Entrepreneur Anita Roddick Dead at 64
Monday September 10, 2007
British entrepreneur Dame Anita Roddick passed away Monday evening from a major brain hemorrhage. While she had been in poor health recently from cirrhosis of the liver after being recently diagnosed with Hepatitis C, the brain hemorrhage was apparently unrelated.
Roddick was a pioneer of turning ethical entrepreneurship into profits. As founder of The Body Shop, one of the world's most successful retailers of cosmetics and related products, she defined the five core values on which the company still operates (click on each for more info from The Body Shop's site):
- Against Animal Testing
- Support Community Trade
- Activate Self-Esteem
- Defend Human Rights
- Protect Our Planet
In addition to her extensive travels and speaking engagements, Roddick was one of the first celebrity entrepreneurs to take to blogging with a passion. Her site, AnitaRoddick.com, includes extensive commentary from her on activism, politics, women and entrepreneurship.
Roddick leaves a powerful legacy as a pioneer of the idea that ecological sustainability and vocal social activism can actually be good for business.
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Anita Roddick periodically wrote articles for Ode Magazine. She was a true pioneer in her field and she will be missed. Jurriaan Kamp, founder of Ode magazine, writes a tribute to Anita on Ode’s website: http://www.odemagazine.com/blogs/good_news/447/one_hell_of_a_woman_and_her_mosquito
It is sad beyond comprehension that Anita Roddick is no longer with us. Being a Swedish journalist, I had the great honour of meeting with and interviewing Anita on a confernece about valuebased leadership with the Swedish King at the Castle in Stockholm April 26th this year. I immediately fell in love with Anitas passion, power and determination. She mentioned her severe liver disease, but sparkled with life and vitality. We were talking about the necessity of cicil activism and how to engage people via media.(I have just finished translating Bill Clintons new book “Giving” ,on civil activism, to Swedish and it was so inspiring to see the parallells between the two). We do all need to pursue Anitas work and support strong civil activists over the world. Thank you for all you have done for the world, Anita!
Thanks for sharing, Annika. My main hope is that, if possible, her passing raises even more visibility for the causes she championed than she did in her life. That’s a pretty tall challenge, though, considering how outspoken, prolific and well-traveled she was.
I thought you’d like to see this SuccessTelevision.com video of Anita Roddick, who was such an extraordinary person. She discusses her conscious and its role in her business and life:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid6154807/bclid5743495/bctid176904164