Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart (born
August 3,
1941) is an
American business magnate,
entrepreneur and
homemaking advocate. Stewart currently hosts
Martha, and recently starred in
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Most of her professional attention, since her release from prison in March 2005, has been focused on reviving the fortunes of her business, which had suffered due to her litigation.
Born Martha Helen Kostyra in
Jersey City, New Jersey,
USA, she is the first daughter of Edward and Martha Kostyra. She was born to a large middle-class family of
Polish heritage, with five other siblings. She was raised in
Nutley, New Jersey.
Instilled with a strong work ethic promoted by her parents, Stewart mastered traits that many would consider common household chores. These traits however proved to be the keystone of her success later in life. Stewart's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in
Buffalo, New York. Her father Eddie had a passion for gardening and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter.
Stewart also excelled in school, and was active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. During this time, Stewart began a modelling career. She was hired and appeared in several TV commercials and magazines, including one of
Tareyton's famous
"Rather fight than switch" cigarette advertisements.
Finishing with straight A's, she was awarded a partial scholarship to
Barnard College in New York City. She initially intended to major in
Chemistry but switched to
Art and
European History, and later
Architectural History. It was around this time that she met and later married her husband, Andy Stewart. After marrying him, Stewart temporarily left Barnard for 1 year, and continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree at
Yale Law School. She would later return to Barnard a year later to graduate with a major in History and Architectural History. In
1965 her daughter,
Alexis Stewart was born.
At this time, Stewart began to hone and develop her business skills. In
1967, she became a
stockbroker. She was very successful until she left the profession in
1973, in order to focus more time on her daughter and restoring her new home in
Connecticut. It has been suggested that a scandal involving the furniture company Levitz may have contributed to her decision to leave the firm of Monness, Horstman, Williams & Sidel. Several principals at the firm allegedly received kickbacks from Levitz for selling stock in the financially troubled company.
Stewart and her husband decided to move to
Westport, Connecticut. They purchased and undertook a massive restoration of the
1805 farmhouse, Turkey Hill, that would later become the model for the
set of the
Martha Stewart Living television program. Stewart and her husband undertook the entire venture by themselves. During the project, Stewart's panache for restoring and decorating became apparent. Stewart's mother now occupies Turkey Hill, while Stewart currently lives at her new home in
Bedford, New York.
|
Cover of 1992 reissue of Entertaining |
In
1976 Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend, and later business partner, from college. The venture quickly became very successful, and when her partner soured on working with Stewart, who was becoming increasingly perfectionist, Stewart bought her portion of the business. Stewart also opened a retail store, The Market Basket at the
Common Market shopping center where she sold her home entertainment kits.
Meanwhile, Stewart's husband Andy had become the president of prominent
New York publisher
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. In
1977, Andy Stewart was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of the
Gnomes book series, by
Dutch authors
Wil Huygen and
Rien Poortvliet which quickly became a blockbuster success and
New York Times Best Seller. Andy Stewart contracted Stewart's company to cater the book release party, where she was introduced to Alan Mirken, the head of
Crown Publishing Group. Mirken was impressed by Stewart's talent and later contacted her to develop a
cookbook featuring recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was
Entertaining, co-authored by Stewart with long-time fashion maven Elizabeth Hawes. From there, word of her skills and business grew rapidly.
Entertaining became a New York Times Best Seller, and the best selling cookbook since
Julia Child and
Simone Beck's
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, released two decades earlier.
Following
Entertaining's success Stewart would release several more books under the
Clarkson Potter publishing
imprint, beginning with a book on
hors d'oeuvres in
1984. During this time she authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles and other pieces on
homemaking, and made several television appearances on programs such as
The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In
1987 Stewart gained national prominence as
spokesperson for the housewares department at
K-Mart, leading to the launch of her own line,
Martha Stewart Everyday, later that year. By this time Stewart's professional success had began to take a toll on her relationship with her husband. In
1990 Andy Stewart filed for divorce from Stewart, on the same day that Stewart's successful book,
Weddings, was released.
In 1990 she also signed with
Time Publishing Ventures to develop a new magazine,
Martha Stewart Living, for which Stewart served as
editor in chief. The first issue was released in late 1990 with an initial
rate base of 250,000. Circulaton would peak in 2002 at more than 2 million copies per issue. In
1993, she began a weekly half-hour service program based on her magazine, which was quickly expanded to a full hour, and later to a daily format, with half-hour episodes on
weekends. Stewart also became a frequent contributor to
CBS's
The Early Show, and stared in several
prime time holiday specials on the CBS network.
On the cover of their
May 1995 issue,
New York Magazine declared her as "the definitive American woman of our time."
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
In September
1997, Stewart, with the assistance of business partner Sharon Patrick, was able to secure funding to purchase the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand, and consolidate them into a new company,
Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Stewart served as
chairwoman,
president, and
CEO of the new company and Patrick became
Chief Operations Officer. By organizing all of the brand's assets under one roof, Stewart claimed that it would promote synergy and greater control of the brand's direction through the business' activities. That same month Stewart announced in
Martha Stewart Living the launch of a companion website,
marthastewart.com and a
catalogue business,
Martha by Mail.
On
Oct 19,
1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the
New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO. The intial public offering was set at $18 per share, and rallied to $38 by the end of trading, making Stewart a
billionaire on paper. Stewart was then and continues to be the majority shareholder, with a comanding 96% control of voting power in the company.
Beginning in
2002, Stewart's career was shaken by charges brought against her regarding the sale of her shares in pharmaceutical company
ImClone, days before its application for a new drug was denied. Stewart's reputation suffered heavily during the course of events that occurred over the next 3 years, which included a significant drop in advertising in
Living and to a lesser extent
Weddings and
Kids. Also, shortly after her conviction on four counts of lying to investigators and obstruction of Justice, her syndicated television show was cancelled and she was forced to step down from her role as CEO and chairwoman of MSLO for a non-executive role, and resigned her position as a board member for
Revlon and the
New York Stock Exchange. Stewart surprised many when she pleaded guilty, accepting a 5-month prison sentence in
2004 which she served at
Alderson Federal Prison Camp. She was released on
March 4,
2005, after which she was placed under supervised release and required to wear an
ankle bracelet for an additional 5 months.
According to the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her
ImClone stock. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.
The last of her legal battles were resolved when, on
August 7th,
2006, the
Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had agreed to settle insider trading charges against Stewart and Peter Bacanovic relating to Stewart's sale of ImClone Systems stock in December 2001. Under the settlement, Stewart agreed to the maximum penalty of about $195,000, or three times the losses she avoided. Stewart also agreed to a five-year bar from serving as a director of a public company and a five-year limitation on the scope of her service as an officer or employee of a public company.
Stewart will be prohibited from participating in financial reporting, financial disclosure, internal controls, audits, SEC filings and monitoring compliance with the federal securities laws.
It is expected that after the bar is lifted, presumably in
2011, that Stewart (who will be 70), will return to the helm of MSO as its
Chairwoman and
CEO.
Following her release from prison
March 2005, Stewart launched a highly publicized comeback, and was once again involved in
Martha Stewart Living. Offerings of her company's Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart were expanded to include a new line of ready-made home furnishings, and its mass market interior paint line became available at larger Sears stores. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her attempted comeback is
television. Stewart returned to daytime television with
Martha and appeared in an adapted version of
The Apprentice (called
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart). Both shows premiered in
September 2005, and both were produced by
Mark Burnett.
Her prime time
Apprentice spin-off received poor ratings, which some attribute to popular dislike for the opportunistic tone of the network's massive promotional campaign and to
NBC's slotting the show up against the hit drama
Lost.
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was not renewed for a second season.
In
October 2005, Stewart also released a new book called
The Martha Rules on starting and managing a new business, and a month later her company released
Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. She also is a regular contributor of cooking, gardening, and crafts segments on NBC's
The Today Show. Stewart's daily talk show was nominated in 6 categories for the 33rd Annual
Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, including Best Host and Best Show.
In October 2005, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched a line of houses that carry her name to be built by
KB Home initially in
Cary, North Carolina and various other locations nationwide. The first homes, which were inspired by Stewart's homes in New York and Maine, were completed in early 2006. Ultimately 650 homes are planned with prices from low $200,000 to mid-$400,000s. Stewart's company is currently developing an upscale line of homewares for Federated Department Stores, owner of Macy's. A line of paper-based crafts for EK Success is also in development.
In addition to television and merchandising, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched a 24-hour
satellite radio network with
Sirius in November 2005, on which Stewart currently hosts a weekly call-in show.
Interviews
*
Exclusive interview with online video from Achievement.orgNews stories
*
BBC News Online -
Commentary of her jailing*
BBC News Online -
Martha Stewart lambasts jail food* Sellers, Patricia (Nov. 14, 2005). "Remodeling Martha".
Fortune, p. 49–62.
*
Martha*
Martha Stewart Living*
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia* "I have set a standard, and I'm going to stick to the standard. I may have been able to grow faster and maybe my business could have been bigger, but because I really feel very serious about my subject, I really want to be hands-on."
* "I'm always on the lookout for those good, simple solutions to everyday problems."
*
MarthaStewart.com* Academy of Achievement Profile http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ste0pro-1
* Academy of Achievement Biography http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ste0bio-1
* Academy of Achievement Interview http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ste0int-1
* Academy of Achievement Photo Gallery http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ste0gal-1
*
Martha Stewart Timeline*
Stewart joins PETA's anti-fur campaign*
Martha Stewart's political donations*
Martha Stewart Comeback A Stewart fan site
*
SaveMartha.com — Fan site run by supporters of Martha Stewart
{{Persondata
NAME=Stewart, Martha | ALTERNATIVE NAMES= | SHORT DESCRIPTION= American television and magazine personality | DATE OF BIRTH=August 3, 1941 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Jersey City, New Jersey | DATE OF DEATH= | PLACE OF DEATH=
|
