How CEOs Lead Through Uncertainty: Zoetis CEO Kristin Peck

Kristin Peck: You're never ready for the obstacle that is going to appear in front of you.  Food security is national security. Healthy animals lead to healthy, productive people, I really believe that culture is a competitive advantage.

David Young: In today's conversation, we'll discuss leadership in challenging times, where we feature the outstanding CEOs who are recipients of CED's Distinguished Leadership Awards. Today, I have the privilege of speaking with one of our 2026 honorees, Kristin Peck, the CEO of Zoetis, the world's leading animal health company.

Under Kristin's leadership, Zoetis is committed to nurturing the world and humankind by advancing care for animals and just how they do all of that is what we'll be discussing today. Kristin, welcome. So very pleased to have you joining us today.

So Kristin, let's start by talking about you, your leadership, and the elements you see as important to steering a Fortune 500 company. With more than 20 years of experience in life sciences and animal health, you are described as a purpose-driven leader, passionate about driving growth through innovation, superior customer experience, and colleague empowerment. You became CEO of Zoetis in 2020 and have guided the company through a volatile macro environment to deliver superior financial performance.

Average organic operating top-line growth rates have outpaced both the industry growth rate average and historic company performance. Under your leadership, the company's portfolio has grown to include, I think, 18 blockbuster products, and there are more in the R&D pipeline. Incredible.

Tell us about your career journey to date, your path to becoming the CEO of Zoetis, and as you reflect on your path to date, is it something you aspired to become?

Kristin Peck: For starters, I'd say the journey was probably, if I look back, a little more of an obstacle course than a journey as it went. My journey started in real estate finance and then went through investment banking, private equity, management consulting, manufacturing and supply, HR, commercial, you name it.

But I think as I look at what are the lines that go straight through, the first thing was follow great leaders. I think if you're always learning and learning from someone that you really trust and is willing to challenge you. As I look at almost every job I've ever had, I followed a leader I really believed in, who I think I learned a ton from.

The line that was new to me as I progressed in my career was really making sure there was purpose behind what I was doing. And I think that for me came the summer of my investment banking where I didn't know that I believed deeply in what I was doing, and I realized for the first time how important that was to me to feel that my job was aligned with my personal purpose and that I was committed to the purpose of the company that I was at.

And I would say the third line was really curiosity. As you look at all the different types of companies I've worked for and the different jobs I've had, the one thing through all of it was I'm always a really curious person. I love to learn more, and I think that broad mindset and the curiosity to constantly be learning something new has, I think, served me well throughout my career.

I can't say when I started it I ever did imagine that I would be CEO. That probably didn't happen until my early 40s, that I thought maybe that was something for me and maybe interesting. I just always wanted to be learning and growing, and I think that was the line that really went through it all.

David Young: Did you have a sense of curiosity in life growing up before you got into Zoetis?

Kristin Peck: I was raised by two parents who never told me no on anything in the sense of what I wanted to dream. As many people know, my aspirations as a child was to be quarterback of the New York Jets and then president of the US. It didn't work out in either one of those for lots of different reasons. The Jets might still be able to use me. But I would say just I always was curious, always liked trying new things, and just was encouraged to try things out.

David Young: Recently you've spoken on some other podcasts about the concept of readiness and you say in a recent podcast that you did, "Readiness is more than resilience." You go on to say, "If the past few years have taught me anything, it's that waiting for certainty, clarity, or control is a recipe for stagnation, not success. Success finds those who are willing to take action, stay flexible, and keep going when the going gets tough. True readiness isn't about having all the answers." And you build this concept of readiness around three distinct pillars. Can you elaborate and share just a little bit more around your thinking and those three pillars?

Kristin Peck: Yeah, what I was really thinking about it is, everyone's like "I'm waiting to be ready." And the one thing I know about leadership is you're never ready for the obstacle that is going to appear in front of you. But the fact that you're not always ready doesn't mean you don't move forward.

What gives me the confidence to do that is three things. The first is discipline. I'm an incredibly disciplined person and I control the controllables. Whether you're looking at COVID or the war breaking out, there's been so many different challenges over the last six years. You control what you can control.

You can control the team that you surround yourself with, making sure they're smart. You can control how you operate the business with the company that you have. You can control how you spend your time. And so I always say to people, when you're going through a challenging time, focus on what you can control and doing your best at that, and I think that'll get you a lot farther than you probably sometimes realize.

The second thing is constantly a growth mindset. I talked before about curiosity. The world is moving really quickly. I don't think anyone had imagined a pandemic before it happened. I don't think anyone had really imagined the possibility, potential, and risk of generative AI until it happened. But if you're always willing to learn and try to understand the new trend that's coming, I think that's incredibly important.

And the last is mental discipline. These are trying times and the more you can lean into the discomfort of whatever it is and know you're going to get through it-- and that mental discipline to know I have faced hard before and I got through hard before so I can do this yet again-- I think is incredibly important.

I know we all sometimes say, "I can't wait till this is over when things get easier." It actually has never gotten easier is what I would say. I think what really changes is you get better at doing hard. And for me, if I focus on just keeping that discipline, that growth mindset, and that mental resilience to continue to lean into the discomfort, and knowing with a phenomenal team and with good discipline that we'll get through it, and not only we'll get through it, we'll thrive.

Because I think these are the opportunities where you can actually increase the distance between you and your competition if you're willing to lean in.

David Young: Have you shared these three pillars throughout the company and across your management team?

Kristin Peck: I shared it with our colleagues at our national sales meeting and I've written about them, and I'm sure you've seen some of the podcasts about it. To me, I think often about leadership and about what I need to be doing and what I am doing. I reflect a lot on what made me successful in the situation and what could I have done better. I think that sort of mindset is fundamental to me.

David Young: So you mentioned innovation and generative AI. You've talked about just this constant mindset of being curious and innovating. Zoetis is exactly that. You're constantly investing heavily in R&D, including pioneering generative AI-powered drug discovery, AI- enabled diagnostics. I mentioned earlier the 18 blockbuster products you have, more in the pipeline to come.

As the animal health market grows and evolves, how do you ensure Zoetis continues to grow and continues to innovate and balance long-term societal needs as you move the company forward?

Kristin Peck: First and foremost, it starts with our purpose, which you mentioned, which is to nurture the world and humankind by advancing care for animals.

It's not enough to just meet today's needs. It's about increasing the level of care and raising the bar every year. And I think we do that by focusing on where the unmet medical need exists, whether that's in companion animals or in livestock.

As you focus on companion animals, the reality is animals today are living longer. Your dog and your cat live longer, 1.5 to 1.7 times longer than they did 25 or 30 years ago. That's because we're taking better preventative care of our animals. That's because today's pet owners really have a stronger bond with their animals. We used to say, 25, 30 years ago, the dog might have been outside and then moved inside.

It's now on your bed and it probably has a shrink. You're really willing to spend a lot more. But that also means we need to solve new diseases because as animals live longer, chronic diseases become more important. Osteoarthritis pain, renal, look at cardiology, look at oncology. There's entirely new areas we need to focus on.

But even as you think about livestock, there's a growing demand for protein across the globe and there are new diseases emerging at all times. So we have to be focusing on what is the new vaccine that's needed. How do we even breed animals that are more likely to be healthier and more productive? That really stays at the forefront of everything that we're doing and we look at sort of innovation in that pipeline as really driving the impact of the future, certainly for Zoetis, but more importantly for society.

David Young: You've touched on it a little bit here about advancing global health equity, food security. Zoetis is a champion of this kind of One Health approach. Supports large-scale vaccinations and farming training efforts around the world, including the Alpha Plus initiative that you guys have in sub-Saharan Africa. Why is global animal health so critical to advancing global food security and economic opportunity around the world?

Kristin Peck: I think one of the most fundamental and important parts of every society is the ability to feed their society. Food security is national security, and I think that's clearer and clearer. As well as the fact that from a One Health perspective, 70% of infectious disease in humans is zoonotic.

It means it started in an animal. So taking good care of your animals, whether that be your livestock or that is your pets also helps take better care of people. We really fundamentally believe at Zoetis that taking a One Health perspective to everything we do serves the pets that comfort you through challenging times but importantly ensures the food supply is safe and affordable.

As you think about the communities that produce, whether you are in sub-Saharan Africa as a smallholder farmer, the ability for you to keep your animals healthy keeps not just your family fed, your community fed, but it probably ensures your kids get education, and you can be safe and healthy. That might help you afford health care for your family.

If you really think about it, animals in so many societies, whether you're in sub-Saharan Africa or a fifth-generation farmer in Nebraska, keeping that herd healthy helps the family stay healthy, the community stay healthy, and really the nation stay healthy.

David Young: So Kristin, let's continue the conversation that we were discussing before the break. Let's start looking at strengthening communities and expanding opportunity for all. Zoetis has a foundation. It's very dedicated towards corporate giving. Your company is expanding access to veterinary education, not just in the US, but I believe around the world. Supporting farmers, not just in the US, but around the world, and assisting communities affected by disasters.

When you look at this, and you look at some of the efforts that you are pushing forward as part of your strategic objectives, why is supporting veterinarians and livestock farmers such an important lever for economic mobility and community resilience?

Kristin Peck: Again, the safe, affordable food supply is critical to every society across the globe. The ability to keep their animals healthy, both the ones that you need for protein as well as the ones in your home, ensures that you stay healthy, and I think we really believe supporting the livelihoods that ensure that.

As you think about the veterinarian, it has a multiplier effect. The ability of the veterinarian to help the immediate animals helps society, as we spoke about. So we really feel that investing in the livelihoods of livestock producers and ensuring they have success, whether that is with regards to their education, their training.

As we think about Project Alpha, which you had referenced, we're really focused on ensuring they have the right diagnostic tools so they understand the diseases that their animals are suffering from, and that they have access to the medicines that make a difference. We think this is critical as you think about societies across the globe.

Healthy animals lead to healthy, productive people, into productive communities that can produce more food than they need, which they can sell, and therefore, move up into the middle class. The more you have that, the more you're really helping an overall society succeed.

We've really thought about from a global perspective, what does it mean to support both the veterinarians and livestock producers across the globe to meet them where they are, the tools that they need, the education that they need? Because our strong belief is with a strong livestock sector, as well as strong veterinarians, you can increase the success of societies across the globe.

David Young: I would love you to expand on this point because I think we're living through a time particularly where trust across institutions is strained. Business plays a critical role in this. In fact, I believe from some of the surveys out there, trust in businesses is the number-one element that people are looking at. When you look at Zoetis and the critical role it plays across this kind of multistakeholder approach, what role can Zoetis and businesses at large play in continuing to build, develop trust, and strengthen civil society?

Kristin Peck: I never take for granted that trust that all of our stakeholders-- our colleagues, our customers, our regulators, you name it-- have in business, and more particularly in Zoetis. I think that trust has to be rooted in purpose. Why do you exist? What are you doing to support society? That's always been at the root of everything we do here.

But then you have to make sure that you're supporting those values for your company. And for us, we have a very strong set of core beliefs that guide our culture. I take our responsibility to all of our stakeholders incredibly seriously and try to make sure that we focus on delivering against what we've promised society that we'll continue to do.

At the heart of that is being transparent about what you're doing and why you're doing it, and staying as focused as you can on delivering value across your stakeholder groups.

David Young: You mentioned kind of purpose, mission, values. We mentioned earlier just the colleagues that you're working with, the culture that you're building.

Zoetis has earned external recognition for its culture and is seeing strong colleague engagement across the business globally. Reflecting on a workplace where people can do meaningful work, grow, and perform at a high level, can you just elaborate just a little bit more around just the importance of building a strong, high-engagement culture as a business imperative?

I think in my introduction at the beginning, we just said the focus on understanding the end user; the customer; and being really pinpointed and focused on the better we understand the needs, the issues, the challenges that they are struggling with, the better you can adapt and change your strategies to make sure you're adding a unique value proposition.

Kristin Peck: I really believe that culture is a competitive advantage. There's many things you can copy about a company. You can try to steal individual talent, you can create the same org structure, but a culture is not just what people say, it's what they do and it's how they operate every day. And so we're very focused on maintaining the strong culture we have and evolving it and I think we do that in a few ways.

First is investing in our colleagues' learning and development, making sure they're constantly growing as individuals. I think it's important that we're constantly listening to our colleagues and we're investing in their well-being. I firmly believe that when you continue to do all those three, colleagues feel valued.

And when they feel valued, they're willing to do whatever they can for a customer. As I've always said, I've rarely seen a delighted customer when there wasn't an engaged colleague on the other side of that conversation. And as leaders across Zoetis, I think we do this by really truly listening to our colleagues and by collaborating.

It's about making those connections and helping our colleagues work together. Because if we're going to innovate and do things differently and provide unique value to our customers, it takes listening to each other and working across functions, across the company to collaborate to deliver on the innovation potential that we have.

David Young: Is it an area where you feel like you're very much better together and the better you understand who you're working with, what's driving them, the alignment of passion, values, mission?

Kristin Peck: I think you'd be a great colleague because that comment right there says it. One of our core beliefs is we are one Zoetis. When I'm visiting markets across the globe, I think it's incredibly important that we're listening to them, that we're collaborating, that we're sharing ideas. That's an incredibly important part of our culture but it's also an incredibly important part of leadership, making sure that we're making those connections because that's how you innovate and bring new things to life.

David Young: We started today's conversation talking about your kind of path to this point, leadership. I want to close with this kind of topic about what is next and the future. We've obviously spoken about uncertainty, the importance of readiness, that true readiness isn't about having all the answers.

As you look to the future and what comes next-- and I think we've made this point clear that these are pretty uncertain times. Things are moving very quickly. But what gives you optimism about the future of business leadership, both at Zoetis and Zoetis being a leader in leading business leadership forward? And what can business leadership do better around advancing a more just and prosperous society?

Kristin Peck: I'm an incredibly optimistic person by nature. If you look throughout time, if you look at time on an every 25-year basis, I've never seen a time where 25 years later society wasn't better than it was before.

That's sometimes a bumpy path. It's not always a straight line to get there. But I think what gives me confidence now is that I do think business leaders are listening. And by listening, they're seeing the signs that they need to continue to evolve. As we talked about culture evolves, so does leadership.

I think what leaders today need to be sure they're doing is first leading with empathy. These are challenging times. There's uncertainty and everybody processes that uncertainty in a different way. The more we can demonstrate empathy in the world that we live in and understand that some of us will process that differently or attack an opportunity or a challenge differently, I think that's incredibly important.

I would say the other thing is frustrated optimism. I'm optimistic but I always think we can do better. I look at the concept of what got us here isn't going to get us there. And so we have to be willing to continue to evolve our own leadership and really evolve the way our companies think and respond to a changing world.

Leaders who are really focused on their purpose are also really critical. Society wants you to be trustworthy and credible, and I think you're trustworthy and credible when you lead with empathy, you're constantly willing to learn and understand the world is evolving, but also you're leading with purpose and you're delivering something that people really value in an honest and credible way.

David Young: I want to just repeat this, so empathy, and then the other part you had in here was frustrated optimism.

Kristin Peck: Yes.

David Young: Final question for you. If you fast forward, you look at your legacy, I feel like it's probably intertwined, your personal and professional work. You're incredibly busy living and working on trains, planes, and automobiles. In addition to empathy, there's just this sense of the glass is half full and I want to be optimistic. Other important elements-- that if you fast forwarded 20 years and you look back on your life now-- that define who you are as a CEO, as a leader, in making the world a better place. Other elements that you think would be really important for you to pat yourself on the back and say, "Wow, I did a really good job. I'm really proud of myself," or your children look at you and say, "Wow, Mom did a really good job. We're proud of her?"

Kristin Peck: I think the most important part to me is to make sure that whenever I have an interaction that I am inspiring people to achieve more than they thought possible, to deliver greater value than they thought possible.

And I really do think about what it takes to inspire each individual where they are. If I do that in any interaction, whether that's personal or professional, I'd be really proud. And I look back on my career and say, "I made a difference." Because, again, I think the only way we make a difference in society is through people. If people are inspired to go after more than they imagined possible and to deliver that value, there's nothing more I could ask.

David Young: Kristin, thank you so much for joining us today. Very much look forward to celebrating you and the entire Zoetis organization this October in New York at our awards celebration.

Congratulations, and many thanks for being so open and insightful and reflective on your journey.

Kristin Peck: Thanks so much, David. I really appreciate being here.