Profile    Rebecca Herwick Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation    October 2005    Rebecca Herwick, 45, took over the leadership of Global Products, Inc. in 1999, a licensee and distributor of Harley-Davidson paraphernalia and other specialty novelty items based in St. Peters, Missouri. The company has annual revenue of more than $12 million, 90 employees, and is currently expanding overseas, with distribution centers in Canada and Europe and another planned for China. Herwick serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, directing strategic planning and development. Herwick previously co-founded a partnership, RKS Novelties, in 1983, which sold motorcycle decals and souvenirs at weekend races. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, that firm had annual revenue of $8 million at its peak. It was dissolved in 1999. From 1982 to 1986, prior to her entrepreneurial career and during the early days of RKS Novelties, Herwick worked for Mallinckrodt Inc., a St. Louis-based chemical company. She received a B.S. in chemistry from McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois in 1981. Herwick is a member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the St. Louis Chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), and given the annual revenue of her firm, the latter’s Platinum Group. Herwick, who wrote about hiring the disabled for EntreWorld's March 2004 issue, has been recognized for, and is passionate about, her involvement with the Center for Head Injury Services and the Brain Injury Association, organizations that provide prevention awareness, rehabilitation, and employment for people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. “Job carving”—or tailoring appropriate work situations for the disabled—lies in the forefront of her personal mission statement in this area. She is a member of the public relations advisory board of the Brain Injury Association of Missouri and on the Board of Directors for the Center for Head Injury Services.

<-- go back to all articles