Kendra Bracken-Ferguson

Founder, BrainTrust Founders Studio

One of fashion and beauty’s most successful digital pioneers.

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, Founder of BrainTrust, is one of fashion and beauty’s most successful digital pioneers, not only for creating the social media footprint for Ralph Lauren’s fashion empire, but also as a co-founder of Digital Brand Architects, the first agency to manage “bloggers” as talent in 2009. Kendra is one of only 200 Black women ever to have received over $1M in investment for her first company. She has launched three companies herself; most recently her latest endeavor BrainTrust Founders Studio focuses on increasing inclusive economic opportunities for Black beauty and wellness founders providing mentorship, education, community and capital to help them accelerate their businesses and build sustainable growth. She is a long-standing business partner to Halle Berry and rē⋅spin by Halle Berry; a co-founder of BeautyUnited, a non-profit dedicated to driving DE&I in the beauty and wellness industry; and the host of Business of the Beat Beauty and Wellness Podcast. Kendra graduated from Purdue University with a BA in Communications and then received her MBA in Business Administration from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University. She has an endowment at her alma mater for a Black female freshman student in the communications school to increase the number of Black students at the University.