Season 5 - Ep. 4 | Paws, Purpose & Profit: A Conversation with Pets at Home CEO Lyssa McGowan

The global pet industry is expected to grow from $320 billion today to nearly $500 billion by 2030, as more pet parents treat their pets like their own children, often sparing no expense on their pets’ nutrition, health, and wellness.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, today’s episode features a conversation with Simon, Hoda and Lyssa McGowan, CEO of Pets at Home, the UK’s leading pet care business. Lyssa will “shed” some light on how she’s “grooming” Pets at Home for growth by creating an omnichannel pet care platform in the UK. She talks about how she balances keeping what works in a purpose-driven organization while adding new capacity in data and technology. She’ll also share her insights on how and when she uses customer feedback to develop new products and services.

We'll also hear from Hetty Pye, leadership advisor and co-founder of RRA Artemis, a movement designed to accelerate the development of women from the world’s most influential organizations into the CEO seat. Hetty will discuss our latest research on the media’s representation of women CEOs.

Lyssa McGowan
CEO of Pets at Home

Lyssa has been the CEO of FTSE250-listed Pets at Home, the UK's pre-eminent petcare business, since June 2022. Under her leadership Pets at Home is building an omnichannel petcare platform, integrating veterinary, retail, online and grooming services, to create a better world for pets and the people who love them.

Lyssa is a highly experienced leader, having spent over a decade at Sky, culminating in her role as Chief Consumer Officer where she had end-to-end responsibility for Sky’s Consumer businesses serving more than 10 million customers and achieving over $10bn of revenue. Lyssa was also a non-executive director of Morrisons until its recent sale to CD&R, and has previously held roles at McKinsey and Telewest.

Lyssa holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated with a Baker Scholarship (and her first baby), and an MA in Geography with First Class Honours from Oxford.

In her spare time Lyssa enjoys spending time outside with her husband, three children and two labradors, hiking and cycling. She also love travelling, scuba-diving, yoga, reading and cooking for friends and family.