Aimee McCammon has spent the better part of 20 years building power brands including Whittaker’s, Toyota and Mainland, and was most recently chief executive of the NZ arm of the Augusto Group creative agency following stints at Saatchi & Saatchi and Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post. By becoming CEO of Pic’s Peanut Butter in the past week and taking over some of the reins from the founder, her stepfather, Bruce ("Pic") Picot, she says she’s helping to keep the company “in the family”. She hopes it’ll continue to stay that way for generations to come. McCammon was born in Christchurch, grew up in Auckland and is now based in Wellington with her partner and two young children.

When I was five years old, I wanted to run a chocolate factory when I grew up. We lived by the Nestlé factory in Parnell, which probably inspired that dream. 

My stepdad Pic worked right next door in a place called the Parnell Workshops and he used to make wooden furniture – he's always been an entrepreneur. I used to go in there when I was a kid because it was on the way home from school.

My first paid job was actually working for Pic in the Parnell workshops. He had me help out with one of his little businesses where he sold cannabis fertiliser – which sounds highly illegal, but it wasn’t. And so for $5 an hour, I packed cannabis seaweed fertiliser with a liquid gun into the plastic bottles.

My parents were hippies. My dad, Robin McCammon, was a beekeeper, so he made honey, and when Mum met Pic, we had a house on a commune in the Coromandel. But I grew up in Parnell, so we used to go from Parnell over to Coromandel and I had a very barefoot, happy, relaxed upbringing. It was like being in the country but in the city.

Aimee McCammon at age 5 – "a true child of hippies", she says. (Image: Supplied)

I really liked school. I was – and still am – a huge reader. I think any kid who's a voracious reader finds school quite easy. 

I went to Selwyn College, which is a very creative school. I definitely spent more time on the back field smoking cigarettes than in the sports teams. But I always did pretty well academically. 

After I finished school, I was so sick of it that I moved straight over to London to do my OE and have a gap year…which then turned into three. 

When I came back to NZ, I thought, "Shit, I better go to university." 

I always thought I would do journalism or law, and if I'd gone straight to uni after school, I would’ve done one of those. But after my years away, I changed my mind at the last minute and did commerce – which was really unusual for me, because I wasn't particularly into economics or accounting. 

At Auckland University, where I did my degree, the course was very focused on fast-moving consumer goods like groceries, but it was sort of geared towards toothpaste and things like that. At the end of my degree, I was like, oh, my god, I don't know if I can get excited about working with toothpaste all day.

Aged 17, "wearing my first suit. Cream linen from Keith Matheson." (Image: Supplied) 

I ended up going into advertising, which I absolutely love. It's been an amazing career. It joined together my interest in people and in what drives their behaviour. But I still quite like grocery products because that's how I've been formally trained.

I think if I hadn't gone into advertising, my other job would have been a surgeon. I'm fascinated by the medical world.

There’s a lot of similarities between the advertising world and the food sector, with the most common link being enthusiasm. My stepdad Pic is a natural marketer and he's an enthusiast by nature. And that's what I'll bring in, that fascination with people and what makes them happy.

Pic’s Peanut Butter makes a great product, but it's not just about that: it's about how it feels. When you take a jar of Pic’s peanut butter out of the cupboard, you're channelling Pic’s enthusiasm. That's essentially what it is.

Pic has always talked about having family in the business. My brother worked here for quite a while. He started on the factory floor and worked his way up into three different jobs. And I've had a lot to do with the company in my other jobs. 

The timing to get more involved earlier has never been right, but this time it just felt like the right time. Pic’s still really involved in the business, but he just wants to come up with the great ideas.

I love the thought that we could be an intergenerational company – fourth generation, maybe. I think it would be such a lovely legacy. Nelson, where the business is based, is an amazing community and the factory is an important part of it. 

It creates a lot of jobs and we support a lot of community initiatives and it would be great to keep it that way rather than sell it to someone. We've had lots of offers, but Pic says, “I don't need any more money. I'm perfectly happy."

Stepdad and mentor Pic Picot. (Image: Supplied)

Pic is absolutely famous for falling asleep in meetings. So his only request when I decided to move into the same office as him is that I keep the black leather couch in here so he's got somewhere to sleep. 

I'll take the desk and he'll be on the sofa. He'll only come in a couple of times a week, but his ideas come at all times of the day and night and I’m expecting random phone calls and colourful conversations.

My favourite book last year was A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara. It's amazing and is the book that stands out for me the most. It's so compelling, and I wish I could read it again, but I don't think I could put myself through it.

I'm encouraging my two kids to be readers so we can all lie around and read books. I'm completely onto it with my 11-year-old daughter, but my six-year-old is a little resistant. He wants to be a race-car driver, so we do go out in the car a lot and he loves it. I've just got a Tesla and the kids are all about the Tesla.

My mother is a very strong feminist and she always gave me agency over my own life. She gave me choices right from when I was really young and would never tell me what to do. She'd say, "Would you like to clean your teeth or would you like to get into your pyjamas?" 

My parents believed in free expression and making your own way. That taught me really early on to always feel comfortable about understanding what I wanted and then going straight to get it. I never felt like I needed to ask permission for anything.

Having two kids and an amazing career is tricky and hard to pull off. I'm really proud that I've been able to have these amazing kids and that I chose a partner who is incredibly supportive and has enabled me to have this career. 

In business, the thing that makes me happiest is bringing other people through and helping people to realise their potential. I've been employing people for most of my career, probably 25 years, and I see people I brought in as interns and grads. 

Training great people to do great things in the world gives me such a thrill. It's so satisfying to see people doing well whom I brought into companies after meeting them when they were waitressing in restaurants. 

There’s a graveyard of failures and f**kups everywhere and in everything you do. I mean, that's life, right? And you do it in business as well, all the time. I think the biggest success from those failures is learning to get up again and dust yourself off and try something else.

I'm still led more by my passion for great products, brands or helping creative people. But I balanced myself out by learning from Pic from a young age and then doing a commerce degree.

When it comes to peanut butter, I'm a crunchy and salted peanut butter person all the way. I also love the Big Mix, which is the seedy peanut butter. It's delicious and I eat that off the spoon. But I love the crunchy peanut butter on a hot piece of toast dripping with butter. We go through a jar a week in my house.

As told to Ella Somers. 
This interview has been edited for clarity.