The founder of one of Florida’s largest independently-owned cleaning services will discuss how she traded happy hour for calculating payroll as part of the 2015 Women’s History Month celebration at UALR.

The Power of Women Program, sponsored by the Office of Campus Life, will host female entrepreneur Kristen Hadeed as its keynote speaker at noon on Monday, March 9, in meeting room A of the Donaghey Student Center.

The event is free and open to the campus community and includes a light lunch. For more information, contact Emily Cox at 501.569.3308.

The talk is part of Women’s History Month, which had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed a law authorizing the president to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week.”

More about the speaker:
Kristen Hadeed knows that there are college students who are eager to start making their mark, high achievers who need to be told, “Yes, you can do it, and do it right now.”

Hadeed founded one of Florida’s largest independently-owned cleaning services, Student Maid™. She worked full-time, both as a business owner and a student, eventually expanding her business from four employees to more than 400 during peak seasons. She traded happy hour for calculating payroll, late nights for early morning meetings, and time with her friends for hiring and firing employees (many of whom were older than she), all while motivating hundreds of top-notch college students to get excited about scrubbing toilets. Who says you have to wait until graduation to start making amazing things happen?

In this inspiring leadership keynote, Hadeed highlights the importance of fearless leadership through memorable, funny and sometimes embarrassing stories of her own trials and tribulations as a young entrepreneur. Sharing the most intimate details of her journey from college student to the owner of a cleaning empire, she recounts valuable lessons learned from near-disasters and complete failures. She empowers audiences to become leaders worth following, on campus, in their organizations, in their communities, or in the business world.