Kiam was born in the
French Quarter of
New Orleans, the son of Nanon and Victor Kermit Kiam, a bond dealer who had divorced his actress wife while Kiam was four. His parents both moved away, with his mother going to California and his father to New York. He made a fortune as the President and CEO of
Remington Products, which he famously purchased in 1979 after his wife bought him his first
electric shaver. His purchase of Remington is considered an early example of a
leveraged buyout. The sale did not include
Foxboro Stadium, which Sullivan lost in a bankruptcy sale to paper magnate
Robert Kraft, and Kiam lost money on the deal. In 1990,
Lisa Olson, a
Boston Herald reporter, sued Kiam and the Patriots when
Zeke Mowatt allegedly exposed himself and made lewd comments to her in the team change room. The incident stirred debate over female reporters in the locker room. Kiam became the center of the controversy when he came to the defense of the players' actions. The episode helped inspire the 2013 ESPN documentary,
Let Them Wear Towels. In his later career, Kiam's business interests moved on from the Patriots, which he sold in 1992 to
St. Louis businessman
James Orthwein, and Remington, which he sold 50% of to
Isaac Perlmutter that same year. Kiam is also well known for "Lady Remington" jewelry, a direct sales jewelry company specializing in in-home parties. Later, it was renamed Lia Sophia, after his granddaughters, Lia and Sophia. The company was at one point the largest direct selling jewelry in the world and was listed among the top 20 largest direct sales companies by the Direct Selling Association. The direct sales division of the company was closed down in December 2014, when its 25,000 sales advisors in the United States and Canada were laid off. ==Personal life and death==