Horst Rechelbacher

Horst Rechelbacher's Key Accomplishments Include . . .
An Austrian by birth, and son of an herbalist, Horst M. Rechelbacher is an active environmentalist, innovative business leader, author, artist and organic farmer. At age fourteen, Horst began a three-year apprenticeship in the beauty and salon industry.  With an award-winning career as a hairstylist, in 1965, he started his own salons and eponymous product line called Horst.  In 1978, Horst Rechelbacher founded Aveda Corporation, a global plant-based cosmetic company.  Nearly two decades later, he sold Aveda to Estee Lauder but remained a consultant until March 2003.  Afterwards, Horst rechelbacher focused on his new product paradigm, Intelligent Nutrients, a health and beauty product company, utilizing 100% food-based and organic certified ingredients.

Since the mid 1960’s, Horst Rechelbacher dedicated himself to analyzing the chemical constitution of plants, and pioneered flower and plant-based flavor-aroma-therapy, functional foods, and nutraceuticals to enhance personal health and wellbeing.  He is the recipient of a honoris causa doctorate in Ayurveda from Gurukul Mahavidyalaya Twalapur, Haridwar University, India.  In his continuing study of plant-based medicine, Horst Rechelbacher collaborates with noted physicians, chemists and pharmacologists, as well as with experts and traditional healers throughout the world.

Horst Rechelbacher has authored four books, Rejuvenation, Aveda Rituals, Alivelihood, and Minding Your Business: Profits That Restore the Planet.  He was an executive producer on Hidden Medicine, an independent film that premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Horst Rechelbacher is founder and chairman of his own philanthropic organization dedicated to social and environmental preservation projects that operate on a grass-roots level. He continues to promote sustainable ideals and values through profit and non-profit organizations alike, and through sustainable development and constructive environmental practices.

More About Horst Rechelbacher . . .
Horst was voted one of the “Most Notable Austrians Living in America” by the Austrian press, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wolfgang Puck.  Vanity Fair magazine voted Horst as one of the “most influential environmentalists in the U.S.” in 1995 and again in 2005.  Horst Rechelbacher is one of the three original founders of Business for Social Responsibility, which promotes the idea that businesses have the greatest responsibility and opportunity to provide sustainability to all living species.  In 2004, he became a founding member of the Organic Center for Education, Research and Promotion, and the beauty industry awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award.  In 2007, the International Congress of Esthetics and Spa presented Horst Rechelbacher with the Crystal Award, and he received the Rachel Carson Award for a Lifetime Commitment to Environmental Ethics & Integrity.  Later that year, the Spa & Salon Professional Association Incorporated honored him as an Industry Innovator & Legend for his lifetime contribution to the cosmetology industry.  The Twin Cities Business Magazine inducted Horst Rechelbacher into their 2008 Minnesota Business Hall of Fame, acknowledging his contributions and recognizing him as one of the states’ most accomplished business leaders of all time.