Landmark has threatened and pursued lawsuits against people who have called or labeled it such, including individuals ( clinical psychology professor Margaret Singer), magazines ( Elle, Self, and Now,) and organizations ( Cult Awareness Network). Several commentators unrelated to Landmark have stated that because it has no single central leader, is a secular (non-religious) organization, and it tries to unite (and re-unite) participants with their family and friends (rather than isolate them) that it does not meet many of the characteristics of a cult. Landmark has faced accusations of being a cult. In 1993 Landmark started a subsidiary named Landmark Education Business Development (LEBD), (later renamed to the Vanto Group) which uses the Landmark methodology to provide consulting services to businesses and other organizations. Landmark does not use advertising to reach potential customers, but rather pressures participants during their courses to recruit relatives, friends, and acquaintances as new clients. Their use of volunteers prompted three separate investigations by the United States Department of Labor, which concluded without requiring Landmark to make any changes to their practices. The organization has 500 employees, and about 7,500 volunteers, an unusually large number of volunteers for a for-profit company. Landmark's revenue surpassed $100 million in 2018, with profits of about $5 million. Landmark holds seminars in approximately 125 locations in more than 21 countries. The company reported in 2019 that more than 2.4 million people had participated in its programs since 1991. The company states that it invests its surpluses "into making its programs, initiatives, and services more widely available." Landmark Worldwide states that it operates as a for-profit company, whose employees own all the stock of the corporation. In 2003 Landmark Education Corporation was re-structured into Landmark Education LLC, and in 2013 it was renamed Landmark Worldwide LLC. In 2001, Rosenberg stated that Landmark had completely purchased the licenses to all of Erhard's concepts and all divisions of the company. The Forum was reduced in length from four days to three, and its price is about 50% of the cost of the est courses. The new company offered similar courses and employed many of the same staff. In 1991, Erhard sold the intellectual property rights associated with the Forum's concepts to some of his employees, (including his brother Harry Rosenberg who became CEO) who incorporated into "Landmark Education Corporation." Landmark paid Erhard $3 million as an initial licensing fee, with additional payments over the next 18 years not to exceed $15 million. The Landmark Forum's niche was for people who did not have major psychological problems, but were nonetheless seeking self-improvement these people constituted a very large part of society and were not served by the medical psychological establishment, which concentrated on those with mental illness. Many individuals liked this belief, whether or not it is true, or simply works as a placebo. He promoted the idea that all events (good and bad) of an individual's life were their own making, and that individuals would be empowered when they take personal responsibility for all events in their lives, an idea based in the Human Potential Movement. In 1985, Werner Erhard (creator of the est training which ran from 1971 to 1984) renamed est to the Landmark Forum, and changed the content to be gentler and somewhat more business oriented. Its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations. In 1991 he sold the company to some of his employees, who incorporated it as Landmark Education Corporation, which was restructured into Landmark Education LLC in 2003, and then renamed Landmark Worldwide LLC in 2013. Werner Erhard, who created and ran the est ( Erhard Seminars Training) system from 1971 to 1984, modified est in 1985 and renamed it the Landmark Forum. Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is an American employee-owned for-profit company that offers personal-development programs, with their most-known being the Landmark Forum.
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