Fashion exec Sandra Campos on work, Latina heritage, single motherhood
[ad_1]
This story is part of the Behind the Desk series, where CNBC Make It gets personal with successful business executives to find out everything from how they got to where they are to what makes them get out of bed in the morning to their daily routines.
For nearly three decades, Sandra Campos helped build global brands like Diane von Furstenberg, Juicy Couture and Ralph Lauren. However, she finds that the most common question she receives is not about fashion.
That’s because she’s also spent the last 16 years as a single mom, raising three children while rising up the career ladder. Campos speaks to CNBC Make It. Women often question her about how she did it.
She replied, “I had no choice.”
In 2018, Campos became Diane von Furstenberg’s first-ever Latina CEO, a position she held until the company reorganized last year due the pandemic — a mutual decision, Campos says. Now, she’s the CEO of retail tech start-up Project Verte and the founder of Fashion Launchpad, an online education platform she launched shortly before leaving Diane von Furstenberg.
Campos, who is Mexican-American of the first generation, did not come from wealth. Campos dreamed at an early age to be a chief executive officer of a fashion company. She regrets not being proud of her heritage while she climbs.
Instead, she was consumed by the competition of rising to the top, she says — and being a woman competing against men for top executive jobs was already enough of a challenge. “[I] thought that it was going to be another part [of my identity] that was not going to help me,” Campos says.
Her heritage is what has motivated her internally. Her “why” is what she tells herself. She recalls how her grandparents and parents made great sacrifices to bring her family here so that she could live a better lifestyle.
She says, “I have never taken this for granted.”
Campos discusses her time at her family tortilla factory and why she did not embrace it sooner. She also talks about the challenges of being single and working mom at the top in her field.
Sandra Campos as a child in Dallas, Texas
Courtesy: Sandra Campos
On growing up working in a tortilla factory: ‘My family was always about hard work’
My parents both immigrated from Mexico. My father, who was fourteen years old at the time, didn’t go to middle school nor high school. He immediately went to work. When she was 18, my mother moved to Canada. She didn’t have a college education [either]. Their six children included five grandchildren.
California is where I was raised. My father went to El Paso, Texas, to learn the tortilla factory business from one of his uncles — so we moved in with his uncle, who already had a family of 10 kids.
We moved in a suburb to Dallas after that. My family believed in hard work. I worked at the tortilla factory as a back packer or assembly worker.
Their parents were entrepreneurs. They were entrepreneurs.
On finding her dream industry: ‘I knew I wanted to be in fashion, but I didn’t know what fashion was’
I knew I wanted to be in fashion, but I didn’t know what fashion was. My family didn’t have any magazines when I was growing up.
When I was a child, my mom would take me to the local fabric shop and she would help me choose fabrics for re-decoration of our sofa. Slipcovers, drapes and pillows were my specialty. My siblings, friends, and I all made clothing when I was in college. When I was young, I thought that I wanted to become a designer.
Then, I had a pattern-making internship and realized that [being a designer] was far too technical. So I decided to focus on business and marketing instead. I was looking for more mobility and higher upward mobility.
On strategizing to become a CEO: ‘I started it when I was 20 years old, and I’m still doing it’
I always had ambition. I knew that I didn’t have a backup plan — I didn’t come from a family of wealth. I also knew that I wanted to be a chief executive officer.
This is how I created my roadmap. It was based on the milestones I had to reach in terms of income and age. At the top of my paper I would put the year and then write down the goals. I’d put what I wanted to do in X period of time — whether that was having a certain title, salary or some cases, a company.
This was something I began when I turned 20 and it’s still my passion. I typically do [a new one] every two or three years.
For the first few years of my career, it helped to center me, and elevate my income — but it hasn’t been a straight path. It has been necessary to pivot several times, and then rewrite my list.
The science isn’t perfect. This is not an ideal.
On diversity and identity at work: ‘Embracing my heritage earlier on would have helped’
I was never one that embraced being a Latina for the early part of my career.
Growing up, I wanted to bleach my hair. My skin was lighter. I was privileged — no one was looking at me and saying, “Oh, she’s Mexican.” People said to me, “You look Greek, Italian, or Turkish” when I arrived in New York.
My heritage would have made it easier for me to bring others along on the journey. It’s obvious to me that the next generation is embracing its heritage — and is proud of it.
We are witnessing changes all around. 18% of Americans are Latinx, a figure that was not the norm in decades past. It’s a great honor to be able to help Latinas disrupt industries, and make themselves more visible in the business world. Every platform I own, I’m going to share it with others.
Diane von Furstenberg [once] She said, “Raise you heritage and get out there and tell your stories before anyone else.” It’s something I remember every day because she believed in it. Her example of supporting women, and welcoming all races and nationalities is the best.
It was my first experience as a CEO in my professional career. It was an amazing shift.
Sandra Campos with her three children
Linda Campos
On being a single mother with three kids while rising up the career ladder: ‘I didn’t have a choice’
When people ask me, “How did I do it all?” They ask me, “How did I do it?” I reply that they didn’t have the option.
My decision was to divorce, have my three children and continue working in New York City. I also decided to send them private school. These decisions are very important to me.
There is no way to do it all. One day you may be a better parent than the next. Or you could be totally fulfilled at work one day but not the next. It is never easy.
I had help. While I was working, I had help from a nanny. I’m sure that many other women don’t have this option. [But often]I was extremely guilty at the end.
One [particular] International Women’s Day at Diane von Furstenburg was very big day for the company. It had taken months of preparation. My oldest daughter called me at midday and asked, “What’s your plan for Luke’s Birthday?”
My jaw dropped. The phone was put down, and I started crying in my office. I just made the worst mistake that any [parent] could make. Diane was there when I said that I couldn’t attend tonight’s event. My son is turning one and I must go home.
She replied, “Go. “Leave.”
This is something that I will never forget. No matter how much you get paid by business for being there for your child and being a parent, it doesn’t pay too much.
Fast-forward [to] today, I hear my children repeating certain things. I’ll say, “How do you know what a P&L is?” I’ll say, “How are you able to know what a is?” Or, “How can i learn more about financial reporting?” Then they will say “Well, that’s my child.”
This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.
You can find more information at Behind the Desk
Designer Vera Wang on starting her company at 40: ‘I thought maybe it’s just too late for me’
A-Rod Corp CEO Alex Rodriguez on his life and career: ‘It’s an imperfect story’
CEO Wynne Nowland on coming out as transgender: ‘I’m much more at peace with myself’
[ad_2]