A Missouri entrepreneur, whose simple shopping trip with a friend’s daughter led to the idea for a global business, delivered the IBM Lecture at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 9 at Westminster College.
Maxine Clark was looking at a Beanie Baby stuffed toy in a retail store when the idea to create a company that would allow people to create their own customized stuffed animals was born. The Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) soon became a reality. Today, Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) operates over 400 stores worldwide and sells bears, clothes, shoes, accessories, other animals, and licensed products from Disney, Dreamworks and Major League Baseball teams. In addition to its retail success, BBW is well-known for giving back – having donated more than $46 million dollars in grants and “furry friends” to organizations around the world, such as Save the Children, the Make A Wish Foundation and the Petfinder Foundation – and highly regarded for its employee development and engagement. BBW has been named to the FORTUNE “Best Companies to Work For” list for eight years.
Clark was Chief Executive Bear for BBW until June 2013. Before starting BBW, she was president of the Payless ShoeSource Company and spent 20 years with the May Department Stores.
The International Business Machines Corporation established the IBM Lectureship in Business and Finance at Westminster College in 1980. It promotes understanding of business within a global context by featuring business leaders from around the world.
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Westminster College: https://www.wcmo.edu