Susan’s Bio
Susan Paley knows a few things about working with a creative mind. She has teased out some of the most innovative, disruptive concepts to impact the audio world in decades. She was the first CEO of Beats by Dre, a brand that transformed the consumer audio landscape. Now she is CEO of DropLabs, a company engineering smart haptic technology for integration into everyday casual wear, transforming how people experience sound through media.
Susan brings over 20+ years of product leadership in consumer technology and is the driving force behind some of the most innovative consumer products and embedded solutions in the audio/digital audio space. She has worked with global, emerging, and disruptive brands such as JBL and Harman Kardon. Her expertise: developing businesses from inception to scale that is focused on transforming markets to capture significant revenue and consumer mindshare.
More than anything Paley is a builder. In her tenure she has created successful, sustainable businesses based on innovative consumer platforms comprised of hardware, software, and digital content to realize new paradigms for global lifestyle brands. She has applied this winning formula to global lifestyle brands such as Beats by Dr. Dre, JBL, GM, Chrysler/Fiat, HP, Quiksilver/Roxy, Nickelodeon, and Universal Music Group.
WITH GROUPS CREATING PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE FEMALES TO CONSIDER STEM, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO ENTRY THAT IS STILL PREVALENT TODAY?
I really love the fact that STEM is encouraging more female involvement, in what has initially been a male-oriented field. Women currently make up less than 30% of the workforce in STEM fields and in college. The biggest barriers come down to gender stereotypes and fewer role models. The gender gaps have been enormous and are part of historical and institutional bias. Joint and sustained effort in job creation and equal pay across public and private organizations is needed to close them.
The historical bias against female participation in math and science is still more prevalent than it should be. Efforts to combat it from an early school age will help turn the tide. Already there are more women in many graduate schools than men. Stem programs for girls need to start in grade school. Extra-curricular clubs and after school programs focused on STEM programs are needed across the public, charter and private school landscape. Bringing stories of female engineers, scientists, astronauts, inventors etc. forward into the academic curriculum is critical. Girls need female role models in these positions to provide possibility, to inspire them.
WHAT OR WHO INSPIRES YOU?
What inspires me? I am always inspired by innovation and creativity in the many forms it takes. I love products that elicit an emotional response. I believe great products connect with people on an emotional level.
Who inspires me? I am inspired by people who have overcome adversity to create their dreams. I am inspired by female trailblazers in many fields who had to pave their own way and thus cleared a path for the rest of us. I am inspired by young women today as I see growing confidence in them to venture out to build their own companies, solve problems at the human level and strive to make the world a better place.
WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT/ACCOMPLISHMENT?
I definitely have a few.
At Harman, I got to work with Gina Harman, my mentor. She gave me the room to create a new business for Harman, one of the first joint ventures they embarked on with Roxy and Quiksilver. I built that business from an idea and was able to use the resources of Harman to make it happen. Beats by Dre was one of my proudest accomplishments. As the first employee and CEO, I helped to grow the company from its inception to the #1 headphone globally. Beats was a disruptive brand that redefined the audio industry.
Today I am proud of the work we are doing at Droplabs. We are pioneering a new category for consumer tech; a completely new and unique way for people to experience sound, as a full-body experience. Our technology brings music, movies, games, and VR to life, fully immersing people in their experiences and connecting them deeper to the things that they love. In developing this technology we worked closely with the deaf community which has been incredibly rewarding. We are also working with partners to adapt our technology for a variety of use cases around health and wellness which is personally very exciting to me. DropLabs is excited and proud to be at the forefront of innovation and I'm happy to be a part of it.