Mahmoud Khedr is an Egyptian Muslim immigrant and social entrepreneur who is the Founder and CEO of Flora, a mental health tech company building accessible and equitable solutions addressing the youth mental health crisis —with the vision of empowering every young person to flourish. Mahmoud started Flora after a decade of suffering in silence with depression & anxiety and being a survivor of multiple suicide-attempts. Using his living experience along with co-creation with youth, mental health professionals, artists, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders, Flora created one of the first culturally-relevant mental health education programs, partnering with local governments, schools, and corporations, and has reached over 50K youth across the world and 2M+ through social media campaigns.
Through his work with Flora and his advocacy for youth mental health, Mahmoud has received fellowships, awards, and recognition from The Biden-Harris White House, President Bill Clinton, General Colin Powell, Forbes, Echoing Green, Ashoka, and Stanford d. School. He was recently awarded as a Forbes 1000 honoree and invited to the White House as an MTV Youth Action Forum youth mental health leader. He is also a Young Mental Health Leader Council Member with Mental Health America, a board advisor for Virtual Enterprises International, and a Stanford University Innovation Fellow.
In 2019, he delivered his TED talk, “How Toxic Positivity Leads to More Suffering”, with 100K+ views to date. In 2023, he partnered with 3 youth mental health leaders & MTV to launch a first-of-it’s-kind national campaign focused on culturally-grounded healing (www.hiddenhealers.org). He graduated from the City College of New York with a B.S. in Social Entrepreneurship.