Jill Beraud is an American consumer brand executive who has spent more than three decades building and running some of the best-known names in retail, beauty, luxury and beverages. She began in brand management at Procter & Gamble, ran her own New York advertising agency, then spent 13 years at Limited Brands, where as Chief Marketing Officer of Victoria's Secret she helped grow the label into a multi-billion-dollar business and also led marketing across Bath & Body Works, Express, Henri Bendel, C.O. Bigelow and Limited Stores. In December 2008 PepsiCo created the role of worldwide Chief Marketing Officer for her, reporting to Indra Nooyi; there she pushed the company away from Super Bowl spending and into the $20 million Pepsi Refresh Project, and later ran the Starbucks and Lipton joint ventures. She went on to serve as CEO of Living Proof, EVP of Global Retail Operations at Tiffany & Co., and CEO of the luxury jewelry house IPPOLITA, before co-founding the plant-based functional beverage company Sh'nnong. Fast Company named her one of its 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2013. She has sat on the board of Levi Strauss & Co. since 2013, was re-elected in April 2026, chairs the Fashion for Good board, and has served on the World of Children Board of Governors since 2009.
Belk is a privately held American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina. Headquartered in Charlotte, it operates roughly 290 stores across about 16 Southeastern states plus belk.com, selling mid-priced national and private-label apparel, shoes, cosmetics, jewelry, accessories and home goods. Marketed under the tagline 'Modern. Southern. Style.,' Belk blends a 130-plus-year Southern retail heritage with an omnichannel model and a portfolio of exclusive private brands.
goop is a wellness and lifestyle brand founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2008 that began as a weekly email newsletter and grew into a direct-to-consumer company selling clean beauty, skincare, supplements, fashion, and home goods alongside editorial content, a podcast, and events. It pairs aspirational storytelling with 'contextual commerce,' turning wellness articles into shoppable curation for a largely affluent, female audience. The brand is known both for pioneering the modern wellness-media category and for the controversy its more provocative products and health claims have generated.
Kering is a French global luxury group that owns and develops a portfolio of Houses in fashion, leather goods, jewelry and eyewear - including Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Boucheron, Pomellato, Qeelin and Ginori 1735, plus Kering Eyewear and Kering Beaute. Controlled by the Pinault family through holding company Artemis, Kering grew out of a lumber and retail company (PPR) and reoriented itself entirely toward luxury, positioning creativity and sustainability at the center of its strategy.
Kohl's is one of the largest department store chains in the United States, operating roughly 1,100 off-mall stores across 49 states plus Kohls.com. Founded in Wisconsin, it sells moderately priced apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty, and home goods to value-conscious families, anchored by its Kohl's Cash and Kohl's Rewards loyalty programs. In recent years it has leaned on partnerships - hosting Sephora shops inside its stores and accepting Amazon returns - to drive traffic while working to reverse a multi-year sales decline.
Macy's is one of America's best-known department store chains, founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy in New York City and now the flagship nameplate of Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M). The company sells apparel, accessories, beauty, cosmetics, footwear and home goods across roughly 450 stores and macys.com, and also operates the higher-end Bloomingdale's and the beauty specialty chain Bluemercury. Anchored by its Herald Square flagship and cultural touchstones like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Fourth of July fireworks, Macy's is executing a multiyear turnaround called the 'Bold New Chapter' under CEO Tony Spring.
Nordstrom is a Seattle-based fashion retailer that began as a single shoe store in 1901 and grew into one of America's best-known department store chains. It sells apparel, shoes, beauty, accessories and home goods across full-line Nordstrom stores, off-price Nordstrom Rack locations, small-format Nordstrom Local service hubs and its digital platforms. Long defined by high-touch customer service and a liberal returns culture, the company returned to family control in May 2025 when the Nordstrom family and Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool took it private in a roughly $6.25 billion deal.
Tory Burch is a New York-based luxury lifestyle brand founded in 2004 by designer Tory Burch. Blending preppy American sportswear with bohemian and eclectic details, it sells ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, accessories, jewelry, fragrance, beauty, home decor and the Tory Sport activewear line through roughly 400 stores worldwide, wholesale partners and multi-language e-commerce. The privately held, family-run company generated an estimated $1.8 billion in retail sales in 2024. From the start the brand was built to fund a mission: the Tory Burch Foundation, launched in 2009, advances women's entrepreneurship through access to capital, education and a fellowship program.
Victoria's Secret & Co. is a Columbus, Ohio-based specialty retailer of lingerie, intimates, beauty and fragrance, operating the Victoria's Secret, PINK and Victoria's Secret Beauty brands along with the digital-first label Adore Me. Spun off from L Brands as an independent NYSE-listed company (VSCO) in 2021, it sells bras, panties, sleepwear, activewear, body care and fragrance through roughly 1,300 retail stores, a global network of partner-operated locations and a large e-commerce operation. With about $6.55 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue and around 31,000 employees, the company is pursuing a turnaround that pairs a revived Victoria's Secret Fashion Show with a broader, more inclusive brand message.
GoSaga, Inc. is a Norwalk, Connecticut wellness holding company that builds and scales next-generation lifestyle brands across fitness, beauty, and well-being. Founded in 2020 by Geoff Schneider and partners, it runs an asset-light franchisor platform that pairs a centralized operating engine - unified technology, data, quality assurance, and expert operators - with a portfolio of founder-led brands including LYMBR, Squeeze Massage, VIO Med Spa, and FitLab's boutique fitness concepts. Backed by $5M in Series A funding, GoSaga positions itself to capture consumer engagement at every stage of the wellness journey.
Geoff Schneider is the co-founder and CEO of GoSaga, a Norwalk, Connecticut holding company that acquires and scales franchised brands across wellness, beauty, and fitness. He founded the personalized-stretching studio brand LYMBR and runs the early-stage investment platform Cava Capital, drawing on more than 25 years operating and investing in consumer brands. Under his 'efficient franchisor' thesis, GoSaga has assembled a portfolio including LYMBR, VIO Med Spa, FitLab, and Squeeze Massage that shares services and vendor scale across roughly a dozen states.
The Business of Fashion (BoF) is a London-based global media and intelligence company covering the fashion, beauty and luxury industries. Founded by Imran Amed in 2007 as a blog written from his flat in Notting Hill, BoF has grown into an authoritative platform that combines agenda-setting journalism, paid professional memberships, data and advisory work through BoF Insights, online masterclasses, the BoF Careers job marketplace, and marquee events like BoF VOICES and the BoF 500. The Financial Times led its Series B round in 2019, and the company reaches readers and members in more than 200 countries.
Dermalogica is a Los Angeles-born professional skin care company founded in 1986 by skin therapist Jane Wurwand and her husband Raymond. Built out of the International Dermal Institute - a training school Wurwand launched three years earlier - the brand pairs clinically minded, irritant-free formulations with rigorous therapist education, selling only where a licensed skin professional can advise. Now a Unilever Prestige brand sold in more than 80 countries, Dermalogica is widely regarded as the world's number one professional skin care line, known for franchises like BioLumin-C, Age Smart, Active Clearing and the teen-focused Clear Start.
DIBS Beauty - short for Desert Island Beauty Status - is a New York and Austin-based makeup brand built on a simple premise: fewer products, better results. Co-founded in 2021 by creator Courtney Shields and operator Jeff Lee alongside Tula Skincare's Ken Landis and Dan Reich, DIBS makes multi-use, vegan, cruelty-free essentials like its hero Desert Island Duo blush-and-bronzer stick. The brand grew primarily direct-to-consumer through Shields' social following, took growth capital from L Catterton in 2023, and expanded into Ulta Beauty in 2024. Its tagline: 'Do less. Look like you did the most.'
Great Many is a New York-founded hair growth company that pairs in-studio clinical treatments - PRP injections and FDA-cleared laser therapy - with a telehealth platform and a line of growth-focused hair care products. Started in 2024 by Heyday co-founder Michael Pollak and former Estee Lauder omnichannel VP Steve Klebanow, it treats hair loss as a health category rather than a taboo, building consultative studios (NYC, Atlanta, Washington DC) around scalp assessments, microscopic follicle imaging and clinician-led plans for both men and women.
MALIN+GOETZ is a New York-founded modern apothecary that makes uncomplicated, high-performance skincare, fragrances and candles for all skin types. Started in 2004 by Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz - a couple who met the beauty and design worlds head-on - the brand launched with six essentials gentle enough for Malin's own sensitive, reactive skin. Two decades later it is a cult grooming staple sold in dozens of countries, known for its grapefruit face cleanser, eucalyptus deodorant and its 19th-century-apothecary-inspired packaging.
Aurelian Lis is the Global CEO of Dermalogica, the professional skin-care brand owned by Unilever Prestige. A self-described 'nerdy physicist with a love for cosmetics,' he took the top job in January 2016 after quadrupling Benefit Cosmetics' Americas business to roughly $500 million as its general manager. Trained in physics at Oxford and business at INSEAD, Lis built and sold his own customized skincare company before bringing a science-meets-emotion philosophy and a habit of relentless iteration to one of the world's leading professional skincare houses.
Homecourt is a luxury home and personal care brand founded in 2022 by actress Courteney Cox and beauty-industry veteran Sarah Jahnke. It applies beauty-grade standards to everyday household products, selling non-toxic, plant-based, fine-fragrance cleaning sprays, candles, body care and laundry products through its own site and retailers including Nordstrom, Bluemercury, Revolve and Amazon. The company raised an $8 million Series A in October 2025 led by CULT Capital after doubling revenue every year with a famously tiny team.
Monica Belsito is the CEO of Function of Beauty, the made-to-order personal care company that turns an online quiz into a custom bottle of shampoo. She took the top job in July 2025 after a career spent building consumer brands that get acquired: founding CMO at feminine-care brand LOLA, CMO at hummus maker Sabra (bought by PepsiCo in 2024), and senior brand manager at Dollar Shave Club before its $1 billion sale to Unilever. A Georgetown grad and Harvard MBA who started in crisis PR and Colgate's management program, she now steers Function of Beauty's push from DTC into shelves at Target, Sephora, Walmart, and Amazon.
e.l.f. Beauty is an Oakland-based, publicly traded cosmetics company (NYSE: ELF) built on a simple disruptive idea: prestige-quality makeup and skincare that almost everyone can afford. Founded in 2004 as e.l.f. (Eyes Lips Face) and reshaped under CEO Tarang Amin since 2014, it has grown into a multi-brand house spanning e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. SKIN, Well People, Keys Soulcare, Naturium, and Hailey Bieber's rhode. Every product is vegan and cruelty-free, most cost under $20, and the company has become a case study in social-first, community-driven brand building.
Kendo Brands is a San Francisco-based beauty brand incubator and operator owned by LVMH. Named as a play on the phrase 'can do,' Kendo creates and acquires beauty brands and scales them into global businesses, blending startup energy with the backing of the world's largest luxury group. Its portfolio includes Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair and Fenty Fragrance by Rihanna, OLEHENRIKSEN, and Lip Lab, distributed in 60+ countries.
MAKE UP FOR EVER is a French professional cosmetics brand founded in 1984 by makeup artist Dany Sanz to give artists the high-pigment, high-performance products they couldn't find anywhere else. Acquired by LVMH in 1999, it became known for backstage-grade staples like the HD Skin foundation range, an inclusive shade philosophy, and a worldwide network of MAKE UP FOR EVER Academies that graduate roughly 1,300 students a year. The brand sits at the intersection of professional artistry and consumer beauty, sold largely through Sephora.
Paula's Choice is a Seattle-based, research-backed skincare brand founded by consumer advocate Paula Begoun in 1995. Built on the radical idea that beauty should be judged by ingredients rather than marketing, the company sells fragrance-free, cruelty-free, science-driven products direct to consumers around the world. Its cult 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant and a culture of ingredient transparency turned a self-published 'Cosmetics Cop' into a roughly $300M brand that Unilever acquired in 2021.

Faiz Ahmad is the Chief Executive Officer of Paula's Choice Skincare, the Unilever-owned, Seattle-based science-driven beauty brand. He spent two decades building direct-to-consumer machines at Apple, Delta Air Lines, Optum and YETI before stepping in to steer Paula's Choice through a sports-meets-skincare era anchored by the FIFA World Cup 2026 sponsorship.
Kristin Walcott is the CEO of Kendo Brands, the San Francisco beauty incubator owned by LVMH and home to Fenty Beauty, KVD Vegan Beauty, Ole Henriksen, Fenty Skin, Lip Lab and Kendo Fragrances. She joined Kendo in 2013, ran KVD Vegan Beauty through record growth, was promoted to President in 2019 and named CEO effective December 1, 2020 - the first woman to lead the company.
Tarang Amin is the Chairman and CEO of e.l.f. Beauty, the affordable cosmetics company he took public in 2016 and grew from a $135 million equity story into a multi-brand portfolio anchored by e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. SKIN, Naturium, Well People, Keys Soulcare, and - as of May 2025 - Hailey Bieber's rhode in a $1 billion deal.
StyleSeat is an online marketplace and booking platform connecting beauty and wellness professionals - hair stylists, barbers, makeup artists, nail techs, estheticians - with millions of clients searching for appointments. Founded in San Francisco in 2011 by Melody McCloskey and Dan Levine, it bundles booking, payments, marketing, and a client database into a single tool for independent pros, while giving consumers a discovery and reservation engine for local services.
Shane Dawson (born Shane Lee Yaw) is one of YouTube's original superstar creators, a Long Beach kid who turned a camera and a knack for characters into 4.8 billion combined channel views. Over nearly two decades he pivoted from sketch comedy to celebrity documentary deep-dives, co-authored two New York Times bestselling memoirs, won multiple Streamy Awards, and launched a record-setting makeup collaboration with Jeffree Star. After a high-profile controversy and YouTube demonetization in 2020, he returned in 2021, relocated to a Colorado farm with his husband Ryland Adams, and in 2023 welcomed twin sons. By 2025 he was back with another Jeffree Star docuseries, rebuilding quietly but unmistakably.
Sonya Brown is a General Partner and Co-Head of Growth Equity at Norwest Venture Partners, a leading venture and growth equity firm managing over $12.5 billion in capital. With more than 20 years of investment experience spanning Bear Stearns, iXL Ventures, and Summit Partners, she joined Norwest in 2011 and has built a reputation as one of the most influential investors in consumer products, e-commerce, retail, and business services. Her portfolio includes Babylist, Madison Reed, Kendra Scott, and PCA Skin. A perennial honoree on M&A's Most Influential Women list, she is equally recognized for her work advancing diversity and inclusion in private equity.

Ezra Firestone is a self-taught ecommerce entrepreneur who dropped out of high school, played poker in NYC underground clubs, and went on to build and sell multiple 7-, 8-, and 9-figure brands - most notably BOOM by Cindy Joseph, which crossed $200 million in cumulative revenue. He runs Smart Marketer (his education platform), Zipify Apps (serving 18,000+ Shopify brands with $600M+ in facilitated upsell revenue), and has acquired and turned around brands like oVertone Haircare. His philosophy - 'Serve the World Unselfishly and Profit' - is backed by results, and his operating principles around content-first marketing, brand mission, and sustainable growth have influenced an entire generation of ecommerce operators.