Barbara Bradley Baekgaard

Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and close friend and neighbor Patricia Miller were catching a flight in Atlanta in 1982 when they noticed how drab women's travel bags looked. Each borrowed $250 from her husband and went to work in Baekgaard's basement in Fort Wayne, Indiana making handbags out of floral quilted cotton. Their business became Vera Bradley, which now sells half a billion dollars worth of handbags, luggage and other accessories a year through 154 company owned stores and more than 3,200 other locations. Baekgaard, who was co-president until 2010 and is still involved in the design process of the colorful bags, named the business after her mother, a former Elizabeth Arden model. As part of estate planning, Baekgaard has put most of her shares in trusts for her family. She is currently a member of the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center Development Board and a board member of the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer.