Chief Impact Officer

“Julie has had an instrumental role in building winning cultures across multiple companies. There are so many great leadership lessons from those experiences, and Julie does a great job of telling an inspiring story that is relevant to anyone who wants to build a winning culture.” – —Jamie Nordstrom, Chief Merchandising Officer, Nordstrom“This book provides a comprehensive roadmap from a seasoned industry leader who fully understands how to make this mandate for sustainable excellence in an ever-changing world a reality.” – —Mike Richardson, former CIO, Nordstrom “In Julie’s story, I saw my own: the power that came when I finally brought my full self into the room. Her book makes clear that even in the age of AI, high performance and trust only emerge when leaders stop hiding and start leading from their whole selves.” – —Kathryn Henry, Independent Director, lululemon, and Author “This book is the leadership dopamine we all need in the AI era. Julie’s authentic reflections provide a precise blueprint for people-first transformation. By drawing on her legacy of building an inclusive, people-powered enterprise during Lululemon’s mega-transformation, she proves that culture is the new currency. An essential, high-impact reckoning for the modern leader.” – —Venki Krishnababu, CTIO, Dutch Bros

Julie Averill

As Chief Information Officer of lululemon, Julie Averill led the technology transformation that helped scale the company from \(2 billion to over \)10 billion in revenue while building global teams capable of sustaining that growth. Prior to lululemon, she led omni-channel and digital transformations at Nordstrom and REI, navigating system failures, high-stakes crises, and the complicated work of integrating technology with business strategy at scale.

Julie spent her career navigating systems that weren’t designed for her – and helped change them along the way. She is a female leader in technology, a gay woman in rooms where difference still raises eyebrows, and a mother who carried two and adopted one child while leading global technology organizations. She is a Chief Information Officer who believes the future of AI depends less on machines and more on how human we’re willing to be.

Today, she advises boards, CEOs, and founders at the intersection of AI capability and organizational readiness – the place where most transformations stall. She speaks globally on leadership in the age of AI and helps organizations build what technology can’t deliver: teams that tell the truth, leaders who can turn pilots into real change, and cultures that sustain transformation instead of performing it.

After years in corporations proving herself, building teams, and transforming companies, Julie learned that what matters most is not the systems you build or the revenue you generate, but the people whose capabilities you unlock, the leaders who become more than they thought possible, and the ripple effects that continue long after you’re gone.

She lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her wife Cindy and their three children. When not speaking, advising, or writing, she’s on the pickleball court, traveling to visit family across continents, or learning from her global family that the most profound transformations happen when we expand who we’re willing to become.

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