Fred Mossler

Fred Mossler (born July 2, 1966 in San Francisco) executive businessman, fashion guru, and philanthropist. He is credited towards contributing to the success of Zappos.com. Although he has no official title at the company, Mossler oversees many areas of Zappos operations.^[1]

Business

Fred Mossler began his retail career with Nordstrom in Bellevue Washington in 1991. In 1999 he had a buying office in Northern California at Nordstrom San Francisco Center. It was at this time that he met Nick Swinmurn of Shoesite.com. Swinmurn pitched his Shoesite.com vision to Mossler. In 1999, Zappos was launched.

Fred Mossler altered industry standards by creating a climate where employees and vendors work as partners towards a common goal. Recognizing a need to change or go out of business, Mossler contributed greatly to the current business model adopted at Zappos. As Zappos flourished, Mossler’s position evolved from Senior VP of Merchandising to his current all-encompassing role as “No Title”. He helped create the 4 C’s: Culture, Clothing, Customer Service, and Community. His commitment to building culture and community reaches beyond the walls of Zappos. In 2009, Zappos made its debut on Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. They made the list again in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Charity

Mossler is involved with the Movember Foundation, a charity raising funds for promoting and researching men’s health.^[2] He is also heavily involved with the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation which provides shoes and socks to 10,000 at-risk children annually.^[3] Mossler was a board member of Two Ten Foundation which helps people and families in the shoe industry in times of crisis and offers scholarships.^[4] Mossler is also involved with Attack Aviation Foundation which provides wounded warriors who were Joint Terminal Airstrike Controllers (JTACs) the incentive flights in fighter jets that they did not get while on active duty. AAF also provides incentive flights to High School and College students to help them focus their lives on scholastic excellence, varsity athletics, and avoiding drugs, teen pregnancy, and criminal activities that could disqualify them from becoming pilots later in life. Even if they don’t actually become pilots they may make better life decisions through their formative years having a focused goal.

Community involvement

Fred Mossler is an active member in developing community and culture. He is a member of the motivational speaking community TED. He even presented his own TEDx talk where he speaks about a vision to transform a previously abandoned area of downtown Las Vegas in to a space where ideas flourish, creativity is embraced, and serendipitous connections are made between members of the community.^[5] Mossler is a partner in the Downtown Project which has and continues to revitalize Downtown Las Vegas and create employment opportunities.^[6] He is also a general partner in the Vegas Tech Fund ^[7] which assists start-up companies that will benefit the community. Mossler is an Honorary Commander with the 549th Combat Training Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas Nevada.

Other ventures

Mossler and Tony Hsieh are investors in Silver State Production Services, a production company with Dakota Fanning among its list of stars. Mossler is an investor in the Mexican-American restaurant chain Nacho Daddy. Mossler contributed to Tony Hsieh’s #1 New York Times bestseller and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Delivering Happiness.

References