Roxanne Quimby

Roxanne Quimby

Born mid-century in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Roxanne Quimby developed an early passion for the arts and nature that was to become the central theme of her future business and social philosophy. In 1975, after receiving her BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, Roxanne moved to a small town in central Maine, where she used her life savings to buy her first 30 acres of woods. She built a small cabin where she and her twins, Hannah and Lucas, lived in harmony with nature for almost fifteen years without electricity, running water or other modern conveniences.

In 1989, Roxanne and her partner Burt, a beekeeper and refugee from New York, started Burt's Bees, a cottage industry which quickly evolved into an internationally renowned personal care company with a core commitment to pure ingredients, naturally efficacious formulas and earth-friendly packaging. In 2003, Roxanne sold the multimillion dollar company.

With the proceeds of the sale, Roxanne funded two foundations. The first awards grants to nonprofit organizations in support of the environment and the arts, and the second, an operating foundation which owns and maintains 120,000 acres of wilderness in the North Woods of Maine. Roxanne also serves as the founding director of the Quimby Colony, an artist in residence program located in Portland Maine, and in the summer of 2010, was honored to be appointed to the National Park Foundation by its Chairman, Kenneth Salazar, Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

Roxanne’s most stunning achievement, in her opinion, was her ascent of Mt Katahdin in August of 2010.

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