Growth in the rapidly evolving global beauty industry requires innovation, from products to markets to customers. Getting there requires big ideas, skillful execution, and thoughtful leadership from business and creative leaders alike.
From the start, BeautyMatter has provided actionable insights and business intelligence to navigate the dynamic and constantly changing beauty landscape. With our live events, we look to push boundaries and open minds with ideas and conversations that help define the future of the global beauty landscape. Meet our lineup of powerhouse speakers.
Unlock Your Inner Apex Predator
An eye-opening exploration that connects the wild world of tracking lions in Africa with mastering the beauty industry. Discover how the ancient skills of tracking and intuition are more relevant than ever in navigating modern challenges. Learn how confronting fears and breaking patterns can transform your approach to beauty and business. Get ready to embrace your inner strength and rediscover control with the revolutionary Core Survival Ability Benefitting Activities aid (CSABA)—a unique opportunity to elevate your understanding and achieve unparalleled clarity in your personal and professional life.
Keynote: Csaba Lucas, Innovative Entrepreneur
Touching Base with Beauty's Deal Maker
As the saying goes, some people need no introduction, but few reach the lofty heights of mononymous status. Mention the name Vennette (no last name required) to anyone in the beauty industry, and they’ll know exactly who you are talking about. As Managing Director and Head of Beauty and Personal Care at Raymond James, she is a dealmaking powerhouse and BeautyMatter’s 2024 Person of the Year. Her success is marked by serendipitous encounters, determination, and open-mindedness in a high stakes business, with individual livelihoods and industry-wide reputations on the line. If there is a mega deal in the making often Vennette is at the epicenter.
Vennette Ho, Managing Director, Global Head of Beauty and Personal Care, Raymond James
Moderator: Kelly Kovack
What It Takes to Hit the $100 Million Mark
$100 million has become the new $50 million.For investors and founders, hitting the $100 million revenue mark has become an important milestone and the threshold for what's next—build and hold or strategic exit. Scaling can happen quickly with the right mix of brand, marketing, distribution, and a little luck. For many founders, launching and generating buzz is easy, but launching a brand and building a business are fundamentally different things. Getting the fundamentals right lays the groundwork for a sustainable business that can convert buzz into performance, priming it for long-term success.
Ju Rhyu, Co-Founder, Hero Cosmetics
Marc Elrick, Founder + CEO, BYOMA
Carolyn Aronson, Founder + CEO, It’s a 10 Haircare
Colette Laxton, Co-Founder, The INKEY List
Moderator: John Cafarelli
Keeping Up with Culture, Creators, and a Shifting Social Landscape
Social media has enabled a bottom-up, bubble-up, decentralized way for culture to emerge. The dynamics are fluid, spanning platform environments, content codes, and user behavior. What worked six months ago may no longer apply today. To compete, brands must now deliver a more dynamic, relevant, and meaningful value exchange amid a web of complexity and contradiction. Success requires brands to strike a balance between performance and creativity, paid and owned, creators, and superfans, and AI efficiency and human engagement. The energy, velocity, and amplification power of social media will continue to reshape our world and how brands do business—so what's next.
Michelle Miller, CMO, K18
Jana Bobosikova, Co-Founder, KIKI World
Candace Craig Bulisak, President, Tarte Cosmetics
Mary Yee, CEO, Tatcha
Moderator: Carla Seipp
The Current State of E-Commerce and What Comes Next
Online trends come and go, but others have the potential to permanently change how customers shop online—hello TikTok Shops. From augmented reality and artificial intelligence to social shopping and shifting search, e-commerce lives at the forefront of technology and innovation. Brands and retailers must constantly assess, adopt, test, or watch when it comes to trends and technology. Being early might mean a competitive edge. Being wrong could mean wasted resources. Creating a seamless omnichannel experience that serves consumers who are not constrained by borders or defined by channels is the holy grail.
Alexandra Keating, Founder + CEO, Uni
Jeff Lee, Co-Founder + CEO, DIBS Beauty
Carina Chaz, Founder, DedCool
Moderator: John Cafarelli
Regulatory Radar: The Biggest Regulations You’ve Never Heard Of
A quick overview of the current global landscape, surface issues, and regulatory topics that should be on everyone's radar, from international hot topics to the current status of MoCRA on the national front, as well as legislation on the state level like Washington's Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging laws. We will discuss the practical implications and timing of regulatory and sustainability legislation.
Dr. Akemi Ooka, VP, Supply Chain and Sustainability Resources, Independent Beauty Association
Moderator: Kelly Kovack
Winning the Talent War: Building Lean High-Performing Teams
It’s no secret that an organization’s success hinges on leadership and the team it builds. This requires the ability to attract and retain the right talent but the time, effort, and resources spent on inefficient or ineffective recruiting strategies can quickly become a bottomless pit. Being competitive on compensation for senior hires and understanding the evolving expectations and priorities of Gen Z can necessitate rethinking the who and how of building a team. As brands scale, the business needs to evolve, sometimes creating a chasm between the talent you need and the talent you can afford. We'll dive into what Gen Z wants and how to leverage outsourcing and fractional hires to build nimble high-performing teams.
April Uchitel, Co-Founder + CEO, THE BOARD
Meloney Moore, Associate Dean, The De Sole School of Business Innovation, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
Scott Gurfein, Founder + CEO, SkyeFox Ventures and Brand-OS
Moderator: Kelly Kovack
Common Sense Disruption: Capturing Opportunities in Plain Sight
Sometimes, disruption is loud; other times, it operates in stealth mode quietly upsetting the status quo. Finding a white space is one way to shake things up, but opportunities are also uncovered by exploring the why. Categories get dusty and strategies have a way of becoming formulaic. Just because it's always been done that way or that's what everyone else does, doesn't mean it still works or there isn’t another approach. Some great brands that break through the noise are built by founders willing to zig when everyone else zags, identifying a market gap hiding in plain sight. It's a unique skill that requires confidence, vision, and the ability to make others follow.
Katy Cottam, Founder + CEO, Luna Daily
David DiLorenzo, Founder + CEO, V Beauty Pure
David Gaylord, CEO, Bushbalm
Michele Gough-Baril, Founder + Chief Brand, Product Officer, Iris&Romeo
Moderator:John Cafarelli
Reading the Market: Surviving and Thriving in a Downturn
While the Lipstick Index has an economic barometer of sorts and beauty may be more resilient than other CPG categories, it is not immune to downturns. For much of the last decade, the industry has been booming, fueled by easy access to capital and what felt like an insatiable consumer appetite for beauty, which created a rush of new brands and business concepts entering the market. The fact remains, most start-ups fail and everything that goes up eventually comes down. Business and trends are cyclical even in beauty. While there are signs that demand is moderating, not all categories or markets are moving in tandem. However, a confluence of factors has created fertile ground for an era of "beauty Darwinism" to take hold. The ability to read the market will determine the outcome for many businesses. Some will not make it. Others will come out the other side stronger. And it is in these moments when some of the most innovative companies are born.
JuE Wong, Board Director, The Honey Pot Co.
Deanna Kangas, Beauty Advisor + Investor, Strategic Growth Consulting
Andrew Stanleick, Consultant and Private Equity Senior Advisor
Margarita Arrigada, Founder, Valdé Beauty
Moderator: John Cafarelli
Immersive Brand Building: Decoding Gen Z and Alpha's Phydigital World
Retailers and brands increasingly see Roblox and its nearly 79.5 million daily active users as a significant marketing platform that brings millions of people together through shared experiences. For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, gaming is a top entertainment activity and is viewed as a form of socializing and self-expression where the virtual world is an extension of their physical world. The global platform has become ground zero for beauty brands looking to capture the attention of virtual beauty consumers, providing a powerful integration into omnichannel marketing strategies.
Maya Kosovalic, VP of Digital Innovation & E-Commerce, NYX Professional Makeup
Susanah Zeffiro Beaumont, Head of Growth Verticals, SuperAwesome
Justine Higueras, Global Group Director, Beauty, Roblox
Lana Rae, Influencer, Palette Media, Inc.
Moderator: Kelly Kovack
