Leonard A. Lauder, a legend of the cosmetics industry who invested hundreds of millions of dollars into research seeking a cure for FTD and other dementias through his Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), has died at age 92.

AFTD presented Mr. Lauder with the Susan Newhouse & Si Newhouse Award of Hope at our Hope Rising Benefit in 2018, commemorating his decades of philanthropic work in the dementia field.

When accepting the award, Mr. Lauder noted that advancing our knowledge base of one type of dementia can help bring about a cure for all forms of dementia. “We all know that the brain is the last frontier of medicine. We can’t explore this frontier at a leisurely pace,” he said.

He continued: “We have to speed up progress, and to do this, we need an entirely new model of research – one that is smarter, more strategic, and much more collaborative.”

The partnership between AFTD and ADDF, which Mr. Lauder co-founded with his brother Ronald, began in 2007. That year, the organizations co-launched the Accelerating Drug Discovery for FTD initiative, which has gone on to fund dozens of preclinical research studies of promising new FTD drugs.

In 2016, the Lauder Foundation joined forces with the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation to establish the Treat FTD Fund, a joint program of AFTD and ADDF that accelerated FTD clinical trials over the following decade.

“Leonard keenly understood that pursuing treatments for FTD could also advance work on Alzheimer’s disease,” said AFTD Board member Donald Newhouse. “When he suggested the creation of the Treat FTD Fund, I thought it was a brilliant idea. Together, we have helped to further the science of FTD and provide hope to the AFTD community.

“Leonard’s work with ADDF will continue to benefit people for generations to come,” he added. “I am proud to call him a lifetime friend.”

Along with Mr. Lauder, Bill Gates, and other philanthropists, AFTD is an investor in ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator program, a research initiative dedicated to the development of diagnostics tests and biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, FTD, and other dementias.

Both Mr. Lauder and his wife, Judy Lauder, were supporters of AFTD’s mission and of the annual Hope Rising Benefit.

“Leonard was a generous man with a big vision,” said AFTD CEO Susan L-J Dickinson. “He was a tremendous friend to AFTD and we are proud to continue our partnership with ADDF in his name.”