Meet & Greet: Todd Parsons, Chief Product Officer, Criteo

In this week’s Meet & Greet interview, myGwork member, LGBTQ+ ally and Executive Sponsor of the Criteo Pride Community Todd Parsons shares the importance of workplace diversity, celebrating differences and creating a sense of true belonging for everyone. He also provides a glimpse into his work life as Criteo’s Chief Product Officer, as well as his social life.

myGwork: Can you tell us a bit about your career journey to date?

Todd: My career experiences vary more than many, all tied together by a passion for creating products that help people solve a problem and make their lives better. It just so happens I’ve done that most through advertising.

I founded two companies. BuzzLogic, my first, represented an amazing experience of building something from concept to scale at the dawn of social media. It was a bold idea to help marketers gain insight about how this emerging space was impacting their brand and act to their advantage. Aditive was more pragmatic, helping brands generate more effective marketing by using data about their most loyal customers. It was later acquired by Acxiom. I experienced two pretty different forms value creation that really shaped my career. Afterwards I spent some time on the demand side of marketing, working very closely with Facebook and other social platforms for marketers, going deep on how consumers spend their time on the internet, what they want most from those experiences and how it relates to forging relationships with brands.

All that prepared me for where I am today at Criteo, working to improve every consumer’s experience on the open internet, while creating greater opportunity for marketers and media owners. 

myGwork: What's the most challenging aspect of managing people right now?

Todd: The global pandemic has put a lot of stress on people and companies everywhere. From fear and concern about keeping our employees safe, to quickly adapting new workplace strategies, while ensuring teams can maintain connections and balance in a hybrid working environment.

It’s not easy to put all of that together, but ideals and aspirations matter more than ever to making it work. Providing a mission that teams don’t lose sight of and making it a priority to come closer to customers helps people lead themselves while we all become accustomed to not having the touchpoints leadership relied on in the past. 

myGwork: What attributes do you look for in new recruits and why?

Todd: Everyone has a superpower that can be harnessed. What I look for most is a person's awareness of how their work will be experienced by those ultimately impacted by it, and how much value one sees in that connection. In its purest form, being customer-obsessed is about providing others with things they will fall in love with. By starting with in this intent, it is easier to connect and channel our superpowers to achieving it. My own curiosity towards customer needs, their experiences and motivations have always put me on the path to success. These are key messages I always bring forward to my teams. 

myGwork: How important is LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace?

Todd: Inclusion and diversity is what makes a family worldly, knowing, understanding and kind. It is the backbone of innovation as different ideas and experiences come together to benefit the whole. We should all strive for diversity in everything we do, because it brings us incredible strength whether that’s the workplace as a company, as community or as a family. 

The power of diversity when it’s nourished, and it’s left to bloom is spectacular and I will always be a promoter of that. Diversity is essential in any organization, family or community that wants to flourish. Building a shared culture that celebrates differences and creates a sense of true belonging for everyone is truly the sweet spot for creativity and development in any context.

myGwork: What's your favorite inclusion campaign to date and why?

Todd: I couldn’t say I have a favorite because many tell impactful and sometimes core-shaking stories of vulnerability that I find deeply inspiring and relatable in some way to anyone. I’ve enjoyed a number of campaigns, such as Gillette’s First Shave or #InclusionStartsWithI by Accenture, but all of them are important as they give a voice to a community and indirectly foster connections between all of us.

myGwork: How do you encourage staff to have a work-life balance, especially with the increase in remote/hybrid working? 

Todd: At Criteo we have put in place a number of initiatives to support employees in fostering a work-life balance especially in the hybrid working environment – from quiet days of no meetings to daily relaxation activities that are meant to help employees unplug. I believe there are as many different answers to this as there are different people and I choose to be flexible and tailor my approach on a case my case basis as there truly isn’t a one-size-fits-all way of creating a better work-life balance. Companies that attract the best talent know that every person is different, and they design experiences at work that can be personalised for everyone.

myGwork: What's the biggest highlight of your career to date and why?

Todd: For me, the question creates a flood of thoughts in my mind. When I raised my very first seed funding from Bob Ellis, another media entrepreneur in San Francisco; when I sold my second company and got the job I probably wasn’t ready to manage; but most of all, when I sat in a wine bar in San Francisco and listened to people talk about loving working for BuzzLogic – without knowing I had founded it earlier. Reflecting – my highlights trace to people and how I helped change their lives, or they changed mine. 

myGwork: What was the last book you read (fiction/non-fiction)? Any interesting take-aways and would you recommend it to fellow leaders?

Todd: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is not the last book I read, but it sure is a good one to pass along. It’s a dish of practical wisdom served without the cover of pretence about what it means to be an entrepreneur and/or product manager. Straight business talk with a sense of humor makes for a good read.

myGwork: What was your last holiday destination and where do you plan to visit next?

Todd: With the pandemic, it was a bit difficult for my family and I to travel as much as we would have liked, but we considered our move to France this summer quite the adventure. I am still absorbing the viennoiserie and style of Paris. As for the future, we’ve been eyeing Iceland for a while as the ultimate encounter with the natural elements and we cannot wait to explore the land of fire and ice. 

myGwork: What do you to unwind at the end of a hard day?

Todd: I find sanctuary in family and I especially like to get outside, where I’m almost always able to experience something fresh and renewing. And being completely honest, I don’t shy away from binge-watching a show from time to time.

You can find out more about Todd and connect with him here.

Check out some of myGwork's other recent Meet & Greet interviews, including:

• Booth-Laird Investment Partnership’s CEO Jonathan Booth shares why there are so few ‘out’ CEOs and leaders in the corporate world. 
• Business Disability Forum’s CEO Diane Lightfoot shares the importance of being able to work in an environment where everyone is able to bring their whole selves to work, without having to conceal any aspect of who they are. 
• Parexel's LGBTQ+ ally and Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Aida Sabo shares her career journey on how she made it to the top in engineering as a Latina woman.
• CTS Group CEO Tom Ray shares why the LGBTQ+ community is "very important" to his company, and how he is promoting inclusion to ensure that all staff are “welcome, feel safe and can be themselves” at work. 
• London-based DJ, radio host, filmmaker, social influencer and CBK CEO Krystal Lake explains why organizations need to take homophobic remarks and labels seriously, and do more to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion. 
• Criteo's SVP of Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Rachel Scheel on how and why she supports diversity and LGBTQ+ inclusion as an ally, as well as workplace wellbeing.

• The Galaxy Trust’s CEO Garry Ratcliffe shares how being an 'out' leader with a collaborative and inclusive leadership style helps to promote equality, belonging and a blame-free culture. 
• RS Components’ Group Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement Jessica Chu highlights the 'huge' importance of LGBTQ+ inclusion at work and shares why being an LGBTQ+ ally is really important to her.
• Swapi CEO Pete Howroyd who talks about workplace equality and LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the importance of ensuring that every voice is heard. 
• Unilever’s HR Vice President Richard Sharp shares why leadership has a duty to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community feels supported and included in the workplace.