Ellen Bennett

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Founder & CEO, Hedley & Bennett

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Ellen Bennett: Biography at a Glance

  • Ellen Bennett is the founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett, a Los Angeles based apron and work wear company.
  • Ellen started the company at 25 with only $300 while working as a line cook at a 2 Michelin star restaurant in LA, after realizing the drab, disposable aprons that served as their uniforms needed a major upgrade.
  • Hedley & Bennett now outfits some of the most prominent chefs and makers in the world, and is sold in William Sonoma, Sur La Table and Whole Foods and can be seen on Food Network, Bravo, and more.
  • Her acclaimed memoir Dream First, Details Later serves as a playbook for pursuing your dreams before you stop yourself.
  • With a 90% female work force as well as a female owned business, Hedley & Bennett has been featured in Fast Company, Inc. Magazine and on the Today Show and MSNBC as an American success story

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Biography

Growing up, Ellen Bennett, the founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett, the leading Los Angeles based culinary workwear brand, found herself spending summers in her native Mexico learning to cook with her abuelita. Soon after graduating high school, Ellen found herself back in Mexico City attending culinary school where she would rekindle the joys of her summer cooking adventures while learning the skills needed to tackle the hustle of the professional kitchen. Back in L.A. she put her training to work cooking in two Michelin Star restaurants, Providence and Baco Mercat. It was during this time working on the line that she experienced a “uniform” that was not aligned with the creativity and confidence found in the kitchen. This led to the vision for Hedley & Bennett; make the best aprons in the world by marrying the needs of professional chefs with the design trends for today's discerning consumers. 

Today, Hedley & Bennett make more than aprons, but culinary workwear and gear that outfits over 6,000 restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, resorts and hundreds of thousands of home cooks all over the world. This evolution has also led to creative, out-of-the-box collaborations with brands such as Vans, Madewell, Parachute Home, Rifle Paper Co., Product (RED) and more. Most recently, she pivoted the resources of her company during the global COVID-19 pandemic to make masks to meet the needs of both professionals and consumers while donating over 200k masks to front line workers. Ellen and the Hedley & Bennett story has been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, Inc., Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart, the Today Show and more. Her acclaimed memoir Dream First, Details Later: How to Quit Overthinking & Make It Happen! serves as a playbook for pursuing your dreams before you stop yourself. Ellen lives in Echo Park with her husband Casey, their pet pig Oliver, and six chickens. 

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How Innovation and Ingenuity Are Addressing the Fast-Changing Needs of Customersarrow-down

As businesses find a new normal in the wake of societal and technology shifts, business owners are also adapting to form new, different, and stronger relationships with their customers. Today’s consumers are looking for companies they can relate to, rely on, and rally behind and that requires a more personalized, seamless, and meaningful experience at every touchpoint. Learn how to lean into innovation to level up the customer experience, and how to build stronger bonds and deeper loyalties with your customer base.

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