Thursday, September 12, 2013YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Maxine Clark, founder and CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, is the speaker at Youngstown State University's Paul J. and Marguerite K. Thomas Colloquium on Free Enterprise at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 in Stambaugh Auditorium.
In 1997, Clark founded Build-A-Bear Workshop, a teddy bear themed, retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 such stores worldwide, including company-owned stores in the mainland United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and franchise stores in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and Latin America.
In 2008, 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.
In addition to her seat on the Build-A-Bear Workshop board, Clark sits on the board of directors of Footlocker Inc. and is a former director of the J.C. Penney Co. Inc. Clark is a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds an honorary doctorate of laws from St. Louis University. She is the author of The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart.
The lecture series, started in 1981 from an endowment established by the Thomases, is free and open to the public, but tickets are mandatory and seating is first-come, first-served. Tickets must be picked up in person between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sept. 17 through 19 (or until they run out) at the Information and PC Lab in Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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