SESSION 1: WHAT DOES BEAUTY MEAN TODAY?

The definition of beauty has changed and the market has transformed accordingly to represent new opportunities and imperatives to incorporate wellness, sexuality, global culture and identity in the way we think about what is beautiful. Here, we explore where the beauty and wellness industry is today, and where it is going.

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 (15:15 Los Angeles | 18:15 New York | 23:15 London)

• My Unibrow and Me: Why We Need to Decolonise Beauty — Sharareh Siadat
• How to Make the Beauty Industry Truly Global — Gabby Chen, Zaher Eldassouky and Renata Gomide in conversation with Imran Amed
• Gender, Beauty & Activism: My Trans Experience — Schuyler Bailar
• Let’s Talk About Sex — Nadya Okamoto and Beatrice Dixon in conversation with Sheena Butler-Young
• Overlooked and Underserved: From Minority to Majority — John Legend and Ari Bloom in conversation with Priya Rao

SESSION 2: WHERE WILL GROWTH COME FROM?

Growth in the global beauty industry requires innovation, from new products to new markets to new customers. How we get there requires radical thinking and thoughtful leadership from business and creative leaders alike. In this session we will examine the most important growth opportunities and how to go after them.

Wednesday, 31 May, 2023 (09:30 Los Angeles | 12:30 New York | 17:30 London)

• An Introduction to “The State of Fashion: Beauty Report” — Imran Amed and Achim Berg
• Why India Is Beauty’s Future — Falguni Nayar in conversation with Imran Amed
• Future Gazing: The Rise of Well-Care, Digital Health and Longevity Solutions — Eurie Kim and Kirsten Green
• Innovating Beauty’s Acquisition Model — Vasiliki Petrou in conversation with Sheena Butler-Young
• Why Selling Doesn’t Have to Mean Selling Out — Monique Rodriguez and Ben Gorham in conversation with Priya Rao
• The Politics of Black Hair — Holly J. Mitchell and Hannah Diop in conversation with Julee Wilson
• How Sephora Is Fostering Community to Drive Growth — Jean-André Rougeot in conversation with Priya Rao

SESSION 3: HOW DO WE CREATE CUSTOMER CONNECTION?

Connecting with customers now goes beyond loyalty programmes or the social media app of the moment. Customers come back to re-engage with companies when they love the products and see themselves reflected in the brand. Here we learn from some of the best in the business on how to create deep and meaningful customer relationships.

Wednesday, 31 May, 2023 (14:15 Los Angeles | 17:15 New York | 22:15 London)

• Why Brand Marketing Is Back — Isamaya Ffrench and Marty Bell in conversation with Imran Amed
• From Disruptor to Incumbent: Glossier’s Second Act — Kyle Leahy in conversation with Brian Baskin
• The Clean Beauty Debate — Charlotte Palermino, Desiree Verdejo and Dr. Dennis Gross in conversation with Sheena Butler-Young
• In Search of Real Customer Connection — Jane Lauder in conversation with Priya Rao
• How Personalisation Can Transform Customer Connection — Maju Kuruvilla in conversation with Rahul Malik
• Flora, Fauna and Fungi: Finding Truth in Nature — Cécile Lochard, Aggelina Kanellopoulou and Rodrigo Garcia in conversation with Priya Rao
• The Beauty of Compassion — Pamela Anderson in conversation with Moj Mahdara
• Coming Back to Your Why — Roxie Nafousi

Meet Our Speakers

The Global Forum will showcase diverse speakers and moderators from the worlds of activism, business, entertainment, politics, finance, science, beauty and wellness.

Pamela Anderson’s body of work spans both entertainment and activism. Anderson rose to fame with her starring role in Baywatch, going on to produce and star in her own television series, V.I.P., and made her Broadway debut in the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago in 2022. In January 2023, Anderson released her New York Times Bestselling memoir, “Love, Pamela,” alongside a Netflix documentary, “Pamela, A Love Story.” She has spoken at both the Oxford and Cambridge Unions on the subjects of activism, veganism and romantic love.

Schuyler Bailar is an educator, author and activist who made history as the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on a National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division 1 men’s team. Originally recruited to swim for the Harvard women’s team, Bailar made the difficult choice to transition while potentially giving up the prospect of being an NCAA Champion. Instead, he was presented with the Harvard Director’s Award and named LGBTQ Nation’s Instagram Advocate for 2020.

Marty Bell is founding partner of Vacation Inc., a “leisure” sunscreen brand known for its nostalgic and experiential marketing. Since soft-launching direct-to-consumer in 2021, the brand raised $11.2 million in capital, and secured wholesale partners such as Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Ulta Beauty. In 2021, Vacation Inc. savvily capitalised on the NFT hype by selling NFTs at Art Basel, where 85 percent of sales come from shoppers in non coastal cities.

Achim Berg is the global leader of McKinsey’s Apparel, Fashion and Luxury Group. With over 20 years of experience advising numerous leading brands, retailers, wholesalers and producers worldwide on a range of topics, he has deep expertise in the fashion and luxury goods sectors. Berg has advised on a broad range of topics, from full-scale transformations to corporate strategy, from merchandising improvements to buy-and-build programmes. He is also co-editor of McKinsey and BoF’s annual “State of Fashion” report as well as the recently published “State of Fashion – Technology” report. Furthermore, he oversees the practice’s knowledge developments and its externalisation.

Ari Bloom is the co-founder and chief executive of A-Frame Brands, where he is focused on building scalable, socially responsible brands designed to meet the everyday needs of underserved communities. Along with a celebrity co-owner, Bloom oversees a roster of minority-serving brands including Proudly, a baby care brand for diverse families, with Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade; KINLÒ, a suncare brand for melanin rich skin with Naomi Osaka; and Loved01, a personal care and skincare brand with John Legend. Prior to A-Frame, Bloom served as chief executive at Avametric, a fashion software firm that was acquired in late 2018. He spent his formative years as a merchandising executive at Gap Inc. and subsequently earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. He launched A2B Ventures in 2009 through which he advised both start-up founders and Fortune 500 Executives for companies such as Uniqlo, Equinox and Starwood Hotels, Dreamworks.

Gabby YJ Chen is the global expansion president of Chinese beauty brand Florasis 花西子, with over 15 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region. Chen’s expertise in consumer insights and strategic acumen will help drive Florasis’ growth in the global beauty market. Prior to joining Florasis, Chen held the position of Head of Beauty in China for Lane Crawford, where she led the expansion of many beauty brands and drove growth. Chen is a successful entrepreneur and investor, founding Mood Editing Cosmetics - acquiesced by NetEase (NTES: NASDAQ) in 2020. With her experience, Chen is poised to lead Florasis 花西子 into its next phase of global expansion.

Manoj Dias is meditation teacher, brand consultant and co-founder of Open, a mindfulness studio based in California. His discipline is grounded in secular mindfulness, Buddhist meditation, breathwork and yoga training through the lens of trauma informed mindfulness and somatic psychology. His client roster includes athletes, executives, schools and Fortune 500 companies such as Nike, NBA, Aesop, Netflix, Google, and the United Nations. Dias has worked at MoMA, Coachella, Warner Music, and Art Basel Miami, and was featured in GQ, Vogue and Forbes. Dias sits on the faculty of The Esalen Institute as well as the Melbourne Business School’s Executive Leadership Programme.

Hannah Diop is the founder and chief executive of Sienna Naturals, a natural hair care brand. To establish Sienna Naturals, Diop researched ingredients found in nature and proven by science to improve wellness outcomes for textured hair and scalp. Diop is a former strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she worked for clients in big box retail and OTC Pharmaceuticals, and is the holder of an MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Beatrice Dixon is co-founder, chief executive and chief innovation officer at The Honey Pot Company, a feminine hygiene and wellness brand. Founded in 2014 from her own kitchen, Dixon grew The Honey Pot Company into a plant-derived feminine care powerhouse, its products are found in 4.6 million US homes.

Zaher Eldassouky is the general manager of the beauty division at Chalhoub Group, the largest retailer and distributor of luxury brands in the Middle East and North Africa. As part of his role, Eldassouky oversees the Estée Lauder brand portfolio, which includes Kilian, Crème de la Mer, Origins,The Ordinary, EDPFM and Tom Ford Beauty. He also plays a key role in driving strategic skin care expansion and growth for the group in the GCC region. Eldassouky began his career at Starcom Media Vest (Publicis Group) before moving to L’Oréal and Estée Lauder Middle East. In 2010, he joined Chalhoub Group, where he has held various leadership positions, including Marketing Director at Coty in the Middle East and General Manager for the beauty retail business with franchise operations.

Isamaya Ffrench is a makeup artist, and the founder and creative director of her namesake makeup brand. In addition to working with photographers such as David Sims and Mert and Marcus on shoots for Interview, Dazed and Vogue Italia, she also helped develop makeup lines for brands including Tom Ford, Burberry and Byredo. Earlier this year, she was appointed beauty curator for Off-White.

Rodrigo Garcia is a South American designer and environmental activist. Garcia is the founder and creative force behind AMEN, a collection of sustainable design candles, handcrafted with natural vegetal wax and a revolutionary mushroom carbon negative packaging, furthering his manifesto to share a world without plastics. As part of AMEN’s debut collection at Dover Street Market, Paris, Garcia presented his installation ‘Mushroom Conversations’, which has since travelled to Design Miami, Frieze New York, Galerie Kernweine, Galeria del Paseo and many more cities around the world. In 2021 in collaboration with his partner Katharina Kaminski, Garcia launched a collection of light sculptures ‘Luminous Beings’ which shares awareness on being born Intersex and was exhibited in Paris and Design Miami/Art Basel. With no formal training in the field, Garcia’s unique philosophy on design and activism has been featured in the New York Times, Wallpaper, Another, Financial Times, Vogue, Dazed and Numero to name a few.

Renata Gomide is marketing vice-president from Grupo Boticário, one of the largest beauty groups in Brazil, and the sixth most sustainable beauty company globally, according to DowJones Sustainability Index, 2022. Gomide is responsible for all marketing strategy, communication and GTM for all categories and brands in the Group. Gomide has a degree in Business Administration from FAAP, in Marketing from ESPM and an MBA in Strategic Business Management from FGV.

Ben Gorham is the founder and creative director of Byredo, the Swedish fragrance brand best known for its range of genderless scents and candles. In 2022, Byredo was acquired by prestige fashion fragrances manufacturer Puig at areported value of €1 billion.

Kirsten Green is founding and managing partner of Forerunner Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors at Glossier, Ritual and Nordstrom, among others. Green has been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, a Top 20 Venture Capitalist by The New York Times, and Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women List for the past six years. Green is also a founding member of the female mentorship collective, All Raise, and actively champions women in the tech industry.

Dr. Dennis Gross is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon, and co-founder of his namesake skin care brand. Dr. Gross’ previous research on melanoma was published in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Experimental Medicine and Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Aggelina Kanellopoulou is an environmental scientist from Greece. With a degree in psychology and a master’s degree in animal behaviour, she has led research positions at universities in the USA and Spain. Her passion for education has allowed her to work for environmental organisations internationally, and in 2017, she founded The Bee Camp, the first organisation in Greece dedicated to the protection of bees. In 2021, Kanellopoulou was selected to take part in the Women for Bees programme at Guerlain and UNESCO in France, in partnership with Angelina Jolie. With the programme she has travelled to Cambodia to launch the program locally.

Eurie Kim is managing partner at Forerunner Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. Since joining the firm in 2012, Kim spearheaded investments in more than 50 early stage companies and supported Forerunner’s efforts to raise over $2.3 billion from leading institutional investors, making it one of the only women-led firms to reach this milestone. She earned an MBA with honours at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a B.S. with honours in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

Maju Kuruvilla is the chief executive of Bolt, a San Francisco-based company that offers software for online shopping checkout. Kuruvilla joined Bolt in January 2021 as chief product and technology officer, later to be promoted as chief operating officer and then chief executive in January 2022. Prior to Bolt, Kuruvilla was the vice president and general manager for Amazon’s global logistics, managing the entire unit across business, product, engineering and operations. He holds an MBA from the University of Washington and a BSc in Computer Engineering from Mangalore University.

Jane Lauder is executive vice president of enterprise marketing and chief data officer at The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Granddaughter of founder Estée Lauder, Jane joined the company in 1996 after her graduation from Stanford University, and has previously managed two of its portfolio brands, Clinique and Origins. In her current role, Lauder leads enterprise-wide efforts to leverage business insights and analytics to accelerate growth through global consumer care and marketing planning.

Kyle Leahy is chief executive of Glossier, where she previously served as chief commercial officer. Prior to Glossier, Leahy worked at Nike, Cole Haan and American Express in multiple strategy, general management, digital and retail leadership roles. Leahy earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

John Legend is an award-winning singer-songwriter, entrepreneur and founder of personal care brand LOVED01. Beyond his music career, Legend is an avid advocate for equal opportunity for all people. In February 2023, Legend founded LOVED01 with a mission to democratize skin care by providing elevated, unisex face and body products for melanin-rich skin, at an affordable price point. LOVED01 offers dermatologist-approved, skin care solutions made of thoughtful, ingredients for melanin-rich skin to deliver truly effective results. The brand is sold through LOVED01.com and at CVS stores nationwide, and select Walmart stores.

Cécile Lochard is chief sustainability officer at LVMH-owned French luxury cosmetics brand Guerlain, where she had previously served as biodiversity programmes and sustainable communications manager. Holding a double master’s in Sustainable Development from Paris Dauphine University and Profit-Non-Profit Project Management from the ESSEC business school, Lochard began her 25-year long career within HSBC’s Socially Responsible Investment branch. In 2006 she joined The World Wildlife Fund for Nature, managing its private partnerships, and in 2011 she founded Citizen Luxury, a consultancy specialised in guiding luxury houses in the creation of CSR strategies.

Moj Mahdara is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and co-founder. Mahdara is the co-founder and managing partner of Kinship Ventures and partner at Intuition Capital, where they are focused on bringing more inclusion and diversity to the cap table. Mahdara has invested in over 100 companies, many in the sectors of high-tech growth, CPG and the future of health. Mahdara is also the co-founder and co-chair or BeautyUnited, a non-profit focused on bringing community, education, and access to support the next generation of beauty and wellness leaders. Additionally, Mahdara recently co-founded The Iranian Diaspora Collective, a non-partisan, multi-faith group aiming to support the demands of Iranians in Iran who want a free secular democracy. Formerly, Mahdara was chief executive of Beautycon, a globally-recognized community for content creators, celebrities, fans, and brands.

Holly J. Mitchell serves on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and was previously a California state senator. Since her election in 2020, Mitchell made poverty alleviation a countywide priority and has anchored an equitable recovery plan from the health and economic effects of Covid-19. During her service, Mitchell passed a landmark guaranteed income programme, made LA County the first in the nation to phase out urban oil drilling and has strengthened the County’s ability to quickly respond to mental health crises among unhoused residents.

Roxie Nafousi is a self-development coach, author and speaker. Her books “Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life” and “Manifest: Dive Deeper,” published in 2022 and 2023, respectively, are both Sunday Times Bestsellers. Nafousi regularly hosts manifesting workshops at companies including Google and Meta.

Falguni Nayar is founder and chief executive of beauty and lifestyle retail company Nykaa. Since its establishment in 2012, the retailer’s brand portfolio grew to include over 4,500 brands, as well as its own private label, available online and across 68 stores in India. A former investment banker, Nayar was the receiver of EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2022, and named on Forbes India World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, Bloomberg 50 and Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies lists between 2022 and 2021. Nykaa’s IPO in 2021 raised over $650 million, rendering it as India’s first and only woman-led unicorn to go public.

Nadya Okamoto is the co-founder of August, a lifestyle period brand. She is also the founder and former executive director of Period, a non-profit organisation aimed at eradicating period poverty and stigma through service, education, and advocacy. Between 2019 and 2020, Okamoto was named in Forbes’ 30 under 30, Bloomberg’s 50 Ones to Watch and People Magazine’s Women Changing the World.

Charlotte Palermino is the co-founder and chief executive of Dieux, a clinically vetted and price-transparent skin care line. Previously working as editorial director at Cosmopolitan and then Snap Inc., she helped partners to develop audiences and a presence on the instant messaging and AR platform.

Vasiliki Petrou is CEO of Unilever Beauty & Wellbeing, the premium division of Unilever Personal Care and home to nine differentiated brands across luxury skin care and hair care, including Dermalogica, Murad, Tatcha, Paula’s Choice, Living Proof and Hourglass Cosmetics. Petrou holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, is a Fulbright Scholar, recipient of the Kellogg Foundation Fellowship recognising female leaders, and current chairwoman of Cosmetic Executive Women UK.

Monique Rodriguez is founder and chief executive of the hair care and beauty brand Mielle Organics. Established in 2014 out of her garage, Mielle Organics is now worth over $100 million according to AfroTech, and is carried in more than 100,000 stores in the US, including Ulta, Target and Sally Beauty. In 2023, the brand was acquired by Procter & Gamble while continuing to be led by Monique and her husband Melvin Rodriguez.

Jean-André Rougeot is president and chief executive of Sephora Americas, where he oversees the prestige beauty retailer’s growth strategy in North and South America. Rougeot joined Sephora in 2019 after having served as chief executive at Benefit Cosmetics and Coty Division. He is a graduate of the ESCP-EAP French Business School and a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School.

Sharareh Siadat is founder and chief executive of TooD Beauty, a non-binary, vegan makeup line boasting technologically innovative formulations. Siadat’s personal experience as first-generation American of Iranian heritage led her to establish TooD with the aim to encourage self expression and champion diversity. The beauty brand supports sustainable consumption through its world first biodegradable glitter and using ocean-waste plastic packaging.

Desiree Verdejo is the founder and chief executive of Hyper Skin, a multicultural skin care collection rooted in joy. Founded in 2019, Hyper Skin provides solutions for the underdressed skin care concerns affecting those with deeper skin tones, and the brand successfully launched in Sephora stores across the United States in 2023. Previously, Verdejo was founder and chief executive of her first start-up, Vivrant Beauty, a marketplace featuring BIPOC-owned haircare, skin care and cosmetic brands. Her lifelong interest in skin care and the unmet needs of the community that she engaged with in this boutique-setting inspired her to create Hyper Skin. Prior to her work in the beauty industry, Verdejo practised law for seven years.

Julee Wilson is executive director at BeautyUnited, a non-profit organisation supporting Black and Indigenous founders within the beauty and wellness industries, in addition to serving as beauty editor-at-large at Cosmopolitan. She was previously global beauty director at Essence Magazine and senior fashion and beauty editor at The Huffington Post. Wilson is a committed advocate for the representation of Black talent in fashion, and sits on the executive board of the Black In Fashion Council as well as the advisory board of Harlem’s Fashion Row.

The Global Forum is made possible in part by our partners Bolt, BeautyUnited, Unilever Prestige, McKinsey & Company, MagicLinks, Cavu and Stanly Ranch.