Linda Bean

Linda Bean
Born Linda Lorraine Bean
1941 (age 73–74)
Maine
Nationality USA
Alma mater Alaska Methodist University (Ecology, 1965-1966)
Antioch College (B.A., Business Administration, 1963)
Occupation businesswoman, political candidate
Known for owner of Linda Bean's Perfect Maine restaurants [1]
Relatives Leon Leonwood Bean, founder of L.L.Bean (grandfather)

Linda Lorraine Bean (born 1941) is a Maine businessperson, political donor and former political candidate with the Republican Party. She ran for the United States Congress in 1988 (lost the Republican Party primary) and 1992 (won primary but lost to incumbent Thomas Andrews). She is the granddaughter of Leon Leonwood Bean and an heiress to the L.L.Bean company. She is also a well-known donor to conservative Republican causes.

Business

Bean is a significant owner of LL Bean and serves on its Board of Directors. Bean is also heavily invested in the Maine lobster business, which she entered in 2007 at the age of 66. She started with the purchase of 400,000 pounds of lobsters off the boats of Maine licensed fishermen, then grading and shipping them, and also processing Maine lobster, shrimp and crab for wholesale and retail food markets. Starting with one wharf in Port Clyde in 2007, she added each year to purchase other lobster buying wharves in Tenants Harbor and on the island of Vinalhaven and has now expanded her buying downeast to an annual total purchase of over 9 million pounds (2014 season). She took the lead with John Hathaway, in whose Shucks Maine Lobster business with an HPP processing method she is also invested, in achieving sustainability certification for the entire Maine coast trap lobster fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council as announced by its founder Rupert Howes and by Maine Governor Paul LePage on March 10, 2013 at the International Boston Seafood Show. She is also a business figure in western Maine timberland ownership and management, including a new initiative with maple syrup producing sugarbushes in Weld and Wyman, Maine. Other initiatives include Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Vacation Rentals that operates along the Maine coast from Freeport to Mount Desert Island, Linda Bean's Maine Wyeth Gallery in Port Clyde, and Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Weddings at locations in Maine's midcoast, the Mount Katahdin area, and Webb Lake in Weld near Tumbledown Mountain. She own's Linda Bean's Maine Camps LLC, which operates a 100-year-old sporting camp for hunters and fishermen : Camp Wapiti at Patten, Maine, 20 minutes from the north entrance to Baxter State Park and Mount Katahdin, Maine's highest mountain.

Her own brand name enterprises, Linda Bean's Perfect Maine, encompass not only her vertically integrated lobster business but also her ownership of two traditional Maine general stores in St. George, Maine, Wyeths by Water art tours from her lobster boat "Linderin Losh" in Port Clyde, the Seaside Inn and Barn Cafe in Port Clyde, the historic Ocean House and Dining Room in Port Clyde, and restaurants that feature her grandfather's camp recipes and her own Perfect Maine® lobster roll that has sold over 2 million since she introduced it in 2008 with a dusting of her own secret herbs blend. In 2015 her payroll employs some 250 Maine people and, additionally, she issues weekly checks to several hundred Maine fishermen who sell to her off their day boats. The Portland International Airport features a Linda Bean's Maine Lobster Cafe with over 80 seats and a full lounge bar.[2] In 2014 she opened Linda Bean's Maine Lobster Boat Cafe in the Maine Mall at South Portland. Her brand images center on Maine harbors with lobster boats and local fishermen. Her largest Maine restaurant, a 3-story operation open 7 days a week year-round with three shifts, is Linda Bean's Maine Kitchen & Topside Tavern located across from the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport, Maine, the original site of a tavern built there in 1790.[3] On September 27, 2010, Bean purchased the original tavern location from a retired fellow Freeport native George Denney, who started his career in her grandfather's store and went on to purchase a little known Freeport shoe company brand, Cole Haan, that he sold to Nike.[4]

Bean has served as a trustee of the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Maine Historical Society, the Portland Museum of Art, and in 2014 was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Brandywine Conservancy and American Art Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Bean's business dealings have not been without controversy. She has argued for more processing in Maine rather than in Canada, where more than half of Maine's lobsters currently go for processing and sale by other companies to the U.S. and elsewhere.[5] That worries some of possible damage to relationships with Canadian businesses.[6] An undercover video taken by PETA allegedly at one of the Maine Lobster processing plants showed workers ripping limbs off live lobsters, raising questions of animal cruelty.[7] A lawyer for Bean told the Portland Press Herald that "Our practices do not violate Maine's laws on cruelty to animals because lobsters do not come within the covered definition."[8]

Politics

Bean twice (1988 and 1992) sought to become the U.S. Congresswoman from Maine's 1st congressional district. She was unable to win the seat in either election.

1988

In 1988, Bean sought the Republican nomination for the United State House of Representatives in Washington to challenge incumbent former Maine Governor Joseph Brennan. She ran under her married named of Linda Bean Jones. She outspent her opponent, Edward S. O'Meara, by $395,000 but narrowly lost.[9] However, O'Meara subsequently lost to Brennan in the general election.

1992

Bean ran again in 1992 for the Republican nomination, this time to challenge incumbent Democrat Thomas Andrews. She won the nomination but lost 65% to 35% in the general election.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Quimby, Beth, "SAME NAME, SAME BUSINESS SAVVY: Bean's lobster business on roll", Kennebec Journal, December 12, 2010
  2. ↑ Linda Bean rolls out her lobster franchise Boston Globe, July 1, 2009
  3. ↑ Lobster Roll With That Anorak? New York Times, October 6, 2009
  4. ↑ Linda Bean buying key Freeport property Portland Press Herald, September 27, 2010
  5. ↑ Kriter Rollins, "Linda Bean Heats Up Lobster World," WCHS6 16 November 2011.
  6. ↑ Abby Goodnough,"Lobster Roll with that Anorak?" The New York Times 6 October 2009.
  7. ↑ Stephen Smith, "PETA: Video Shows Illegal Lobster Killing Method at Major Maine Seafood Plant," CBSNews, 20 September 2013.
  8. ↑ Eric Russell, "Maine Denies PETA Claim of Cruel Lobster 'Kills'" Portland Press Herald, 18 September 2013.
  9. ↑ POLITICS '88 North Dakota Voters Again Reject Lottery Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1988
  10. ↑ Heiress to L.L. Bean Champions Conservatism in Race for Congress New York Times, July 24, 1992

External links

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