Trailblazers: Black Leadership in Retail

David Rawlinson II

The Man Who Wants to Bring QVC Into the Future

There’s something kind of poetic about David Rawlinson II running QVC Group. Growing up in Rock Hill, South Carolina, his mom had QVC on in the background the way other families had the evening news. He never imagined that he’d one day be in charge. Yet here he is, and he’s not interested in nostalgia. He’s interested in what comes next.

CSG’s Trailblazers series celebrates leaders who have made their own way and lifted those around them. February is Black History Month, and Rawlinson is one of a still-small group of Black executives running a Fortune 500 company.

Rawlinson took over as President and CEO of QVC Group in October 2021. At the time, the company was at a crossroads. The traditional cable TV shopping audience was shrinking, streaming was everywhere, and a new generation of consumers had grown up buying things on Instagram and TikTok without ever touching a remote. The board needed someone who could see around corners; and they found him.

His background isn’t what you’d expect for a retail CEO. He’s a lawyer, a Harvard MBA, and a former White House Fellow who worked on economic policy in both the Bush and Obama administrations. Before QVC, he ran NielsenIQ through a complicated ownership change and before that built Grainger’s global online division into the company’s fastest-growing segment, Posting double-digit growth year after year; he didn’t come up through retail. That might be exactly why he’s not afraid to blow it up and rebuild it.

The bet he’s making is simple to describe and hard to execute: turn QVC into a live social shopping company. Not just a TV channel that also has a website, but a real presence on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and anywhere else people are watching videos and buying things in the same breath. The QVC+ and HSN+ streaming launches are part of that push. So is a growing footprint across social platforms. The logic tracks: QVC basically invented the format of watching someone demonstrate a product and clicking “buy”. That behavior is now the entire premise of social commerce. Rawlinson wants QVC to own the space before someone else realizes it was theirs all along.

The numbers he’s working with are big. QVC Group reaches more than 200 million homes across seven countries through 15 television channels and brings in around $10 billion in revenue annually across six retail brands: QVC, HSN, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, and Grandin Road. That’s a serious platform to build from. The challenge is getting it to move.

It’s not been without headwinds. The company posted a net loss in 2024, and shifting a legacy media business to digital-first is slow, expensive work. But the board extended Rawlinson’s contract through December 2027, which tells you what they think of his direction.

He’s also spoken openly about what it means to be one of the few Black executives at this level in his industry. The customer base QVC serves looks like America. Rawlinson believes leadership should too, and he’s built up his internal culture around that conviction.

Live commerce is already a massive category globally. China figured it out years ago. The U.S. is still catching up. If Rawlinson can thread the needle and keep the loyal base that grew up with QVC while pulling in a new generation of shoppers, the company doesn’t just survive the shift. It leads it.

He’s not here to preserve what QVC was. He’s here to build what it was always capable of becoming. Based on his track record, you’d be foolish to bet against him.

Follow CSG as we continue celebrating Black History Month with more Trailblazers shaping the future of retail and foodservice.

Sources

QVC Group Corporate Newsroom

Liberty Media / QVC Group Investor Relations

Harvard Business School Alumni Profile

Business Roundtable Member Directory

National Retail Federation Board of Directors