After Barbara Rackes’ business beginnings in the women’s apparel industry, she built several technology companies before launching The Rackes Group. Her e-business ventures follow twenty successful years in traditional brick and mortar retail during which she built a $10 million company doing business in three southeastern cities and employing more than 100 people.

Mrs. Rackes has been honored by the US Small Business Administration as the Small Business Person of the Year for both the State of South Carolina and the 10-state southeastern region after first being named Small Business Person of the Year by the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, the National Retail Federation honored her as the National Independent Retailer of the Year. Mrs. Rackes has received numerous other awards including the US Chamber of Commerce Blue Chip Award for Business Excellence. In 2011, the Palmetto Center for Women honored her with the TWIN Award for Entrepreneurship.

A serial entrepreneur, Mrs. Rackes was one of the founders of the Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics, a non-profit organization formed to encourage and train women to run for office. In 2016, she joined with other leading women to establish another non-profit, the South Carolina Women’s Leadership Network dba, SC Women in Leadership (SC WIL). Its mission is to encourage women to step up and lead corporations, boards, and governments. In 2019, SC WIL took on additional missions of collaborating with other organizations to ensure fair voting, fill the pipelines with good candidates, and reduce polarization as women are so capable of doing.

Mrs. Rackes was selected in 2019 as one of 25 “Women of Influence” by the Columbia Regional Business Report. Honored by many recognitions, she sees her prominence as an example to others of what they can achieve with hard work and a clear vision. She also notes that the best leaders evolve with time and new information. An active contributor to her community, Mrs. Rackes has chaired or served on many local, state and national boards including the Small Business Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the University of South Carolina Educational and Research Foundation Boards, Claflin College Business Board, the Palmetto Health Foundation Board of Directors, the Central Carolina Community Foundation Board, One Columbia for Arts and Historic Preservation, Famously Hot New Year, and the Governor’s Commission for Management, Accountability, and Performance.