2023 INDUSTRY SPEAKERS

Akshay Talati

VP Product Development – Beauty & Wellness

Goop

Akshay Talati, a pharmacist, is an expert in cosmetic research and innovation, having championed hundreds of successful products at 22 multinational and indie brands at Estee Lauder, Unilever and L'Oreal over his 30 years career.  

Currently, as head of product development for Goop, a trending wellness and lifestyle brand, he leads expansion by launching a new brand for mass retail channels as well as growing beyond skincare into several other product categories in makeup, haircare, and wellness essentials.  

He also serves as Vice President on the board of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, is an executive advisor, speaker, and writer for several trade shows and publications, co-founded Skindie™, and actively engages in mentoring professionals seeking guidance in the beauty industry. 

Amy Elisa Jackson

VP Global Marketing for PATTERN

Beach House Group

Amy Elisa Jackson has worked in a variety of industries, but no matter the role, she is a storyteller first. She is currently the VP of Global Marketing for PATTERN Beauty by Tracee Ellis Ross. Amy Elisa leads the management, development and implementation of operational and product marketing strategies, creative campaigns, retail expansion and innovation for the award-winning haircare brand dedicated to exceed the beauty needs of the curly, coily & tight-texture community. 

In previous roles at tech companies like Glassdoor and Facebook, to publishers including People Magazine, EBONY and MSN, she has overseen global editorial content and integrated marketing strategies. She has developed content for brands across lifestyle, digital, culture and news brands, and has interviewed celebrities, policy makers and top executives across the platforms of podcast, digital media, television, and print.

Amy Elisa earned her Bachelors of Arts degree in Communications & Middle Eastern Studies from Stanford University. She lives in Los Angeles with her Chihuahua rescue dog, Shug Avery.

Anna Graham

Managing Director

eComplete

Beatrice Dixon

Founder

The Honey Pot Company

Brian Grady

Senior Marketing Specialist

dsm-firmenich

Caldon Henson

Operations Director

eComplete

Celeste Hilling

Founder & CEO

Skin Authority

Chelsea Riggs

Founding Member & Global President

Amika

Conor Begley

Co-Founder, Tribe Dynamics & Chief Strategy Officer

CreatorIQ

Conor Begley is the Co-founder Tribe Dynamics and Chief Strategy Officer at CreatorIQ. In September 2021, Tribe Dynamics was acquired by CreatorIQ to create the leading influencer marketing platform for the creator economy, bringing together influencer performance management and analytics solutions to help brands and businesses. Conor has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Influencer Marketing by Influence Weekly, and was recognized as one of the 100 Leaders of Tomorrow by St. Gallen’s Symposium.

Cristina Nuñez

Co-Founder and General Partner

True Beauty Ventures

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.

Darryl Thompson

Chief Investment Officer

New Voices Fund

David Baker

Chief Digital Officer

Beekman 1802

David Yi

Co-Founder

Very Good Light

Ilya Seglin

Managing Director

Threadstone

Jana Wright

Partner

Moss Adams

Jana Wright is a partner with Moss Adams, LLP where she has practiced public accounting since 2007.  She provides assurance and consulting services to clients in the beauty and fashion industries. Jana’s specific experience includes managing audit and review engagements, acquisition accounting, cash flow projection preparation, and evaluating internal control and financial reporting processes. Her key to success is building strong, long-lasting client relationships. Jana is actively involved in the firm’s mentor program and is the firm’s lead recruiter for California State University, Long Beach. She is also a leader in Moss Adams’ Forum W initiative. Jana was nominated for CalCPA’s Emerging Leader Award in both 2018 and 2020.

Jenna Galardi

Director of Omnichannel Growth

Feedonomics

Jenna Galardi has over a decade of experience helping businesses grow online. Whether the business is a startup or a Fortune 100 company, they rely on Jenna’s expertise as a growth accelerator. From award-winning website design and development to inbound marketing tactics of search-engine-optimization, content creation, pay-per-click, email marketing, social media and influencer marketing - she loves connecting businesses to the right customers online.

 

In her current role as Director of Omnichannel Growth, she leads the consultation arm and Omnichannel Certified Agency Program at Feedonomics. Focusing on helping merchants strengthen their online presence and adopt social commerce, marketplaces, and product feed optimization solutions to scale their growth. Jenna is proud to be a strategic resource to her customers and partners.

Jordan Friedlander

Vice President

Yellow Wood Partners

Kara Posner

Partner

Giannuzzi Lewendon

Kinta Gates

VP Supply Chain & Operations

Glossier

Laura Demuth

VP, Patient Care

Curology

Lizbeth Zuniga

Founder & CEO

Acquire Beauty

Lizbeth Zuniga, the Founder and CEO of Acquire Beauty, brings her profound expertise to the beauty industry. She is recognized for her leadership in end-to-end supply chain operations consulting. With over 15 years in the Beauty Industry, Lizbeth is an expert in spearheading transformative business initiatives. Before establishing Acquire Beauty, Lizbeth played a pivotal role in the Consumer Goods industry, where she excelled in acquisitions, brand expansions, and system implementations. Her insights and dedication have earned her a reputation as a trusted authority in supply chain excellence for beauty brands.

 

Lizbeth holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Rutgers University. She spends her time living between NJ and Peru with her dog Lina.  In her spare time, she enjoys travelling and volunteering with Fuller Center and Habitat for Humanity International. 

Luc-Henry Rousselle

Managing Director

DC Advisory

Based in the US, Luc-Henry is a Managing Director on DC Advisory’s Consumer, Leisure and Retail team, specializing in Beauty & Personal Care.

Luc-Henry’s previous investment banking experience includes advisory roles at Lehman Brothers, Barclays and Moelis & Company in London and New York. Luc-Henry’s operating experience consists of five years at the Estée Lauder Companies where he held leadership roles in the corporate development team and at MAC Cosmetics.

Luc-Henry received his M.Sc. in Management from ESCP Business School with a Major in Finance. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Marissa Alkhazov

Northwest Chair of Buchalter’s Product Liability Practice Group

Buchalter

Marissa Alkhazov is the Northwest Chair of Buchalter’s Product Liability Practice Group. Her clients include small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, emerging businesses, manufacturers, distributors, retail and media leaders in the cosmetic, wellness and beauty industry. Marissa assists beauty and wellness companies navigate complex regulatory schemes, including state and local consumer related regulations on toxic substances or ‘clean beauty’ statutes, FDA regulations and compliance, and is a thought leader on the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (“MoCRA”). 

Marissa immerses herself in her clients’ business environment to clarify goals, and is a highly effective negotiator with regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and Consumer Product Safety Commission.  Manufacturers and distributors value her risk assessment and preventive advice on regulatory compliance, particularly on labels and safety warnings. Marissa’s clients value her vast experience with mass torts defense, consumer protection claims, chemical law and toxic tort exposure to PFAS, benzene, silica, talc, asbestos and more.  When counseling clients on new regulations and compliance mechanisms, Marissa anticipates regulatory hurdles and seeks practical solutions to clients’ compliance obligations across the lifecycle of a product.  

Mathieu Joubert

AVP, eComm Supply Chain, D2C

L’Oréal

Michele Miyakawa

Managing Director

Moelis & Company

Mimi Ghosh

Middle Market Financial Sponsors Group

Bank of America

Neha Singh

Founder & CEO

Obsess

Neha Singh is the Founder and CEO of Obsess, an experiential e-commerce platform enabling brands and retailers to create immersive 3D virtual stores. She was previously the head of product at Vogue, where she was responsible for the company’s digital business. Neha began her career at Google, where she was a software engineer and tech lead. She holds an Undergraduate Degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a Graduate Degree from MIT. In working with brands and retailers in her previous roles, Neha noticed that they were having a hard time translating the visual, interactive, sticky experience of physical stores into digital environments. Obsess was created to bridge the gap between consumer engagement and digital commerce—all in a highly branded, elevated way.

Nyakio Grieco

Co-Founder & Founder

Thirteen Lune & Relevant

Presca Ahn

Investment Director

BOLD

Presca Ahn, Investment Director, BOLD – Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development

As a global investment director at BOLD, the venture fund of L’Oréal, Presca oversees the fund’s brand & technology investments worldwide. Prior to joining BOLD, Presca was a private equity investor at Five Arrows Principal Investments following three years as an investment banker at Rothschild & Co in Paris. In her earlier career, she was an operator in the art market, notably representing artists & artist estates at an international gallery and serving as CEO of a major contemporary art museum in Beijing. Presca holds a BA from Yale College; an MSc from the London School of Economics, where she was a Fulbright Scholar; and an MBA from INSEAD.

Richard Kestenbaum

Partner

Triangle Capital, LLC

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.

Ron Robinson

Founder & CEO

BeautyStat

Sasha Radic

Beauty and Wellness Managing Director

Jefferies

Sid Mikhail

Founder/CEO

Luminize

Susie Willis

Founder & CEO

Romilly Wilde

As a wellness entrepreneur and self-confessed science geek, Susie was early to the Biotechnology stage. With the range of energetic, biotech ‘max-load’ skincare, this certified and clinically proven brand has a skincare system that has a clear philosophy.  Substantiation, Sustainability and Science. 

With a very clean method of classic skincare formulation from conception (no white label here), the tech side of beauty truly inspired Susie and The Romilly Wilde ethos has always been to disrupt the norm and lead from the position of future proofing a brand, not taking short-cuts and embedding the business in integrity, substantiation and ethics.

“From the start, we have wanted to create something unlike anything else on the market. We offer our customers something that not only stimulates, but that is sensorial and joyful to use. Our products create an immediate sense of quality, integrity and energy for a transformative impact on the skin and a respect for the environment. We are changing the way people think about skin biology and skincare. We are so proud of our awards and accreditations from leading industry bodies who recognise our efforts. I couldn’t be more excited to share our journey, and for you to see the extraordinary results possible with Romilly Wilde – where science collides vibrantly with nature.”

Tara Lamont

Director, Walmart.com: Marketplace Beauty

Walmart

Tina Bou-Saba

Co-Founder & Co-Managing Partner

Verity Venture Partners

As a partner and advisor, Tina is open-minded, inclusive, trustworthy, and enthusiastic.  Extremely hands-on in her work, she listens intensely and celebrates collaboration.  Tina has sharp instincts for commercial opportunities, honed through her experience in strategy at Victoria’s Secret and in equity research analyzing public retailers. From exploring international expansion opportunities for a major retailer to crafting marketing strategy for a consumer start-up, she is an independent thinker who loves digging into hard problems.

Zach Thomann

President & COO

PFS

As Chief Operating Officer and President, Zach is responsible for the direction and management of all PFS activities, including fulfillment and distribution operations, client financial services, contact center, and omnichannel operations on behalf of PFS’ clients. Working with his leadership team across those areas, Zach leads the efforts to identify new revenue opportunities while maintaining an efficient and profitable operation for PFS clients.

Zach joined PFSweb, Inc. in 2003 and has held roles of increasing responsibility in both the Business Management and Client Implementation departments, including serving as Vice President of Business Management. Previously, Zach worked as a program manager at AmerisourceBergen, a Fortune 50 company. With extensive experience in 3PL and end-to-end eCommerce solutions, Zach brings consultative expertise and a proven track record for bringing success to PFS’ clients.

Zach holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas.