B.I.Y.A.Y.C.D.A.'s Mahouwald Dies at 44
Jeff Mahouwald, vice president of Los Angeles–based misses apparel maker B.I.Y.A.Y.C.D.A. (which stands for Believe In Yourself And You Can Do Anything), died on Nov. 13 from a massive heart attack, the company said. He was 44.
Mahouwald lived in Redondo Beach, Calif., with his wife, Lisa Minardo, who is the president and founder of B.I.Y.A.Y.C.D.A. He was on business in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, at the time of his death.
Mahouwald’s death came as a shock to many of his close friends, who said he had been an avid triathlete who had won first place at the Ironman California competition in 2001.
Before working with B.I.Y.A.Y.C.D.A., Mahouwald spent 13 years in the medical industry, first as a sales representative at Allergan Inc. and then as a district manager of sales at Boehringer Mannheim.
He graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in business in 1982. Later that year, he married Minardo, who was then a department store sportswear buyer. The two resided in Phoenix for several years before moving to the West Coast and opening B.I.Y.A.Y.C.D.A. in 1995.
“He was just going to help me open the company and then go back to work in the medical field, but he loved the apparel industry so much that he decided to stay,” Minardo said.
A service was held on Nov. 21 at St. Lawrence Martyr Church in Redondo Beach. Mahouwald is survived by Minardo, five children and four guardian children. —Claudia Figueroa
