Lew Frankfort is chairman and CEO of Coach Inc., the multibillion-dollar leather goods company whose sweet spot is “affordable luxury.”

The Bronx, N.Y., native earned his BA from City University of New York’s Hunter College and his MBA in marketing from Columbia University. After a short stint at an investment bank, Frankfort went into public service, working in New York City municipal posts for 10 years before joining Coach in 1979.

Early in his tenure at Coach, as vice president of new business development, Frankfort opened stores and developed the catalog business as well as the press for international expansion. In 1985, Sara Lee acquired the company and named Frankfort president of Coach; 10 years after that, he took the helm as chairman and CEO.

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Frankfort took the company public in 2000 and, within a few years, revenues doubled. By 2007, revenues had quadrupled from their pre-IPO days, and Coach operated more than 400 stores. It was that same year that Coach ventured into pricier merchandise, guided by exhaustive consumer research and Frankfort, who is often described as a “numbers man.”