Laura Slatkin

Laura Slatkin is an American businessperson. She is best known for the founding of Slatkin & Company and the Candela Group, which was renamed Nest Fragrances.

Slatkin is a graduate of New York University. In 1980 Slatkin worked for the large investment bank Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, eventually becoming a senior vice-president with the company.

In 1994, Slatkin co-founded the fragrance company Slatkin & Company with her husband, Harry. The company was founded in the interior design shop of her brother-in-law Howard, who gifted the shop to the couple as a wedding present. The candles had originally been designed for her brother’s top design clients, and became the focus of the new business. While Slatkin & Company originally focused on scented candles, it eventually expanded into other types of fragrance products as well. In 2005 the company was sold to Limited Brands.

In 2005 Slatkin founded the Candela Group, a home fragrance products company. The company has produced fragrance products for companies including Ralph Lauren, Estee Lauder, Christian Dior, Restoration Hardware, Papyrus, D. Porthault, Laura Mercier, NARS, and Jonathan Adler. In 2008, the company changed its name to Nest Fragrances (stylized as NEST Fragrances). In 2013, Slatkin was named one of Crains New York’s Entrepreneurs of the Year.

Slatkin has served on several non-profit boards, including the board of Henry Street Settlement and Autism Speaks, In 2003, Slatkin and her husband founded the New York Center for Autism (where she serves as president), and later the New York Center for Autism Charter School, which was the first school of its kind in the state. It was later renamed New York Collaborates for Autism, for which she serves as a board member. She also raised $12 million for the opening of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain.