Rex Maughan was an American businessman. He was the founder, president, and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

Forever Living Products }Forever Living Products was founded in 1980 in Tempe, Arizona by Rex Maughan. The company has reported a network of 9.3 million distributors and revenue of $4 billion in 2021, and in 2006 they reported having 4,100 employees. History Forever Li ...

, supersede by his son Gregg Maughan in the position of CEO. Forever Living is a

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...

company that sells aloe vera and bee hive-based

cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...

and other personal products.

Early life

Maughan was born November 20, 1936, in Logan, Utah. He grew up on a ranch in

Soda Springs, Idaho Soda Springs is a city in Caribou County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 3,058 at the time of the 2010 census. The city has been the county seat of Caribou County since the county was organized in 1919. In the 1860s, Soda Springs serve ...

. He is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

, and served an LDS mission in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

. Rex met and married his wife Ruth while they were both attending

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

(BYU). When Ruth graduated from BYU with a degree in elementary education, she and Rex moved to

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. Ruth taught school while Rex finished his degree at Arizona State University, eventually earning his B.S. in accounting in 1962.

Career

Maughan began investing in land while still working as an accountant in the early 1960s. Later, he joined the

Del E. Webb Construction Company The Del E. Webb Construction Company was a construction company that was founded in 1928 and developed by Del Webb. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, it became the Del E. Webb Corporation a publicly traded company on the New York ...

, and spent the next 13 years there, reaching the position of vice president. Maughan was also adding to his own real estate and ranching investments at this time.

Forever Living Products

Maughan founded

in 1978. The company initially made lotions from the aloe vera plant. The product line has grown and diversified, now encompassing a broad range of other products which are marketed through a

system. Since aloe vera is still a key ingredient in many of Forever Living products, Maughan segued into aloe cultivation and processing. Maughan expanded into the resort business in 1981, under the umbrella of a sister company, Forever Resorts. In 2002 Maughan was listed in the

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is pub ...

as the 368th-richest man in the world, with a net worth of $600 million.

Legal issues

In 1996, upon suggestion of the American authorities, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the

National Tax Agency The is the official tax collecting agency of Japan. As of October 2018, the Commissioner of NTA is Takeshi Fujii. Mission Mission: To enable taxpayers to properly and smoothly fulfill their tax responsibility. To achieve the mission stated abo ...

of Japan (NTA) initiated a joint audit of Rex and Ruth Maughan and related entities Aloe Vera of America (AVA), Selective Art Inc., FLP International, and FLP Japan for the period of 1991 to 1995. In 1997, the NTA imposed a penalty tax of ¥3.5 billion on Forever Living's Japan division for concealing income of 7.7 billion yen over the five-year period. Later that year, AVA, Rex and Ruth Maughan, Maughan Holdings, Gene Yamagata, and Yamagata Holdings sued the IRS for unauthorized disclosure of tax return information. In the midst of the lawsuit, The IRS asked the NTA to drop its decision against Forever Living, and in 2002, the agency "grudgingly complied with the IRS's request", announcing that the penalty tax had been effectively withdrawn. In February 2015, a USA district court ruled that the IRS knowingly provided some false information about AVA to the NTA, in violation of the United States' tax treaty with Japan. and awarded three of the plaintiffs one thousand dollars each in statutory damages. In 2002, the Arizona Supreme Court reversed the findings of lower courts in a case in which Rex Maughan was accused of terminating an employee because the employee refused to sell a piece of land to Maughan.

Personal life

Maughan and his wife have three children and 12 grandchildren.

Activism

Vailima, Samoa Vailima is the name of a village about four miles south of Apia, the capital of Samoa. The population is 769. Vailima is part of the electoral political district Tuamasaga. Origins The name Vailima means "water in the hand", according to an old ...

, Maughan has contributed to the preservation of author

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's estate, making it into a museum. In early 2005 Maughan accompanied a

BYU Television BYU TV (stylized as BYUtv) is a television channel, founded in 2000, which is owned and operated as a part of Brigham Young University (BYU). The channel, available through cable and satellite distributors in the United States, produces a number ...

team to American Samoa to coordinate installation of a satellite receiver he had donated. Maughan has financially supported various political campaigns, including Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 bids for the U.S. Presidency.

Recognition

Maughan was made an honorary member of the Order of Merit of Samoa in the 2014 Samoa Honours and Awards. .

Notes

External links

Forever Living Products
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maughan, Rex Living people American real estate businesspeople Latter Day Saints from Arizona American philanthropists Brigham Young University alumni W. P. Carey School of Business alumni People associated with direct selling 1936 births Forever Living Products American Mormon missionaries in Samoa People from Soda Springs, Idaho Latter Day Saints from Idaho Latter Day Saints from Utah Honorary Members of the Order of Merit of Samoa