User:Efincannon/Maxine Clark

Maxine Clark founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide, including company-owned stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, and franchise stores in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Build-A-Bear Workshop extended its in-store interactive experience online in 2007 with the launch of its virtual world at buildabearville.com

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 and received the 2006 Luminary Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement from the Committee of 200. She was named a Customer-Centered Leader in the 2005 Customer First Awards by Fast Company. 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. Build-A-Bear Workshop was named to the 2010 and 2009 FORTUNE Best Companies to Work For® list. Buildabearville.com received a 2009 ‘Best of the Web’ award from WiredSafety, was honored with the socially safe seal, and in 2008 received the Excellent Product iParenting Media Award. 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.

Maxine is a member of the Board of Directors of The J.C. Penney Company, Inc., and serves on the Board of Trustees of Washington University in St. Louis. She is a member of the Teach For America National Board, the National Board of Donorschoose.org and the KETC Channel 9 – PBS Board of Directors. 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 St. Louis University. In 2006, she published her first book “The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart”.