According to this New York Times headline, being a rake is Victor Lownes' crowning achievement

Rake in the sense of a dissolute person, a libertine.

The alternative headline at the New York Times website:   Victor Lownes, 88, Playboy Executive Who Shaped Company’s Libertine Ethic.

As a Playboy executive, Mr. Lownes helped convince advertisers that their reputations could survive proximity to naked flesh. He would later help to develop the chain of private Playboy Clubs.