Warren Kanders

Warren Beatty Kanders (born 1957 or 1958) is an American businessman and investor. From 1996 to 2007, he was chairman of Armor Holdings, a company involved in the defense and law enforcement industries. He has been chairman and CEO of Cadre Holdings since 2012.

An arts patron, Kanders joined the board of the Whitney Museum, in New York, in 2006. He resigned as vice chair in 2019 following protests over sales of tear gas by Safariland, a subsidiary of Cadre Holdings.

Early life

Warren Beatty Kanders was born in 1957 or 1958 to Jeanne and Ralph Kanders. His father worked as a periodontist in Montclair and Convent Station New Jersey.[1][2] He studied at the Choate School, a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut, and earned a bachelor's degree at Brown University in Rhode Island.[3]

Arts patronage and protests

Kanders joined the board of the Whitney Museum in New York in 2006.[19] Kanders and his wife, Allison, redesigned their house in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2013 to incorporate their collection of contemporary art; they owned works by John Baldessari, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, and Cindy Sherman. The New York Times in 2019 reported that Kanders donated more than $10 million to the Whitney Museum, among donations to "various charities" and Republican and Democratic Party politicians.

The couple endowed $2.5 million to the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado in 2016.[20] They were major donors to the Aspen Art Museum for 2017 to 2018,[21] and his wife was a board member in 2018.[22]

Whitney Museum protests

Kanders was listed as a "significant contributor" to the Whitney Museum's retrospective exhibition on Andy Warhol on November 12, 2018.[19] By this time, he was vice chairman of the board.[19] An article in Hyperallergic magazine later that month connected Kanders to tear gas canisters thrown at the San Diego–Tijuana border which, according to journalist Patrick Timmons, were shown on photos to be labeled with the Safariland logo.[19] The magazine previously reported on Kanders in 2015, connecting his arts patronage to riot gear sold by the company.[23] In response to the article, around 100 museum employees signed an open letter asking the museum to request Kanders's resignation as they did not feel as though they could work at the museum while a defense contractor was on its board.[19][4] Museum director Adam D. Weinberg responded to the letter, but did not specifically address Kanders or the request for his resignation, while Kanders released a statement in which he said he could provide facts about his company to facilitate "a more informed and constructive dialogue".

Kanders announced in 2020 that Safariland planned to divest itself of divisions producing "crowd-control solutions, including chemical agents, munitions and batons, to law enforcement and military agencies"—specifically Defense Technology and Monadnock Lifetime Products—amid criticism that tear gas sold by one of its divisions was used by police in protests over the murder of George Floyd.[28] Despite earlier announcing that he would leave the industry, The Intercept reported in 2022 that Kanders was still profiting from his company's sales of tear gas.[29] Defense Technology and Safariland reportedly remained registered as subsidiaries of Kanders' company Cadre Holdings.[30]

Brown University protests

An op-ed in The Brown Daily Herald authored by four fellow Brown University alumni in February 2018 criticized the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) for allowing Kanders on its advisory council as they alleged Safariland's products had been used to "suppress protests, maim or kill activists and intimidate social movements." Kanders defended Safariland's products in a letter to the editor.[4] After protests by student groups, in October 2019, the university announced changes to its gift acceptance policy.[31][32]

birth date	1958 (age 40)
birth place	New Jersey, U.S.
education	Brown University
occupation	Businessperson and investor

Early life

Business career

Finance

Retail

Defense and law enforcement

Arts patronage and protests

Whitney Museum protests

Brown University protests

Personal life

Family

Real estate

References