#EllevateYourself Twitter Chat with Maxine Clark of Build-A-Bear Workshop

Ellevate is thrilled to host Twitter Chats featuring our outstanding Executive Council level members from chapters all over the world.

Please join us on December 16^th for our special #EllevateYourself Twitter Chat with true retail innovator, entrepreneur and founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Maxine Clark (@ChiefExecBear).

Maxine Clark is one of the true innovators in the retail industry. During her career, her ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and her insight into the desires of the American consumer have generated growth for retail leaders, including department store, discount and specialty stores.

In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide. Cumulative sales have exceeded $5 billion and over 145 million stuffed animals have been sold world-wide.

In June 2013, Maxine stepped down from her Chief Executive Bear role to apply her entrepreneurial skills to her passion for improving K-12 public education and to invest in and mentor women and minority entrepreneurs. Maxine credits her teachers as her foundation for success—classroom teachers and mentors alike. To honor them she gives back. Her next “act” is to make public education much more consumer friendly by creating more access for families and students to systems and supports to enrich each child’s learning experience. Just launched is her first product, Blueprint4SummerSTL, a free and easy-to-use mobile app designed to help ALL families navigate the best summer activities for their children. On the entrepreneurship side, investments include Goldie Blox, myEDmatch and St. Frank. Maxine is also a Managing Partner of Prosper Women’s Capital, a St. Louis based fund created to invest in women owned businesses in the St. Louis area and a member of the Board of Advisors of Lewis & Clark Ventures, a St. Louis based private equity firm.

In 2008, Maxine Clark was named one of The 25 Most Influential People in Retailing by Chain Store Age; in 2006, she was inducted into the Junior Achievement National Business Hall of Fame. Maxine was named one of the Wonder Women of Toys by Playthings magazine and Women in Toys, and was also one of the National Finalists in Retail for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004. In 2005, the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies made Build-A-Bear Workshop Portfolio Company of the Year; it was named one of the International Council of Shopping Centers “Hottest Retailers of 2004” and the Retail Innovator of the Year for 2001 by The National Retail Federation. In 2015 Build-A-Bear Workshop was named to the FORTUNE Best Companies to Work For® list for the seventh year in a row.

In addition to her seat on the Build-A-Bear Workshop Board, Maxine is a member of the Board of Directors of Footlocker, Inc. and Gymboree. Maxine serves on the national Board of Trustees of Teach For America and the local St. Louis regional board, the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of Washington University in St. Louis, the Board of Directors of Beyond Housing and Parents As Teachers and the Nine Network of Public Media Board of Directors where she is the current Board Chair. She and her husband Bob

Fox are founding donors of KIPP St. Louis and Maxine is a member of the charter school advisory Board of Trustees. She is also a member of the Committee of 200. Maxine is a graduate of the University of Georgia, and holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Saint Louis University and A Doctor of Humane Letters in Education from the University of Missouri St. Louis. In 2006, she published her first book “The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart”.

We’ll be discussing with Maxine how she came to lead such a successful retail business, how her values play into her everyday work, why investing in girls and women is so important and more.

Please tweet your questions in advance with #EllevateYourself and we’ll discuss. See you on Twitter!