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Roger Barnett: Chairman and CEO
Roger Barnett acquired his expertise for identifying unique business opportunities while managing the private investment vehicle for a family holding company, controlling more than $2 billion in assets. After five years of researching hundreds of different industries, Barnett discovered Shaklee Corporation, a company primed to be a new business model for the 21st century—one that is based on using financial incentives to create significant social change on a global basis. After acquiring the company in May of 2004, Barnett is now the Chairman and CEO of Shaklee.
Beyond profits, the opportunity was to make a difference—doing well while doing good. "In our business, Distributors earn financial returns only if they help other people live healthier and better lives and help the planet in the process," says Barnett. "The channeling of all the earnings potential of the private sector, combined with the positive impact and passion of the nonprofit world, forms the heart, soul, and key differentiating idea of this company and our mission. Our model of providing a self-funding series of economic incentives that better the world is unique as well as uniquely profitable. It is the ideal business and social model for the 21st century."
Barnett may seem worlds away from most Shaklee Distributors, who include stay-at-home moms, heartland couples, retirees and young entrepreneurs. He sees it differently. Like each of them, Barnett is a hard-working entrepreneur who intends to cultivate business and social change. At Shaklee that means high-performance products based on nature, created to improve one's physical and financial health and the environment.
Barnett is building on a legacy initiated when the company began a half century ago.
Shaklee Corporation was founded by Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee, who guided it to become one
of the most well-established names in the nutritional supplement and direct selling industries.
All the while, he built an environmental legacy which few could match. He introduced one of
the first biodegradable cleaners long before that term was part of the industrial vocabulary.
More recently, Shaklee became the first company in the United States to earn Climate Neutral™ certification, which means that Shaklee was the first domestic company to have a net zero impact on the earth's climate.
As Barnett observes, Dr. Shaklee was a visionary in environmental products and entrepreneurial business. He created a business model that allowed people from any walk of life to earn private sector rewards while accomplishing admirable public sector goals. This was sustainability by principle, not mandate, and that has driven everything from product development to corporate actions. To date, Shaklee has invested $250 million on research and development and clinical studies and remains a leader in the natural products industry.
With the health and wellness industry projected to quadruple into a $1 trillion market within
six years, Barnett is striving to make Shaklee the next global leader. "We have the product development and R&D capabilities to continue our leadership position as the number one natural nutrition company in the U.S.," he explains. "And we have our unique distribution strength—one that's just beginning to be realized."
Barnett's ambitious plans are already in action. He acquired Shaklee in 2004 and his reputation for building best-in-its-class companies continues. He plans to expand the company beyond its current markets in the United States, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, and Canada into 50 new countries within a decade.
Roger Barnett received his bachelor's degree from Yale University, his law degree from
Yale Law School, and his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He began his career at the investment firm of Lazard Freres & Co., where he soon identified a high-growth opportunity: Arcade, Inc., a company best known for developing the technology that created scent-sampling strips for advertising and packaging. The Barnett family acquired control of Arcade, with Barnett becoming its President and CEO. Within six years, he expanded it internationally into the world's largest sampling company.
In addition to working with Shaklee and its network of 750,000 Distributors and members, Barnett has been selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and is a member of its private investment community. He has also been selected as a Young Leader Forum Fellow by the U.S. Council on China Relations, and he is a member of the Young President's Organization. Barnett is a member of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera Association of New York, the Health Advisory Council of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and the corporate board of the Environmental Media Association.
