Brian Maxwell
Encyclopedia
Brian Leigh Maxwell was a Canadian
athlete
, track coach
, entrepreneur
and philanthropist
. He founded PowerBar
, a maker of energy and nutritional products for athletes.
Maxwell never intended to become a marathon
runner and lacked the speed necessary to be competitive at shorter distances. Despite being told as a teenager of his congenital heart condition, he persevered, and by 1977 he was ranked third among all marathoners in the world by Track and Field News. At 51 years of age he died of a heart attack. This may have been linked to his marathon
running.
, where he attended Victoria Park Secondary School (now Victoria Park Collegiate Institute
), and he was a member of the Victoria Park Track Club (not associated with the school). The club was coached by Commonwealth Games
shot put
gold medalist Dave Steen
. While at Victoria Park, he was awarded the Arnold Trophy for excellence in academics and athletics, donated by George Arnold whose sons had been excellent track & field, football and basketball athletes.
In 1975 Maxwell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in architecture
from the University of California, Berkeley
, where he was on the Golden Bears track
team. As an outstanding student on the team, he won the Brutus Hamilton Award.
team that did not participate in the games in Moscow
due to the U.S.-led boycott. His fastest marathon was 2:14:43 in 1977. Maxwell went on to serve as the cross country and distance running coach at UC Berkeley, helping four team members become NCAA Division I All-America
ns in cross country and track and field.
s and begins burning muscle tissue instead. In the kitchen of their Berkeley, California
home, the couple began developing snack bar
recipes with both simple and complex carbohydrates that would taste good and be easy to digest, especially during endurance
competitions.
Maxwell ended up with a company with 300 employees and $150 million in annual sales by 2000, when the company was purchased by Nestlé
for $375 million.
Among PowerBar's many contributions to the world of fitness, the company sponsored numerous events and athletes while benefitting from such indirect advertising. Maxwell also pioneered the 'photo contingency' sponsorship, which has become commonplace in sports today.
, the field serves as home to the university's hockey, football and lacrosse programs.
Jennifer Maxwell also endowed a full-tuition scholarship, the Brian L. Maxwell Fellowship, at the Haas School of Business
. Maxwell Fellowships are intended to memorialize the drive, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit which led Maxwell to achieve success in business and his athletic pursuits. There has been an award named after Maxwell at the high school he attended, Victoria Park Collegiate Institute, which is given to a student who excels in athletics and academics while at Victoria Park.
Maxwell is survived by his wife and six children. His daughter, Julia Maxwell, at only age 13, was the top female finisher at the famous Dipsea course in 2009.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
athlete
Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
, track coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...
, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. He founded PowerBar
PowerBar
PowerBar is an American maker of energy bars and other related products ....
, a maker of energy and nutritional products for athletes.
Maxwell never intended to become a marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
runner and lacked the speed necessary to be competitive at shorter distances. Despite being told as a teenager of his congenital heart condition, he persevered, and by 1977 he was ranked third among all marathoners in the world by Track and Field News. At 51 years of age he died of a heart attack. This may have been linked to his marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
running.
Early life and education
Maxwell grew up in Toronto, CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he attended Victoria Park Secondary School (now Victoria Park Collegiate Institute
Victoria Park Collegiate Institute
Victoria Park C.I., formerly Victoria Park Secondary School, is a collegiate institute located south of York Mills Road and west of Victoria Park Ave. at 15 Wallingford Rd. in the North York area of Toronto, Canada. It is the first publicly-funded school in Ontario to host the International...
), and he was a member of the Victoria Park Track Club (not associated with the school). The club was coached by Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....
shot put
Shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy metal ball—the shot—as far as possible. It is common to use the term "shot put" to refer to both the shot itself and to the putting action....
gold medalist Dave Steen
Dave Steen
David Lee Steen, CM is a retired Canadian decathlete, a three-time member of the Canadian Summer Olympic Games team and the first Canadian to score more than 8,000 points in the decathlon....
. While at Victoria Park, he was awarded the Arnold Trophy for excellence in academics and athletics, donated by George Arnold whose sons had been excellent track & field, football and basketball athletes.
In 1975 Maxwell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he was on the Golden Bears track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
team. As an outstanding student on the team, he won the Brutus Hamilton Award.
Elite athlete and Coach
After graduating from UC Berkeley, Maxwell frequently represented Canada as a long distance runner. He was part of the 1980 Olympic1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
team that did not participate in the games in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
due to the U.S.-led boycott. His fastest marathon was 2:14:43 in 1977. Maxwell went on to serve as the cross country and distance running coach at UC Berkeley, helping four team members become NCAA Division I All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
ns in cross country and track and field.
PowerBar
Maxwell started the PowerBar company with his girlfriend, Jennifer Biddulph, a nutritionist who later became his wife. He came up with the idea of an energy bar after dropping out of a marathon at the 21 miles (33.8 km) mark, at about the segment of the 42.195 kilometres (26.2 mi) event known among runners as "The Wall", where experts say the body ceases burning carbohydrateCarbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
s and begins burning muscle tissue instead. In the kitchen of their Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
home, the couple began developing snack bar
Snack bar
thumb|A snack bar in AmsterdamA snack bar usually refers to an inexpensive food counter that is part of a permanent structure where snack foods and light meals are sold. A beach snack bar is often a small building situated high on the sand. Besides soft drinks, candies and chewing gum, some snack...
recipes with both simple and complex carbohydrates that would taste good and be easy to digest, especially during endurance
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
competitions.
Maxwell ended up with a company with 300 employees and $150 million in annual sales by 2000, when the company was purchased by Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
for $375 million.
Among PowerBar's many contributions to the world of fitness, the company sponsored numerous events and athletes while benefitting from such indirect advertising. Maxwell also pioneered the 'photo contingency' sponsorship, which has become commonplace in sports today.
Active.com
In late 2000, Maxwell invested in the Active Network Inc. (Active.com), helping establish the company as the leading provider of data management and online registration services for fitness events. By 2001, Maxwell joined Active's board of directors.Legacy
In addition to helping promote many fitness events and sponsoring numerous athletes, Maxwell and his wife have contributed generously to UC Berkeley, from which both graduated. The former Kleeberger Field was renamed Maxwell Family Field after the couple donated funds to replace the artificial surface. Located just north of UC Berkeley's Memorial StadiumCalifornia Memorial Stadium
California Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley. Commonly known as Memorial Stadium, it is the home field for the University of California Golden Bears of the Pacific-12 Conference...
, the field serves as home to the university's hockey, football and lacrosse programs.
Jennifer Maxwell also endowed a full-tuition scholarship, the Brian L. Maxwell Fellowship, at the Haas School of Business
Haas School of Business
The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as the Haas School of Business or simply Haas, is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley....
. Maxwell Fellowships are intended to memorialize the drive, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit which led Maxwell to achieve success in business and his athletic pursuits. There has been an award named after Maxwell at the high school he attended, Victoria Park Collegiate Institute, which is given to a student who excels in athletics and academics while at Victoria Park.
Maxwell is survived by his wife and six children. His daughter, Julia Maxwell, at only age 13, was the top female finisher at the famous Dipsea course in 2009.
External links
- Berkeley.edu - 'Cal mourns passing of Brian Maxwell, former coach, runner, PowerBar founder, and philanthropist: Memorial service scheduled for noon April 2 at Haas PavilionHaas PavilionThe Walter A. Haas, Jr. Pavilion is the home of the University of California's men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, and men's and women's gymnastics teams...
', University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(March 22, 2004) - PowerBar.com - 'PowerBar Mourns the Passing of Founder, Brian Maxwell', PowerBarPowerBarPowerBar is an American maker of energy bars and other related products ....
(March, 2004) - PowerBar founder collapses from the San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, March 20, 2004