Professional Achievement Award

Madeline Haydon, ’05 MBA

Albers School of Business and Economics

For her impressive entrepreneurial success and business excellence, Madeline Haydon is honored with the Professional Achievement Award.

Haydon is the founder and former CEO of nutpods, a clean-label, dairy-free creamer that achieved national recognition for sustainable business practices and rapid growth. What started as a crowdfunded Kickstarter campaign became a nationally recognized brand and the number one dairy-free creamer on Amazon.

As the CEO of Green Grass Foods, the parent company of nutpods, Haydon led the company to rank 13th nationally on the Inc. 5,000 list in 2019 and earned Amazon’s Small Business of the Year that same year. Additionally, Haydon’s leadership has been recognized by Forbes (Female Leaders in Food), Inc. (Female Founders 200) and Ernst & Young (Entrepreneur of the Year).

Outside of her business, Haydon has served on the boards of Food Lifeline, Naturally Seattle and YPO-Pacific West, among others. She also regularly mentors students at SU and female founders in consumer-packaged goods, while speaking nationwide on entrepreneurship. In 2021, Seattle University partnered with Haydon to create the “Madeline Haydon Award for Entrepreneurship” for the Harriett Stevenson’s Business Plan Competition at the Albers School of Business and Economics.

One of Haydon’s nominators said, “While many professionals achieve business success, Madeline stands apart for her ability to scale a high-growth, innovative company while remaining deeply committed to sustainability, social responsibility and mentorship.”