Les Wexner, the 88-year-old founder of L Brands and the namesake of Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, has not attended a Wexner Medical Center Board meeting in more than a year. His latest no-show at the board’s June 2 session capped a string of absences that have campus groups and legal observers asking a pointed question: Can he legally keep the chairmanship that comes with his name on the building?
Wexner’s absences on the record
As first reported by NBC4, Wexner did not attend the June 2 meeting and last appeared at a Wexner Medical Center Board session on May 20, 2025. Ohio State’s publicly posted minutes and agendas list him as absent at multiple recent meetings, including Nov. 19, 2024, Feb. 18, 2025, and Dec. 2, 2025, and the board’s archives count nine meetings in the two-year window under review. The trustees’ records, available in the Ohio State archives, together with the station’s review, indicate Wexner has attended only about three of those nine meetings.
What the law requires
Ohio Revised Code 3.17 says any member of a public board who fails to attend at least three-fifths of the regular and special meetings held during any two-year period forfeits the member's position, a threshold that works out to roughly 60 percent. Two administrative law attorneys told NBC4 that Wexner’s pattern could trigger that forfeiture. Attorney David Patton put it bluntly in the report, saying, I would not have used the word 'expectations,' that's a requirement. Ohio State, in response, tells reporters it interprets the statute as applying only to boards whose members are appointed by the governor, not to the medical center board.
Campus pressure and the bigger picture
On campus, frustration over Wexner’s continued role has been building. Students, staff, and unions have ramped up calls to strip his name from campus buildings and to remove him from the board. Protesters turned out for the opening day of the new hospital tower and kept up the pressure at subsequent demonstrations, according to The Lantern, while Hoodline has tracked the broader naming fight on campus. Away from Columbus, Wexner sat for a congressional deposition in February and denied knowledge of or involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, according to reporting by the AP.
What could come next
Observers see several possible next steps. The university’s trustees could move to remove Wexner from the medical center board or quietly ask for his resignation. A private lawsuit could attempt to force enforcement of ORC 3.17, or a court battle could unfold over whether that statute applies to this particular board at all. With the university’s trustees, who hold final governance authority and are chaired by John W. Zeiger, according to the Ohio State trustees, any internal move would be politically fraught and could easily spill into litigation.
