Nehemiah Corporation of America
Nehemiah Corporation of America is a non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California specializing in homeownership, affordable housing and community development. It started in 1994 as a small organization, but grew to prominence later in the 1990s after it developed a program that allowed home buyers to make down payments on their purchases using funds that were derived from the home sellers. This program, the Nehemiah Program, became popular and was widely emulated, giving birth to what came to be known as the seller-funded down-payment assistance industry. The industry attracted criticism from U.S. federal agencies (particularly the Government Accountability Office and the Internal Revenue Service) and was ultimately shut down in 2008 by a change in federal law.
Lady Esther
Lady Esther was the trademark of a cosmetic manufacturing company founded by German-born Syma Cohen and her siblings in Chicago in 1913 and operated as Lady Esther Company. It was incorporated in Illinois in 1922 and became America’s top selling brand of cosmetics in the United States. Its success in large part can be attributed to Syma and her brother Alfred Busiel and their innovative marketing through in-store demonstrations, print advertising and sponsorship of national radio programs. In 1949 Syma Cohen sold her half share in the company to her brother Alfred and following his death the company eventually was sold. Subsequently it had a number of owners. Now a United States company owns the trademark in the United States and a German cosmetic manufacturer owns the business in the rest of the world.