beauty-industry
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Andra Mielnicki Knows Luxury Is a Feeling Before It Is a Product
From Avon and IndyCar pit lanes to fragrance launches and Cartier watch dinners, her career offers a practical lesson in making heritage feel present: find the brand's truth, then translate it for the room you are in.
Esi Eggleston Bracey Built Brands by Looking for Who Was Missing
An engineer by training and an accidental marketer by her own account, Esi Eggleston Bracey has spent 35 years finding the people brands overlook - then turning that attention into products, growth, representation, and durable change.
Aurelian Lis
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.
Catherine Magee
Catherine Magee is the co-founder and CEO of Playground, a sexual wellness brand she launched in 2022 with product developer Sandy Vukovic and pop star Christina Aguilera. After more than 15 years building aspirational beauty brands at companies like bareMinerals, Buxom, Rodan + Fields and theBalm Cosmetics, Magee set out to give intimate care the same skincare-grade performance and cosmetic-level joy that the beauty aisle had long enjoyed. Under her leadership Playground reached Target, Urban Outfitters and Amazon, raised roughly $2 million in seed funding, generated billions of social impressions, and landed Magee on Inc.'s 2024 Female Founders 250 list.
Emily Coleman
Emily Coleman is the Chief Executive Officer of (MALIN+GOETZ), the New York apothecary-inspired skincare, fragrance and personal care brand. A 20-plus year veteran of luxury beauty, she spent two decades at L'Oreal across Paris, Hong Kong, New York and California in digital, marketing, travel retail, retail operations and supply chain, finishing as Senior Vice President of Urban Decay. She then served as CEO of Chantecaille Beaute, succeeding founder Sylvie Chantecaille, before taking the top job at (MALIN+GOETZ) in March 2025. She is known for building global brands with local relevance.