Mr Les Mandelbaum
President and Co-Founder
Umbra Ltd.

Les Mandelbaum — Les Mandelbaum was born in Toronto, Canada in 1951. He attended Antioch College in Ohio, majoring in music and sociology. Eventually he moved to Boston to pursue a career in music, a hobby he continues to enjoy today. In 1976 Mr Mandelbaum returned to Toronto and started Trans-Canada Hardware (TCH), a company that supplied parts for the construction of heavy-duty custom “road” cases and speaker cabinet protection used by rock musicians. While on tour in 1978, Les connected with Paul Rowan, a boyhood friend working as a graphic artist. Unable to find an acceptable alternative to the mundane selection of window shades then available, Mr. Rowan created his own on printed paper and approached Mr Mandelbaum. They turned the solution into an innovative and imaginative product. In 1980, the two discovered that there was enough positive response from the design community and from Canadian retailers, to create a new company “Umbra”, derived from the Latin word for shade or shadow.

Today, Umbra is one of the most successful original and contemporary home accessories and housewares design and manufacturers in the world. Umbra’s in-house team of international designers are globally recognized for bringing intelligent design to everyday items in over 120 countries, with factories, warehouses and offices in Canada, USA, Europe, China and Brazil.

More on the Umbra Asia connection

Umbra’s connection to Asia began over 30 years ago, with sales to Japan beginning in 1983 quickly followed by subsequent trips to Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand for both sales and product sourcing. Recognizing the opportunity of a China-based supply chain model, Mr Mandelbaum did a 3 week exploratory trip to mainland China in 1985. He quickly realized that in order to manufacture Umbra quality products securely, it would require a hands on presence. This began with the establishment of the Umbra HK head office in 1995 involving the relocation of a senior designer in addition to local hires. Later followed the opening of the Umbra factory outside of Shenzhen, the sourcing and design office in Shenzhen in 2003, the China warehouse facility in 2010 and the Shanghai sales office in 2013. Today over two thirds of Umbra associates are based in Asia, with expertise spanning multiple disciplines including distribution, warehousing, design, sourcing, manufacturing, finance, HR and sales.