Jennifer Hyman is the CEO and co-founder of

Rent the Runway Rent the Runway is an e-commerce platform that allows users to rent, subscribe, or buy designer apparel and accessories. It was founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, who launched the company in November 2009. History In 2007, Hyman ...

, a company focused on the renting of high-end clothing and accessories.

Early life and education

Jennifer Hyman grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended

New Rochelle High School New Rochelle High School (NRHS) is a public high school in New Rochelle, New York. It is part of the City School District of New Rochelle and is the city's sole public high school. Its student body represents 60 countries from around the world. I ...

. She received her BA in social sciences from Harvard University in 2002. She later attended Harvard Business School, where she met co-founder of Rent the Runway Jennifer Fleiss, and graduated with an MBA in 2009.

Career

In November 2008, Hyman first had the idea for

after witnessing her sister agonize over and drop thousands of dollars on a dress for a wedding, only to wear it once. 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."'' 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 found/CEO, COO, and CFO. 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" WWD's Digital Forum and the 99U Conference. Hyman has spoken out publicly against sexual harassment in the tech industry and went public with her own experience on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

's ''

Squawk Alley ''Squawk Alley'' is an American business news program that aired on CNBC from 11:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m Eastern Time. It premiered on May 19, 2014 and ended on April 9, 2021. It was broadcast live Monday through Friday from a trading-floor set insid ...

'' in July 2017. 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. Hyman serves on the Board of Directors of the Estée Lauder Companies, and on the Women.nyc Advisory Board.

Honors

Hyman was listed in ''Fortune'' magazine's

40 Under 40 ''Fortune'' magazine's 40 Under 40 is a list of individuals the publication considers to be the most influential young leaders for the year. The list has existed in two phases: First, from 1999 to 2003, the list was presented purely as a numeric ...

in 2012. Hyman was named one of

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

magazine's ''100 Most Influential People of 2019''.

References

External links

*
''Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, Founders of Rent the Runway''
on

Maria Shriver Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955) is an American journalist, author, a member of the Kennedy family, former First Lady of California, and the founder of the nonprofit organization The Women's Alzheimer's Movement. She was married to ...

's website
''Mystery Guest: `Rent The Runway' CEO Jennifer Hyman''
on

Bloomberg TV Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is hea ...

How I Built This - Rent the Runway: Jenn Hyman
(NPR podcast) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyman, Jennifer Businesspeople from New York City American fashion businesspeople American women chief executives American technology chief executives Businesspeople from New Rochelle, New York Harvard Business School alumni People from Greenwich Village American women company founders American company founders Living people 21st-century American women 1980 births New Rochelle High School alumni