Jennifer Sey - January 2023
Use Your Voice!
Former Levi Strauss senior executive, author (Levi’s Unbuttoned) and filmmaker taking on cancel culture
Tuesday, January 10, 2023 | 7:00 pm PST
Jennifer Sey
Jennifer Sey was on track to become the first woman CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. As the President of the Levi's brand, she was widely celebrated as a versatile and inspirational leader who had helped save the iconic brand from bankruptcy. Formerly a self-described "left of left of center" progressive, she was beloved as the embodiment of the company's "profits through principles" ethos.
But everything changed when Sey publicly opposed the closure of San Francisco's public schools at the height of the pandemic. In response to her "wrongthink", management gave her a choice: Shut up or leave. She decided that defending at-risk children was more important than the job that she loved, and so she resigned. After more than two decades at the company, she gave up her professional future to retain her voice.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER: Jennifer Sey began working at Levi Strauss & Co. in 1999 as a marketing assistant, rising to Chief Marketing Officer and then Brand President until, in January 2022, she was asked to leave the company because of her vocal opposition to the extended closure of San Francisco's public schools during the covid pandemic.
Sey rejected a million-dollar severance package, so that she could be free to tell her story. She does so in her second book, “Levi's Unbuttoned,” an inspirational memoir that gives readers an insider’s view of corporate cancel culture, and recounts how Sey refused to be intimidated by a woke mob braying for her head.
Sey is an American author, filmmaker, business executive and retired artistic gymnast. She was the 1986 USA Gymnastics National Champion, and a 7-time member of the U.S. Women's National Team. Her first memoir, “Chalked Up,” was released in 2008 and detailed the coaching cruelty inflicted on children in the sport of gymnastics. Sey also produced the 2020 Emmy award-winning documentary film, “Athlete A,” which connected the crimes of Larry Nassar to systemic abuses in the Olympic movement.
She is a mother of four, and now resides in Denver with her family.