Barbara Turf (February 28, 1943 – July 12, 2014) was an American business executive and former schoolteacher who served as the CEO of Crate & Barrel, a

houseware Household goods are goods and products used within households. They are the tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator. Economic role Businesses that produce household goods are categorize ...

and furniture

retail chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...

, from 2008 until 2012. Crate & Barrel is headquartered in

Northbrook, Illinois Northbrook is a suburb of Chicago, located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, United States, on the border of Lake County, Illinois, Lake County. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 35,222. When incorpo ...

. Turf was born Barbara Dorini to Italian immigrant parents in Chicago. She was raised in the

Little Village Little Village was an American/British rock band, formed in 1991 by Ry Cooder (guitar, vocal), John Hiatt (guitar, piano, vocal), Nick Lowe (bass, vocal) and Jim Keltner (drums). Each of the group's members had previously worked on Hiatt's 1987 ...

neighborhood of Chicago. Her mother, Minnie Dorini, was a seamstress, while her father, Angelo Dorini, worked for the city of Chicago. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and began her career as a teacher at Mater Christi Catholic School and Longfellow Public School. In 1967, Turf began working as a temporary summer employee at Crate & Barrel's original store on

Wells Street Wells Street is a street in the City of Westminster. It runs from Riding House Street in the north to Oxford Street in the south. It is crossed by Mortimer Street and Eastcastle Street. It is joined on its western side by Marylebone Passage a ...

in Chicago. She soon left the teaching profession to join Crate & Barrell as a full-time employee. She began working at the company's headquarters in 1974. Turf worked in the personnel,

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

and marketing departments during her first twenty years with the company. In 1996, Turf was promoted to President of Crate & Barrel. Under Turf, the company acquired The Land of Nod, a children's brand, in 2000. She also launched CB2, a division of Crate & Barrel aimed at a younger, hipper consumer

demographic Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...

. Turf became CEO of Crate & Barrel in 2008, succeeding retiring CEO and company founder, Gordon Segal. As CEO, Barbara Turf expanded Crate & Barrel into new overseas emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East. She also shepherded the company during the Financial crisis of 2007–08 and the resulting economic downturn during the following years. Turf retired as CEO in 2012, but remained with Crate & Barrel by joining its

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. In addition to Crate & Barrel, Turf served on the boards of directors for Ann Taylor Stores Corp. and the Gucci Group. Turf was diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer. Crate & Barrel's founders, husband and wife Gordon and Carol Segal, established the Chicago Pancreatic Cancer Initiative in her honor and donated millions to pancreatic cancer research. Barbara Turf died from pancreatic cancer on July 12, 2014, at the age of 71. She was survived by her husband of forty years, Robert Turf, three children and two grandchildren. She had resided in Winnetka, Illinois, since 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turf, Barbara 1943 births 2014 deaths American retail chief executives American women chief executives University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni American people of Italian descent People from Winnetka, Illinois Businesspeople from Chicago Educators from Illinois American women educators 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American women