Fred Santarpia, appointed chief digital officer of Condé Nast in 2014, focuses on digital strategy to enhance brand reach and consumer engagement. He emphasizes the importance of proactive progress, demonstrating results during change, and operating effectively in a constantly evolving media landscape. Santarpia advocates for team collaboration and making bold promises to drive success and achieve goals.

1. Builder. Innovator. Leader.
B I G F I S H P R E S E N T A T I O N S . C O M
Interview Series
Rolling with
Fred Santarpia

2. Fred Santarpia was named Chief Digital Officer of
Condé Nast in October 2014. He is responsible for
building and executing the company’s digital strategy to
expand the reach of its brands, strenthen its marketing
offerings, and deepen its relationship with consumers
across all platforms. He was formerly the general
manager of VEVO where he was part of the company’s
founding leadership team and served as head of ops.
“I’ve always tried to build my
career on finding people that I
thought were capable of doing
More...”

3. The world’s greatest presenters and where they stand,
on and off the stage.
(noun) /stans/
the attitude of a person or organization toward something; a
standpoint.

4. Question:
Why do you approach life and
business with no fear?

5. If you see a hole where something’s not being
done, and you have a moment of time to add
value, go make something happen! Adopting
the mentality of “why not me?” is key, and the
results are almost always iterative.
Answer:
One of the rules i live by is “Go make
something happen.” Often times
people look for permission, but the
answer to progress lies with them.

6. Tell us about one of your
losses and what you
learned from it.
Question:

7. Answer:
Always demonstrate
results. especially
during change.
There are businesses that have been
doing the same thing for years, when they
should be painting the picture of where
their company can go. Whenever you take
on a new challenge, you have to
constantly show results. Otherwise, you’ll
lose sight of the change you’re making
which will, in turn, result in loss of
momentum.

8. Question:
How do you function
in a world where
your occupation is
constantly evolving?

9. You have to be comfortable
operating with change.
If you need a stable status quo environment, it’s very
difficult to have that in the media world.The way you
function is by knowing your business well enough that
you can tell how your business will evolve given new
trends.
Most importantly, learn to ignore. Find the signal in
the noise. It’s critical to have a compass to guide you
and help determine what elements of trends and
market change are most beneficial to you.
Answer:

10. Question:
What’s your “superpower”
and how did you
discover it?

11. Our motto here is “Never Roll Solo.”
This means there’s more power in organizing
around a team rather than an individual.
You’re not building an all-star team, you’re
building a team of complementary players.
To me, there’s nothing more rewarding than
having a mission you believe in and an
awesome squad to accomplish it with.
Answer:
The thing I’m best at is identifying
talent and building teams.

12. What’s a Belief
that others may
challenge you on?
Question:

13. Make Big Promises
and Keep them.
Make a big outrageous commitment and then
find a way to do it. Find the big promise that
you can make to anyone, and do everything
you can to deliver on that promise.
For instance, it was our goal to double web
views in a year, and we did so. 100,000,000
views in fact!
Answer:
Lorem ipsum

14. Question:
How do you reply to questions
about the future from your team
when you don’t know the answer?

15. I never walk into a room and say “here is the
answer.” We all congregate to talk about
decisions together. It’s foolish to say you
have the answer when you’re speaking on
transformation or change since there’s no
telling what’s in store for the future.
Answer:
“No One’s got all the answers...
You have to hire the best
lieutenants who may be
better than yourself.”

16. Question:
Everyone Stands for
something, What do you
stand for?

17. I stand for the team.
That’s why our mantra is “never roll solo.”
Answer:

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