Edward G. Razek (born 24 April, 1948) is an American businessperson known for his former role as the Chief Marketing Officer for L Brands where he developed the Victoria's Secret Angels and the company's annual fashion show. Razek joined L Brands in 1983 and resigned in 2019 after persistent public criticism for creating a culture of misogyny and harassment. Early life and education Ed Razek grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and was raised by his father, a steel mill worker. He attended the Culver Military Academy in Indiana starting at age 12. Razek earned a degree in English at Ohio State University in the late 1960s. Career Razek worked in advertising for several years at Shelly Berman Communicators (SBC Advertising, Inc.) in Columbus, Ohio. He was a partner with Shelly Berman and Bill Wickham at the agency. Among his early clients at Shelly Berman Comunicators was the clothing retailer Les Wexner of The Limited, Inc. (later known as L Brands). In 1983, Razek left SBC and joined in-house branding operations at the Limited. In 1994, Wexner tasked Razek with developing a fashion show for one of the companies brands. The first fashion show took place in 1995 with the chosen brand, Victoria's Secret. A somewhat modest affair for a risqué product at first, the fashion show, under Razek, transformed into spectacle and became an entertainment event, with peak viewership in 2001. Razek was instrumental in selecting the brand's models, known as "Angels" and given angel wings, and in creating the company's TV ads. It later emerged that Razek was the subject of repeated complaints to the human resources department regarding inappropriate behaviour, but he continued to operate with impunity for many years. A 2004 interview with the Columbus Monthly magazine notes his comments: “We’ve got beautiful women in lingerie. That’s right,” he says unapologetically. “We’re not a potato chip company.” Following a November 2018 interview with Vogue, Razek received strong and sustained criticism for his anachronistic marketing after he expressed an aversion to casting transgender and plus-sized models in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In an era of MeToo and body positivity the backlash was severe, with calls for Razek to step down. Victoria's Secret was also bowing under the weight of Wexner's connection to Jeffrey Epstein, following his arrest in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking. It emerged that Epstein used his connections to Wexner and Victoria's Secret,