to prey on young women by posing as a recruiter. Executives had warned Wexner about this in the 1990s, but no action was taken. The business problems at Victoria's Secret soon escalated into a public crisis. In 2019, an activist shareholder, CEO James A. Mitarotonda of Barington Capital Group, criticized Razek and pressured L Brands in an open letter to update the brand image and switch up the predominantly male board of directors at the company. In response to the backlash against Razek, the company hired its first openly transgender model, Valentina Sampaio, in August 2019. Razek later apologized on social media and, in August 2019, he stepped down. In November 2019, the annual fashion show was officially cancelled after running for over two decades of production. In 2020, The New York Times reported that Razek "presided over an entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying, and harassment". Interviews with more than 30 current and former executives, employees, contractors and models alleged that Wexner and Razek played prominent roles in cultivating the toxic environment. The shareholders of Victoria's Secret parent company, L Brands, filed a complaint in the Court of Chancery of Delaware on January 14, 2021, stating that chair Les Wexner and Razek, whose misconduct was "widely known", created an "entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment", which breached the directors' fiduciary duty to the company, causing devaluation of the brand. References Living people 1948 births Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Culver Academies alumni Victoria's Secret American chief executives of fashion industry companies Fashion industry