How Did I Get Here?

Rick Goings

Chairman and chief executive officer, Tupperware Brands
  • Education
  • Wheaton Community High School, Wheaton, Ill., class of 1963
  • Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C., class of 1970
  • Work Experience
  • 1964–66
    Petty officer on the USS Power, U.S. Navy
  • 1967–70
    Reserve petty officer, U.S. Navy
  • 1970–85
    CEO, president, Dynamics
  • 1986–88
    President, Avon Germany, group vice president, Avon Products
  • 1988–89
    Senior operating officer, Pacific Rim, Avon Products
  • 1989–92
    President, Avon USA, Avon Products
  • 1992–96
    President, Tupperware Worldwide, Premark International
  • 1996–97
    President, Tupperware Brands
  • 1997–Present
    Chairman and CEO, Tupperware Brands
  • Life Lessons
  • “Your whole life should be a quest to be the best version of yourself.”
    Tweet this
  • “Skills and savvy get you to the top, but character’s what keeps you there.”
    Tweet this
  • “Gender parity isn’t checking a box. It’s good for business.”
    Tweet this
  • “The two people who make it famous are Bob Woodward, who’s a friend, and John Belushi, who was a student council member and a serious football player.”
  • Speaking at Tupperware’s global headquarters in 1994
  • “We sold smoke and heat detectors, two for $200, and opened 300 franchises. It worked for about 15 years, until you could buy a $12 device at Sears.”
  • “My grandmother was Jewish, and I woke up one day to find I was running a $100 million German business.”
  • Joined the board of Boys & Girls Clubs of America in 1989 and has served as chairman twice
  • Tupperware was spun off from Premark in 1996
  • In the Tupperware headquarters gallery in Orlando—the only store in the U.S. where its products can be purchased
  • “Eighty-five percent of our product was in food storage, and the challenge was to differentiate: We’re now the No. 1 seller of cookbooks in France. One-third of our China business is in water filtration.”
  • Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation
    “I did a history major and a religious studies minor—I’ve done Transcendental Meditation since I was 25.”
  • “Active duty. We did refresher training every spring in Guantanamo Bay, and we’d go out every morning and chase Russian submarines.”
  • “I got called to be No. 2. It was thought I was going to be the next chairman, but I said to the CEO, ‘Jim, we sure seem to have a lot of disagreements. Would you rather I not be here?’ He said yes. I got a generous severance.”
  • “I had lots of offers. I’d had a fairly rapid rise, spoke French and German, and had worked in Europe and Asia.”
  • There’s a Tupperware party every 1.3 seconds
  • With Colin Powell at a Boys & Girls Clubs of America event in 2008