Harvey Mackay

Harvey Mackay (born 1932) is a businessman, author and syndicated columnist with Universal Uclick. His weekly column gives career and inspirational advice and is featured in over 100 newspapers. Mackay has authored seven New York Times bestselling books, including three number one bestsellers. He is also a member of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award for Excellence Hall of Fame.

Harvey Mackay was born in 1932 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Jack and Myrtle Mackay and is the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants. His father, an Associated Press correspondent, headed AP’s Saint Paul office for 35 years. His mother was a substitute schoolteacher. Mackay held jobs from an early age, including selling magazines door-to-door, delivering papers, shoveling snow, and cutting grass. While in high school, Mackay clerked in a men’s store during the week and worked as a golf caddy on the weekends.

Mackay graduated from Central High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1950. In 1954, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where he also lettered in golf. He graduated from the Stanford University Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1968.

Following his graduation from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Mackay became an envelope salesperson for Quality Park Envelop Company. He also joined Minneapolis’ Oak Ridge Country Club, where he played golf with area businessmen. Mackay became the number one salesperson at Quality Park utilizing the connections he made at the country club. In 1959, he used the proceeds from Quality Park to purchase an insolvent envelope manufacturer with 12 employees.

From 1977–1981, Mackay chaired Minnesota’s Stadium Task Force, which lobbied for the building of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. In 1984, Mackay and other Twin Cities business leaders purchased thousands of Minnesota Twins tickets to block owner Calvin Griffiths from selling the team to outside investors and relocating it.

In 1985, the Mackay Envelope Company introduced the Photopak, an envelope that holds processed photo prints, and became an industry leader for this product. The company created the MackayMitchell Photopak division, privately owned by Harvey Mackay and Scott Mitchell, and today is the largest North American supplier of photo envelopes. In 2002, MackayMitchell Photopak purchased the photopackaging division of Mailwell Envelope. MackayMitchell Envelope Company employs 500 employees, produces 25 million envelopes a day with sales of $100 million.

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