Carol Perkins

Carol Perkins (born December 29, 1957) is an American business owner, fashion model and pet product designer who started her own company, Harry Barker, Inc., in 1997. The success of Harry Barker has garnered Perkins national media coverage from CNBC business shows and USA Today to Ladies' Home Journal and O magazines. Perkins had been a Ford Model in the 1980s who went on to star with Penn & Teller in their 1990–91 Broadway hit, "Penn & Teller's Refrigerator Tour". An ordeal with a brain tumor and Cushing's Disease forced her to change direction. Perkins recovered and moved south to start her own pet products company, Harry Barker, named for her Shetland Sheepdog. Perkins is still represented by the Eileen Ford Modeling Agency, but spends most of her time running her multi-million pet products company in Charleston, South Carolina.

Biography

Early life and modeling career Perkins was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, where her father was a high school principal and her mother was a painter. She spent weeks on end at the winter home of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, tumbling and playing with the children of Emmett Kelly and Flying Wallendas. and Pet Product News.

Harry Barker is a privately owned company and does not reveal sales figures, but revenues have doubled in the last five years. The company's products are sold through more than 3,000 retailers around the world. Website sales at HarryBarker.com have doubled every year since 2006. The company also garners attention for its policy in employing adult workers from the Hope Disabilities Center, a community partnership that benefits many in the Charleston area. Every year the New York International Gift Show names Harry Barker or one of its products as “Most Sustainable Products and Practices.”

The product line is regularly expanding, and company sales are expected to keep growing for years to come.

Personal life Perkins dedicates many resources to benefit the Medical University of South Carolina, such as donating a portion of company proceeds to the Children's Hospital. She also raises money to fund the hospital's program for therapy dogs. Perkins has served on the board of the local no-kill animal shelter, Pet Helpers. She is still represented by Ford Models and will travel on assignment from time to time. Her husband, David Rawle, formerly owns a large marketing communications agency in Charleston, Rawle-Murdy Associates. They have two dogs: Harry Barker, of course (Perkins' beloved Shetland sheepdog) and Josephine, an elegant Briard.

Media appearances Women's magazines and home magazines have long raved about Harry Barker and its products. In 2008 and 2009, the business media started catching up. Perkins appeared on multiple segments of CNBC's Big Idea with Donny Deutsch (who reprised what has become a sort of media sobriquet: "Model Gets New Leash on Life"). She also appeared in the business pages of USA Today and newspapers coast to coast through regular Associated Press wire stories on the status of the pet product industry.

Perkins has also appeared on Paula Deen's TV cooking show (the two became friends in Savannah years ago) as well as countless local TV and newspaper interviews around the country.