Full Name
Kristen Hadeed
Job Title
Leadership Thought Leader, Entrepreneur, and Author of "Permission To Screw Up"
Speaker Bio

Kristen Hadeed believes that authentic, human leadership can change the world. 

At 19, with hardly any leadership experience, Kristen started a cleaning business called Student Maid. She never expected it to be her career; it was simply a way to earn money while she was in college. But before she graduated, her company received a contract to clean hundreds of apartments—and that changed her path forever. Kristen hired a team of 60 people to help her. Within days, 75% of them quit. That’s when Kristen’s obsession with learning how to lead began. 

Over the next 14 years, Kristen learned a lot by screwing up. Most importantly, she learned how to lead from her heart. Doing so helped her take Student Maid from a small cleaning company to one that is world-renowned for its culture of belonging, its focus on people, and its purpose of building leaders. 

Today, Kristen spends her time helping leaders, teams, and organizations around the globe embrace their humanity, all while keeping one crucial purpose in mind: to build abetter world through courageous, compassionate leadership. 

Kristen’s work has been featured in news outlets including PBS, NBC, TIME, Forbes and FOX, Inc. Her book, Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong, has sold more than 40,000 copies worldwide and her first TED Talk has more than three million views on YouTube. 

Kristen Hadeed