Katrina Lake, founder and CEO of Stitch Fix Announced as the Honoree at BUILD's 20th Anniversary Gala

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today BUILD announced that Katrina Lake, founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, will be honored at BUILD's 20th Anniversary Gala on March 23, 2019 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. The event is a fundraiser for BUILD, a national nonprofit that teaches entrepreneurship to high school students and equips them to launch real businesses.

At the Gala, Lake will receive the "Pitch Prize" – named after Franklin "Pitch" Johnson, one of BUILD's first and most important investors and one of the first venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. BUILD selected Lake for this award for her many accomplishments as an entrepreneur and business leader, and because of her personal commitment as a mentor to a BUILD student business team from Woodside High School in 2008. Some of Katrina's students will be present at the event.

"I'm incredibly honored to have been recognized by the BUILD organization in this way," said Katrina Lake. "When I started my career, entrepreneurship wasn't something that seemed obvious or accessible to me. I hope that now, my experience can help students in the BUILD program see what might be possible for them and have the courage to pursue their ideas." Lake added, "I continue to be inspired and motivated by the incredible passion and energy that these amazing young students demonstrate, and I'm proud to be part of the BUILD community."

Lake follows an esteemed list of prior "Pitch Prize" honorees including: Jack Dorsey, Twitter and Square; Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn; Marissa Mayer, Google and Yahoo!; Ben Silbermann, Pinterest; Nick Woodman, GoPro; Brian Chesky, Airbnb; the Golden State Warriors; and Aaron Levie, Box—many of whom will be at this year's event.

"Katrina is an extraordinary role model for BUILD's young entrepreneurs," said Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, founder of www.BUILD.org who has known Katrina for a decade. "She is not only blazing a trail in the tech and retail sectors but is also inspiring those of us who are mothers, CEOs and community leaders to see what can be possible. Her commitment to her company and her community are inspiring."

Lake is the youngest woman to ever take a company public at 34 ears old and was the only woman to lead a technology IPO in 2017. She was listed in the 2016 Fortune 40 under 40. In 2017, Stitch Fix was recognized by the Board List as the public company with the most diverse board.

The Gala highlights high school entrepreneurs in the BUILD program, featuring two of BUILD's top high school business teams representing the East and West Coast pitching to a panel of VIP judges, including Lake, Andy Tryba, founder and CEO of Think3, Sarah Tavel, General Partner at Benchmark Capital, and Mohamed Fahim, Deputy Regional Managing Director of First Republic Bank. The audience also gets to vote for their favorite team.

Presenting Sponsors for the Gala include Jack Dorsey, SVB, Think3, and Cruise Automation + General Motors. Baratunde Thurston, writer, comedian, and commentator, will serve as the event's emcee and auctioneer.

Also attending the event will be members of BUILD's National Board of Advisers, which includes: Brandee Barker, Co-Founder, The Pramana Collective; Doug Brien, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Mynd; Emily Chang, Anchor, Bloomberg West; John China, Head of Relationship Banking, SVB; Kimberly Churches, CEO, American Association of University Women; Jack Dorsey, Emeritus, Founder & CEO, Twitter, Founder & CEO, Square; Michael Farb, CEO, Neon One; Roy Hirshland, CEO, T3 Advisors; Karl Jacob, Serial Entrepreneur; David Julius King III, Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Innovation, Shopify; David Marston, Founder, Marston Associates & Former Partner, Silicon Valley PwC; Dan Vallimarescu, CEO, Nardagani; Gideon Yu, Emeritus, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder, EVA Automation.

About BUILD 
Founded in 1999, BUILD is a national nonprofit that uses entrepreneurship to ignite the potential of youth in under-resourced communities and equip them for high school, college and career success. BUILD serves high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, DC, Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles. BUILD embeds its curriculum in schools as a daily credit bearing elective and has achieved tremendous impact serving disadvantaged students. 96% of students who complete the BUILD program have graduated on time from high school and graduate from college at double the rates of low-income students nationally. (www.BUILD.org)

About Katrina Lake, Founder & CEO, Stitch Fix 
Stitch Fix (SFIX) was founded in 2011 by Katrina Lake, who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our board of directors. Prior to founding Stitch Fix, Katrina managed the blogger platform at Polyvore, a fashion ecommerce company. She also served as an associate at The Parthenon Group, a consulting firm, and at Leader Ventures, a venture capital firm. In 2015, Katrina joined the board of directors of GrubHub, Inc. (GRUB), a mobile food delivery service. In 2018, she joined the board of directors for beauty brand, Glossier. Katrina holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. Katrina was named to Forbes Wealthiest Self Made Women List in 2016, Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business List, Fortune's 40 Under 40 List in 2016, 2017 and 2018, Vanity Fair's New Establishment List in 2017, and Marie Claire's New Guard List in 2017. Katrina has been featured on Bloomberg West, CNBC, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, The TODAY Show, and she's a regular panelist at MAKERS, Vanity Fair Founders Fair, and other leading events. Katrina was the youngest woman to take a company public in 2017 at age 34.

About Stitch Fix, Inc 
Stitch Fix is reinventing the shopping experience by delivering one-to-one personalization to our clients, through the combination of data science and human judgment. Stitch Fix was founded in 2011 by Founder and CEO, Katrina Lake. Since our founding, we've helped millions of men, women and kids discover and buy what they love through personalized shipments of apparel, shoes and accessories, hand-selected by Stitch Fix stylists and delivered to our clients' homes.

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SOURCE Stitch Fix

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