Karen McGhee is a straight forward, keep-it-simple woman. Only a few solutions elude her investigative eye. The solutions oriented, native North Carolinian offers precisely what one might expect from someone educated and experienced as a top-flight electrical engineer.
She paired a Bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, with a Master’s in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and sparked a solid career. With two degrees, a focused mindset and a personable, assertive personality, Karen McGhee rose swiftly at Bell Labs/Lucent. In 15 years, she moved from chip and board design to subsystem and on to system architecture design.
After a while corporate life began to pinch around the edges. McGhee was ripe for a change. “I’m a people person. The issue, especially after I moved into management, was that I never got to talk to the end customer. In engineering, we never knew if what we were giving them what they wanted. We knew we were affecting lives, but five or 10 years down the road.”
She paired a Bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, with a Master’s in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and sparked a solid career. With two degrees, a focused mindset and a personable, assertive personality, Karen McGhee rose swiftly at Bell Labs/Lucent. In 15 years, she moved from chip and board design to subsystem and on to system architecture design.
After a while corporate life began to pinch around the edges. McGhee was ripe for a change. “I’m a people person. The issue, especially after I moved into management, was that I never got to talk to the end customer. In engineering, we never knew if what we were giving them what they wanted. We knew we were affecting lives, but five or 10 years down the road.”
In 2001, she took a wide right turn when she and her best friend decided to create a film production company. As chief operations officer McGhee formulated the Glory Filmworks, Inc. business plan, and her friend, chief executive officer Sandra Hodge, took charge of development and production. The co-owners explained that their goal was to bring their own brand fun, faith and courage to filmmaking.
“Karen is a steady Eddie; very laid back and consistent,” Hodge says. “She was in the Glory partnership because of the faith-based nature of the stories we sought to tell, but she found her true niche when she yielded to the call to go back to school and study divinity. She was passionate about divinity school.”
After stepping back from filmmaking, McGhee made a left turn and headed for Vanderbilt University. She bloomed even more as she earned her Master of Divinity degree. At Vanderbilt, the devout Christian faith planted within by her southern heritage began to flourish. “For me church is meeting people where they are, and where Whole Baked Goodness comes in,” she says, “in terms of mission and ministry is the 360 degree picture that is all about connection with people. Giving people the best product requires using the best ingredients and having the best process and people in place to get the finished product out. Through our products and process we connect with other people.”
"Bread for Every Home"
WBG invests in a micro-financing group. Its contributions help third world grain farmers participate in the local agriculture economy and thereby increase the financial independence of the farmers. Churches “seldom look at the plight of the poor people they help through charity with the aim of helping the people raise their level of living. In my mind, it’s too often ‘Lord, those poor people.’ No. Those poor people need access to their economy. It not only behooves the poor to assist us in helping them to become established in their economy, it helps us,” the entrepreneur says.
Karen McGhee stands at five-foot-seven. Her skin tone resembles heavily creamed coffee, and she eats nutritious foods in an effort to keep her skin clear and smooth. Lactose intolerance and allergies also encourage her to pay attention to what she eats. Beyond those concerns, McGhee has a love affair with food. It began when at age five she received an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. Ever since, she has been researching, creating and testing recipes, not only the ingredients for food, but also those for life.
At Whole Baked Goodness, “Bread for every home,” is more than a company motto. It is a mission and a ministry with the right ingredients to accomplish what the company has set out to do. Karen McGhee’s recipe for success is this: “Have relationship with whatever you believe your Higher Power to be. Add the purpose that you believe you are destined to fulfill. Have enough faith to walk out what you feel you are called to do; regardless of what it looks like in the natural. If you have a vision, then keep the faith and walk toward that vision no matter what.”
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