Next Model Management’s founder Faith Kates has stepped away from the company that she started, but neither she nor representatives at the company were speaking publicly about her departure on Tuesday.
The timing of her departure, which followed the recent release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was questioned in a report by The New York Post. That included emails that were exchanged between Kates and Epstein before Thanksgiving in 2017.
Media requests to Next and its cofounder Joel Wilkenfeld were unreturned. Reached by phone, Kates’ husband Jeffrey Kogan, a real estate investor, declined to comment Tuesday, stating that it was not his place to do so.
Representatives at the Model Alliance could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
A friend of Kates of many years said that Kates had been talking about retiring for “a long time.”
News of Kates’ decision was circulated within the company via an email from her that read “36 years after starting [N]ext by accident I have decided it’s the right moment to step back and retire from a job I loved.” Kates allowed the email to be shared with WWD. Starting out with a small group of models, Next has evolved into an international company with offices in Miami, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Milan.
Born and raised in Long Island, Kates graduated from the University of Maryland. Through Next, she is credited with overseeing such models as Molly Sims, Abbey Lee, Arizona Muse, Joy Bryant, Anja Rubik, Milla Jovovich and Cody Horn, among others, during their time there. Kates described Billie Eilish as one of the most influential musicians of her generation when the agency signed her in 2018 for fashion and beauty endorsements.
Others know Kates for her support of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, where she served as president, and is said to have helped to raise more than $30 million for research. With Donna Karan and the late Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief Liz Tilberis, Kates started “Super Saturday,” an annual sale of donated designer clothing that served as a fundraiser for cancer research. She also started the Legends Gala and enlisted the support of L’Oréal Paris at one point.
More recently in 2017, Kates helped Next to dive deeper into the digital age by hiring a handful of digital artists to create an array of GIFs, moving illustrations, and claymation.
Kates, who has three children, referenced her status as “a 30-year cancer survivor,” and that “now more than ever before it’s the right time for me to step back, in order to give back.” Kates said that the foundation that she has been working with for “the past years is at a critical point. And now with the assistance of AI and the brilliant doctors we have been working with we will be able to diagnose gynecological diseases sooner and save so many lives. It has been my life’s work to give back and help people. It’s in my DNA. Know I love Next and every one of you, I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines…”
