The Estée Lauder Companies unveils sweeping organisational changes to support new Beauty Reimagined vision

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) President and CEO Stéphane de La Faverie today announced the US beauty house’s new organisational structure and executive team to lead the Beauty Reimagined vision and action plan (also announced today, as reported) to be “the best consumer-centric prestige beauty company in the world and restore sales growth and stronger profitability”.

De La Faverie said: “Earlier today, I announced Beauty Reimagined, our bold strategic vision for the future of our incredible Company. To deliver our action plan priorities, I am pleased to announce my new Executive Team and structure, reflecting the need to create a flatter, leaner organisation and simplified operations across the business to better serve our consumers.

“Through a combination of elevating top talent internally and recruiting externally, we will make decisions with greater speed and agility, breaking down silos and allowing us to develop a leadership bench for the future.”

ELC said the new executive team together represents decades of deep experience within global prestige beauty. They will drive the action plan of Beauty Reimagined and focus the company on its strengths where it leads and excels, including “Brand Desirability, Innovation, Consumer Experience, Quality and End-to-End Execution”.

The following changes will take effect from 1 April:

REGIONAL UPDATES

The Company is consolidating its existing regional organisation into four geographic clusters to drive greater synergies and efficiencies, as well as strengthen its agility to better capitalise on consumer trends and locally relevant innovation faster.

• Nadine Graf will lead a newly expanded geographic cluster, overseeing EMEA, the UK&I team and a newly established and dedicated Emerging Markets cluster, spanning markets such as India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.
• Tara Simon and Amber English will add Latin America to their responsibilities, creating an Americas cluster, while allowing Latin America and Canada to operate commercially with speed and maximum agility.
• Joy Fan will continue to lead the company’s business in Mainland China.
• Matthew Growdon will lead an evolved Asia-Pacific region, excluding Mainland China. Additionally, Travel Retail Worldwide, led by Olivier Dubos, will report directly into Growdon.

Graf, Simon, English, Fan and Growdon will join the Executive team, reporting directly to de La Faverie. There will be no changes to the company’s external reporting approach.

BRAND UPDATES

Leading ELC’s powerful brand portfolio will be Jane Hertzmark Hudis, who will take on the new title of Executive Vice President, Chief Brand Officer, reporting directly to de La Faverie.

“Jane’s appointment reflects her unwavering commitment to nurturing each brand’s unique equity, and her proven ability to understand and connect with diverse, global consumers,” the company said.

“The brands will now be organised by category clusters to foster best practices, break down silos, accelerate faster speed-to-market and drive a more consumer-centric approach. The clusters will be led by the following leaders who will report directly to Hudis:

• Justin Boxford will continue to lead Estée Lauder and AERIN Beauty.
• Sandra Main will lead the Skin Care brand cluster, including La Mer, Clinique, Origins, Dr.Jart+, Darphin and Lab Series.
• To be named: The Makeup brand cluster, consisting of M·A·C, Bobbi Brown, Too Faced, Smashbox and GLAMGLOW, will be overseen by a leader who will be named later.
• Jo Dancey will lead the Lifestyle Fragrance brand cluster with oversight of Jo Malone London, KILIAN PARIS, and Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle.
• Guillaume Jesel will continue to lead the Couture brand cluster, including TOM FORD and BALMAIN Beauty.
• Shane Wolf will continue to lead the Hair Care brand cluster, including AVEDA and Bumble and bumble.

Deborah Royer and Jesper Rasmussen will continue to lead Le Labo and DECIEM, respectively, and will each report directly to de La Faverie.

FUNCTION UPDATES

The Company is also dramatically transforming its approach to innovation with the goal of delivering well-executed, fast-to-market, on-trend innovations across subcategories, product benefits and occasions, and high-growth price points.

As part of this effort, the following changes include:

• In the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Chief Value Chain Officer, Roberto Canevari will assume leadership of the company’s Packaging and Engineering organisations, in addition to maintaining responsibility for the Global Supply Chain, including global Manufacturing, Fulfilment, Planning, Supplier Management, Quality, Environment, Health & Safety and Region and Brand Value Chains.
• Carl Haney, Executive Vice President, Global Innovation and Research and Development (R&D), is evolving his role to be solely focused on driving transformative product innovation across every facet of the company’s R&D network, including drastically reducing the amount of time it takes to deliver new innovations to consumers.

ELC said it will continue to further leverage external partnerships across its R&D and Value Chain to drive greater efficiency, access specialised expertise, and enhance overall operational effectiveness.

As previously announced, following the retirement of Michael O’Hare, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer Michael Bowes has been named Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer.

In this role, he will focus on driving and expanding ELC’s organisational culture, while helping to support the company’s vision and business objectives through people-focused initiatives.

Additionally, efforts are underway to bring in new external talent for executive roles that will enable the company to better serve its global consumers in the areas of technology, data & analytics, and in digital marketing.

The following members of the Executive Team will continue in their roles:

• Rashida La Lande, who joined the company in August 2024 as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, will continue to oversee ELC’s legal strategy, practices and policies globally, as well as maintaining responsibility for the Global Privacy Office and Global Security Team.

• As Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Akhil Shrivastava, who assumed the role in November 2024, will continue to lead the Global Finance, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Investor Relations and New Business Development organisations.

• Meridith Webster, Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs, will continue to lead the company’s communications and public affairs strategies, advancing and protecting its business interests and corporate reputation globally.

In summary, de La Faverie’s Executive Team will comprise the following leaders:

• Michael Bowes, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer
• Roberto Canevari, Executive Vice President, Chief Value Chain Officer
• Amber English, President, Digital & Online, The Americas
• Joy Fan, President and CEO, China
• Nadine Graf, President, EMEA, UK & I, and Emerging Markets
• Matthew Growdon, President, APAC and Travel Retail Worldwide
• Carl Haney, Executive Vice President, Global Innovation and Research and Development
• Jane Hertzmark Hudis, Executive Vice President, Chief Brand Officer
• Rashida La Lande, Executive Vice President, General Counsel
• Akhil Shrivastava, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
• Tara Simon, President, The Americas
• Meridith Webster, Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs
• To be named: Chief Digital Marketing Officer
• To be named: Chief Technology, Data and Analytics Officer

Commenting further on the leadership changes, de La Faverie remarked: “To achieve our bold Beauty Reimagined goals, we must be organised effectively and efficiently, to make the greatest impact.

“This mix of internal and external talent will bring together a depth of knowledge across our brands, business and heritage, as well as fresh and innovative insights.

“This new organisational structure will improve communication, accountability, collaboration and empowerment at every level of the organisation to be more decisive and faster-to-action.

“I have full trust in the new Executive Team. Their level of collaboration, boldness and accountability is and will be equal to no other. As one team, I am confident that we will deliver sustainable results to all our stakeholders.”