Debbi Fields
| Debbi Fields | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 18, 1956 Oakland, California, United States |
| Occupation | Businesswoman, author |
Debbi Fields (born September 18, 1956) is the founder and current spokesperson of Mrs. Fields Bakeries. Additionally, she has written several cookbooks and makes cookies. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee, with her husband, former Holiday Inn and Harrah's CEO, Michael Rose. She and her husband are very involved in philanthropic work throughout the area.[1]
Biography
Debbi Jane Fields was born Debra Jane Sivyer on September 18, 1956, in Oakland, California. Her father was a welder and Fields had four sisters.
In 1969, Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley introduced "ball girls" (young girls who would sit in foul territory near the baselines to retrieve baseballs grounded foul by batters) to major league baseball. Debbi was one of the first ones he hired. She was paid five dollars an hour and would use the money to buy ingredients for what would become her famous cookies.
At the age of nineteen, she married Randy Fields, taking the name she would soon use for her business. She attended Foothill College in Los Altos Ca.[2]
She began her business in 1977 in Palo Alto, California, and since it has grown into over 650 retail bakeries in the United States and over 80 in 11 different countries.
Debbi and Randy Fields had five daughters, Jessica, Jenessa, Jennifer, Ashley and McKenzie, but divorced in 1997. In 1998, Fields married former Holiday Inn president & CEO Michael Rose.[2] One of her stepdaughters, Gabrielle Rose, swam for Brazil at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Fields began franchising in 1990, and, though she sold the business to an investment group in the early 1990s, she remains the company's spokesperson.[3]