I was introduced to the CEO of Amyris, John Melo, in 2014 by a board member of The Body Shop. We built out new franchises and closed out old ones to try and make the brand more global, and it was a great learning curve to be able to work with chemists so closely in the r&d process.

Every product The Body Shop sold, they made – unlike Sephora which, at the time, was more focused on just bringing brands into the retail portfolio. It meant moving back to the UK, but it taught me so much about the biology of the skin and which ingredients to use and why. I was stunned at how much growth we were able to achieve with competitors the size of Proctor & Gamble and Estée Lauder.Īfter Anita Roddick stepped down from The Body Shop, I stepped in. We started developing a strategy based around masstige, which meant getting involved with a lot of brands – many of which were up-and-coming indie brands. So that’s how I ended up in skincare and cosmetics. They asked me if I’d like to move to San Francisco to grow Sephora domestically in America. I went with him and, when LVMH ended up acquiring Duty Free, he was involved in some of their early acquisitions – one of which was Sephora. Later, my husband got a job opportunity in Sydney with Duty Free Shopping. At that point I applied for a job at Topshop as an assistant buyer and I was there for many years, working my way up to being a dress buyer and helping them set up other brands within the Burton Group – like Principles. I leant into fashion because that was where I saw myself ending up but, at the end of the scheme, they put me on boys’ school uniforms – which didn’t feel very fulfilling. After university I joined the Harrods graduate scheme which was very robust at that time – every eight to ten weeks you joined a different department to learn about all aspects of the business. I never envisioned myself working in the beauty space.

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