Climate Change Interviews

Interview with Mitzi Perdue, Businesswoman, Philanthropist & Advocate

November 22, 2021

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Today I am joined by Mitzi Perdue, a businesswoman (Perdue Chicken, Sheraton Hotels, CERES Farms), philanthropist, and anti-human trafficking advocate.

Mitzi Perdue is the daughter of one family business titan (her father founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain) and the widow of another, (her late husband was the family business poultry magnate, Frank Perdue), and she is also a businesswoman in her own right. She started the family wine grape business, now one of the larger suppliers of wine grapes in California. Mitzi likes nothing better than to share insider tips for successful family businesses. Her family of origin (the one that started the Sheraton Hotels) began with the family business, Henderson Estate Company, in 1840, and her Perdue family started in 1920 in the poultry business. These two families have a combined tradition of 276 years of staying together as a family. Mitzi is happy to share actionable advice on how they created and maintained their family businesses.

Mitzi Perdue holds a BA with honors from Harvard University and an MPA from George Washington University.

She is a past president of the 40,000-member American Agri-Women and was one of the U.S. Delegates to the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi. She’s also a former syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard and her column, The Environment and You, was the most widely-syndicated environmental column in the country. Her television series, Country Magazine, was syndicated to 76 stations.

Mitzi combines the vast experiences of three long-time family businesses. Her father Ernest Henderson co-founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain and her late husband Frank Perdue was the second generation in the poultry company that today operates in more than 50 countries. She’s the founder of CERES Farms, the now second-generation family-owned vineyards that sell wine grapes to wineries such as Mondavi, Kendall Jackson, Bogle, Folie a Deux, and Toasted Head.

She became part of anti-human trafficking efforts after hearing a talk on how we can rescue and rehabilitate victims of trafficking. She wanted to make a serious donation to help, but realized that would mean cutting back on other charities she was committed to. As she sat in the audience, she asked herself, “What charity could I cut back on?”

But then she had an idea. She could raise money by auctioning something she owned, a 17th century De Medici desk, and she could donate the proceeds to anti-trafficking efforts.

That was the beginning of Win This Fight. Today many dozens of others who care about human trafficking will be converting high-value tangible assets into cash through an anti-trafficking auction at Sotheby’s in January of 2021. They get to determine which anti-trafficking charity benefits from their donation.

Mitzi is the author of more than 1600 newspaper and magazine articles on topics including family businesses, philanthropy, biotechnology, genetic engineering and women’s health. She has written several books and most recently, co-authored with Mark Victor Hansen the book, How to Be Up in Down Times: 40 Tips for Surviving and Thriving During the Pandemic.