by Bill Sarno

Whether it be a new country or a different work environment, Elizabeth Nieto has demonstrated an ability to successfully adapt and succeed, and even be an agent of change, whether it be gender equality or sustainability in the corporate setting.

A NATIVE OF Argentina, Nieto became Global Head of Equity and Impact at Spotify in March, and already is enthusiastic about the Swedish-founded audio streaming company and its corporate culture.

As someone coming from the financial world, Nieto said, she has found it both refreshing and surprising that Spotify bandmates as they call their employees are "playful and not taking themselves very seriously," which is one of the company’s values.

At the same time, Nieto is very serious about playing a role at a global company that serves hundreds of million listeners worldwide.

Several of Nieto's responsibilities at Spotify are familiar and segue with her background in human resources and talent management. This involves leading the 15-year-old audio streaming trend setter's diversity, inclusion and belonging programs.

However, there are also two new areas of responsibility, social impact and sustainability, that have aroused her enthusiasm. "We are bringing the three portfolios together," Nieto said, "creating synergies, as we understand that they are part of who we are as a brand and for our employees, we want to be leaders in inclusion, social impact and sustainability.

Nieto likes that Spotify has merged the three portfolios, especially "we need to understand what sustainability means for our business, we know that climate change has a high impact on some populations that are already marginalized. Through our platform and with our employees, we want to have a positive impact on the world and support creators from all backgrounds."

Moreover, Nieto said, "What we find is that our employees want to do this work and want to work for a company that aligns with their values and want to see we support some of the topics that they believe are important to bettering the world."

Nieto advocates that a good opportunity for the business can be a good opportunity for the people who work there. The company benefits when employees feel they have purpose. "It is important for employers to provide inspiration to our listeners, and to do it year after year, you have to believe in the power of audio," she said.

"In the case of Spotify, we talk a lot about being a talent first organization. Our mission is simple: we want to unlock the potential of human creativity, giving millions of creators the opportunity to live off their art, while giving billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by this art," the company's Global Head of Equity and Impact stated.

Spotify wants to ensure its nearly 7,000 employees have success within the organization no matter their background, she said.

In meeting with people at Spotify, Nieto is impressed by employees' passion for music and the spoken word. For this workforce, listening is everything. "This is what they wake up every morning to do," she said.

For Nieto, the ability to acclimate to new conditions is at least partially derived from her background. She describes herself and her family as immigrants. She was born, raised and educated in Argentina. Her grandparents came from Romania, her father from Spain and her adult daughter already has developed her professional career in Dubai.

"We don't stay in one place for more than one generation," she said with a smile, citing war, economics, education and career opportunities as the primary reasons for immigrating.

Nieto education includes a master's degree in educational sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. "I thought I would workÂ in early education and I ended up in corporate education," she said, the best serendipity decision I made.

As the first member of her family to graduate from a university or work in corporations, Nieto said she didn't know that these kinds of jobs existed.

Moreover as a Latina, she has had to rise above a part of her culture that counters the idea of women being ambitious. "That has been the biggest piece of learning, accepting that it is okay to be ambitious. While still wanting others to rise with you. The other myth is that you have it all “all I know is that I have committed to both my career and my family.

Soon after she entered the workforce, Nieto's career path brought her to the United States where for more than 30 years she has earned leadership posts in human resources at some of the giants of the financial services sector and more recently in an executive role at Amazon.

At the beginning of her career, and what Nieto said led into the area of diversity and inclusion, was her focus on solving for gender inequality and her understanding that there were marginalized communities that were not having access to either education or work opportunities."

"We were really looking at gender as the driver in understanding why women were either leaving the workforce or they were not being promoted at the same pace as their male colleagues," Nieto said. "They were not leaving the workforce to stay at home, they were leaving the workforce to be an entrepreneur, work for a purpose driven, kinder culture or to do other work in philanthropy. I knew we needed to fix the culture of these companies, by evolving the systems that created obstacles for the women to succeed."

She focused on studying the systems that existed that were precluding or were supporting one population and not others. She noted that other professionals who came from human resources or talent management, as well as from employment and labor law, were thinking about "the systems that in their estimations needed to change to have a more diverse labor force," she said.

"I am kind of the second generation of diversity and inclusion leaders, and clearly the last year and a half has shown the need for people who understand how systemic injustice happens and then how it gets replicated in processes that may land differently based on your previous experiences, your background, your identity.

What specifically does she mean by second generation? "Twenty five or 30 years ago, the first generation of chief diversity officers brought their own experiences in human resources and talent management to the conversation for a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Today we are incorporating behavioral sciences and we use data to inform the design of strategies to improve our diversity, inclusion and belonging. Our ultimate goal is to create a more equitable work environment, explained Nieto.

One of the areas she finds inspiring about Spotify is how the high tech company has removed what were inhibiting "gateways" to publishing and music, and has created platforms and tools to bring creative people a way, internally and externally, to bring their voice to the public. At the same time, Spotify is opening access to listeners to connect via new offerings like Greenroom.

Moreover, Spotify has been working to inform users about vaccinations globally and voting in the U.S. Nieto said the streaming service noticed that in 2020 people were coming to its platform looking for information about the U.S. election and this led the company to include in its Play Your Part hub, targeted to the new generation of voters to pursue civic engagement. In its second generation, Play Your Part informed listeners about climate change and actions to take to address it.

Looking to the future, she tells young people to be open to jobs that do not even exist today. "There will be jobs created by new technologies that do not exist now and certainly when I was growing up."

Spotify’s Newest Member- Elizabeth Nieto