subject: Martha Helen Stewart The Business Magnate [print this page] Martha Helen Stewart is an American business magnate, television host, author, and magazine publisher. She was born in New Jersey, on August 3, 1941. Her mother Martha was a school teacher and her father Edward Kostyra was a pharmaceutical salesman. Martha's father taught her gardening, her mother taught her how to cook and sew, and she learned the processes of canning and preserving from her grandparents.
Martha Kostyra was a hard-working student involved in many extracurricular activities. Around this time, Martha started working as a model to help pay expenses. She began her college career intending to study chemistry, but switched to art, European history and architectural history. Just after her sophomore year, she married Andrew Stewart, a law student. She left Barnard but continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree. Martha returned after a year to graduate with a double major in history and architectural history. After graduation, she continued a successful modeling career until her daughter Alexis was born in 1965.
Martha Stewart began her career as a stockbroker in the year 1967. As the recession hit the Wall Street in 1973, she left the brokerage. Martha and her husband moved to Connecticut and started a catering business. In a decade's time, her business grew and became a million dollars worth enterprise. In 1982, she wrote her first book, Martha Stewart's Entertaining. While her career prospered, her marriage with Andrew took a hit. They divorced in 1989. A year later, she started her own magazine, Martha Stewart Living, serving as Editor-in-Chief. Martha Stewart soon came to be known as a one women industry. She signed an advertising and consulting contract with retailer Kmart. Martha started her new company Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) and served as a Chairman, President and CEO in the year 1997.
In 2001, Ladies Home Journal named her the third most powerful woman in America. In June of that year, she accepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, but resigned her seat only four months later, when she was accused of insider trading. Although Martha Stewart maintained her innocence of all charges, she was brought to trial in the first months of 2004. The jury found her guilty and she was in prison for five months.
After her release, Stewart immediately set about rebuilding her business. She began a new daily television program, The Martha Stewart Show. Within a year of her release, MSLO had returned to profitability. Martha Stewart has also expanded her business, creating product lines for Home Depot, Sears, Macy's and Wal-Mart. Over the years, Martha Stewart has shown patience and good humor in the face of the criticism. Martha Stewart has had more influence on how Americans, eat, entertain, and decorate their homes and gardens than any one person in our history.
