Leonard Lauder, CEO emeritus of the multibillion-dollar Estée Lauder beauty empire founded by his parents and named after his mother, has died.

He was 92.

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. announced his death Sunday “with deep sadness” and said Lauder, the eldest son of Estée and Joseph Lauder, had died at home “surrounded by family.”

The New York City native graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and studied business at Columbia University, among other prominent schools, the company said. After formally joining the family business in 1958, he expanded the single brand “handful of products” into a global beauty empire during six decades at the company. He served as president from 1972-1995, as CEO from 1982-1999, and as chairman from 1995 through June 2009, and was “deeply involved” in company acquisition strategy until his death. The “true visionary, fearless leader, and cherished friend to so many” was “the beacon of our company and the north star of an entire industry,” the company said.

“Throughout his life, my father worked tirelessly to build and transform the beauty industry, pioneering many of the innovations, trends, and best practices that are foundational to the industry today,” said William Lauder, his son and the current chairman of Estée Lauder’s board of directors. “Above all, my father was a man who practiced kindness with everyone he met. His impact was enormous.”

Lauder was known as much for his philanthropy as for his business acumen, and championed health causes such as Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer. He pledged $1 billion in Cubist works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, donated $125 million to the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and gave $10 million to Hunter College’s nursing school in New York City. Lauder helped his late wife Evelyn Lauder launch the famous Pink Ribbon campaign, an awareness initiative of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which she founded in 1993.

In 1998, Lauder and his brother Ronald Lauder co-founded the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, which “reshaped the Alzheimer’s research landscape,” ADDF co-founder and chief science officer Dr. Howard Fillit said, adding that “Lauder’s legacy is woven into the very fabric of the ADDF and the progress it has driven toward understanding, treating, and ultimately curing Alzheimer’s.”

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