Bio
Heather Maclean is the Chief Executive Officer of Little Laureate, Inc., a children's educational media company headquartered in Chicago, Ill.
She came fourth on Richard Branson's reality show, The Rebel Billionaire.
Heather began her career at The Walt Disney Company, where she co-created the Disneyland Resort's first Website, www.disneyland.com, and produced the company's first international intranet.
A Spirit of Disneyland Award winner for her Web work, Heather holds the distinction of being the first person to ever answer Mickey Mouse's email.
In her five years with the company, she worked for Guest Relations, Information Management and The Disney University. She was a Disneyland Ambassador to the World Finalist, and for a day during Disney Way I management training, a costumed character.
Heather followed the siren song of the Internet to pre-IPO, e-tailing giant buy.com, where she was the Manager of Web Development. After just three months, she was chosen by billionaire founder Scott Blum to help start a new subsidiary that licensed buy.com's technology to Fortune 500 companies including Compaq, Sony and Sharp.
As the Director of Creative Services, Heather was responsible for the company's brand identity and strategic direction, as well as the development, usability and client integration of dynamic software products.
Heather graduated from Princeton University in 1994 with a degree in Literature.
In college, she was the Publisher of the largest student-run magazine in the world, Business Today, founded by Malcolm Forbes Jr. in 1968.
She traveled from coast-to-coast securing interviews, advertising dollars and donations from business leaders including Rupert Murdoch, Gerald Levin, Steve Jobs and Nike's Phil Knight.
She was an officer of Business Today's parent company, The Foundation for Student Communication, as well as TARGET:education, a mentoring program for elementary students in East Harlem.
She held an internship at Entertainment Weekly magazine in New York for two years, taught SAT prep to local high school students, and led a Girl Scout Troop.
The oldest of eight children, Heather grew up in St. Louis, where she attended Cor Jesu Academy. She was the Missouri winner of the VFW's Voice of Democracy speech writing contest.
Her oration, "Why I Am Proud of America," was entered into the United States Congressional Record in 1990. Consequently, she was invited to attend the Academy of Achievement's Salute to Excellence summit, where she spent the weekend with many of her idols, including Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas and Michael Jordan.
Heather currently resides in Chicago. When not castle hunting in her husband’s native Scotland, she fills her days with her two girls.