Balancing cognitive and emotional culture for a harmonious employee experience

Laila Tarraf is a talent management and leadership development executive with over 25 years of experience building teams and advising companies across many industries and stages of growth. She was a founding member of Walmart.com at the height of the first internet bubble, and the Chief People Officer at Peet’s Coffee and Tea as it was redefining its values as a national brand. She then spent seven years working in private equity as the Director of Human Capital at GI Partners and a Human Capital Advisor with Altamont Capital. Most recently, as Chief People Officer for AllBirds, Laila led the transition from a founder-led start-up to a public company run by an established executive leadership team.

Over the years, through professional achievements and personal accomplishments alongside professional setbacks and personal tragedies, Laila has evolved her leadership and life philosophy into one that embraces the inherent duality of life — balancing courage with compassion, integrating head with heart, infusing power with tenderness. Her journey and hard-won insights are what she shares in her debut book, Strong Like Water™. Laila is a graduate of the Berkeley Haas School of Business, and is also a guest lecturer at Berkeley Law School. She is Lebanese and American, an avid traveler and world explorer, and a proud mom to her teenage daughter, Nadia and her 8-pound Yorkie, Max.