beauty
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Dara Pauker and the question a sales forecast cannot answer
After a career moving between retail strategy and the operating chair, Dara Pauker asks a disarmingly personal question about brands: would anyone grieve if yours disappeared?
Adee Drexler and the art of being invited in
She helped Sofia Richie Grainge open the door to millions of viewers. At Infinity Creative Agency, Adee Drexler has built a career around knowing when a relationship is ready for its close-up.
Daniel Wjuniski and the Business of Going Second
He helped build Sallve by listening before selling. Now, as executive chairman, Daniel Wjuniski is making room for the next person to lead the company he co-founded.
PJ Brice put a paper plate to work
A paper plate, a travel bag, a bottle of fragrance. PJ Brice has built a career around everyday objects - and the people, partnerships and practical work that turn them into brands.
Erin Daley
Erin Daley is the Chief Marketing Officer of Ariat International, the Union City, California maker of performance footwear and apparel for riders, ranchers, and outdoor athletes. A brand builder who started on Crest Whitestrips at Procter & Gamble and later ran marketing as SVP & CMO at e.l.f. Cosmetics during its high-growth years, she now leads brand and growth for a company doing roughly $420M in revenue with about 1,600 employees. She holds an MBA from Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, where she has taught and coached marketing students since 2015.
Jill Beraud
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.
Geoff Schneider
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.
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.
Monica Belsito
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.
Faiz Ahmad
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
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
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.
Shane Dawson
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
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
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.