Bio Sketch: Jean Bartell Barber, Vice Chairman

Jean Bartell Barber, Vice Chairman and Treasurer
Bartell Drugs

SEATTLE--With more than 25 years of experience in banking and finance and the financial affairs of Bartell Drugs, Jean Bartell Barber is the Vice Chairman and Treasurer at the helm of the family-owned company, the nation’s oldest drugstore chain.

Granddaughter of the company’s founder, George H. Bartell, Sr., Barber works alongside her older brother, George D. Bartell (CEO and Chairman). Together they represent the third generation of the Bartell family to actively run the 122-year-old business.

Her areas of responsibility include finance, risk management, administration, human resources, and strategic planning. Barber has also spearheaded the Executive Training Program at Bartell Drugs, which trains employees for executive level positions within the company. Jean is a past recipient of the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “Women of Influence Award” and co-Chair of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition Blue Ribbon Task Force for the City of Seattle.

Prior to becoming Vice Chairman, Jean Bartell Barber was CFO of the company for nine years and spent an additional six years dealing primarily with risk management, property/casualty insurance and computer management. She began her career as a teenager, as her brother and father did before her, learning about the family business by taking store inventories and working at the chain’s old “Triangle store” in downtown Seattle as a cashier clerk. She also worked as a bookkeeper at the office during college.

After graduating magna cum laude from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration, Barber worked as a loan officer at Seafirst Bank (later acquired by Bank of America) in correspondent banking. She rejoined Seafirst Bank in their asset/liability management department after graduating with distinction from The Wharton School’s MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania. She went on to become assistant vice president of the balance sheet management department at NCNB (later renamed Nations Bank) and the treasurer of a home building business in North Carolina before moving back to Seattle to continue her involvement in the family business.

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Media Contacts

Theron Andrews, V.P. of Marketing,
Bartell Drugs, 206.763.2626

Barry Bartlett
Bartlett Group Public Relations,
206.335.4694, barry@bartlettgrouppr.com