Mahvish Zaman is Chief People Officer at Liquid I.V. She got there by way of a rare leadership run of brands: she grew up at Nike, led teams at Walmart and Sam's Club, and helped advance Ferragamo, the Italian heritage house, before moving to CPG. Taking this seat meant moving from New York to Los Angeles.

In this conversation with Mogul CEO Tiffany Pham, Mahvish walks through her path to the Chief Officer seat: the four years into Nike when she realized this was the craft she wanted, the mentors who kept her curious, the daughter who advised her on the move west and was the first person she told, and what she had to believe about herself to say yes.

She is also passionately direct about why the People function earns its place at the table: culture is not the soft counterpart to commercial performance. It is commercial performance. And she thinks the current moment belongs to HR: not a technology problem, she argues, but a design problem, about how work itself gets rebuilt.

Special Quote: "Culture is not just a nice thing to have. Culture is actually business."

Chapters
00:25 Newly Chief People Officer at Liquid I.V.
01:35 Growing up at Nike
02:01 Walmart and Sam's Club
02:25 Ferragamo, and modernizing a heritage house
03:32 Culture is actually business
05:02 When she knew the seat was the goal
08:02 The mentors who kept her curious
09:01 Who she told first
09:36 What she had to believe about herself
10:17 The decision she is proudest of
11:28 HR's moment
13:22 One framework a month

"Chief Officer" is hosted by Tiffany Pham, CEO and Chairman of Mogul.