved with her family to Amsterdam because of the dangerous climate for Jews, and finally fled to the United States in 1937 as the Nazi threat escalated. At age 14 Lillian's first jobs were working in a candy store and as a movie theater usherette. She attended New York University for two years, then left to start her first business. In 1951, pregnant with her first child, she used $2,000 of wedding money to advertise a leather bag and belt she had designed in Seventeen magazine. The $495 ad resulted in $32,000 of orders, launching her mail order business, Vernon Specialties.
In 1956 the first Lillian Vernon catalog was published, with 16 pages of products. The Lillian Vernon Corporation was formed in 1965, posted one million dollars of sales in 1970, and went public on the American Stock Exchange in 1987. By the 1990's its catalogs were received by one in four American homes resulting in approximately five million orders and $240 million in sales annually. In her autobiography, An Eye for Winners (1996) Vernon describes her personal struggles to become a leading businesswoman and role model in a predominantly male industry, and the role she has played in every aspect of her company's growth and management. A working mother herself, Vernon details her own management style and techniques to support those seeking both career and family. Throughout she shares marketing tips that have helped make the Lillian Vernon Corporation such a phenomenal success. Vernon has received numerous awards including induction into the Direct Marketing Association Hall of Fame, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Big Brother/Big Sisters National Hero Awards, and Gannett Newspapers Business Leadership Award. She supports countless charities and non-profit organizations such as the Bruce Museum in Greenwich and This Close for Cancer Research in Woodbridge. The Lillian Vernon Foundation has endowed a chair for entrepreneurship at New York University, and has funded arts programs, medical research and services for the elderly. Vernon sits on the boards of the Lincoln Center, the Virginia Opera, and the Kennedy Center National Committee for the Performing Arts. | |||||||||
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