Who Is Roger Barnett?

The billionaire private owner and CEO of Shaklee is well known in wellness circles — but the backstory of how he got there, rooted in his father’s transformation of Burberry into a global icon, is the part most people never hear.

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Everyone in the wellness world has heard the name Roger Barnett. He is the Chairman, President and CEO of Shaklee Corporation — the pioneering natural nutrition company founded in 1956, now home to more than two million members and ambassadors across North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He is private, polished, and precise — the kind of billionaire entrepreneur who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard, speaks five languages, and puts people and planet at the centre of every business decision he makes.

But the story of how Roger arrived at Shaklee — and why he was uniquely equipped to see what it could become — begins not in California, but in London. And it begins not with Roger, but with his father.

The Father Who Transformed Burberry

Roger Barnett was born into an extraordinary family. His father, Victor Jules Barnett (1933–2024), was a British-American businessman born in London and raised in the orbit of the Wolfson family — one of the most influential business dynasties in twentieth-century Britain. Victor’s uncle, Sir Isaac Wolfson, built Great Universal Stores (GUS) into an empire that would eventually include catalogue retail, financial services, and the credit agency Experian, which Victor led in North America.

In 1997, Victor Barnett was handed what many considered an impossible task: rescuing Burberry.

Founded by Thomas Burberry in 1856, the brand had built genuine heritage over more than a century. Burberry invented gabardine in 1888 — a groundbreaking weatherproof fabric — and the iconic trench coat it produced had outfitted British explorers, soldiers, and royalty. The distinctive camel, red and black check had become a global shorthand for understated British quality. But by the late 1990s, buried inside the GUS conglomerate, Burberry’s management was neglected and its creative energy exhausted. Its check pattern was so widely counterfeited that it had drifted from luxury to kitsch.

Victor Barnett became Executive Chairman and did what great owners do: he saw past the surface damage to the irreplaceable foundation beneath. The product — that gabardine raincoat — was still genuinely exceptional. The heritage was real. The bones were extraordinary. What was missing was belief and leadership.

Victor recruited Rose Marie Bravo — then President of Saks Fifth Avenue — as chief executive. Bravo later recalled being “wooed by two gentlemen, Victor Barnett and David Wolfson, and their passion for the concept of reinvigorating Burberry.” Under Victor’s chairmanship, Bravo hired the young designer Christopher Bailey from Gucci, signed Kate Moss, renegotiated licensing deals across Japan and Spain, and opened flagship stores on New Bond Street in London and East 57th Street in New York.

The result is now studied in business schools worldwide. What Bravo and Victor Barnett achieved together has been called “a miraculous turnaround” — so complete that the phrase “doing a Burberry” entered industry vocabulary as shorthand for reviving a neglected heritage brand into a global icon. Burberry went on to become one of the world’s most valuable luxury houses.

Roger grew up watching this unfold. He watched his father identify a heritage brand with a proven product, loyal following, and quality foundation that had been undervalued by the market — and then give it the leadership it deserved. That lesson would define the arc of his own career.

Two Pioneers, One Remarkable Year: 1915

Here is a parallel that most people never notice. The year 1915 mattered enormously in two very different fields, and both threads run directly into the Barnett story.

In 1856, Thomas Burberry had opened his outfitter in Hampshire. By 1888 he had patented gabardine. By the time the First World War began, his trench coat was the defining garment of the conflict. It was a revolutionary product, born of genuine scientific curiosity about weatherproof fabric, that endured because it was truly excellent.

In that same year — 1915 — a 21-year-old chiropractor in Iowa named Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee created something equally remarkable: the first multivitamin supplement ever formulated in the United States. He called it Vitalized Minerals. He had just graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic and had been obsessively studying the science of nutrition — reading every piece of research he could find on what he called “the life force in food.”

In 2022, the World Records Union officially declared Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee “The creator of Shaklee’s Vitalized Minerals, the world’s first vitamin pill.”

Dr. Shaklee went on to found the Shaklee Corporation in 1956, building it on a philosophy he called Living in Harmony with Nature. The company introduced the world’s first biodegradable household cleaner in 1960, the world’s first plant-based protein shake, the first phosphate-free laundry detergent in 1972. In 2000 — two decades before “carbon neutral” became a corporate talking point — Shaklee became the first company in the world to be certified Climate Neutral.

The product foundation was extraordinary. The scientific credibility was unmatched. The heritage was genuinely pioneering. But by 2004, like Burberry in 1997, Shaklee’s potential was not being fully realised. It needed what Burberry had needed: someone who understood heritage, believed in quality, and was willing to back that belief with everything.

Roger’s Journey — Building Towards Purpose

Roger Barnett’s biography reads like a novel. He grew up in New York and spent his senior year of high school working at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center on leukemia research. He went to Kenya to conduct animal behaviour research. He studied wheat genetics in Israel. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, earned his law degree from Yale Law School (Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal), and added an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Between degrees he worked as a lawyer in Paris and Hong Kong, as an investment banker in London and New York at the prestigious firm Lazard Frères & Co. Along the way he learned to play classical piano and to speak five languages, including French, Japanese, and Swahili.

His entrepreneurial career accelerated quickly. He organised an investment group to acquire Arcade Inc. — a sampling company — and transformed it into the largest product sampling business in the world, expanding it from a U.S. operation to a global one. He founded Beauty.com, one of the first internet cosmetics retailers. Through Activated Holdings — his family’s private holding company managing over $2 billion in assets — he looked continuously for the right next opportunity.

His mentor Jim Wolfensohn, who led the World Bank for a decade, planted a seed: the idea that business could be a genuine vehicle for positive change — delivering health, income, and sustainability at real scale.

Roger invested $20 million and spent years researching the wellness industry before making his move. He was looking for exactly what his father had found in Burberry: a heritage brand with an irreplaceable foundation, a loyal community, and room to grow under the right leadership.

He found it in Shaklee.

The Acquisition — A Familiar Pattern, A New Industry

In 2004, Roger Barnett acquired control of Shaklee Corporation through Activated Holdings and Ripplewood Holdings for approximately $310 million. He was 35 years old. He became Chairman and CEO, the role he holds today.

The echo of his father’s Burberry chapter was unmistakable. Here was a company with genuine heritage: founded nearly fifty years earlier by a true pioneer, built on a product that had been world-first when it was created, backed by extraordinary science — over 100 published clinical studies, 70+ patents, and 80,000 annual quality tests. Here was a community of passionate members who had used and trusted these products for decades.

And here was a company that, like Burberry in 1997, had not yet been led by someone who truly believed in everything it could become.

Roger’s framing was direct: “Shaklee has all the upside of a start-up, plus a 50-year track record and the infrastructure of a half-billion-dollar company.” When he took over, Shaklee had approximately 750,000 ambassadors worldwide. Today there are more than two million. Shaklee has paid over $10 billion in total commissions to its people globally, invested over $300 million in clinical research and development, and transformed what had been an analogue, direct-sales business into a digital-first global wellness platform.

Climate, Planet & a 10-Million-Tree Promise

Roger Barnett did not arrive at Shaklee and discover sustainability. He arrived and deepened it.

Shaklee had already become the world’s first certified Climate Neutral company in 2000. But under Roger’s leadership, the commitment became more ambitious. In 2007, Shaklee became the first consumer products company to fully offset 100% of its carbon emissions and operate entirely on green power. Roger also formed a partnership with Dr. Wangari Maathai — the Kenyan environmental activist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the first person ever to receive that honour for environmental work — and together they planted one million trees through her Green Belt Movement.

On Earth Day 2021, marking Shaklee’s 65th anniversary and 20 years of Climate Neutral certification, Roger made the company’s most ambitious commitment yet:

In partnership with American Forests, Shaklee is planting ten million trees over ten years. Every purchase contributes. Every order is part of a supply chain with a net-zero — and increasingly restorative — environmental footprint.

Shaklee’s Environmental & Scientific Firsts

• First company in the world to earn Climate Neutral Certification (2000)
• First consumer products company on 100% green power (2007)
• First to remove phosphates from laundry detergent (1972)
• First biodegradable multi-purpose household cleaner (1960)
• First plant-based protein shake in the world
• 1 million trees planted with Nobel laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai
• 10 million trees committed over 10 years from 2021
• 110+ published clinical studies. 70+ patents or patents pending
• 80,000+ quality and safety tests conducted annually

Philanthropy, Global Leadership & Giving Back

Roger has been selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum at Davos. He is a Young Leader Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a member of the Young President’s Organization. He serves on the Harvard and Yale Schools of Public Health Leadership Councils, the University Council of Yale, and the Yale President’s Council on International Activities. He has served on the Board of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and as a Director of the Metropolitan Opera Association. He was elected Chairman of the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA), representing over 60 national associations with $180 billion in combined annual revenue.

He is, as he has said, a “deep believer that business can be a vehicle for positive change in the world.”

The Community Model — Built for People

Roger Barnett is one of the most thoughtful advocates for community-based marketing in the world. He sees it not as a sales technique but as a fundamentally human model for sharing things that genuinely work.

When people discover a wellness product that changes their health — their energy, their skin, their sleep, their vitality — the natural impulse is to share it with the people they love. Shaklee is built on exactly that. Members and ambassadors share products they personally believe in, earn commission on every sale, and build communities of people living healthier lives together.

As Roger put it: “It provides an opportunity for additional or supplemental income for those who are sharing it. And because Shaklee has a net zero impact on the planet, everything we do is sustainable. It felt like the perfect vehicle for me to make a difference at scale.”

He sees the potential in community marketing not as a business model alone, but as a social one — a way to democratise both wellness and financial opportunity at the same time. More than $10 billion in commissions paid to members and ambassadors globally is the proof.

Family, Wellness & a Life Well Lived

Behind the billion-dollar decisions and global leadership roles is a man who, by every account, centres his life around family.

Roger is married to Sloan Lindemann Barnett — a New York Times bestselling author, lawyer, journalist, and environmental activist. Her book Green Goes with Everything became a landmark guide to non-toxic living. Sloan is a former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney turned NBC Today Show contributor, has appeared twice on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and chairs the California Pacific Medical Center Foundation. She sits on the Leadership Council of the Harvard School of Public Health. Her father, the late billionaire George Lindemann, introduced cell phone technology to America.

Roger and Sloan have three children. They are, in every way that matters, a wellness family — one in which the products, the mission, the environmental commitment, and the belief in living well are not marketing positions but lived realities.

Roger plays classical piano. He speaks five languages. He spent his senior year of high school working on leukemia research and went on to study animal behaviour in Kenya. Curiosity has always been the through-line. And at the centre of everything, the belief that the better people live — the healthier, the more connected, the more purposeful their lives — the more they want to invest in their own wellness. Quality of life and quality of wellness rise together.

The Thread That Connects Everything

Thomas Burberry invented gabardine in 1888 and made a raincoat that was still iconic over a century later. Victor Barnett saw the bones of that heritage, hired the right people, and turned a struggling fashion house into one of the world’s great luxury brands.

Dr. Forrest Shaklee invented the first multivitamin in the United States in 1915 and built a company on the belief that nature and science, working together, could change how people live. Roger Barnett saw the bones of that heritage in 2004, invested $310 million, and has been building it into a global wellness platform ever since.

The parallel is not accidental. It is inheritance — a son who watched his father see what others missed, and learned to do the same thing in a different field, in a different century, for a different kind of icon.

Both men found a product that was genuinely revolutionary when it was created. Both found a community that believed in it deeply. Both found that the world was ready — if only someone would lead.

Sources: Shaklee Corporation official biography (us.shaklee.com); The CEO Magazine, Roger Barnett interview; TIME Magazine, November 2007; The Real Deal, April 2021; Victor Barnett, Wikipedia; WWD, “The Burberry Blueprint of Bravo,” November 2004; Shaklee/American Forests press release, August 2022; Shaklee 65th anniversary press release, April 22, 2021; Worldkings.org Forrest Shaklee world record declaration, March 2022; NYU School of Law Alumna profile, Sloan Barnett, December 2009; Hacienda.org, “Roger Barnett Brings Vision, Experience and Ambition to Shaklee,” January 2005. All facts verified from authoritative sources. No fabrication.