Mary Rector

As the Founder & CEO of behindthechair.com, the world’s largest community of salon professionals, Mary Rector (@marybehindthechair) and her dedicated team work to improve the lives of hairdressers across the globe. With more than 10 million members from 90 countries, BTC’s educational website offers tens of thousands of pages of tutorials, color formulas and industry advice.   SOCIAL MEDIA The company incorporates several mediums to speak to hairdressers including BTC’s social following which now reaches nearly 3 million on Instagram (@behindthechair_com) and Facebook (behindthechair), resulting in the company’s unmatched insight and ability to mobilize hairdressers on multiple platforms at one time. In addition, BTC introduced the first-ever hairdresser influencer program 3 years ago to match influencers with haircare manufacturers. Called “The BTC Team,” it is the most coveted “team” to be on with more than 150 paid influencers and over 2,500 content creators.   SHOWS In addition, BTC hosts two of the industry’s most prestigious events: The BTC Show with more than 4,000 attendees, now in its 10th year, and our #ONESHOT Hair Awards which has had more than 1.4MM entries in its first 5 years, making it the largest global hair competition in the world.   BTC UNIVERSITY Finally, BTC has built out the largest online education program in the world for hairdressers. Considered the Netflix of hair, BTC University houses over 250 on-demand classes by the industry’s top educators and has trained over 182,000 hairdressers from 92 countries in the last 12 months alone.   PHILANTHROPY Since BTC’s founding 24 years ago, Mary is also very proud of her company’s philanthropic efforts, especially in the area of disaster relief. Mary and Vidal Sassoon launched Hairdressers Unlocking Hope in 2007, raising more than $2 million for Katrina victims and building 22 homes in Slidell, LA. Mary was also honored with the NCA’s Humanitarian Award for helping to raise the first $1 million ever for hairdressers affected by natural disasters.