Why Attend
Beauty Connect is the leading digital summit connecting indie brands, multinationals, retailers and industry suppliers from across the US and beyond.
2020 was a game changer for all and it has brought new, urgent challenges to the forefront of the beauty industry that is shaping the strategies of both indie and multinational brands. The concept of beauty is evolving, no longer understood as stand-alone cosmetics, but looking AND feeling healthy and well. The consumer is more aware than ever of their influence in the personal care industry and are using their spending power to reflect values of sustainability, transparency and safety first. Direct-to-consumer strategies used by beauty brands & retailers are under increasing scrutiny as they fight to emerge as leaders in an online world.
Building on the global success of the Beauty & Money Series, our thought-leaders at Beauty Connect will help you to renew your focus on customer engagement, take advantage of the integration of beauty & wellness, and forge partnerships to ensure that your brand’s identity connects with your desired consumer, online, in-store and at home.
Learn what the 'new normal' is, connect with industry-experts in over 20 private 1-2-1 meetings and act pre-emptively to future-proof your brand’s strategy. You’re never too big to fail, you’re never too small to thrive – Beauty Connect USA is the virtual event for forging partnerships, acquiring the latest marketing intelligence and building a brand strategy that will ensure your relevancy and success.
PARTNER WITH US
Based on your objectives, we can create bespoke packages designed specifically for you. Opportunities predominantly lie in 3 main categories: Thought Leadership, Branding, and Networking.
Interested in a media partnership?
We'd love to hear from you and how we can support one another to connect with the industry. Contact [email protected]
Headline Partner
OceanX
Website: www.oceanx.com
OceanX is a technology-first fulfillment provider for industry-leading beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands. We offer a full spectrum of direct-to-consumer (DTC), B2B, and Amazon fulfillment services. These services include a modern fulfillment-as-a-service solution, and a dedicated customer success team. With a 99.5% same-day ship, two-day nationwide shipping coverage, 99.8%+ order accuracy, access to top-tier postage rates, and the ability to capture over 3,000 eCommerce orders per minute – OceanX has set the bar for what a premier solution provider should offer clients.
Associate Event Partner
Croda
Website: https://www.croda.com/en-gb
We are a sustainable beauty solutions provider to the Beauty and Personal Care industry. Using smart science, we partner with brands to create, formulate and develop safe and effective products in the most sustainable way. Our mission is smart science to improve lives.
Our four main brands, Croda, Sederma, Crodarom, and Alban Muller, continuously invest in research and development with a constant focus on the changes that are happening in consumer routines and behaviours to remain market relevant. Always a step ahead when it comes to innovation, we are recognized for creative solutions to meet the demands of today's consumers and future trends in the cosmetics and beauty market.
Croda has a broad offering of efficacious ingredients including emulsifiers, emollients, inorganic UV filters, conditioning agents, specialized actives from Sederma, and botanical extracts from Crodarom. These synergistically combine to deliver any customer’s product needs and wishes.
Beyond cosmetic ingredients, we are experts in formulation development, claims substantiation, market analysis, and industry regulations. Our knowledge provides customers with immediate access to essential support for successful beauty and personal care product development and implementation. From lab scientists to product specialists and customer care agents, the Croda team is excited to offer their assistance.
Platinum Event Partner
Market Defense
Website: https://www.marketdefense.com/
Market Defense is the leading brand growth and protection agency for beauty brands on the Amazon platform. It operates 1P & 3P businesses on behalf of its clients, providing deep expertise in Amazon account management, brand protection, value added logistics and performance marketing. It's portfolio of passion brands includes influential legacy brands like Dr. Dennis Gross and Philip B, to women-owned indie successes Tatcha and Sara Happ, and international favorites expanding into the US like This Works and Grown Alchemist.
Vanessa Kuykendall is Chief Operating Officer and leads all client delivery. She is focused on scaling cross-functional client delivery and broadening capabilities in account management, brand protection and performance marketing to drive faster and more meaningful growth to for Market Defense clients. Vanessa has worked in the beauty industry for 28 years in sales, training and merchandising leadership roles at The Body Shop, MAC Cosmetics, Estee Lauder and Tiffany & Co. Prior to founding Market Defense in 2017, Vanessa led the Beauty.com business for Walgreens.
Senior Content Event Partner
Symrise
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/symrise-cosmetic-ingredients
Symrise is a global supplier of cosmetic ingredients, fragrances and flavors, headquartered in Holzminden, Germany..
At Beauty Connect, our Symrise Cosmetic Ingredients team looks forward to welcoming you! Symrise Cosmetic Ingredients portfolio is comprised of sustainable, clean, conscious and responsible beauty care solutions that includes advanced actives, modern product preservation solutions, protection against sun and environmental aggressors, innovative hair care ingredients, botanical extracts and high-performance functionals
Recent launches include: SymControl® Scalp, Hydrolite® 5 green, SymEffect™ Sun, SymHair® Thermo.
Sustainability has always been an integral part of our corporate strategy and is reflected throughout our entire value chain, including: the cultivation and decompostion of our key raw materials, the collaboration with our local partners and suppliers around the globe, product development and optimization of our manufacturing processes, and the scale of our products to customers and consumers worldwide. Symrise will be climate-positive by 2030.
To learn more, we invite you to please visit SymSelect.com and beautyactivations.symrise.com
dsm-firmenich
Website: https://www.dsm-firmenich.com/en/businesses/perfumery-beauty/beauty-care.html
dsm-firmenich Beauty & Care: A House of Science beyond Wellbeing.
Our Beauty & Care solutions bring beauty and health to the forefront of daily life. Looking after our face, skin, and hair is essential to our sense of self-confidence and holistic beauty. Our remarkably sustainable and scientifically proven solutions positively contribute to people’s lives by enhancing their physical and emotional wellbeing, with science that works and respects our planet for generations to come.
Our Skin Care portfolio includes natural, biotech and synthetic ingredients. We are leaders in organic and mineral UV filters, and we have a broad portfolio of bioactives, performance ingredients and sustainable solutions for a healthy scalp and beautiful-looking hair.
We are committed to offering innovative, scientifically proven, and market-validated personal care solutions that effectively respond to current market trends and key consumer needs, as well as to making a stronger and more transparent commitment to environmentally and socially responsible practices.
EC Scott Group
Website: https://www.ecscottgroup.com/
EC Scott Group is the premier Sales, Service, and Training company for prestige beauty brands in the specialty independent retail channel in North America.
We have developed exclusive channel partnerships with over 100 brands, and have grown our network of accounts to over 2,000 points of distribution, including beauty boutiques, apothecaries, pharmacies, fashion retailers, specialty multi-door chains, regional department stores, beauty chains, college book stores, casinos and military bases.
We tirelessly advocate for our retail partners and simultaneously hold our brand partnerships with the utmost respect. Our brand partners are always in complete control of where their products are distributed, and how their brand looks at the store level in local markets.
We cultivate personal and professional partnerships internally within our own “EC Scott Group Family,” and externally with retailers and brands. We not only sell best-in-class beauty products, but we help accounts generate strong sell through at the local level. We educate the retailer’s team, provide them with tools to make them successful, and invest time in our partnerships to make each retailer’s story, a success story.
Media Partners
Fashion Snoops
Website: https://www.fashionsnoops.com/
FS is a global trend forecasting agency helping leading consumer-facing brands around the world unlock innovation and propel growth. Through a combination of human and artificial intelligence, we analyze cultural shifts and interpret detected patterns in order to surface trend-driven business opportunities.
BeautyMatter
Website: https://beautymatter.com/
BeautyMatter was born from Founder Kelly Kovack’s desire to provide a fresh voice to the beauty industry through the lens of someone who has been in the trenches founding brands, defining white space and commercializing trends. BeautyMatter aims to fill the void, connect the dots and provide an informed analytical and compelling point of view. Exploring the limits and blurring boundaries by offering highly curated news and original content by thought leaders and industry insiders. An essential resource for business intelligence for executives, entrepreneurs and creatives.
STYLUS
Website: https://www.stylus.com/
Stylus are the expert source for trends and insights.
At Stylus, we uncover trends, predict change, and provide the intelligence that helps businesses prosper. With a relentless curiosity for what’s new, what’s now and what’s next, our experts are the authority in over 20 sectors – including Beauty, Consumer Attitudes, Technology, Retail and beyond – and have a deep understanding of the most influential emerging trends affecting consumers around the globe. It’s the reason we’re trusted by more than 600 of the world’s leading brands, agencies and businesses: to help them reveal what’s possible, not just predict what’s probable.
Stylus. See past the now.
Where Brains Meet Beauty
Website: http://www.wherebrainsmeetbeauty.com/
WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY™ Host Jodi Katz, Founder & Creative Director of Base Beauty Creative Agency, welcomes guests into a relaxed, authentic and honest conversation about their career journey, from the struggles to the highs, and the roller coaster ride in-between. Jodi is not a reporter and she’s not ogling stats. She’s part James Lipton, part Andy Cohen, seeking to reveal wisdom and insightful stories that will inspire future leaders in beauty
Beautystreams
Website: https://beautystreams.com/
PROUD PATRON OF
British Beauty Council
Website: https://britishbeautycouncil.com/
The British Beauty Council was founded to represent the voices, opinions and needs of the British beauty industry – from hairdressing to cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, therapy and spa; in education and training; and from formulation to manufacture, supply, logistics packaging, design, retail and media.
We are a not-for-profit, inclusive organisation that works to engage politicians and business leaders about the value of British beauty to the national economy, and its key role in the UK’s creative and cultural character.
Our ambition is to ensure that the beauty industry is recognised and valued at all levels of government, throughout the wider economy and by consumers.
2021 SPEAKERS
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/dsc09841_crop.jpg?itok=9VQ84DTf&c=6e56b06464feece42401ae2dc9f18110)
Heather Deeth
Heather Deeth is responsible for Lush’s raw material supply chain ensuring Lush’s strict ethical standards on non-animal testing, fair pay and conditions for workers and reducing environmental impact are upheld and progressed throughout all levels of supply.
With a global reach, her work has taken her to the agricultural region of Northern Uganda, the argan forests of Morocco, the banks of the Amazon River and manufacturing facilities throughout Asia in search of the highest quality and sustainable materials that make a difference for the people and places they originate. In packaging, her team has embraced the use of 100% post consumer materials and circular economy in paper and plastics for over 10 years and are active industry leaders. For the last six years Heather and her team have developed long term investment projects designed to support economic growth and regeneration in areas that have suffered environmental degradation through conflict, climate change and natural disaster. Through the Sustainable Lush Fund, Heather’s team supports the creation of agroforestry systems to revitalize the environment, engages with farmers to create appropriate long term development and builds value adding processing close to where the ingredients are grown.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/kenya_elderidge.jpg?itok=dO61F_oM&c=8273037cd3297c5492893585277d765d)
Kenya Eldridge
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/scott-sassa.jpg?itok=4yifUirS&c=5cdb0218d923bca35ae032ff882af2e1)
Scott Sassa
Scott M. Sassa is currently Chairman of MILK Makeup, a new millennial brand that is inspired by MILK Studios. It was launched in January 2016. MILK Makeup is available at Sephora, Urban Outfitters, Birchbox and MILK Makeup.com.
From 2008 to 2013, Scott served as President of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication. Scott was on the ESPN Board, was Co-Chair of AETN which included Lifetime, A&E and History. Mark Burnett Productions was acquired during Scott’s tenure. Scott also has oversight of the venture-investing group, which has made investment in Netscape, Broadcast.com, Pandora and other Internet companies.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/jaimee_holmes.jpg?itok=yY94V0rE&c=0c7c5052c6d1e6c9713c1e6db630eea0)
Jaimee Holmes
Jaimee Holmes is an accomplished beauty executive whose progressive leadership vision has propelled growth for brands across multiple categories over the last 15 years. Her credits include leading category innovation and expansion strategies and launching top-ranking global sku’s with Too Faced Cosmetics, and building a complete rebranding and global expansion strategy with Ole Henriksen Skincare. In her current role at goop, she leads global merchandising and distribution strategies for the beauty and wellness categories.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/elana_drell_szyfer.jpg?itok=gNNAyNJn&c=2fc9217ce2773bae2d1b3d18cf090c65)
Elana Drell-Sfyzer
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/carla_ruiz_headshot_2021.jpg?itok=E7fnrjmr&c=c6e496fbbd1932b4e74da330141e7fc1)
Carla Ruiz
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/_49a9812_edited_highres_crop.jpeg?itok=PG0DYZTS&c=3f954e785061d40fd40d639efba862b2)
Melanie Bender
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/eva_new_hs.jpeg?itok=94zzu6Q1&c=5e221ea1a12e10073649ad9bd132918a)
Éva Goicochea
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/rich_gersten_new_pic.jpg?itok=TL0Qxs8u&c=fc34d7d1f1a310b027690920caac850f)
Rich Gersten
Rich has spent the last 30 years investing and building great consumer brands at top private equity firms including Tengram Capital Partners, L Catterton, and North Castle Partners. Rich spent the last 9 years dedicated specifically to investing in the beauty industry, where he developed an extensive network of relationships that sourced many emerging growth brands with very limited access to institutional capital. Realizing the significant opportunity to address this underserved area of the market in beauty, Rich founded True Beauty Ventures.
Rich received a BS in Economics from Union College (N.Y.) and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Shelby Ogan
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/annie_jackson.jpg?itok=6zPvOlya&c=b90ee15121c3995afcbb167941637bee)
Annie Jackson
Beauty veteran, Annie Jackson, has been a key player in the successes of the industry’s biggest beauty companies. Annie began her career at Estee Lauder, where after 6 years, she was recruited to be one of the early members of the team that launched Sephora USA and Japan. Later, she took a role as the Director of Global Product Marketing for Benefit Cosmetics and in 2011, returned to her Sephora roots in merchandising for color cosmetics at Sephora within JCPenney. Her love of beauty and quest for cleaner options led her, alongside Shashi Batra, to create Credo Beauty. As Co-Founders, they shared a vision to change the way people think about what they put in and on their bodies and skin, fostering a new generation of beauty brands - natural, organic, effective, clean and sustainable – to and pioneering the clean beauty movement.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/connor_begley_high_res_image.jpg?itok=jE-ohE9N&c=b80df8e29300f2eea2629ee3a7a46aae)
Conor Begley
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/gillian_gorman-round_general_manager_revlon_incubator.jpg?itok=brLt8KbZ&c=fca690c28f3148226ba10bf3df52390c)
Gillian Gorman Round
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/kevin.jpeg?itok=QkL5Qkdh&c=c34766003e262d67447c0c2f4882383b)
Kevin Gould
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/ashton-_colourpop.jpg?itok=JyaYynbR&c=9341a2c2dd7701281b11c34ec1b131ae)
Ashton Wall
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/katie.jpg?itok=06HmPQ7w&c=298b6a182ccd20df1eea6197d03f7cc6)
Katie Hunt
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/lhr_pro_pic.jpg?itok=6XmF8Zd8&c=626832ad7dfc36013ab486db6d7b0fe4)
Luc-Henry Rousselle
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/drishay_menon.png?itok=fvkLizOJ&c=104ddeda92db28206d3da0343da2a829)
Drishay Menon
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/oliver_garfield_1.jpg?itok=qK-AT4eK&c=298b6a182ccd20df1eea6197d03f7cc6)
Oliver Garfield
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/0_1_0.jpg?itok=HwcA_XNz&c=2df5fd98f51eedfb255faf8ce86d2b9b)
Richard Kestenbaum
Richard is a co-founder and Partner of Triangle Capital and has been an investment banker for over 35 years. Richard has a great deal of experience advising clients in merchandising businesses, particularly in the Retail & Consumer sector. Richard is an often-quoted expert on the retail and merchandising industries. He is a Contributor to Forbes.com where he writes a regular blog about trends in retail and consumer product businesses. He also appears regularly in print and other media as well as industry panels and speaking programs.
Before co-founding Triangle, Richard was a Managing Director at a boutique investment banking firm called Financo, Inc. While at Financo, Richard was responsible for a majority of the firm’s apparel industry transactions. Prior to joining Financo, Richard was a Partner and First Vice President at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. At Drexel, Richard was responsible for a group of 14 professionals doing middle-market mergers and acquisitions around the world.
Richard is the co-author of three books on finance and computer programming. He is formerly an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Business at the graduate program of the Stern School of Business at York University.
Richard received a BS in Accounting from New York University and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Harvard University. Richard is married and lives in New York.
Click here to read Richard’s blog and follow him on Forbes.com.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/caroline-fabrigas-on-all-things-scent.jpg?itok=vAY6fDnX&c=d1745be1df99373a38cdac1ea4922a7d)
Caroline Fabrigas
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Marie-Pierre Stark-Flora
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/straight-talk-with-rochelle-weitzner-founder-of-pause-well-18644-cc.jpg?itok=J2-OtNRU&c=56eb2d41946ee3556985eaa104f5d08b)
Rochelle Weitzner
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/alicia_sontag.jpg?itok=B7SxoYEI&c=1ef3116c77f052969d93caa100f431ea)
Alicia Sontag
Ranked one of Beauty's 50 Most Powerful Women by WWD (2015), and two-time honor of Fortune Most Powerful Women conference (2015/2016), Alicia is a Co-Founder and Partner at Prelude Growth Partners. Prelude Growth Partners is a New York City based growth equity firm focused on providing capital and value-added operatingsupport to high potential, fast-growing consumer brands. Prelude seeks to make investments of $3million to $15 million in each company, across branded consumer categories including personalcare/beauty, food & beverage, baby, pet, health & wellness and other consumer categories.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/jon_shanahan.jpg?itok=65K25GUJ&c=de2f88a91e50c9d3de71f16359fa379b)
Jon Shanahan
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/donna_petretti_croda.jpeg?itok=8PGqDk3w&c=eacbcc3365c402f5da961abcf0907173)
Donna Petretti
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Liz Scott
Liz is the President at EC Scott Group where she oversees Company Strategy, Finance, Trade Marketing, Sales & Education, Communications, and the development of the Beauty and Wellness categories.
Liz attended Wharton with a concentration in retail & marketing. From her time at Saks Fifth Avenue, she brings respect for traditional retail, and from Gilt Group, a passionate entrepreneurial mentality, which fuels her motivation to bring brands and retailers success within the changing beauty landscape.
EC Scott Group, founded in 2004, is the premier Sales, Service, and Training company for prestige beauty companies in the specialty retail channel in North America. EC Scott Group’s services include everything from behind the scenes (i.e. warehousing, pick & pack, retailer headquarter management, collections), to the support in-store that makes independent retail partners successful (i.e. in-store education & training, event planning & execution, sell-through support).
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/veronique_gabai.jpg?itok=HEPu-rGH&c=81c893e81f44b58326555353afcd3460)
Veronique Gabai
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/sonia_headshot.jpeg?itok=XtYzkMX7&c=107f4aecae5ff1935182b16564b9038e)
Sonia Summers
Shielded Beauty Founder & CEO Sonia Summers began her career working in-house for global powerhouses like Avon, where her team won WWD’s highly coveted “Best Executed Brand Launch” award in 2014. In 2015 she launched Beauty Barrage, an outsourced sales management agency complete with a highly successful and modern field team – helping to create signature experiences and a “human touch” at retail. Beauty Barrage represents an impressive portfolio of brands including: L’Oreal, PerriconeMD, The Proactiv Company, Unilever, Coty, Nudestix, Dermaflash and many others.
Back in 2020 when the COVID crisis unfolded, Sonia found herself constantly searching for a safer way to protect our skin — but she couldn’t find any highly-effective purifying products that also prioritized nourishing the skin’s microbiome. Sonia felt like she shouldn’t have to compromise on luxury for efficacy, she decided to start developing the products that she was desperately looking for herself!
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/jill_headshot_2021.jpg?itok=WygbmoM7&c=9824c8621e07934c3013b3dca0d57e27)
Jill Granoff
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Romain Gaillard
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Christine Chang
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/ilya_seglin_alternative.jpg?itok=se3Yo0xr&c=de1055c3e587c232e9150c9f52b1e545)
Ilya Seglin
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Jen King
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/craig_dubitsky.png?itok=AAQiigi_&c=198b72cae8476109f691bf5a33c817cf)
Craig Dubitsky
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/jolene_headshot.jpg?itok=dL7k9XrX&c=7050f9596068096538b77c1bd27d66b3)
Jolene Maloney
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/juliana_pic.jpg?itok=fkG6JSBl&c=24ef20ff2c14b4ad845944ed6ad0faa6)
Juliana Salto
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/keenan.jpg?itok=HXcP7D5S&c=32cf40ef4e0f4425b86e8fa600bb4aad)
Keenan Beasley
Keenan Beasley is a successful entrepreneur, industry disrupter and visionary who embraces and utilizes technology to tell stories and influence consumers in dynamic ways. Keenan’s expertise in blending tech, art and creativity has changed the marketing landscape and opened the door to modern strategies and fresh approaches.
Keenan currently serves as the CEO of Infinte Looks Inc, a textured hair care company and creators of the brand Sunday II Sunday. Keenan’s non-profit arm, Venture Noire, mentors and develops diverse entrepreneurs and provides them with access to critical resources. In 2014 Keenan started BLKBOX, a creative agency in New York City with a wide range of multinational clients, including Samsung and Diageo.
Before launching his entrepreneurial ventures, Keenan managed and led several multibillion dollar brands, including Tide, Gillette and Garnier beauty products. He served as Vice President of Marketing at L'Oréal, Associate Director at Reckitt Benckiser and Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble.
Keenan is a contributor to Forbes, Venture Beat, Fast Company and CNBC, an advisor to numerous start-up companies and a regular lecturer at the USC Marshall School of Business.
Keenan Beasley received a Bachelor of Science degree in Law and Systems Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He divides his time between New York City and Los Angeles.
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Lauren Consiglio
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Mimi Ghosh
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Sarah Lee
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Natalie Mackey
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Luciana Uttembergue
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/gamze_sauzeat_-beautycounter.jpg?itok=LblZYbAh&c=5b9e2e73fd5cc477acecd9212819e37a)
Gamze Sauzeat
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/rebecca-hobbs_-_w_916_.jpeg?itok=YYxxqFrT&c=eea76e938a9137f33c79e90f29b35d28)
Rebecca Hobbs
At Stylus, the expert source of trends and insights, Rebecca tracks disruptive shifts within the retail and brand comms landscape in order to define the future direction of store concepts, online engagement and technology. Particularly fascinated by the attitudinal shifts underpinning changes in brand culture, she previously spent three years as senior fashion reporter at industry title Retail Week, where she gained extensive experience of the retail sector, providing thought-leadership on topical issues and appearing on national news programmes as an industry expert.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/denae_rocha.png?itok=jn-MylK2&c=d1103d609b26805f7a8bd1a6589d3f1b)
Denae Rocha
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/vanessa_kuykendall.jpg?itok=Mf6b9lxJ&c=377b815530cca66ec90226f4416723a6)
Vanessa Kuykendall
In her 25+ year history in beauty retail, Vanessa Kuykendall has led teams and driven revenue in brick & mortar, E-Commerce, and now Amazon. A founding partner at Market Defense, Vanessa leads Client Delivery where her team protects brand equity and drives profitable growth in the Amazon Marketplace. They provide a full suite of services including Account Management, Brand Protection, Logistics & Operations, Advertising, and Creative for beauty brands like Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, this Works and Beauty Bakerie; the average YoY increase in their portfolio was 75% over 2021. Her past roles include Sales, Merchandising and Marketing at MAC Cosmetics, Tiffany & Co., The Body Shop, Estee Lauder, Walgreens and Beauty.com, the first prestige beauty retailer to sponsor NY Fashion week shows.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/julian.png?itok=7fRjWMgI&c=294b9a6f2ad4a6ada27f79d28e7ff00d)
Julian Chu
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/hs.jpg?itok=IUrm9A6U&c=c102ac3232b481674a0a0befe140f09e)
Luciana Uttembergue
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/azin.jpg?itok=coWpKrPe&c=a1dbd2df1a519b974fc71a73d4ef71d3)
Azin Tehran-Kafai
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/img_0050bnw.jpg?itok=nkah1HcS&c=98886cdedf57c36a8ce22ad80ef5c79d)
Catherine Collins
CALLING ALL INDIE BRANDS!
INDIE BRAND DIRECTORY
This year, we have an exciting addition for additional brand exposure! All independent beauty brands that register to attend Beauty Connect: Coast to Coast are eligible to be advertised in the Indie Brand Directory on our virtual platform for all attendees, speakers and partners to view.
In the directory, your brand name, logo, lead email and website or social media link will be advertized alongside a direct link for viewers to book a meeting with your representative through the networking platform.
Contact us at [email protected] for any questions regarding the brand directory!
Beauty Connect: Mentorship Program
Are you an indie brand looking for advice on how to grow your brand?
Our dedicated mentorship sessions are the perfect opportunity for you to get in the room with the thought leaders from the beauty industry!
Our dedicated sessions will focus on:
Investment
Managing growth & profitability
Logistics of distribution
Connecting with retailers
Maximising your brand value in M&A
Customer engagement online & in-store
MEET OUR 2021 MENTORS
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/oliver_garfield_1.jpg?itok=qK-AT4eK&c=298b6a182ccd20df1eea6197d03f7cc6)
Oliver Garfield
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/rich_gersten_new_pic.jpg?itok=TL0Qxs8u&c=fc34d7d1f1a310b027690920caac850f)
Rich Gersten
Rich has spent the last 30 years investing and building great consumer brands at top private equity firms including Tengram Capital Partners, L Catterton, and North Castle Partners. Rich spent the last 9 years dedicated specifically to investing in the beauty industry, where he developed an extensive network of relationships that sourced many emerging growth brands with very limited access to institutional capital. Realizing the significant opportunity to address this underserved area of the market in beauty, Rich founded True Beauty Ventures.
Rich received a BS in Economics from Union College (N.Y.) and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/headshot_2020.jpg?itok=6DSNEHz0&c=33e673f264cea56ae18aaa3f8bee871d)
Liz Scott
Liz is the President at EC Scott Group where she oversees Company Strategy, Finance, Trade Marketing, Sales & Education, Communications, and the development of the Beauty and Wellness categories.
Liz attended Wharton with a concentration in retail & marketing. From her time at Saks Fifth Avenue, she brings respect for traditional retail, and from Gilt Group, a passionate entrepreneurial mentality, which fuels her motivation to bring brands and retailers success within the changing beauty landscape.
EC Scott Group, founded in 2004, is the premier Sales, Service, and Training company for prestige beauty companies in the specialty retail channel in North America. EC Scott Group’s services include everything from behind the scenes (i.e. warehousing, pick & pack, retailer headquarter management, collections), to the support in-store that makes independent retail partners successful (i.e. in-store education & training, event planning & execution, sell-through support).
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/headshot_-_speaking_engagements.png?itok=and_XLzI&c=4f7819b206476077784b4e73c886f91b)
Mimi Ghosh
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/connor_begley_high_res_image.jpg?itok=jE-ohE9N&c=b80df8e29300f2eea2629ee3a7a46aae)
Conor Begley
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/cristina_nunez_headshot_2022.jpg?itok=adlPhlp9&c=540fe9ed6d489b8536b148d8650ad1fd)
Cristina Nuñez
Cristina Nuñez is Co-Founder and General Partner of True Beauty Ventures. True Beauty Ventures is an emerging growth fund focused on investing exclusively in beauty and wellness brands. With 16 years of CPG experience, Cristina offers a unique combination of investing and operating expertise having spent the first part of her career at private equity firms Tengram Capital and L Catterton, as well as UBS Investment Bank. Cristina has also held executive leadership and operating roles in beauty and wellness companies such as Clark’s Botanicals, where she was the GM and COO, as well as Laura Geller Beauty and Equinox.
As Co-Founder of True Beauty Ventures, Cristina brings a valuable perspective to early-stage brand founders as both an investor and operator with deep sector expertise in beauty. Cristina graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a BA with Highest Distinction in Public Policy Studies.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/0_1_0.jpg?itok=HwcA_XNz&c=2df5fd98f51eedfb255faf8ce86d2b9b)
Richard Kestenbaum
Richard is a co-founder and Partner of Triangle Capital and has been an investment banker for over 35 years. Richard has a great deal of experience advising clients in merchandising businesses, particularly in the Retail & Consumer sector. Richard is an often-quoted expert on the retail and merchandising industries. He is a Contributor to Forbes.com where he writes a regular blog about trends in retail and consumer product businesses. He also appears regularly in print and other media as well as industry panels and speaking programs.
Before co-founding Triangle, Richard was a Managing Director at a boutique investment banking firm called Financo, Inc. While at Financo, Richard was responsible for a majority of the firm’s apparel industry transactions. Prior to joining Financo, Richard was a Partner and First Vice President at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. At Drexel, Richard was responsible for a group of 14 professionals doing middle-market mergers and acquisitions around the world.
Richard is the co-author of three books on finance and computer programming. He is formerly an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Business at the graduate program of the Stern School of Business at York University.
Richard received a BS in Accounting from New York University and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Harvard University. Richard is married and lives in New York.
Click here to read Richard’s blog and follow him on Forbes.com.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/alicia_sontag.jpg?itok=B7SxoYEI&c=1ef3116c77f052969d93caa100f431ea)
Alicia Sontag
Ranked one of Beauty's 50 Most Powerful Women by WWD (2015), and two-time honor of Fortune Most Powerful Women conference (2015/2016), Alicia is a Co-Founder and Partner at Prelude Growth Partners. Prelude Growth Partners is a New York City based growth equity firm focused on providing capital and value-added operatingsupport to high potential, fast-growing consumer brands. Prelude seeks to make investments of $3million to $15 million in each company, across branded consumer categories including personalcare/beauty, food & beverage, baby, pet, health & wellness and other consumer categories.
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/kevin.jpeg?itok=QkL5Qkdh&c=c34766003e262d67447c0c2f4882383b)
Kevin Gould
![](https://kisacoresearch.com/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_square/public/speakers/joel_headshot_4-for-web.jpg?itok=DmREYHmU&c=2cba5b43daf3f4f70927b9041d076ceb)
Joel Palix
How can you take advantage of this opportunity?
You will need to be registered to attend Beauty Connect: Coast to Coast and complete an application for the mentorship program below! Our mentors will then select the brands they’d like to speak with and you’ll be informed of their decisions by mid-April. Sessions will be held the week of the conference and the week following.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED
Please note this is not a pitching session, but an opportunity for you to gain honest advice on key challenges your brand might be facing. Take away tips and tricks on how to grow your business, harness digital engagement, maximize your brand value and increase profitability.
DOWNLOAD AGENDA
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Download 2021 Agenda
REGISTER TO ATTEND
Sending Your Team? Group Discounts Available!
Applicable for Primary Market, Service Provider and Industry Rates Only. Not available for Academic or ‘Start-Up’ rates
Book a Team of 3+ - Save an Additional 10% Off
Book a Team of 5+ - Save an Additional 15% Off
If you would like to register a team of 3 or more, please email [email protected] for your discount coupon code before registering. PLEASE NOTE: Discounts cannot be combined with Early Bird Pricing or any other discount or offer. If you have any questions about your registration, please call us on +44 (0)20 3696 2920
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The Virtual Experience
Top 10 benefits
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- Save Time & Money
- Increased Content
- More insights
- Business Development Opportunities - Talk to our team to find out out more [email protected].
About Kisaco Research
Kisaco Research produces, designs and hosts B2B industry conferences, exhibitions and communities – focused on a specialized selection of topic areas.
Meet industry peers that will help build a career-changing network for life.
Learn from the mistakes of your peers as much as their successes—ambitious industry stalwarts who are happy to share not just what has made them successful so far but also their plans for future proofing their companies.
Note down the inspired insight that will form the foundation for future strategies and roadmaps, both at our events and through our online communities.
Invest both in your company growth and your own personal development by signing up to one of our events and get started.