Kevin Lavelle

Early life and education

Lavelle attended Southern Methodist University, a private university located in University Park, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. He was a male cheerleader and President's Scholar at the University and graduated in 2008 with a bachelor's degree from the Lyle School of Engineering.

When Lavelle was 19 years old he worked as a summer intern in Washington D.C. where he initially came up with the idea for Mizzen+Main. It was during his time in Washington in 2005 that he observed a congressional staffer with sweat stains on his shirt. Lavelle came up with an idea to make a dress shirt that was moisture-wicking, an idea that did not come to fruition until many years later.

Career

After graduation, Lavelle worked as a management consultant, traveling the world and working in places such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. He eventually returned to the United States to pursue his idea of creating a moisture-wickering dress shirt. Lavelle took a position with the Hunt family of companies where he worked in emerging energy technology. Lavelle continued working full-time while developing the prototype for Mizzen+Main, spending nights and weekends working on the business.

Lavelle left Hunt in 2012 to pursue Mizzen+Main on a full-time basis. He experimented with thousands of fabrics for some time before finding the combination of fabrics to use for the shirts. It took him four months to develop his first prototype, with another eight months before he had the go to market product. Lavelle's determination eventually led to selling the brand in retail boutiques throughout the United States, including Saks Fifth Avenue. He officially launched the company online in 2012.

Lavelle's entrepreneurship earned him an invite to speak at the 2012 TEDxSMU conference at his alma mater SMU where he discussed the social responsibility of Mizzen+Main, noting that its products are made in the United States with several efforts to make an impact on the veteran's community. He was also a panelist at the Bloomberg Conference on Alternative Investments where he discussed entrepreneurship and angel investing. He was also a panelist at the Bloomberg Conference on Alternative Investments where he discussed entrepreneurship and angel investing. Lavelle was named to Dallas Business Journal's 40 Under 40 list in 2013 and to the list of Game Changers by Men's Fitness in 2014.

Personal life

Lavelle is involved with numerous organizations including the Young Entrepreneur Council, Global Shapers, and the SMU Young Alumni Board. He lives in Dallas, Texas along with his wife Jen.