Founder, Executive Chairwoman, and Chief Creative Officer
Kendra Scott: Biography at a Glance
- Kendra Scott is Executive Chairwoman and Founder of Kendra Scott, LLC, an American fashion and lifestyle brand with over 100 stand-alone retail stores across the United States. Her products are sold internationally in the finest specialty and department stores, as well as online at kendrascott.com
- With just $500, she built the brand into a billion-dollar company spanning fashion jewelry, fine jewelry, home, and beauty.
- Her memoir Born to Shine: Do Good, Find Your Joy, and Build a Life You Love details her journey to becoming a self-made billionaire while also building a life rooted in joy, purpose, and doing good.
- An active philanthropist with a history of supporting women and children’s causes, the company has given back over $40 million to local, national, and international causes.
- Kendra was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame and awarded Texas Businesswoman of the Year by the Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
- She was listed by Forbes as one of America's Richest Self-Made Women and named among the Top 100 Entrepreneurs of the Year by Upstart Business Journal.
- Other awards include the EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Award, the Breakthrough Award from the Accessories Council Excellence Awards, Outstanding Mother of the Year by the Mother’s Day Council, and Best CEO by Austin Business Journal.
Media
KendraScott.comForbes: "How Kendra Scott Built A Billion-Dollar Jewelry Company"Forbes: "Jewelry Mogul Kendra Scott Joins America's Richest Self-Made Women List...Success: "Meet Kendra Scott, Homemade Millionaire"Harper's Bazaar: "Kendra Scott: What it really means to be self-made"Book: Born to Shine: Do Good, Find Your Joy, and Build a Life You Love
Videos
Biography
Designer, founder, and philanthropist Kendra Scott started her company with only $500 in 2002, just three months after her first son was born. Going door-to-door to Austin boutiques armed only with a tea box full of her jewelry, Kendra captivated businesses and customers with her vibrant personality and unique eye for design.
Known for her dynamic use of color and genuine materials, Kendra’s commitment to innovation, quality, and detail has taken her small start-up to a billion-dollar business and has won over loyal fans, media, and celebrities alike. Today, Kendra Scott has over 2,600 employees, more than 130 stores nationwide, and a thriving e-commerce and wholesale business. The brand offers Fashion, Demi-Fine, Fine Jewelry, watches, engagement rings, home accessories, a men’s collection, Scott Bros. by Kendra Scott, and includes a Southwestern-inspired brand, Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott.
As the brand continues to grow, Kendra and her namesake company remain true to its founding philosophy of “Family, Fashion, and Philanthropy” to both its customers and employees. With Family and Fashion as two core pillars of her business, Kendra maintains a focus on the third pillar of Philanthropy in all she does. Since 2010, the company has given back over $50 million to local, national, and international causes. In 2023, the Kendra Scott Foundation was established to further deepen the brand’s investment in changing the lives of women and youth in the areas of health and wellness, education, and entrepreneurship. For more information on Kendra’s philanthropic programs, see here.
Driven by a deep-rooted passion to inspire, empower, and educate the next generation of female leaders, Kendra stepped down as CEO of her namesake company in 2021, while maintaining her position as Executive Chairwoman and Chief Creative Officer.
Kendra is currently a professor of practice at the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. Kendra was awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Award in 2017; inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 2019; appeared as a guest Shark on seasons 12 and 14 of ABC’s Shark Tank in 2020 & 2022; and in 2023 Kendra received an honorary Doctor of Commerical Science degree from LIM College. In 2022, Kendra Scott, LLC was named Newsweek's Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces. Kendra is a member of the board of directors for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and she resides in Austin, Texas with her family.
Topics
Born to Shine: Kendra Scott’s Journey to Doing Good, Finding Joy, and Building a Life She Loves
By any measure, Kendra Scott is a woman who has it all: a self-made billionaire, a generous philanthropist, and a mother of three with a squad of strong female friendships. Sounds pretty perfect, right? But perfection is a myth that doesn’t serve any of us. Perfection isn’t just a lie, it’s exhausting, and Kendra is tired of it.
In this conversation, Kendra takes audiences on a journey of personal stories and hard-earned life lessons, from her humble beginnings as an awkward, bullied young girl in small-town Wisconsin to launching a business in her spare bedroom with $500. Despite pitfalls, missteps, and failures, Kendra discusses how she built a life—and a career—rooted in joy, purpose, and doing good. Audiences will walk away inspired to embrace both the messiness and the magic that life has in store for them.
