Business Career
In July 1984, Lampert worked as an intern at Goldman Sachs, and then worked in the firm's risk arbitrage department from March 1985 to February 1988. While there, he worked directly with Robert Rubin. When Lampert decided to go out on his own, Rubin warned him it would be a bad career decision.
In April 1988, Lampert left the bank to form ESL Investments, based in Greenwich, Connecticut (the name ESL derives from Lampert's initials). Richard Rainwater, whom Lampert had met on Nantucket Island, gave him $28 million in seed money and introduced him to clients, such as David Geffen.
Lampert's investment style can best be described as "concentrated value", often focusing on the retail sector. Lampert typically holds his investments for several years and usually has between three and fifteen stocks in his portfolio. His investment style has drawn comparisons to the financier Warren Buffett. Lampert is credited with forming and merging Kmart and Sears into Sears Holdings.
Lampert's earnings in 2004 were estimated to be $1.02 billion, making him the first Wall Street financial manager to exceed an income of $1 billion in a single year. In 2006, Lampert was the richest person in Connecticut with a net worth of $3.8 billion.
Lampert's earnings in 2006 were estimated to be from $1.0 billion to $1.5 billion.
In March 2012, Lampert came in at No. 367 on the Forbes world wealthiest people list with a net worth of $3.1 billion.
In a May 2012 Forbes magazine article, contributor Adam Hartung described Lampert as the second worst CEO/Chairman of a large publicly traded American company, saying he "has destroyed Sears" after taking over "once the most critical force in retailing" when "same-store-sales kept declining, and the stock fell out of bed dropping into the $30s in 2009 and again in 2012."
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