Podcast Summary “The Secrets to Brand Loyalty Through Storytelling with Jennifer Budveit of PVH Corp”
From Ballet to Boardroom
Jennifer Budveit’s path to becoming Senior Director of Global Talent Development at PVH, a global apparel company behind Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, is anything but ordinary. Her first career? Professional ballerina. Jennifer was on stage by age two, performing and training with intensity through college. But as she pursued a business degree in parallel, she realized something had shifted: a little less love, a little more work. In hindsight, she now sees it as the moment the learning slowed and that’s when she discovered her true passion: continuous learning.
That passion eventually led her to corporate learning and development, where an early mentor introduced her to instructional design. She didn’t know what it was at the time, but she was hooked. That was over 25 years ago, and she’s never looked back.
Building a First-of-Its-Kind Strategy at PVH
Today, Jennifer leads global leadership development at PVH. Her current challenge is big and exciting: building a globally consistent leadership development strategy for the first time in the company’s history. She sees herself as someone who bridges the gap between current and future performance through skill building, both what you do and how you show up to do it.
Her focus on the “how” comes from a deeply human perspective. She believes that whether you’re a new hire or sitting on the board, people want to feel set up for success and see learning that aligns with their organization’s culture. It’s not about where the training content comes from; it’s about whether it feels relevant and cohesive.
Two Major Shifts Shaping L&D
When asked about the most significant changes in L&D in recent years, Jennifer points to two game-changers:
- The Rise of Virtual Learning
Long before the pandemic, Jennifer earned her master’s in organizational development and workplace learning fully online, back in 2008. But COVID made virtual learning unavoidable, eliminating skepticism and forcing virtual training into the mainstream. She emphasizes that virtual doesn’t mean passive eLearning. It’s about designing engaging, virtual experiences that are as interactive as they are accessible. - The Demand for Measurable Impact
Jennifer is clear: L&D professionals must stop speaking in objectives and competencies and start speaking in business outcomes. If you can’t confidently sit across from the C-suite and explain how your learning strategy helps move the business forward, you’ve lost your seat at the table. Being an L&D leader means being consultative, honest about what’s working, and willing to pivot when needed.
The Future: Build, Buy, and Blend
Looking ahead, Jennifer sees the future of L&D as a blend of customized internal development and selective external partnerships. Off-the-shelf content alone won’t drive the behavior change companies need, and no internal team will ever have the bandwidth to build everything from scratch.
The key, she says, is a thoughtful buy-and-build strategy. Vendors must be flexible and fast, and internal teams must customize content to reflect company values and culture. Employees don’t care whether learning is from a vendor or built in-house, they care that it feels consistent, relevant, and helps them do their job better
The Skill She Seeks Most: Continuous Learning
Despite all the tools and frameworks available, Jennifer says the hardest skill to find is a genuine commitment to continuous learning. In a world where what works today may be obsolete tomorrow, she looks for people who aren’t afraid to say, “I don’t know,” and who are willing to unlearn and adapt.
That skill also ties into her broader view of what expertise really means. Experts don’t know everything, they know what they don’t know and where to find the answers
Mentorship That Shaped Her Leadership
Jennifer credits her growth to a few standout mentors:
- A colleague who taught her to bring her L&D expertise to the table without being an order taker.
- A manager who sent a short but powerful email: “We don’t live to work, we work to live”, advice she leans on to this day.
- A mentor who helped her reframe being “too emotional” as being deeply passionate, and who encouraged her to advocate for her own career goals.
Now she pays it forward, overseeing mentoring programs at PVH and regularly speaking at conferences and panels to share her experience with others in the field.
Favorite Resource: People
Jennifer loves to learn from others, whether it’s through formal events, quick conversations, or sharing insights on panels like this podcast. She makes time each year to attend conferences and believes in contributing to the L&D community as much as she benefits from it.
While she appreciates formal publications like The Business of Fashion to grow her business acumen, it’s talking to peers, swapping ideas, and staying curious that fuels her the most
A Must-Read for L&D Leaders
Her book pick? Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet. The book tells the story of a naval captain who had to lead a submarine he wasn’t trained for and shifted from a command-and-control leadership style to empowering his crew with “I intend to…” statements. The lesson: true leadership is about enabling others, not doing it all yourself, a message that resonates deeply with Jennifer’s own journey from instructional designer to executive.
7 Steps to Convert ILT to VILT: A Practical Guide for L&D Teams
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