AVAILABLE NOW
Mrs. Sharp’s authorized biography, Marie Sharp: Made in Belize.
The tome chronicles Sharp’s journey to build the global multi-million empire, Marie Sharp’s Fine Foods, Ltd. Sharp defies odds while breaking through Belize’s male dominated business culture. Shattering boundaries and overcoming the odds, Marie Sharp is a trailblazer whose success story has been waiting to be told.
In this book, you will learn all the things you have wondered about the amazing force behind the world's beloved brand.
ABOUT MARIE SHARP’S FINE FOODS, LTD.
As a woman-owned, women-led business, Marie Sharp’s farm currently employs more than 125 full-time staff, with 85% of her workforce being female. At age 84, Marie proudly relishes her status as the “Queen of Habanero” across Belize and in kitchens around the world. At the start, Marie didn’t set out to become an influencer in the international hot-sauce market. But, her 40-year-long obsession with creating a high-quality habanero pepper sauce blend with her Melinda Estate fresh fruits and vegetables solidified her title. Marie started using habanero peppers from her family’s farm in Stann Creek Valley, Belize, to make hot sauce in the 1980s. Soon, word of mouth spread about the irresistible flavors of her sauces and demand for her products grew. Eventually, she emerged as a renowned Belizean businesswoman. Today, Marie Sharp’s products are sold in more than 30 countries and have received multiple awards for outstanding quality and flavor.
ABOUT DEBORAH WAGNON
Deborah Wagnon is a Stanford Law graduate (Palo Alto, California) with an undergraduate degree in Business from Georgia Tech (Atlanta, Georgia), and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont’s Goddard College. She is an entertainment and IP attorney, and has represented with her various law partners internationally-known clientele including Shakira, Gloria Estefan, Olivia Newton John, and Reba McEntyre.
Wagnon is the mother of Guatemala-born Gianna, now a 22-year-old graduating film production major. After decades in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Nashville as a partner in high-end entertainment industry law firms, both large and boutique, as well as serving as General Counsel of Landmark Entertainment Group, a 400-employee production house for film, theater, TV, and amusement parks around the world, Deborah now divides her time between Savannah, Georgia, on her farm “Finca de la Casita,” and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she is a tenured full Professor of IP and International Law in the College of Media & Entertainment Department of Recording Industry.
Wagnon has owned and practiced via Portia Entertainment Group LLC, specializing in music, film and literary IP since 2007. Wagnon has authored historical fiction, nonfiction, academic textbooks, and now the approved biography of business icon Marie Sharp in Belize, as well as writing the screenplay adaption of her historical fiction novel about the life of one of the first women lawyers in Georgia (Great and Wide Sea a.k.a. Neva Majette). Wagnon is regularly interviewed and published as an expert in high profile entertainment and IP matters (New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal MarketWatch). She is founder of the International Classroom Initiative held at the University of Belize and at Universidad Francisco Marroquin Escuela de Cine (Film) y Artes Visuales in Guatemala City. Since its inception in 2013, the initiative has focused upon the development of creative opportunities for talent in Central America and other developing regions around the world.
