Anne Mahlum

Anne Mahlum is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, motivational speaker, and advocate for personal growth and social impact. As a two-time founder and experienced CEO, Mahlum has built both nonprofit and for-profit organizations, demonstrating that purpose-driven leadership can generate meaningful social change and strong business results.

Mahlum's entrepreneurial journey began in Philadelphia, where she started a running club with residents of a homeless shelter. This initiative evolved into the national nonprofit Back on My Feet, which uses running to help people experiencing homelessness transform their lives. The organization expanded to operate in 12 cities and has supported thousands of individuals in reclaiming stability. Mahlum was recognized as an ABC World News Person of the Week and a CNN Hero for her work with Back on My Feet. She also hosted the MTV documentary "The Break" on youth homelessness.

Mahlum later founded Solidcore, a fitness company specializing in full-body strength training classes on custom-built reformer machines. Starting with a single studio in Washington, D.C., she scaled the company to more than 100 locations nationwide, serving hundreds of thousands of clients and employing over 2,000 people. Mahlum led Solidcore through the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining operations while competitors like Flywheel Sports filed for bankruptcy. After raising $210 million in private equity, she exited the company, sharing proceeds from the sale with employees.

Mahlum has been recognized by Washington Business Journal as a Women Who Mean Business winner and named to the 40 Under 40 lists by Philadelphia Business Journal, Washington Business Journal, and Crain's New York. She has completed 11 marathons, one on each continent, including Antarctica. Mahlum invests, advises, writes, plays beach volleyball, and supports addiction recovery and wrongful conviction causes.

As a keynote speaker, Mahlum has addressed audiences at more than 120 events, including the Million Dollar Round Table, TEDx, corporate events, academic institutions, and conferences. She has delivered three TEDx talks on topics such as finding passion, overcoming complacency, and helping others. Mahlum regularly speaks on leadership, entrepreneurship, personal development, and social change. In her keynote, "How to Outsmart the Odds," she shares lessons on belief systems, fear, choice, and self-empowerment, encouraging audiences to take charge of their lives.