SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 Utah) – The leadership of the Made4Utah company Stampin’Up! just changed, but they are keeping it in the family.
Shelli Gardner started Stampin’ Up! back in 1988. Since then, it has grown into an international multi-million dollar company making products to create all kinds of handmade projects. Now, nearly 25 years later, Gardner turned over her labor of love to her daughter.
Sara Douglas said, “Stampin’ Up! Is her baby. One of her kids. So to be able to pass that and that baton a little bit and give up a little bit of that control, there is a delicate balance.”
Sara Douglas and I spent some time this week talking about her new role as CEO of the company her mother started. It’s a company she has grown up with and now, is leading.
Douglas said, “Knowing that she is confident in me, helps me have that much more confidence to move forward.”
Sara has been working with her mom for a few years and just spent the last year as “Interim CEO” while her Mom served a mission with her father for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Her parents are home now and Sara has officially taken on a new job.
Beyond the work, the former CEO will always be the new CEO’s Mom.
Douglas said, “We have a unique relationship. We have that close mother-daughter relationship and respect from that, but we also have respect as business associates. There is also so much real unselfishness from my Mom.”
While there is a new leader of this Utah company, Sarah said she will definitely follow in the footsteps of her Mom.
Douglas said, “I want to take all of the good things and continue moving forward in that direction, but it’s also a great opportunity to get a different perspective.”
Stampin’ Up! is a Made4Utah company now carrying on a legacy of creativity and relationships to a new generation.
