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.


Enric Sala

photo credit Manu San Félix

Dr. Enric Sala is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence dedicated to restoring the health and productivity of the ocean. His more than 120 scientific publications are widely recognized and used for real-world conservation efforts such as the creation of marine reserves. Enric is currently working to help protect the last pristine marine ecosystems worldwide, and to develop new business models for marine conservation. He founded and leads National Geographic’s Pristine Seas, a project that combines exploration, research, and media to inspire country leaders to protect the last wild places in the ocean. To date, Pristine Seas has helped to create 13 of the largest marine reserves on the planet, covering an area of over 4.5 million square kilometers.

Enric has received many awards including 2008 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, 2013 Research Award from the Spanish Geographical Society, 2013 Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorers Club, and a 2013 Hero Award from the Environmental Media Association. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Enric’s experience and scientific expertise contributes to his service on advisory boards of international organizations and governments.

3 words to describe Nature? 

Life. Support. System

3 things Nature taught you? 

Magic

Wonder

Purpose

3 most treasured Nature spots? 

Millennium Atoll (Kiribati)

Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda)

Any ancient forest 

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...? 

Infinite 

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...? 

Blessed

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...? 

Amazed

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...? 

Alive

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...? 

Humble

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...? 

It depends if I’m on land or at sea! I prefer not to hear that when I’m at sea.

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person? 

All of them, even though my work has been mostly on oceans

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being? 

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory? 

First time I saw a starfish in the Mediterranean of my childhood while I was doing my first attempts at snorkeling. It was the most beautiful thing I saw, and memory that still lives with me.