Sam Fried

Over a period of more than thirty years, Sam Fried has built a unique career in law, public policy, and international commerce based on an unwavering commitment to integrity, innovation, service, and leadership. Throughout this period, Mr. Fried has served as a highly valued and trusted counselor to a number of significant business, philanthropic, civic, educational, religious, and political organizations and to their respective boards of directors, trustees, and managements.

Mr. Fried serves as Executive Vice President — Law, Policy & Governance of Limited Brands, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange company with annual sales of $10 billion through approximately 2,929 stores offering products sold under the following brands: Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel, La Senza, Pink, Victoria's Secret, and The White Barn Candle Company. Victoria’s Secret also distributes products internationally through mail-order catalogues and e-commerce. During Mr. Fried’s tenure, Limited Brands reinvented itself as a major brand builder and served as the incubator for other successful and now independent retail brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Brylane, Galyan’s Trading Co. (now Dick’s Sporting Goods), Lane Bryant, Lerner New York, Limited Too, and Penhaligon’s. Limited Brands also created and incubated Alliance Data Systems, a publicly traded credit card processor. According to Fortune Magazine, Limited Brands is the world’s most admired specialty retailer.

Mr. Fried began his legal career in 1974 with a Boston law firm, specializing in corporate securities and tax matters. From 1977 to 1981, he held senior legal and international finance positions with The Bendix Corporation, a multinational company serving the aerospace-electronics, automotive, forest products, and machine tool industries. From 1982 to 1987, he was Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Clevite Industries, a multinational company engaged in the manufacture and distribution of component parts for the transportation and general industrial markets. From 1987 to 1991, Mr. Fried served as Vice President and General Counsel of Exide Technologies, the world’s oldest and largest manufacturer and distributor of automotive and industrial batteries.

Mr. Fried joined Limited Brands (formerly The Limited) in 1991 as its first general counsel, and he remains responsible for all legal matters affecting the company. He also serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors, co-chair of the company’s business ethics committee, and the company’s chief governance officer. Mr. Fried has established a reputation as a leader in the fields of values-based corporate conduct, rule of law, conflict resolution, corporate and board governance, globalization, interfaith understanding, and social responsibility.

In all of his professional positions, Mr. Fried has been responsible for the efficient delivery of high quality counseling and legal services to fast-paced entrepreneurial, complex, and innovative organizations. He has led the negotiation of highly sophisticated business transactions and has managed high-stakes, complex litigation in both domestic and international contexts. Mr. Fried is particularly effective in conflict resolution and in leading multidisciplinary projects requiring the coordination of participants representing diverse backgrounds, interests, and talents.

Mr. Fried has been a leader and an innovator in numerous civic, religious, educational, and philanthropic organizations. He is also active in Democratic politics at the federal, state, and local levels, and participated in the highest leadership ranks of every presidential campaign since 1992. Mr. Fried continues to work on substantive issue development and fundraising for a number of leading Democratic candidates and political organizations.

Mr. Fried’s record of public service also includes the following:

director of the American Arbitration Association, the world’s leading provider of conflict management services;

founding co-chair of The Heschel Society, an organization devoted to the promotion of peace, civil rights, interfaith dialogue, and tolerance;

trustee of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Arts Complex, a performing arts and cultural center that celebrates the African-American experience;

director of the Tanenbaum Center, a foundation engaged in promoting inter-religious understanding and tolerance in schools and workplaces and in the use of religion to promote conflict resolution and peace;

member of IPAC, the governmental committee that provides policy advice to the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative;

founding trustee of the Business Coalition for Capacity Building, representing major multinational corporations involved in expanding economic opportunity, civil society, and the rule of law in developing countries;

founding director of The Foundation for Global Environmental Education (an initiative launched by former Vice President Al Gore);

private sector representative to the federal government’s welfare-to-work initiative;

member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships (during the Clinton administration);

founding director of GlobalWorks Foundation, which is dedicated to alleviating poverty in the developing world through projects addressing conditions related to globalization;

member of the advisory board of The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, an innovative public interest organization that promotes scholarship, public education, and legal action in the areas of equality and human dignity;

member of the selection committee for the Global Public Service Law Project of the New York University School of Law;

founding director of the Trade, Aid, and Security Coalition (TASC), a nonprofit whose purpose is to build innovative partnerships that expand global economic opportunity and security;

member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association;

founding member of the Arab and American Action Forum Interfaith Council;

director of the Garment Industry Development Corporation, a non-profit consortium of management, labor, and government whose mission is to preserve and improve jobs in the New York apparel industry;

trustee of the Columbus Jewish Day School and member of the Columbus Jewish Community Task Force on Education.

In addition, President Clinton publicly acknowledged Mr. Fried as the source of his administration’s major policy initiative to “put a human face on the global economy.”

Mr. Fried is a member of the Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Ohio bars. He is also admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Fried received his A.B. (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Washington University in St. Louis and his J.D. (with honors) and Masters of Law in Taxation from Boston University School of Law. In 1971, following years of religious studies in Cleveland, St. Louis, and Jerusalem, Mr. Fried was ordained as a rabbi by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Mr. Fried served as Editor of the Boston University Law Review and edited Psychosurgery: A Multidisciplinary Symposium (published by Lexington Books with a foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy). He is also the co-author with Walter Dellinger, the former Solicitor General of the United States, of “Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad,” published in World Policy Journal.

Mr. Fried and his wife, Gigi, have five children and four grandchildren and reside in Bexley, Ohio, and Delray Beach, Florida.