In Private Board of Administrators, prime enterprise leaders speak concerning the folks they flip to for recommendation, and the way these folks have formed their perspective and helped them succeed. Earlier installments from the collection are right here.
In summer time 2020,
Bozoma Saint John
landed a dream job as chief advertising and marketing officer of
Netflix Inc.
The streaming big spends greater than $2 billion a yr on advertising and marketing. Leisure “is my candy spot,” she says.
The corporate, based mostly in Los Gatos, Calif., is the tenth employer and sixth trade throughout Ms. Saint John’s lengthy profession. Bias usually prompted prior job adjustments, she says.
“I hit a wall or a ceiling, and I couldn’t break by means of,’’ she continues. “As a Black girl, I’ve needed to work a lot tougher to succeed.’’
The self-proclaimed “badass” is now Netflix’s most senior Black government.
Supportive mentors solidified Ms. Saint John’s robust willpower to maneuver up by transferring on. “My private board members have performed the function of serving to me to belief my instincts,’’ she says.
Bio Bits
- Age: 44
- Schooling: Bachelor’s diploma in English and African-American Research from Wesleyan College
- Household: Daughter Lael, age 12
- Secret expertise: Professional seamstress who has made every part from skirts to curtains
- Administration mantra: Carry your entire self to work, even when it’s in glitter or burlap
- Enjoyable reality: Opposite to in style perception, I’m not all frills on every part. My favourite ice cream is straight vanilla
- Top in heels: 4-inch stilettos are my go-to…which makes me 6’3”
- Superpower you want you had: Teleportation
The 44-year-old government, who usually goes by her nickname “Boz,” was born months earlier than her father completed his doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan College in Middletown, Conn. Her mother and father, then Ghanaian residents, returned to Ghana throughout her infancy.
Ms. Saint John moved to 6 completely different locales earlier than she turned 13. As a high-school pupil in Colorado Springs, Colo., she interned with an obstetrician and thought of turning into a health care provider.
She additionally beloved popular culture, however figured her passion was “not one thing to be severe about.” Ms. Saint John reconsidered her medical-career aim after being impressed by an African-American research class throughout her freshman yr at Wesleyan.
Geared up with a level in English and African-American research, the 1999 graduate acquired employed as an administrative assistant at Spike DDB, a New York advert company headed by movie director Spike Lee. She was stunned when he accepted her advice that rising pop star Beyoncé Knowles ought to seem in a industrial for
PepsiCo Inc.
“If he had picked another person, I in all probability wouldn’t be sitting right here now,” she observes. Ms. Saint John realized her concepts may depend, and “the pecking order doesn’t matter.” She ultimately superior to senior account government on the company.
In 2005, she joined a Pepsi unit as assistant model supervisor in multicultural advertising and marketing. Whereas a advertising and marketing government there years later, she helped set up Beyoncé’s 2013 Tremendous Bowl half-time look and an elaborate introductory Pepsi industrial.
Ms. Saint John attracted even higher consideration as soon as she turned
Apple Inc.’s
head of worldwide client advertising and marketing for Apple Music and iTunes.
She took an uncommon strategy in describing Apple’s redesigned streaming music service throughout its 2016 builders’ convention. “It was actually scary,’’ she recollects. “My fashion was so completely different.”
Ms. Saint John urged the predominantly white male viewers to sing “Rapper’s Delight” as she swayed to the hip-hop hit. “A few of you guys are usually not rapping to the beat,” she chided males within the viewers.
Her subsequent stint—as chief model officer for
Uber Applied sciences Inc.
—didn’t final lengthy. Employed in June 2017, Ms. Saint John stop after a yr.
She and Uber Chief Govt
Dara Khosrowshahi
disagreed over whether or not improved customer support ought to be the ride-hailing big’s highest precedence, she says. “We simply didn’t align.’’ An Uber spokesman declined to remark about her temporary tenure.
She subsequent held the highest advertising and marketing spot at
Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.,
an leisure firm identified for representing Hollywood’s largest abilities.
Subsequently “becoming a member of Netflix was my largest advertising and marketing problem ever,’’ says Ms. Saint John, who studies to co-CEO
Ted Sarandos.
“I’m advertising and marketing to so many fully completely different particular person titles and messages.”
Additional complicating issues, the Netflix newcomer underwent emergency surgical procedure for appendicitis throughout her first week. She resumed work from her mattress days later.
Her most valued advisers embrace:
Brett O’Brien
Normal supervisor of Gatorade at PepsiCo Inc.
The Pepsi government recruited Ms. Saint John as a result of he had been certainly one of her Spike DDB purchasers. He initially supervised her on the huge food-and-beverage maker.
She doubted that she would succeed, nonetheless. In contrast to many Pepsi friends, the novice assistant model supervisor lacked an M.B.A. diploma.
Mr. O’Brien reassured her that “my background didn’t matter. I may do something,’’ Ms. Saint John continues. His confidence in her skills impressed not less than certainly one of her additional trade switches.
He says he additionally urged his protégée to “preserve doing you.” A bigger-than-life particular person, “Boz lets her ardour shine by means of,’’ Mr. O’Brien factors out. She didn’t “have to dampen that keenness to suit any perceived company norms.”
Arianna Huffington
Founder and CEO of Thrive International
The executives met in 2016 at a consumer-electronics commerce present. Ms. Huffington, an Uber board member, ultimately proposed that Ms. Saint John think about leaving Apple for Uber.
“She wanted to be someplace that might let her full character shine,’’ Ms. Huffington says. And “Uber wanted her particular presents.”
The entrepreneur linked Ms. Saint John with then-Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick
and supported her candidacy. He interviewed her at Ms. Huffington’s Los Angeles dwelling.
Mr. Kalanick resigned shortly after Ms. Saint John arrived, following months of scandal and setbacks at Uber.
Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Creator, speaker and CEO of Awe Luv Media
Ms. Saint John sought an introduction to Mrs. Jones in 2014 as a result of she was impressed by her commentary about popular culture on her weblog. The pair have been quick pals ever since.
“Luvvie has all the time inspired me to proceed making hassle,’’ Ms. Saint John says. Her counsel proved particularly helpful when the chief left Uber feeling discouraged.
“Am I simply on the lookout for hassle in all places I am going?” Ms. Saint John remembers asking herself. “I don’t all the time wish to be the one who disrupts just because I stroll within the door. It’s exhausting,” she goes on. “Generally, I simply wish to merely slot in.”
Ms. Saint John ought to preserve making the perfect hassle and transformative change as a result of she “can’t slot in, even when she tries.’’ Mrs. Jones contends. “She is a tall, dark-skinned, Black girl who usually exists in rooms that weren’t created for somebody like her.”
The creator’s newest e book, “Skilled Troublemaker,’’ explores the best way to sort out and normalize concern. She believes her finest recommendation to Ms. Saint John was that she ought to quash fears and settle for repeated requests for a TED Discuss. We develop by difficult ourselves to do stuff we’re afraid of, Mrs. Jones informed her.
Ms. Saint John lastly delivered her TED Discuss in August 2021. The main focus of her speak was on utilizing her instinct daily.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Actor, producer and creator
The pair turned acquainted a few decade in the past when the favored Indian actor appeared on “X Issue,” a televised expertise present that Pepsi sponsored.
In 2018, Ms. Saint John attended Ms. Chopra’s marriage ceremony in India, the place she married musician Nick Jonas. Immediately, the widowed Netflix government nonetheless struggles to pursue her good friend’s suggestion that she open her coronary heart and discover love once more.
Ms. Saint John’s husband, Peter Saint John, died in 2013. Their daughter Lael was then 4.
“I do know the best way to get what I need out of my profession. I don’t understand how to do this in love,” Ms. Saint John admits. “It’s very painful and scary.”
Write to Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com
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