Victor Kiam - Biography

Biography

After attending Yale, the Sorbonne and Harvard Business School, Kiam became part of the Lever Brothers and Playtex company as a salesperson. He first made his fortune as the President and CEO of Remington Products, which he famously purchased after his wife bought him his first electric shaver. In 1994, Victor Kiam sold a controlling interest in Remington Products to Isaac Perlmutter. Kiam also operated two other companies: Ronson and TravelSmart. Kiam also bought the Benrus Watch Company in 1968, selling his majority stake in 1977.

Kiam became famous as the spokesperson for the Remington shaver. Kiam's famous catchphrase, "I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company", made him a household name. He recorded each advertisement in the native language for the country in which it was broadcast.

In 1988, Kiam bought the NFL's New England Patriots for $84 million from founder Billy Sullivan. The sale did not include Foxboro Stadium, which Sullivan lost in a bankruptcy sale to Robert Kraft, and Kiam lost money on the deal. In 1990, Lisa Olson, a Boston Herald reporter sued Kiam and the Patriots when Zeke Mowatt allegedly exposed himself and made lewd comments to her in the team change room. The incident stirred debate over female reporters in the locker room. Kiam became the center of the controversy when he came to the defense of the players' actions. "I can't disagree with the players' actions," he said, and claimed that the Herald "asked for trouble" by assigning a female reporter to cover the Patriots. He made headlines when he reportedly described Olson as a "classic bitch." The case was reportedly settled for approximately $250,000, Kiam took out a full-page ad in the Herald to apologize, and three players were fined. Despite his apology, he drew audience groans six months later when he spoke at an athletics banquet and asked, "Do you know what Lisa Olson has in common with the Iraqis? They've both seen Patriot missiles up close." In 1992 Kiam sold his 51% interest in the Patriots to St. Louis, Missouri-based businessman James Orthwein, to whom Kiam was in considerable debt. (Orthwein would eventually sell his controlling stake in the Patriots to Kraft after an aborted attempt to move the Patriots to St. Louis.)