Posted on Oct 02, 2017
Rotarian Edward Lief stitched together a story about São Miguel, Rotary, and the luxury brand, Coach. The common thread? Victor Luis. Born on São Miguel, an impoverished island in Portugal’s Azores archipelago, Victor's U.S. family would send care packages of clothing and Wrigley’s gum. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1973, when Victor was 7, settling in East Providence, R.I. His parents made ends meet with manufacturing jobs. Victor earned a scholarship to college, then studied international economics on a Rotary fellowship in Britain. “Because of our blue-collar background, luxury was the furthest thing from my mind,” he says. But luxury found Luis. After an impressive and varied career, he is now the CEO of Coach. An investment from Rotary can open endless possibilities.