Barbara Bradley Baekgaard

Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (born 1939) is the co-founder, designer, and former Chief Creative Officer of Vera Bradley.[1]

Biography

Barbara Bradley Baekgaard grew up in Miami Beach, Florida. Her first business was a wallpaper-hanging company.[2] Her husband was the owner of a bag company, Baekgaard, which Barbara Bradley Baekgaard managed after he died.[3]

In 1982, Baekgaard and neighbor Patricia Miller were traveling together. They noticed how similar women's travel bags looked and wished they had bags to match their own fun and colorful style. They each borrowed $250 and started making handbags out of high-quality cotton in Baekgaard's basement in Fort Wayne, Indiana,[4] on a ping-pong table.[5] Their business became Vera Bradley, an homage to Barbara Bradley Baekgaard's mother.[6] Within 3 years of business, the sales of the company reached $1 million.

Publications

• Vera Bradley: Our Favorite Recipes, 2000
• A Colorful Way of Living: How to Be More, Create More, Do More the Vera Bradley Way, 2017

Awards

• 2016: Ranked 54th in the Forbes America's Self-Made Women.[5]
• 2009: Living Legends by the Indiana Historical Society[7]
• 2007: Country Living Entrepreneur Award[13]
• 2006: Gifts and Decorative Accessories Industry Achievement Award[13]

Personal life

Baekgaard married right after college and had four children in five years. Because of her husband's job, the family moved often. She never had the chance to pursue her passion for entrepreneurship before her 40s. Her husband was of Danish descent. She owns a family house on Lake Gage in Northern Indiana.[2] She lives in Indiana and New York City.

In 2020, Forbes estimated her wealth to be around $210 million. Barbara Bradley Baekgaard owns 7% of the shares of Vera Bradley.[5]