Stéphane de La Faverie Unveils Leadership Changes and New Organizational Structure to Propel Estée Lauder’s Beauty Reimagined Vision
Stéphane de La Faverie, President and CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies, has announced a sweeping overhaul of the company’s leadership and organizational structure, designed to accelerate its “Beauty Reimagined” strategy. This transformative initiative aims to solidify Estée Lauder’s position as the world’s top consumer-centric prestige beauty company while revitalizing its sales growth and boosting profitability. As part of this vision, de La Faverie emphasized that the company would focus on simplifying operations and creating a leaner, more agile structure to better serve global consumers.
A Vision for the Future: Beauty Reimagined
Earlier in the day, de La Faverie introduced “Beauty Reimagined,” a bold strategic vision aimed at shaping the future of the company. He articulated the importance of executing a decisive action plan to bring this vision to life. “To deliver on our priorities, I am excited to announce a new Executive Team and organizational structure, which reflects our commitment to creating a simpler, more efficient operation across the business,” said de La Faverie. “We will elevate top talent from within and also recruit new leaders from outside, ensuring that we are making decisions faster and with greater agility, breaking down silos, and setting the stage for long-term leadership.”
This new leadership team brings decades of global expertise in the prestige beauty industry and will steer the company’s efforts to focus on its core strengths—brand desirability, innovation, consumer experience, quality, and end-to-end execution. By aligning its operations and leadership to respond more swiftly to global consumer trends, Estée Lauder intends to solidify its competitive edge in an ever-evolving marketplace.
Key Leadership Changes: Regional and Brand Updates
The company’s new structure introduces several critical leadership updates, effective April 1, 2025. These changes are designed to streamline operations across its global business and maximize efficiencies, allowing for quicker responses to consumer demands.
Regional Leadership Changes
The company is consolidating its regional organization into four geographic clusters. This realignment will help create synergies, boost operational efficiencies, and enhance the company’s ability to leverage local market insights for faster innovation. The following updates are part of this restructuring:
- Nadine Graf will take the helm of a newly expanded geographic cluster, overseeing the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), UK&I (United Kingdom and Ireland), and a newly established Emerging Markets cluster. The latter will span markets such as India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, allowing for more agile and region-specific strategies.
- Tara Simon and Amber English will jointly lead the Americas cluster, which will now include Latin America in addition to the North American markets. This integration will allow Latin America and Canada to operate with greater speed and agility, making them more responsive to changing consumer preferences.
- Joy Fan will continue to lead Estée Lauder’s business in mainland China, a vital market for the company’s growth.
- Matthew Growdon will take charge of an evolved Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, excluding mainland China. In addition, Olivier Dubos, who leads Travel Retail Worldwide, will now report directly to Growdon.
These regional leaders, who include Nadine, Tara, Amber, Joy, and Matthew, will join de La Faverie’s Executive Team and report directly to him. It is important to note that external reporting structures will remain unchanged.
Brand Portfolio Leadership
Estée Lauder’s iconic brand portfolio will now be managed under a new structure aimed at increasing brand desirability, accelerating speed-to-market, and driving a more consumer-centric approach. Jane Hertzmark Hudis, a key figure in the company’s brand leadership, will assume the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Chief Brand Officer. This appointment underscores her deep understanding of global consumer behavior and her exceptional ability to cultivate each brand’s unique equity.
Under Jane’s leadership, the brands will be organized into category clusters to enhance best practices and break down organizational silos. These new clusters will enable quicker decision-making, better alignment, and faster go-to-market strategies. The following leaders will oversee the respective brand clusters:
- Justin Boxford will continue to lead the Estée Lauder and AERIN Beauty brands.
- Sandra Main will oversee the Skin Care brand cluster, which includes La Mer, Clinique, Origins, Dr.Jart+, Darphin, and Lab Series.
- A new leader will be named to lead the Makeup brand cluster, which includes M·A·C, Bobbi Brown, Too Faced, Smashbox, and GLAMGLOW.
- Jo Dancey will manage the Lifestyle Fragrance cluster, which includes Jo Malone London, KILIAN PARIS, and Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle.
- Guillaume Jesel will continue to lead the Couture brand cluster, which includes TOM FORD and BALMAIN Beauty.
- Shane Wolf will continue to oversee the Hair Care brand cluster, which includes AVEDA and Bumble and bumble.
- Deborah Royer and Jesper Rasmussen will continue leading Le Labo and DECIEM, respectively, reporting directly to Stéphane.
Organizational Function Updates: Innovation and Operational Efficiency
As part of the organizational transformation, Estée Lauder is placing a stronger emphasis on innovation. This shift aims to accelerate product development, bringing faster, trend-aligned innovations to market at all price points, including premium categories. Several key leadership updates support this vision:
- Roberto Canevari will assume the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Chief Value Chain Officer. In addition to his current responsibilities overseeing the global supply chain, Canevari will now oversee the company’s Packaging and Engineering functions, playing a crucial role in streamlining the company’s value chain operations.
- Carl Haney, Executive Vice President of Global Innovation and Research and Development, will now focus exclusively on driving transformative product innovation. Haney’s role will emphasize reducing the time it takes to deliver new innovations to market.
Estée Lauder is also continuing to explore external partnerships to bolster its R&D capabilities and improve operational efficiency. These strategic collaborations will help access specialized expertise and enhance overall productivity.
In terms of human resources, Michael Bowes has been appointed Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer, succeeding Michael O’Hare following his retirement. Bowes will focus on reinforcing the company’s world-class organizational culture and aligning people-centric initiatives with business objectives.
The company is also seeking to expand its leadership team by recruiting external talent in key areas such as Technology, Data & Analytics, and Digital Marketing. These roles are critical to enhancing the company’s technological capabilities and ensuring it remains at the forefront of the digital marketing landscape.
Continuity in Leadership
Several members of Estée Lauder’s leadership team will continue in their existing roles, ensuring stability and continuity as the company evolves:
- Rashida La Lande, who joined the company in August 2024 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, will continue overseeing the company’s legal strategy and policies worldwide, including managing the Global Privacy Office and Global Security Team.
- Akhil Shrivastava, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will maintain his leadership role overseeing the company’s global finance functions, including accounting, tax, treasury, investor relations, and new business development.
- Meridith Webster, Executive Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs, will continue to lead the company’s communications and public affairs strategies, protecting and enhancing its global reputation.
