Jennifer Hyman

Jennifer Hyman is the CEO and co-founder of Rent the Runway, a company focused on the renting of high-end clothing and accessories.

Jennifer Hyman
Hyman (2015)
BornAugust 24th, 1980
EducationHarvard University (BA, MBA)
Occupation(s)Cofounder and CEO, Rent The Runway

Early life and education

Jennifer Hyman grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended New Rochelle High School. She received her BA in social sciences from Harvard University in 2002.[1]

She later attended Harvard Business School, where she met co-founder of Rent the Runway Jennifer Fleiss, and graduated with an MBA in 2009.[2]

Career

In November 2008, Hyman first had the idea for Rent the Runway after witnessing her sister agonize over and drop thousands of dollars on a dress for a wedding, only to wear it once.[3] Hyman says; "I realized what she cared about was the experience of walking into a room and feeling like the best version of herself—she didn’t actually care about the ownership of the dress." [4] Hyman co-founded Rent the Runway in 2009.

A highlight in Hyman's career was taking the company public as the 30th women ever to take her company public in history, and being a part of the first company to go public with a female founder/CEO, COO, and CFO.[5]

Hyman participates in national conferences and panel discussions regarding topics covering the economy, women in business and company culture. Some of her past speaking engagements include NRF Foundation's "Retail’s Big Show"[6] WWD's Digital Forum[7] and the 99U Conference.[8]

Hyman has spoken out publicly against sexual harassment in the tech industry and went public with her own experience on CNBC's Squawk Alley in July 2017.[9]

In May 2018, Hyman published a New York Times op-ed titled "Treating Workers Fairly at Rent the Runway," in which she announced that the company would equalize benefits across its salaried and hourly employees. RTR team members in the company's warehouse and stores and on its customer service team receive the same parental leave, family sick leave, bereavement leave and sabbatical packages as the company's corporate employees.[10]

Hyman serves on the Board of Directors of the Estée Lauder Companies,[11] and on the Women.nyc Advisory Board.[12]

Honors

Hyman was listed in Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40 in 2012.[13] Hyman was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2019.[14]

References
  1. "HuffPost". HuffPost. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  2. Persad, Michelle (2015-12-16). "How Two Harvard Grads Made It Possible To Rent The Runway". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  3. Wortham, Jenna (2009-11-09). "A Netflix Model For Haute Couture". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  4. "How Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman Built a 'Willy Wonka Land of Fashion'". ELLE. 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  5. "How Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman Built a 'Willy Wonka Land of Fashion'". ELLE. 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  6. Davis, Ellen, "In their own words: Highlights from Retail's BIG Show Student Program 2013" Archived 2013-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, "Retail's BIG Blog", February 19, 2013
  7. Steigrad, Alexandra, "Making the Right Impression", "WWD", February 14, 2013
  8. "Neil Blumenthal & Jenn Hyman: Why Transparency & Openness Wins", "99U"
  9. Balakrishnan, Anita (2017-07-17). "This start-up CEO says she was harassed — and she's calling on VCs to fix the problem in tech". CNBC. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  10. Hyman, Jennifer Y. (2018-05-06). "Opinion: Treating Workers Fairly at Rent the Runway". The New York Times (editorial). ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  11. "Board of Directors". www.elcompanies.com. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  12. "New women.nyc advisory board enlists dynamic NYC leaders to further women's economic advancement". women.nyc. Archived from the original on 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  13. "40 Under 40", "Fortune", October 17, 2012 Archived October 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  14. "Jennifer Hyman: The 100 Most Influential People of 2019". TIME. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
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