Corporate Governance

Board of Directors

Henry C. Beinstein

Partner, Gagnon Securities, LLC

 

Henry C. Beinstein has been a director of the Company since March 2004. Since January 2005, Mr. Beinstein has been a partner of Gagnon Securities LLC, a broker-dealer and FINRA member firm, and has been a money manager and registered representative at such firm since August 2002. He retired in August 2002 as the Executive Director of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, a New York-based law firm, a position he had held since August 1997. Before that, Mr. Beinstein had served as the Managing Director of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, a New York-based law firm, commencing November 1995. Mr. Beinstein was the Executive Director of Proskauer Rose LLP, a New York-based law firm, from April 1985 through October 1995. Mr. Beinstein is a certified public accountant in New York and prior to joining Proskauer was a partner and National Director of Finance and Administration at Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Beinstein also serves as a director of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. (NYSE American: LTS) and Castle Brands Inc. (NYSE American: ROX). Mr. Beinstein has been licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the state of New York since 1968.

Ronald J. Bernstein

Non-Executive Chairman of Liggett Vector Brands and Senior Advisor

 

Ronald J. Bernstein has been a director of the Company since March 2004 and currently serves as Non-Executive Chairman of Liggett Vector Brands and a Senior Advisor to both Vector Group and Liggett Vector Brands. Prior to his retirement in March 2020, Mr. Bernstein served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Liggett Group and of Liggett Vector Brands. From July 1996 to December 1999, Mr. Bernstein served as General Director and, from December 1999 to September 2000, as Chairman of Liggett-Ducat Ltd., the Company’s former Russian tobacco business sold in 2000. Prior to that time, Mr. Bernstein served in various positions with Liggett commencing in 1991, including Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Paul V. Carlucci

Private Investor

 

Paul V. Carlucci has been a director of the Company since March 2018 and was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News America Marketing, a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) and a single-source provider of consumer advertising and promotional services, from October 1997 until his retirement in June 2014. He also served as publisher of the New York Post from September 2005 to September 2012 and was a member of the Executive Committee of News Corporation from October 1996 until his retirement in June 2014. He continued to consult to News Corporation until June 2017. He was also President and CEO of News America Publishing, Inc. (the parent company of TV Guide, Weekly Standard and News America New Media), and has held executive positions in Caldor, Inc., a 175-store general merchandise chain, RH Macy’s and the New York Daily News. He has also served on the Boards of Directors of Herald Media, Inc., the American Jewish Committee, the Children’s Miracle Network and the Guardian Angels. Mr. Carlucci holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Fordham University.

Richard J. Lampen

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

 

Richard J. Lampen has been a director of the Company since January 2021 and currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Vector Group Ltd. and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of its subsidiary, New Valley LLC. He also serves as a member of the Board of Managers of our subsidiary, Douglas Elliman Realty, LLC.  Most recently, Mr. Lampen served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services (“Ladenburg”), a publicly-traded diversified financial services company, from September 2006 to February 2020 when the company was acquired by Advisor Group, a portfolio company of Reverence Capital Partners. Mr. Lampen also served as Chairman of Ladenburg Thalmann from September 2018 until the company was acquired. From October 2008 until October 2019, Mr. Lampen served as President and Chief Executive Officer and was a member of the Board of Directors of Castle Brands Inc. (“Castle”), a publicly-traded spirits company, prior to its acquisition by Pernod Ricard. Vector held an approximate 10% interest in Ladenburg and an approximate 8% equity interest in Castle.  Prior to joining Vector 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 has served as a director of a number of companies, including Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc., Castle Brands Inc., New Valley Corporation, U.S. Can Corporation, Spec’s Music Inc. and The International Bank of Miami, N.A., 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 from Columbia Law School.

Bennett S. LeBow

Chairman

 

Bennett S. LeBow is the Chairman of the Company’s Board of Directors and has been a director of the Company since October 1986. Mr. LeBow, currently a private investor, served as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from June 1990 to December 2005 and Executive Chairman from January 2006 until his retirement on December 30, 2008. He served as Chairman of the Board of Signal Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: SGNL) from January 2010 to February 2017, when it was acquired by miRagen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MGEN). Mr. LeBow served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Borders Group Inc. from May 2010 until January 2012 and, from June 2010 until January 2012, as Chief Executive Officer of Borders Group Inc., which filed for protection under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in February 2011. Mr. LeBow was Chairman of the Board of New Valley Corporation (“New Valley”) from January 1988 to December 2005 and served as its Chief Executive Officer from November 1994 to December 2005. New Valley Corporation was a majority-owned subsidiary of the Company until December 2005, when the Company acquired the remaining minority interest, became engaged in the real estate business and began seeking to acquire additional operating companies and real estate properties.

Howard M. Lorber

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; Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1987 and Chief Executive Officer from November 1993 to December 2006 of Nathan’s Famous, Inc. (NASDAQ: NATH), 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; Vice Chairman of the Board of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services (NYSE American: LTS) since May 2001; a member of the Board of Directors of Morgans Hotel Group Co. (NASDAQ: MHGC) from March 2015 until November 2016, and Chairman from May 2015 to November 2016; and a director of Clipper Realty Inc. (NYSE: CLPR), a real estate investment company that acquires, owns, manages, operates and repositions multi-family residential and commercial properties in the New York metropolitan area, since July 2015. 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.

Jean E. Sharpe

Private Investor

 

Jean E. Sharpe has been a director of the Company since May 1998. Ms. Sharpe is a private investor and has engaged in various philanthropic activities since her retirement in September 1993 as Executive Vice President and Secretary of the Company and as an officer of various of its subsidiaries. Ms. Sharpe previously served as a director of the Company from July 1990 until September 1993. Ms. Sharpe has been a member of the New York State Bar Association since 1979.

Barry Watkins

CEO of Clairvoyant Media Strategies and Senior Advisor, Madison Square Garden Company

 

Barry Watkins has been a director of the Company since March 2018 and is currently CEO of Clairvoyant Media Strategies, a firm that works with leading businesses, brands, executives, talent and individuals to help them learn to efficiently and effectively deliver their messages across traditional and non-traditional media platforms, and Senior Advisor, Madison Square Garden Company. From 1997 to November 2017, Mr. Watkins was head of communications for Madison Square Garden L.P., Madison Square Garden Company and MSG Networks Inc. (NYSE: MSGN) and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer from 2010 until November 2017. In his role, Mr. Watkins oversaw MSG’s communications and government relations activities, as well as its extensive philanthropic efforts, and, from 2010 to 2014, the human resources department of the MSG companies. Since 2014, Mr. Watkins has also served as Chairman of the Garden of Dreams Foundation, a non-profit organization that works with the MSG companies to positively impact the lives of children facing obstacles. Mr. Watkins is a graduate of St. John’s University.

Wilson L. White

Senior Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google

 

Wilson L. White has been a director since June 2021. Mr. White currently serves as Vice President, Global Affairs at Google. Prior to assuming this role in 2013, Mr. White served as a patent litigation attorney at Google and, prior to that, for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. This role was preceded by various positions in the legal and engineering industries, including as a federal judicial law clerk, a software developer for IBM and a software engineer for I-Cubed. Mr. White currently serves on the Boards of the University of North Carolina School of Law Foundation and the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science & Mathematics Foundation, and served as Board Chair of the Black Bank Fund until 2022. Mr. White is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute. Mr. White received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Juris Doctor from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

The roster of Board committees and committee membership is as follows:

Audit Committee

Henry Beinstein, Chair
Paul Carlucci
Jean Sharpe
Wilson White

Compensation and Human Capital Committee

Paul Carlucci
Jean Sharpe

Corporate Responsibility and Nominating Committee

Jean Sharpe, Chair
Henry Beinstein
Barry Watkins

Executive Committee

Bennett LeBow, Chair
Howard Lorber