Carolyn Kinder

Founder @Carolyn Kinder International

Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL, US

Carolyn Kinder was born with an innate sense of artistic wonderment and curiosity.She is an artist and visionary, a teacher and entrepreneur, a traveler and a successful businesswoman. In 1970, she launched a career that has spanned more than four decades. She began humbly, a painter and art teacher who had the entrepreneurial vision to open a shop and create marvelous frames and mats for her students and other artists. Soon after, she began creating and producing an expansive line of lighting and home fashion accessories.In 1974, she partnered with Virgil Harris to found Kinder-Harris, a design firm that JCPenney acquired in 1987.She continued evolving and building a reputation for designing, producing, marketing and licensing distinctive home furnishings for a wide range of wholesalers, traditional retailers, contemporary galleries and high-end interior design firms.Her trend-less, timeless, well-traveled style has made her a legend in the industry, respected for her sense of style, artistic genius, creative finishes and techniques, international connections and entrepreneurial vision.In 1992, she founded Carolyn Kinder, Inc, and continued to expand her product line and her reach. By 2002, she had become an international presence and established Carolyn Kinder International as a multi-dimensional company focused on sourcing and design development. Today, the growing company has offices and showrooms in the U.S. and Asia.