Richard C. Bartlett
Vice Chairman, Mary Kay Inc
Richard (Dick) Bartlett has been active in conservation for more than 40 years. He became a trustee of The Nature Conservancy of Texas in January 1989 and was named Chairman in July 1994. A recipient of TNC’s Oak Leaf Award, he was named to the original national President’s Conservation Council. He also served as a trustee of the New Mexico Chapter. He is currently a member of the national Governors Emeriti and TNC’s Legacy Club and is an Honorary Trustee of The Nature Conservancy of Texas.
Bartlett serves on the board of NatureServe, an offshoot of The Nature Conservancy, formed in 1998 as the Association for Biodiversity Information and encompassing TNC’s Natural Heritage Network. He is also on the boards of the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE),
the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the Center for Big Bend Studies. In 2005, he was presented the Texas Legends Award by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Bartlett is currently a member of the Texas Business for Clean Air coalition. He recently served as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee for Education & Outreach, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and previously was a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Texas Nature Tourism. He is an active member of the Coalition for Conservation, focused on action in the 2007 legislature to secure funding for Texas State Parks. In 2006, he was named to the Texas Governor’s Environmental Flows Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas.
Bartlett was former Chairman of the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) where he is currently an honorary board member. NEEF has established a $5,000 annual environmental education grant in his name. He was also a founder and first chairman of the Texas Environmental Education Partnership. He has also been a member of the U.S. EPA National Environmental Education Advisory Council. Selected prior board memberships include the Vital Voices Global Partnership, chairman of both the Direct Selling Association and its Education Foundation, National Council of Better Business Bureaus, Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society, Dallas Museum of Natural History, Heard Natural Science Museum, president of the National Environmental Development Association Foundation, University of Texas Press, The Dallas Opera, The Conference Board and the World Economic Forum.
Bartlett joined Mary Kay in 1973 to guide the company’s sales and marketing strategies. He became an officer in 1976, a member of the board in 1979, and was named vice chairman in 1993. He directed the growth of Mary Kay Inc while serving as president and chief operating officer from 1987 through 1992. Mary Kay’s sales in 2006 were in excess of $2.4 billion wholesale, through almost 2 million independent businesswomen in 30 markets on 5 continents. The company has received numerous environmental awards, including the 1994 Texas Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence and the 1995 United Nations Environmental Program award. He began his career in direct marketing by establishing Tupperware in Europe in 1960, following a stint at the Miami Herald, service in the U.S. Army and graduation from the University of Florida in 1957.
Bartlett has co-authored several business textbooks and written three definitive books, The Direct Option, a comprehensive work on direct selling as a legitimate career choice, The Sportsman’s Guide to Texas (with his wife Joanne Krieger), blending conservation ethics and hunting, and Saving the Best of Texas: A Partnership Approach to Conservation, a book that provides a catalyst for the process of forming partnerships to preserve the natural environment. He is currently at work on a third environmental book, Taking Care of Texas.
Professional awards include:
- Southwestern Marketing Association’s 1991 Outstanding Marketer of the Year
- International Television Association’s 1992 Chief Executive of the Year
- Direct Selling Association’s 1994 Hall of Fame
- Direct Selling Education Foundation’s 1995 National Circle of Honor
- Academy of Marketing Science’s 1995 Distinguished Marketer of the Year
- Pi Kappa Phi’s national Hall of Fame
- The University of North Texas 1999 International Executive of the Year Award.
Bartlett and his wife Joanne divide their Texas time between their fishing camp at Caddo Lake, a Davis Mountains cabin and their Dallas home. They have formed a new private foundation, the Thinking Like a Mountain Foundation, which will offer grants to “thinkers and artists” in residence at the environmental ethics resource center and library they are building in the Davis Mountains.