Global visionary Jose Tolosa doesn’t just lead companies, he reshapes the cultures within them. Over the past two decades, the Georgetown and Harvard-trained media executive has built a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking voices in media and immersive entertainment.
Whether transforming legacy giants like ViacomCBS or helping grow boundary-pushing collectives like Meow Wolf into scalable platforms, Tolosa has carried one conviction across every role: empathy is not a bonus to leadership, it is its foundation.
“Empathy allows you to see around corners before others can even define the problem,” Tolosa told us. “It is where the magic happens.”
Key stakeholders and teams speak to his inclusive leadership and future-facing vision. With their support, Jose Tolosa operates at the forefront of creative enterprise transformation, building bridges between culture and commerce, storytelling and strategy, purpose and performance. His philosophy of empathetic leadership is built on action and it is more relevant than ever.
Tolosa: Empathetic Leadership Requires Authenticity
When Jose Tolosa stepped into the CEO role at Meow Wolf in 2022, he inherited a company brimming with creative energy and a fiercely loyal fanbase. It had vision and it had momentum, but it lacked a blueprint for sustainable, long-term growth. What the entertainment company needed was a leader who could scale the organization without stripping away its soul.
Tolosa began not by making demands, but by listening.
“I spent my first months walking through the exhibitions and sitting in conversations with employees across the company, from creatives to administrative staff” he said. “I didn’t come in with answers, I came in with a posture of curiosity.”
It was a reflection of how Tolosa leads, with presence, humility, and a genuine desire to understand. He aimed to create space for insight, prioritizing relationships.
Under his leadership, Meow Wolf expanded into major markets including Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. He also laid the groundwork for future locations in New York and Los Angeles and other unannounced international locations. At the same time, the brand diversified into publishing, gaming, and digital storytelling, evolving into a multi-platform creative force.
“The first principle of empathetic leadership is authenticity,” Tolosa said. “People need to feel safe bringing their full selves and full gifts into the room. That is where the real work begins.”
The results speak for themselves. Under Tolosa’s leadership, Meow Wolf grew revenue significantly, strengthened its margins, and expanded both payroll and employee benefits. In 2024, Fast Company named it one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies,” highlighting its daring approach to storytelling and immersive design.
Those who’ve worked with him say Tolosa has a rare gift for turning creative vision into practical momentum. His ability to inspire bold ideas while staying grounded in the guest experience has helped transform Meow Wolf into a global cultural force.
“You cannot scale meaning unless you understand what people find meaningful,” he said.
Emotional Intelligence In The C-Suite
Before Meow Wolf, Tolosa spent more than a decade at Viacom and Paramount, most notably as Chief Transformation Officer of ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global). He was at the helm during the complex merger of two major media institutions, responsible for integrating global operations, technology systems, and talent structures across 180 countries.
“People think transformation is about process but it’s really about emotion,” he said. “Fear, uncertainty, excitement, those feelings are the undercurrent of any major change. If you cannot read the emotional weather, you will miss the storm.”
Tolosa’s style is marked by emotional steadiness, a trait he considers essential for modern executives. He credits his success to being present, not just prepared.
“In leadership, your tone becomes the temperature,” he said. “If you want calm, bring calm. If you want clarity, embody it, which is something that can’t be outsourced.”
He believes emotional intelligence should be developed with the same rigor as financial literacy. “We train people to read a balance sheet. We should also be training them to read a room,” Tolosa said. “We teach them how to forecast revenue, but not how to recognize when someone on their team is overwhelmed or holding back. That’s a gap, and it matters more than people think.”
Tolosa Says Trust Must Be A Deliberate Strategy
While some leaders double down on control during turbulent times, Tolosa takes the opposite approach, he builds trust.
“Trust is a force multiplier,” he said. “When your team trusts you, they move faster, they think bigger. They challenge themselves better.”
At Meow Wolf, it meant implementing scalable systems without diluting the creative spark. And it meant holding space for artists to still feel heard in a rapidly growing company. “We never wanted to outgrow our soul, that was non-negotiable.” he said.
Tolosa continues to share this mindset with rising executives. His message is simple: Trust works and it’s built in a thousand small, consistent moments.
Jose Tolosa: ‘People Stay Where They Feel Seen’
For Tolosa, empathy is more than kindness or emotional sensitivity, it is operational and deeply strategic.
“Empathy in the workplace means building environments where people feel they belong. It means designing systems that support well-being and performance at the same time.”
He argues that businesses that neglect empathy pay for it in quiet ways like high turnover, low engagement, weak collaboration. In contrast, organizations that lead with empathy foster resilience, creativity, and loyalty.
“People stay where they feel seen. They contribute more when they feel heard. And they innovate when they feel safe.”
In a generation where leadership is often measured in metrics, Tolosa offers a compelling reminder: the leaders who shape the future will not be those who talk the loudest, but those who listen the deepest.
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