About Claude
Chief Heart Officer, VaynerX
Claude Silver, the world’s first Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX, believes that showing up with heart and humanity is the key to unlocking greatness in people. She sees it as her job to infuse empathy into every aspect of the organization. As a speaker, podcaster, industry trend setter, and LinkedIn influencer, she’s now inspiring other leaders to do the same.
With Claude as Chief Heart Officer, Vayner has grown from 400 people to a global team of 2000 with offices in nine countries, and she helped lead VaynerMedia, its foundational company, to be named the Breakthrough Media Agency of 2022 by AdWeek. She has proven that empathy plays a role in fueling growth and she does everything she can to make each and every human feels safe, seen, valued, and included, and to ensure every leader takes a hard look at how they are showing up and the environment they are creating.
At a young age, Claude was repeatedly told she thinks too much with her heart — something she has now learned is her superpower and has evolved into what she calls “emotional optimism,” a concept that is key to her heart-first leadership style. A graduate of the California Institute of Integral Studies, a cofounder of an outdoor adventure and surf company in San Francisco (where she was in the cold Pacific Ocean coaching 275 days a year), an Outward Bound instructor (who spent 93 days living in the wilderness at age 19 and had the epiphany that it was up to her to show up and change the narrative of her life), and a former global advertising executive at JWT London, JWT San Francisco, Publicis London, and others, Claude brings years of training in transpersonal psychology, positive psychology, and the study of Buddhist and other spiritual traditions to ground her leadership style with her trademark ability to create change through action.
Claude has received the Campaign US’s “Female Frontier Award” and AdWeek’s “Changing the Game Award” and speaks at major national and international conferences and corporate events. She has been interviewed on dozens of leading podcasts and quoted or featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., and the Wall Street Journal.
She lives in the New York City area with her wife and two young daughters and (still) loves snowboarding, road trips, listening to ‘80s music and Trance (Loud!), and spending time with friends.
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Claude in Action
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“Claude was a huge hit. The team loved her wisdom, authenticity, and candor. We were the lucky ones.”
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“Claude’s contribution to the learning was meaningful and the Flag Officers greatly appreciated her energy and engagement. We continued the conversation afterwards and throughout the week. Several of the participants highlighted specific takeaways from the talk that were relevant for our senior leaders’ role in shaping culture. Claude’s insights have provided helpful framing and inspiration as we continue to pursue a culture of learning and growth in the US Navy. ”
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“Claude delivered a high-energy presentation that really brought our theme of empathetic leadership in action to life. Along with valuable insight, you provided my leadership team with actionable takeaways and grounded the room in the need for heart and humanity in the workplace…Claude is an amazing force and a much-needed voice in the conversations that are going on about corporate culture and Leadership today.”
Speech Topics
The ROI of Leading with Heart