Christopher, Doris 1945–

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Christopher, Doris 1945–

(Doris Kelley Christopher)

PERSONAL: Born 1945; married Jay Christopher, 1967; children: Julie, Kelley. Education: University of Illinois, B.S., 1967.

ADDRESSES: Home—Chicago, IL. Office—The Pampered Chef, One Pampered Chef Ln., Addison, IL 60101-5630.

CAREER: The Pampered Chef Ltd., Addison, IL, founder and chief executive officer, beginning 1980; has also worked with University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service and as a high school home economics teacher. Has appeared on various television programs, including Oprah and NBC Weekend Today.

MEMBER: Direct Selling Association (member of board of directors, 1992, past chairperson), American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, America's Second Harvest, Committee of 200.

AWARDS, HONORS: UIUC School of Human Resources and Family Studies/Home Economics Alumni Award of merit, 1992; UIUC Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, 1994; Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics, Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois, 1998.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Busy Mom's Cookbook, Pampered Chef (Addison, IL), 1996.

Come to the Table: A Celebration of Family Life, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Pampered Chef: The Story of One of America's Most Beloved Companies, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005, published as The Pampered Chef: The Story behind the Creation of One of Today's Most Beloved Companies, foreword by Warren Buffett, Random House (New York, NY) 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Founder and chief executive officer of the kitchenware business the Pampered Chef, Ltd., Doris Christopher shares the secrets of her success as well as an inside look at the origins of her company with the 2005 title The Pampered Chef: The Story of One of America's Most Beloved Companies. Christopher, who started her direct-sales company in the basement of her home in 1980, quickly turned her business into a multi-million-dollar affair. After twenty years of business, the Pampered Chef had grown to an enterprise worth 740 million dollars in annual sales, with a customer base of thirteen million, and over seventy thousand sales representatives in all fifty states. In 2002 the Pampered Chef was bought by billionaire entrepreneur Warren Buffett and his Berskshire Hatha-way Group, but Christopher retained control of operations. In the introduction to her 1999 book, Come to the Table: A Celebration of Family Life, Christopher makes clear what she sees as her business goal: "I have made it my mission to help families come back to the table to create their own traditions, small rituals, and customs that convey the strong sense of shared identity that enables some families to withstand pressures that tear others apart."

With The Pampered Chef, Christopher goes behind the scenes of her business. In the book, Christopher, who was originally a home economics teacher, explains how she saw the need to educate American women about kitchen tools. This kernel grew into a direct-marketing business, with representatives coming directly to customers' doors to educate them about such tools and equipment that could make cooking easier. Christopher also used television infomercials to market her wares. A reviewer for the Business Record noted that Christopher's book describes "starting a company, setting priorities and establishing a stress-free work environment." A Publishers Weekly reviewer found that while Christopher's "guidance is useful to aspiring entrepreneurs, her business advice is fairly basic." However, Booklist contributor Mark Knoblauch concluded that Christopher, in her "chatty prose" autobiography, "offers a road map for other entrepreneurs seeking to emulate her achievement."