Burt's Bees Founder Dead at 80

Burt's Bees

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[From obituary]
Born Ingram Berg Shavitz — "Burt," as he was called most of his life — was a city boy who struck
out on his own in rural Maine in 1970 and built a multimillion-dollar business that was purchased by the Clorox Corporation in 2007.[. . .]
In the 2013 documentary "Burt's Buzz," filmmaker Jody Shapiro took a look at Shavitz's unusual life and the controversial backstory of Burt's Bees. The documentary chronicled how Burt's Bees started as the product of a loving romantic relationship between Shavitz and cofounder Roxanne Quimby
[. . .]
Shavitz unofficially changed his name from Ingram to Burt after graduating high school and moving to Manhattan, where he eventually became a photographer for Time and Life.
One day in 1970, he realized he was terrified of growing old in a dingy apartment and decided to pack up and head to the country,
[. . .]
The two didn't start off as business partners but as a couple. As Shavitz put it to The New Yorker, "She was man-hungry, and she and I, by spells, fed the hunger."
In the film, Shavitz grew wistful when he spoke of their early days together and admitted that she was the only woman he ever truly loved.
[. . .]
The film's narrative suggested Shavitz and Quimby grew further apart as Burt's Bees became more successful and Quimby's vision became more ambitious.
Things came to a head in 1994, when Quimby moved the company's headquarters to Durham, North Carolina, and Shavitz left the company, the details of which remain controversial.
[. . .]
Telling his mom's side of the story, St. Clair said there was talk back then that his mother discovered Shavitz was carrying on an affair with one of their young employees and felt it threatened the business.
Shavitz claimed that Quimby was upset to learn he had been sleeping with other women, and that she gave him an ultimatum in response: He needed to sign a contract signing over his shares of the company to her or else she would take him to court for sexual harassment.
Regardless of what actually happened, Shavitz remained resentful. "Roxanne Quimby wanted money and power, and I was just a pillar on the way to that success," he said in the documentary.



http://www.businessinsider.com/success-story-of-burts-bees-late-cofounder-burt-shavitz-2015-7

Burt's Bees cofounder Burt Shavitz died at age 80 — here's his crazy success story

RICHARD FELONI
Jul. 6, 2015, 1:45 PM