Waad El Hadidy

The Medusan / President

Waad El Hadidy is an interior designer with an anthropologist’s mind. She started her design career at Starwood Capital/SH Hotels in 2012 at the launch of three luxury and lifestyle brands, 1 Hotels, Baccarat Hotels and Resorts, and Treehouse. While continuing to support SH,  She established The Medusan in 2020 to create meaningful spaces and visceral experiences through collaborative design cultures and award-winning design.

Prior to joining Starwood Capital, Waad was a public policy researcher at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service where she published on social change organizations and collective leadership. She holds a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, UK and a degree in interior design from Parsons School of Design. Her past and current lives converge as she designs with humanity in mind.

Thriving on the urban energy of New York, Waad finds her roots in Cairo, Egypt where she admired the vernacular fabric of the city and the natural desert landscape of the rest of the country. She traveled extensively as a child and fell in love with hotels at an early age. Her first name means “Promise” and her last name “Of Steel”, so she was destined to work on buildings and their interiors.

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Past Jury