|
|
|
| Management Team |
|
|
Chairman
|
Bennett S. LeBow is the Chairman of the
Board of Vector Group.
Mr. LeBow has been affiliated with the Company since 1986.
Mr. LeBow has a long history in the tobacco industry. In March 1996,
under his leadership, Liggett Group broke ranks with the rest of the
US tobacco industry and became the first tobacco company to settle smoking-related
litigation.
The Company made the landmark announcement that smoking is addictive
and causes cancer and other health ailments, turned over long-secret
tobacco industry documents, disclosed its ingredients, and testified
against the industry. Mr. LeBow has also been a strong
proponent of the national fight against underage smoking and has been
influential in the movement to obtain full disclosure from the tobacco
industry.
Before devoting himself completely to private business in 1968, Mr. LeBow
served in the Pentagon, initially as a First Lieutenant and subsequently
as a civilian, serving as assistant to the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff
of the United States Army. Mr. LeBow, is a 1960
graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he obtained a degree
in electrical engineering. In 1998, he was awarded an honorary degree
of Doctor of Science by Drexel, and Drexel's College of Business and
Administration has been named in his honor. He has endowed the
Bennett S. LeBow Engineering Center, a state-of-the-art facility that
houses Drexel's College of Engineering. In addition, prior to entering
the Army, Mr. LeBow, in the 1960's, entered a doctorate degree program
at Princeton University, where he also taught logic design of computer
systems.
|
President and Chief Executive Officer
|
Howard M. Lorber is President and Chief Executive Officer of Vector Group. Mr. Lorber has
been with Vector Group and its diversified interests since 1994
and is actively involved in the management of all of Vector’s assets.
In addition to his role at Vector Group, Mr. Lorber was President,
Chief Operating Officer and a Director of New Valley Corporation from November 1994 until its merger with Vector Group in December 2005.
Mr. Lorber was Chairman of the Board of Hallman & Lorber Assoc., Inc.,
consultants and actuaries of qualified pension and profit sharing
plans, and various of its affiliates from 1975 until December 2004 and has been a consultant to these entities since January 2005; a stockholder and
a registered representative of Aegis Capital Corp., a
broker-dealer and a member firm of the National Association of Securities
Dealers, since 1984; Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1987
and Chief
Executive Officer since November 1993 of Nathan’s Famous, Inc., a chain of
fast food restaurants; a consultant to Vector Group and Liggett Group
from January 1994 to January 2001; a director of United Capital Corp., a
real estate investment
and
diversified manufacturing company, since May 1991; a director of Prime
Hospitality Corp., a company doing business in the lodging industry,
from May 1994 until its acquisition by Blackstone Group LP in November 2004; and Chairman of the Board of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial
Services
since May 2001. Mr. Lorber holds a
Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Science degree in Taxation and
an Honorary Doctorate from Long Island University, where he is also
a trustee.
|
Executive Vice President
|
Richard J. Lampen is Executive Vice
President of Vector Group. Mr. Lampen also served
as Executive Vice President of New Valley from October 1995 until its merger with Vector Group in December 2005. Since November 1998, he has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of CDSI Holdings Inc., an affiliate of New Valley seeking acquisition or investment opportunities. Since September 2006, he has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services. Mr. Lampen has served as interim President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Castle Brands Inc. (AMEX:ROX), a publicly traded developer and importer of premium brand spirits in which Vector holds an 11% equity interest as of November 9, 2008.
Prior to joining the
Company in 1995, Mr. Lampen was a partner at Steel Hector & Davis,
a law firm located in Miami, Florida. Previously, Mr. Lampen was
a Managing Director at Salomon Brothers Inc. Mr. Lampen is a director
of New
Valley, CDSI Holdings Inc. and Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services.
Mr. Lampen has also served as a director of a number of other companies,
including U.S. Can Corporation, The International Bank of Miami,
N.A. and Spec's Music Inc., as well as a court-appointed independent
director
of Trump Plaza Funding, Inc.
Mr. Lampen received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University
and a Juris Doctorate degree from Columbia Law School.
|
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
|
Bryant Kirkland has been a Vice President of Vector Group since January 2001 and became our Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer on April 1, 2006. Mr. Kirkland served as New Valley Corporation’s Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer from January 1998 until its merger with Vector in December 2005. He has served since November 1994 in various financial capacities with Vector Group and New Valley. Mr. Kirkland has served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CDSI Holdings Inc. since January 1998 and as a director of CDSI Holdings Inc. since November 1998. From June 2001 until October 2002, Mr. Kirkland served as Chief Financial Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services. Mr. Kirkland received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 1987 and an MBA from Barry University in December 2006. From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Kirkland served on the Board of Visitors at North Carolina State University, where his grandfather was Dean of the College of Education from 1948 to 1969. Mr. Kirkland is an avid runner who has completed the Boston, New York, Miami, San Diego, Chicago and Arizona Marathons.
|
Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
|
Marc N. Bell is Vice President, General
Counsel and Secretary of Vector Group. He has been
with Vector Group since 1994. Mr. Bell also serves as Senior Vice
President, General Counsel and Secretary of
Vector Tobacco Inc. and served as Vice President, Associate General Counsel and
Secretary of New Valley Corporation from November 1994 until its merger with Vector Group in December 2005 and continues to serve as an officer of New Valley LLC and several of its affiliates. Prior to joining the Company in 1994, Mr. Bell practiced bankruptcy, corporate, and real estate law. Mr. Bell is licensed in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Florida.
Mr. Bell received a Bachelor of Business Administration from George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate
degree from Villanova Law School. Mr. Bell also received an MBA from The Wharton
School, University
of Pennsylvania.
|
President and Chief Executive Officer of Liggett Group LLC and Liggett Vector Brands Inc.
|
Ronald J. Bernstein is President and Chief
Executive Officer of Liggett Group LLC and President and Chief Executive
Officer of Liggett Vector Brands Inc., a subsidiary of Vector Group
formed in 2002 to coordinate and execute the
sales and marketing efforts for all of Vector Group’s tobacco operations.
Mr. Bernstein has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of
Liggett Group, which is the fifth largest manufacturer of cigarettes
in the U.S., since August 2000. Previously, Mr. Bernstein was President
and CEO of Brooke Overseas Ltd., while also serving
as General Director of Liggett-Ducat Ltd., the company's Russian operating
subsidiary. During this period, Mr. Bernstein was responsible for the
company’s
Russian real estate development operations as well as its cigarette
manufacturing operations. Since joining the company in 1991, Mr. Bernstein
has served in various other capacities with Liggett Group, including
Executive Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer.
Mr. Bernstein began his career in commercial banking with Merchants Bank & Trust of Indiana. He then moved to Sun Bank of Florida,
before spending five years at Gold Coast Savings Bank in various capacities, including President & COO.
|
|
|
 |
|
back to top