Fortunately, Brian and Jennifer had the determination to go the distance—and in the process they made a bundle. After moving in together later in 1985, Brian and Jennifer, a nutrition and food science major, set out to concoct a healthy, energy-boosting snack for themselves and their running pals. Athletes snapped up their chewy, carbohydrate-and-vitamin-packed PowerBars—and today, Brian, 46, and Jennifer, 34, who wed in 1988 and have four children, preside over a company with annual sales of $120 million. Does Jennifer's mother, Barbara, regret her harsh words toward Brian? "Behind every successful man," she says with a laugh, "there is a very suspicious mother-in-law."
Though competitors now abound, PowerBar remains the dominant player in the estimated $300 million energy-bar market. In flavors such as peanut butter and malt nut, PowerBars have become downright trendy among top athletes (the U.S. women's soccer team downed them by the case during its recent World Cup chase) and gym-rat celebs, including actresses Kellie Martin and Courtney Thorne-Smith. Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura served PowerBars at his inaugural, and the young filmmakers in the movie The Blair Witch Project take them along on their ill-fated walk in the woods. The Maxwells "understand how to feed athletes because they themselves are athletes," says 49ers quarterback Steve Young, an early fan who is on PowerBar's board of directors. "They're great business people."
Brian, a Toronto-reared Berkeley grad and onetime member of the Canadian Olympic track team, got the idea after he "hit the wall," he says, while leading a 1983 marathon. Back then, his prerace pick-me-up was toast and jam; other runners preferred Snickers bars or cola. Looking for something more effective, he and a chemist pal (who left PowerBar in its infancy) worked out a low-fat, high-carb formula for easily absorbed energy.
Jennifer, a Bay Area native, volunteered to help Brian test recipes, and they bonded over sacks of oat bran and powdered milk. At first they made "this horrible sort of glop," says Brian, who had divorced in 1981 after a one-year first marriage. But they perfected the formula and in 1986 spent $50,000 Brian had made appearing in a print ad for Xerox Marathon copiers to produce 35,000 bars they sold at local sporting events. "We lived and breathed PowerBar," says Jennifer.
And it thrived. After U.S. cyclists in the 1987 Tour de France touted PowerBars in a TV interview, "we couldn't make them fast enough," says Jennifer. They hired their first employee in 1988 and built a factory in 1993. Now, their Berkeley company boasts 250 employees, with Brian as president and Jennifer working part-time as director of nutrition. Last year, the Maxwells, who own 59 percent of the privately held company, moved their brood—Alex, 10, Justin, 8, Christopher, 6, and Julia, 3—to a multimillion-dollar mansion in nearby Marin County. (Sean Penn is a neighbor.) They have also donated a wing to a new Berkeley athletic center.
The two have no intention of coasting. To keep pace with rivals, they have just introduced new lines of tastier, higher-fat bars, and they enjoy the competitive heat of the marketplace. "Not many couples can work together, but we have a lot in common," says Jennifer. "We're both runners, both creative and both stubborn." And, adds Brian, "we don't want to lose."
Samantha Miller
Ken Baker in Marin County
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- Ken Baker.
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