Recently, Gap announced the appointment of Pam Kaufman as their new Executive Vice President and Chief Entertainment Officer, formalizing the role’s place in the C-suite. This is the first role we’re seeing of this kind. Engagement, culture, brand relevance, and experience now sit at the center of enterprise performance, emphasizing the need to rethink how responsibility is distributed at the top. The result is a C-suite evolving around capability needs rather than legacy titles.
In this blog, we’ll explore the responsibilities of this role, how it’s changing the C-suite, and what it means for executive search.
What is a Chief Entertainment Officer?
The Chief Entertainment Officer is designed to sit at the intersection of culture, brand, and experience. Rather than owning a single function, this executive role is accountable for how a brand participates in the cultural conversation through entertainment, content, partnerships, and community.
In Gap’s case, Kaufman’s mandate is to build and scale Gap’s entertainment, content, and licensing platform across music, television, film, sports, gaming, consumer products, and cultural collaborations. The role combines relationship leadership, strategic judgment, and commercial accountability while navigating complex partnerships across the entertainment ecosystem.
Why cultural relevance can’t live in one function
The Chief Entertainment Officer works hand in hand with marketing, HR, and communications. The executive role exists precisely because these functions cannot address cultural relevance and engagement independently. This executive must understand how storytelling influences employer brands, how cultural relevance drives consumer loyalty, and how internal engagement connects to external perception.
The Chief Entertainment Officer focuses specifically on navigating the entertainment and cultural landscape with discipline, not novelty. Success requires taste informed by data, the ability to identify meaningful partnerships, and the judgment to integrate those partnerships into a cohesive brand narrative without diluting focus or accountability.
A signal of how the C-suite is changing
Across industries, organizations are blending responsibilities, elevating culture and experience to board-level priorities, and expanding leadership impact beyond operational execution. The creation of new C-suite roles indicates a shift toward fluid leadership, where executive roles are shaped around enterprise priorities rather than fixed functional ownership. Boards gain broader visibility and influence over culture, brand, and long-term value creation through leaders whose impact extends beyond traditional functional boundaries.
What this means for executive search
Organizations must reevaluate leadership gaps. The central question is not which title is missing, but which leadership capability is absent at the top. Boards and CEOs must be intentional about how responsibility is distributed and how leadership impact is defined. The Chief Entertainment Officer may not be a role every organization needs today, but the leadership capabilities it represents are becoming increasingly important across the enterprise.
At N2Growth, we partner with organizations as they navigate shifts toward a more fluid C-suite. Whether the role is traditional or newly emerging, our work focuses on identifying leaders who can operate across boundaries and deliver impact in changing environments. Speak to one of our experts to learn how we can help you secure leaders who meet the moment, no matter how unconventional the C-suite role may seem.
FAQs on the Chief Entertainment Officer and the changing C-suite
A Chief Entertainment Officer is an executive role focused on shaping brand, culture, and engagement through entertainment, content, and cultural partnerships. This role often spans multiple functions.
Organizations are responding to changing workforce expectations, brand dynamics, and cultural relevance by creating roles that address engagement and experience at the enterprise level.
The Chief Entertainment Officer is not replacing traditional C-suite roles, but instead complements existing leadership. This role addresses gaps that cut across multiple functions.
It reflects a shift toward more fluid leadership models where roles are designed around enterprise needs rather than fixed hierarchies. As organizations change, the C-suite needs to reflect those changes.
Executive search now emphasizes capabilities such as influence, cultural leadership, and adaptability, assessing leaders on enterprise impact rather than title or linear career paths.
