Beauty’s most talked-about founders spill the secrets on their success and what comes next in back-to-back fireside chats.
Discover their playbooks for sustainable growth, gaining traction, timing the deal, and what they now prioritize in industry partnerships.
Uncover the disruptive trends redefining the future of beauty and wellness, where personalization, accessibility, innovation and education take center stage. Explore emerging beauty verticals and new technologies, formats and in-store experiences driving tailored recommendations.
Anna Keller
Principal Analyst, BPC
Mintel
Siffat Haider
Co-Founder & CEO
Arrae
Founder, Podcaster, Creator
Siff was working in the beauty space as a blogger + podcaster and found herself struggling with her own health issues. She ultimately turned to natural remedies as a last resort and began troubleshooting with her own combination of herbs & vitamins and found herself feeling better than ever. She quickly realized that holistic remedies had the power to address women’s toughest day-to-day health issues and began building Arrae, with her husband, Nish, to share these solutions with others.
Michelle LeBlanc
VP of Beauty, Personal Care and Hispanic Centre of Excellence
CVS Health
Michelle L. LeBlanc is the Vice President of Merchandising for Beauty & Personal Care at CVS Health where she is responsible for the Cosmetics, Skin Care, Fragrance, Hair Care and Personal Care businesses, as well as Beauty Experience and Services.
She is a purpose-led leader who is confident, creative, and dynamic with a proven record for delivering results (while having fun along the way). Michelle is naturally curious with a hunger for insights, bias for action, and relentless desire to have meaningful impact on the people and the business.
Michelle has been with CVS Health for nearly 20 years and has held various leadership roles within the company. Most recently, Michelle led the Front Store Strategy & Transformation for CVS Health. As an instrumental member of the Front Store leadership team, Michelle was responsible for driving key initiatives and Front Store growth through deep understanding of performance drivers. Michelle’s greatest passion throughout her career has been serving as a leader of leaders – building and motivating highly engaged and high performing teams.
Michelle has a BS in Marketing from George Mason University and an MBA from Providence College.
Outside of work, Michelle is busy raising three boys with her wife Jennifer. Her goal is that they lead with kindness and do their best everyday– words she lives by.
Brent Ridge
Co-Founder
Beekman1802
Seize the untapped potential of multi-generational marketing with targeted strategies to drive engagement, foster loyalty, and boost revenue.
Explore how tailored engagement, loyalty-building tactics, and personalized experiences can drive lasting brand impact and fuel revenue growth across every age group.
Carina Chaz
Founder & CEO
DedCool
DedCool was founded with generations of beauty expertise behind it. Fragrance was Carina Chaz’s passion from the very beginning. Growing up alongside her mother as a beauty formulator, with a lab as her playground, it was natural for Carina to create DedCool. Her love of scent and a general rejection of the way the Fragrance industry operates, lit a fire under Carina to create a modern 21st Century definition of what Fragrance means. It started humbly on Instagram, and then grew to knocking on the doors of local retail shops with the hope of being carried on consignment. This resulted in relationships with department stores, and boutiques to then cultivating dedcool.com.
Dawn Hilarczyk
COO
Borghese
Candace Mitchell
Founder and CEO
MYAVANA
Candace Victoria Mitchell is a pioneer force at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and purpose-driven innovation. Beginning at the start of establishing the Atlanta tech ecosystem, Candace’s journey as a computer scientist, visionary entrepreneur, and change agent is marked by a profound commitment to transforming loves, business, industries, and communities.
As the Founder & CEO of MYAVANA, a groundbreaking beauty tech company, Candace pioneered a new market segment of personalized hair care and spearheaded a revolution in the haircare industry.
Don't miss this unique opportunity to engage with influential individuals from major retail outlets over lunch. Learn what retailers are looking for and how to best position your brand for success on their shelves.
Marissa Galante Frank
Fashion Director, Accessories and Beauty
Bloomingdales
Noah Rosenblatt
President North America
Beauty Space
Noah Rosenblatt is President of The PCA Companies' newest acquisition, BEAUTYSPACE (formerly SpaceNK Wholesale). Noah joined BEAUTYSPACE in 2015, after prior roles at LVMH and 20 years of retail industry experience. During his tenure, he has led the company through two significant business shifts, resulting in an operations that now include more than 700 branded BEAUTYSPACE points of distribution for nearly 100 brands within the wholesale portfolio.
Under Noah’s leadership, he has been instrumental in developing strategies to increase brand awareness, drive expansion, deepen customer relationships, and evolve the brands’ in-store and digital presence. This forward-thinking, award-winning retail experience connects retailers and brands to consumers—wherever and however they choose to shop—across both the luxury and prestige markets.
Show off your latest innovation at our Emerging Brand Spotlight and get noticed by top investors, retailers, and M&A execs. We’ll pick 6 finalists to take to the stage and present a 5 minute pitch to our full audience!
Apply here.
Selection Committee:
Sean Frazier
Managing Partner
1731 Management
Deborah Benton
Founder & Managing Partner
Willow Growth Partners
Aarti Kapoor
Partner
VMG Partners
Aarti Kapoor is a Partner at VMG Partners, a growth equity investment firm focused on partnering with high-growth consumer and retail companies, and brings 18 years of experience in high-growth consumer and retail across principal investing and M&A / capital markets advisory. Kapoor was formerly CEO of VMG-affiliated special purpose acquisition company, VMG Consumer Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:VMGA), from June 2021 to May 2023. Prior to joining VMG Partners, Kapoor was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs where she was integral to the disruptive growth effort within consumer and retail investment banking, growing the firm’s coverage of leisure, lifestyle, and wellness brands. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, she was an investment banker at Moelis & Company where she built one of Wall Street’s first coverage platforms focused on the health and wellness industry. Aarti has been recognized for her work in consumer and retail dealmaking by various publications, listed to "Forbes 30 Under 30" in Finance and Business Insider's "Rising Stars" of Wall Street, and featured in Bloomberg, CNBC, Yahoo! Finance and more. Aarti is based in New York, NY.
Jenna Jackson
Partner
CAVU Consumer Partners