As CEO and cofounder of Dancing Deer Baking Co. Trish Karter has found a way to marry her creative, artistic, environmental, community and business interests. The woman-owned enterprise located in Boston’s inner city, is lauded as one of the nation’s most innovative natural food companies. It has received the food industry’s equivalent of the “Oscars” many times over, and many other accolades and honors (*see below).
All Dancing Deer employees are shareholders and its operating philosophy is that when people are happy it shows in the food. Through its philanthropic venture, the Sweet Home Project, Dancing Deer donates 35% of the retail price from the Sweet Home product line to direct action programs to end family homelessness.
Trish’s first business adventure was to leave her studies in Classics and Art History at Wheaton College, just a semester shy of a Bachelor’s Degree, and help dig her father (and hero) out of a Chapter 11 Reorganization. He had pioneered the recycling of bottles and cans on an industrial basis and his company went on to write the book on how to reclaim that portion of the waste stream. She continued on from there to a series of business challenges which had in common the characteristic of being in relatively unexplored territory – a comfort zone for Trish.
A graduate of Wheaton College in Classics and Art History, she received a Masters in Public and Private Management from Yale University In 1982. Years later, Trish set aside her business interests and, taking a deep breath, invested her full energies in the pursuit of her first great love; to draw and paint. Five happy and productive years in the studio and outdoors doing plein air landscape work greatly influence her choices and perspective today. She is an activist for the environment and social change on many fronts. An unintended turn of events led her back in to business and the formation of Dancing Deer. Trish has committed the company to continuing its leadership in the natural food, green and social responsibility movements. Dancing Deer strives to further green practices to the fullest extent possible, while also using the company’s success to demonstrate the validity of the socially responsible business model.
In 2007 Trish received an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science from Bentley College McCallum Graduate School and in 2002, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wheaton College in Norton, MA for her accomplishments as a mother, entrepreneur, activist and artist. Her two children, Eleanna and Dimitri, are her greatest joy.
Trish serves on the Boards of: The Social Venture Network, a nonprofit network committed to building a just and sustainable world through business; The Hitachi Foundation, an independent nonprofit established by Hitachi, Ltd. to enhance the well being of economically isolated people; Simmons School of Management Business Advisory Council, formed to assist the school in its mission of educating women for principled leadership. She is active in many local community efforts to promote economic well-being in otherwise overlooked areas.
*Including: 1999 Brand Design Award from the American Institute of Graphic Artists, 2000 SBANE New Englander Award for Innovation, Inc. Magazine’s listing in the top 100 Inner City companies (2001, 2002 and 2003), FleetBoston’s 2002 Small Business Leadership Award for Innovation, 2001 and 2005 Chamber of Commerce Award for Excellence, 2005 Francis Hesselbein Community Excellence Award, 2005 Fortune Small Business Best Bosses Award, 2006 WBENC Business Star, 2006 Rosoff Award for Individual Achievement, 2006 Corporate Philanthropy Award, Boston Business Journal, “Innovator of the Year,” 2007 New England Women’s Leadership Award, 2008 “Big Picture Award” from City School.