Former Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes, a longtime executive perhaps best known for putting her career in the executive ranks on hold to focus on her family, has died. She was 63.
Barnes, who suffered a stroke, died Tuesday at Edward Hospital in Naperville surrounded by her three children and other family members.
Barnes made headlines in 1997 when she left her job as president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America after 18 months to become a stay-at-home mom. A debate ensued in the media about the tug-of-war working women face when balancing their professional lives and their families.
Barnes’ children were then 10, 8 and 7 years old. Barnes told the New York Daily News at the time that “You have to make choices. Maybe I burned (the candle) at both ends for too long.”
But Barnes didn’t completely leave the corporate world. She stayed engaged, serving on seven corporate boards, including of The New York Times and Sears, according to her daughter, Erin Barnes.
“The board opportunities gave the ability to stay connected in a meaningful way, but it didn’t keep her away from home as frequently,” Erin Barnes said. She still traveled, Erin Barnes said, but she also drove her kids to soccer practice and the movies. In 1999, for about six months, she served as interim president and chief operating officer of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, where she had served on the board, according to Erin Barnes.
In 2004, with her children teenagers and preparing for college, Barnes was lured back to a full-time job by Steve McMillan, then the chairman and chief executive of Sara Lee Corp. In February 2005 she succeeded McMillan as CEO and added the chairman title in October of that year, serving until she suffered her first stroke in 2010.
When Barnes arrived at Sara Lee, the company owned Hanes apparel brands, as well as a host of household and body care brands. Jon Harris, who worked alongside Barnes as chief communications officer at both PepsiCo and Sara Lee, remembered her as an executive who was “tough as nails,” he said, and authentic.
Barnes was petite, he said, and visiting the company’s plants “she would stand on a box and talk to the bottlers because it was real and straightforward. Everybody took to that.
“She would walk the halls regularly and knew everyone’s names,” he added.
During her tenure, Barnes took Sara Lee from a massive holding company to a company focused on food and beverages. She focused on restructuring the company and sold off 40 percent of Sara Lee’s businesses. Hanes was spun off in 2006. Sara Lee was renamed Hillshire Brands in 2012.
After her stroke, Barnes spent the last 61/2 years working on her recovery and serving on the board of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where she was a patient. “She lived a wonderful, happy life for the past seven years,” said Erin Barnes. “She never complained about what happened to her … one day, after a particularly difficult day at rehab she only said, ‘This stinks.”’
Brenda Barnes started her career sorting mail on the night shift at a Chicago post office, according to her daughter. “She knows every ZIP code in the city,” Erin Barnes said.
She later joined Wilson Sporting Goods and then Frito-Lay, which segued into her 22-year career at PepsiCo, where she rose to CEO in 1996. The job required a lot of travel and a year and a half later, she left.
Barnes graduated from Augustana College and later earned an MBA at Loyola University Chicago, according to her daughter.
She is also survived by two sons, Jeff and Brian.
Services for Barnes are pending, her daughter said.
crshropshire@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @corilyns
