Swan Sit
Swan Sit is an independent consultant specializing in digital, marketing and strategy. Having spent the past decade of her career accelerating digital into legacy companies, she held 2 key roles as a Vice President at Nike — overseeing Global Digital Marketing during the Emmy-winning “Dream Crazy” campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, and running Digital Operations, Product, Supply Chain and Service for a $3B e-commerce business during the Air Jordan 11 Concord launch, the largest in online history. She led digital at Revlon and Elizabeth Arden, using it to pull them out of a turnaround, and ran online strategy for Esteé Lauder, increasing their global footprint from 165 to 435 websites in 5 years. From modernizing 100-year-old brands and partnering with unexpected influencers like Chelsea Handler, Iris Apfel and Gigi Gorgeous, to launching augmented reality makeovers and driving double-digit growth, Swan has demonstrated both the left- and right-brain skills required for a marketer that drives revenue. She was selected as a Brand Innovators 40 under 40 and Marketing Woman to Watch, and took home both Best Social Campaign and Best in Show at the Glossy Awards. You might recognize her as one of the faces in Twitter’s national “She Inspires Me” campaign during the Oscars.
Prior to beauty, Swan was a management consultant at Bain, owned an ad agency focused on emotional branding, was a product manager at Newell (she launched a factory in China during SARS) and created infamous marketing campaigns at Trilogy Software during the dotcom boom. Swan graduated with a BA in Economics from Harvard and an MBA from Columbia.
Swan does speaking engagements around the world on Marketing, Digital Transformation and Leadership in the Digital Age. She is a Board Director of a publicly-traded pharmaceuticals company, advises a variety of businesses and sits on the boards of industry and philanthropic organizations including AdWeek's Diversity and Inclusion Council, L2 Digital Think Tank, Women in Retail, Consumer Goods Technology Council, Impact Network, Foundation Rwanda and Worldview’s space think tank. Having traveled to 85+ countries, her favorites include Antarctica, North Korea, Mongolia, Rwanda, Bhutan, Myanmar and Tanzania for Kilimanjaro. She can often be found smashing a volleyball and chasing restaurant openings, or flying around on skis and horses - her two newest hobbies.
3 words to describe Nature?
Stilling. Wondrous. Challenging
3 things Nature taught you?
Self-reliance
Humility
Interconnectivity
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Any ocean or summit
Antarctica
Palawan
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Alive, calm, emotional
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Fresh, awake, adventurous
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Excited, nervous and... hot? :) I've ventured inside a (mostly) dormant one before
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Grateful, enchanted, like I should be grabbing my camera phone (though the pics never do it justice so we should just enjoy the show)
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Excited, full of anticipation, ready to dance
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cozy, cuddly and craving a fireplace
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean, which is odd because I can't even swim! But it hasn't stopped me from scuba diving, snorkeling, wake boarding... basically I'm willing to do anything that has air or floatation, but surfing still evades me. The ocean makes me feel alive and whole; living by it is a life-long dream for me
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
8... not necessary in a constant daily state, but periodic ventures to a coast or the top of a mountain, or even the smell of nature or the ocean resets my soul
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was 4 years old, my father took me outside during a typhoon in Hong Kong. We didn't venture far - just out the front door - but I remember the howling wind and warm but slicing rain. And the indescribable smell of the storm I remember to this day. It was electric. I remember hanging onto my father's neck with both arms, my little body flapping in the raging wind. I was scared but also couldn't stop giggling. That's how I still feel going into all my adventures today.
Dorothy Grant
Dorothy Grant is an internationally renowned fashion designer and traditional Haida artist. In 1988, Grant became the first to merge Haida art and fashion utilizing her formal training at the Helen Lefeaux School of Fashion Design. She believes that her clothing embodies the Haida philosophy Yaangudang, meaning “self respect", stating that the driving force behind her designs is “empowerment, pride and feeling good about oneself.”
She is the recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Business Award, the Asper Business Institute – “Business Woman of the Year” award, the Royal Canadian Academy Prestigious Award for the Arts, the BC Achievement Award for Individual Lifetime Achievement Award in Business and in May 2015, Dorothy received the “Order of Canada” for her contributions to Canada’s fashion industry and for mentoring youth through her example as a designer and entrepreneur. She was voted as one of 100 Most Influential Women in British Columbia by Vancouver Sun Newspaper and was honored at Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
Dorothy's work can be found in 15 museums world-wide, including the the Denver Fine Art museum, the Liverpool World Museum in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum in New York city, the Burke Museum in Seattle, the Seattle Art Museum, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, the Deyonge Museum in San Francisco, the Vancouver Museum and the Museum of Civilization in Hull.
He work has been commissioned for the Seattle Mayor's Office and former Canada Prime Minister Kim Campbell.
In February 2016 her “EAGLE RAVEN TUXEDO” was worn by actor, Duane E. Howard at the Oscars Red Carpet and in 2018, P. Diddy wore her RAVEN TEASING FROG KIMONO on his birthday.
3 words to describe Nature?
Balance. Power. Health
3 things Nature taught you?
Stillness
Awareness
Calm
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Hlk'yah G̱awG̱a (Windy Bay) - Gwaii Haanas National Park, Haida Gwaii
Lake Point, Point Roberts
Hiellen Haida Gwaii, Rose Spit
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
I live by the ocean and every day I see the tide come and go. The rhythm from the tide makes me appreciate and feel respectful about life’s rhythm. I also feel extremely aware that we need the ocean just like we need the air, or the land. We are all one.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Really calm and taken care of. I feel like trees have this tremendous power - every time I come back from Haida Gwaii, I feel revived and healed by them. I feel like I am one of their subjects, under their wisdom.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
In awe, from a long distance. To be honest though, I can’t really relate since I haven’t experience it.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Reflective on the timing of all things, the cycle of life
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
I reminds me of the Thunderbird, the Native American legendary creature, as it flaps it winds, ready for take off. It makes me feel like anything can happen.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like nature is in control, a reminder that we have no control.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean and Forest
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory.
As child, we lived in Ketchikan, Alaska and our house was next to a creek. That creek was our favorite playground. I knew every little nook and cranny, the places we could play like this swimming hole at the mountain’s edge, or others we had to stay away, like those giant rapids high up. I spent so much time, countless hours exploring that creek.