Emily Chang on Reinvention, Cross-Cultural Leadership, and Purpose

Emily currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer of CHAGEE, leading the premium tea brand’s North American expansion across brand, retail, customer experience, loyalty, and commercial strategy. Before that, Emily spent more than five years as CEO of global agencies VML West and McCann Worldgroup China, helping iconic global brands grow while guiding Chinese companies onto the world stage. Emily also held senior executive leadership roles at Starbucks, serving as CMO of Starbucks China before moving to Seattle as SVP of Marketing. She previously served as Chief Commercial Officer for IHG Greater China, led Retail Marketing across Asia for Apple during the company’s rapid retail expansion, and spent nearly 12 years at Procter & Gamble building brands across the U.S. and China.

Beyond her corporate career, Emily is the bestselling author of *The Spare Room*, a TEDx speaker, former university lecturer, and longtime advocate for purposeful leadership and creating a meaningful social legacy. Emily lives in Los Angeles with her family. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation about embracing reinvention, leading across cultures, balancing ambition with purpose, and why curiosity, courage, and authentic relationships remain the foundation of lasting leadership.

This conversation is hosted by podcast co-founder and P&G Alum Drew Tarvin, Founder & CEO of Humor That Works. Drew spent six years at P&G leading IT + brand initiatives before turning his background in engineering, improv, and stand-up comedy into a career helping organizations use humor to improve leadership, communication, and workplace culture. He’s the author of Humor That Works and his TEDx talk has been viewed more than 16 million times.

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