Bill Guthy

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Biographical Information

Mr. Bill Guthy, Founding Principal and Co-Chairman of Guthy Renker, along with co-founder Greg Renker. "In 1981, Guthy purchased a home for weekend retreats in Indian Wells, California and began a friendship with Greg Renker, whose family owned the resort. Both men realized they shared a love of motivational books, in particular Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.” Guthy himself was well on his way to financial success, his cassette duplication business flourishing. CPU, now owned by Guthy-Renker, was renamed Guthy Renker Fulfillment Services (GRFS) at the beginning of 2011. It currently employees around 650 people with more than 400,000 square feet of fulfillment distribution and call center space with three locations in CA, LA and NC.

"An explosion of growth occurred in 1984 when real estate mogul Paul Simon gave Guthy’s company an unusually large order-to duplicate 120,000 audio cassettes. The purpose sparked Guthy’s interest. Simon was running an infomercial on cable stations advertising cassettes of his real estate course. Guthy soon realized, “If I could start my own infomercial company, I could be my own best customer.”

"In 1986, having stayed in touch with Renker by swapping ideas, Guthy recognized the time was ripe to enter the burgeoning infomercial business. It took little time to identify their first product, “Think and Grow Rich.” Acquiring the rights to the book and the author’s lectures for an audiotape series, they hired football star Fran Tarkenton as their first pitch man. “Think and Grow Rich” grossed nearly $10 million, leading Guthy and Renker to their next project with motivational speaker and best-selling author, Tony Robbins.

"During the production of Robbins’ Personal Power, Guthy-Renker was spun off from CPU and officially formed on November 1, 1988. Following such early successes as Personal Power¨ and Principal Secret¨, a skin care program with partner Victoria Principal, Guthy-Renker produced such programs as the “Power Trainer¨ Exercise Machine” starring Bruce and Kris Jenner; Perfect Smile¨, a teeth whitening system with Vanna White; Proactiv¨ Solution acne treatment with Judith Light; and the Power Rider¨ exerciser with Fran Tarkenton..."