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| Visions & Revisions |
A Protégé No More
Jennifer Oz LeRoy
02/01/2007
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An inspiring family is the Maccioni family [owners of
restaurant Le Cirque] because it is an old-school concept—the three sons all
work in the business and are passionate about it. [Their father] Sirio was a
window washer in Italy, and he has done something incredible: He’s taught his
sons how far hard work can get you. I think it is hard for a lot of families who
are extremely wealthy and successful; the parents worked so hard, and they don’t
want the kids to struggle. But then they don’t know the value of a dollar.
How did you learn the value of a dollar?
If we wanted an increase in our allowance,
we had to create a business plan to convince Dad. He gave us a test once where
instead of getting money once a week he gave it to us once a month. We had to
learn to manage our money.
That’s not the typical over-the-top image of Warner LeRoy.
There’s the story of your bat mitzvah, which featured airplanes performing
acrobatics.
Yes, but my Bat Mitzvah was tough because
my dad only told me I had to study for it about a year before. He had decided he
wanted to throw a big party.
But there were definite rules. You didn’t get a car until your
second year in college, things like that. My dad loved to shop and he loved to
be over-the-top, but there were rules. And my mother definitely helped. The
biggest arguments that I remember growing up were my father wanting us to get
dressed up and go to a dinner party and my mom wanting us to stay home and do
our homework.
Did you know you would be taking over the business once
he
became ill?
He was very sick for about 15 months before
he passed away, but actually he was recovering. So it was a surprise when he
died. He had promoted me to director of operations of the Tea Room when I was
21, which was the most amazing moment of my life. It was a huge honor, and I
thought that
was a lot of responsibility.
And then you found out you were named CEO.
With the will. It read, "I love all my
children equally, but there will be one boss and one boss only, and that will be
Jennifer." When you’re the youngest of four, that’s surprising. But my siblings
were very dedicated to my father and to the family; they just didn’t want the
pressure of running the business. My sister Carolyn said, "Jenny, you don’t have
to do this. If you don’t want to, we’ll figure something else out." That was a
lovely thing.
Ownership of the business is shared equally among
you?
Yes. I’m in charge in terms of the work,
but we’re all owners. I think it’s the best thing. A family business is hard. If
you have ever worked with a friend, you know that they usually aren’t your
friend after that. It is a very fine line, and who wants to go home and have
dinner with your family and talk about business all night?
It hasn’t been easy—you had to close the Tea
Room.
We were finally making headway right before
9/11. We had merged things between Tavern and the Tea Room, and it was going
really well. If 9/11 hadn’t happened, we definitely would have made it. We lost
more than $1 million in business in the six months after 9/11.
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