Maxine Bédat

Founder of New Standard Institute & Author of UNRAVELED

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Biography

How are people buying differently? More importantly, will your organization be in front of these critical shifts in customer behavior, or will you be left on the outside looking in? Maxine Bédat is a leading authority on the emergence of new customer value, and has built two companies that have helped forge new consumer paths. Read More >

Bédat is currently the founder and director of The New Standard Institute. Bédat has been recognized by Oprah in her Super Soul 100, for leaders elevating humanity, serves as an ambassador for Rainforest Alliance and is on the Council of NationSwell. Her new book, Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment, has been longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. It is a groundbreaking chronicle of the birth--and death--of a pair of jeans, that exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the planet.

Prior to NSI, Maxine co-founded and was the CEO of the fashion company Zady, which captured an entire market segment of buyers who care about their products (from who makes them, with what materials and in ways that sustain the environment). Zady was included in Fast Company’s “World’s Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Retail”, was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as “Start-Up of the Month”, and has been named by Mashable as the “#1 Business that Rocks Content Marketing.”

Prior to launching Zady, Bédat launched the non-profit The Bootstrap Project, an organization dedicated to changing the lives of artisans in developing countries. The Bootstrap Project has become a platform for enterprising artisans to learn new skills, expand their businesses, share their customs and traditions, and revive the world’s most beautiful crafts. This was all lead from her legal work for both the United Nations General Assembly and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She has spoken at some of the world’s leading conferences, including the WWD Apparel/Retail CEO Summit, and has been regularly featured as an expert by Bloomberg, Forbes, Business of Fashion, CNN and the Huffington Post.

Maxine’s presentations are highly customized explorations into the rapidly changing world of consumer needs, technology tools, and brand relationships. You will love her. Read Less ^

Speaker Videos

Zady Organic Fashion

Innovating with a Purpose: Brands with Great Stories

Speech Topics

Leading an Organization in the Era of ESG & Sustainability

Leading a company in this current climate is hard. How do you please shareholders, customers, regulators and attract the next generation of talent who come with a different set of values? In this dynamic presentation, Maxine lays out the issues - jargon free - and shares the very practical steps that business leaders can take to bridge these divides and successfully lead their company today and for the future.

What Your Organization Needs to Know About ESG

ESG has exploded as a framework in the past five years and is a rapidly evolving space, where it seems that requirements and measurements are constantly changing. Likewise, new laws and legal cases continue to appear. Navigating this new world is not easy, getting it wrong can be nothing short of an existential threat to a company. In this keynote, Maxine explains clearly this new normal and provides a window to upcoming legislation. She then lays out the practical steps the financial community and business leaders can take to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in this evolving environment.

How Our Clothing Explains the World & Your Role In It

In this globetrotting presentation, Maxine shares her insights traveling around the world following the creation, sale and ultimate destruction of a pair of jeans. Through this journey, Maxine shares the human story of our global economy, how it got this way, it’s heartbreaking toll on the world’s disadvantaged and shares an inspiring vision for a better way and the practical steps to achieve it for individuals, companies or policy makers.

Testimonials

“She was delightful, and won over an audience of cynical executives who feel that nobody from outside of the grocery business can speak to them. She was so well prepared that people crowded her for more than 30 minutes after her speech.”

- California Grocers Association