Estée Lauder reshuffles leadership team as it slashes up to 7,000 jobs
The Estée Lauder Companies has announced a new organisational structure and executive team, as it more than doubles job cuts to as many as 7,000 worldwide as part of a cost-saving overhaul.
The US-based company plans to increase job losses from 3,000 to between 5,800 and 7,000 as it braces for tariff increases amid fears of a global trade war sparked by US President Donald Trump.
It said the figure was revised after taking account of some staff it is looking to retrain and redeploy in other roles. The jobs are set to go by the end of June next year.
As part of this, Estée Lauder has reshuffled its executive leadership team to drive forward the company's new strategic plan.
The business has consolidated its existing regional organisation into four geographic clusters to "drive greater synergies and efficiencies, as well as strengthen its agility to better capitalise on consumer trends and locally relevant innovation faster".
Regional updates
Nadine Graf will lead a newly expanded geographic cluster, overseeing EMEA, the UK&I team and a newly established and dedicated Emerging Markets cluster, spanning markets such as India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Tara Simon and Amber English will add Latin America to their responsibilities to create an Americas division, while Joy Fan will continue to lead the company in mainland China and Matthew Growdon will lead an evolved Asia-Pacific region.
Brand updates
Sandra Main will oversee the skincare brand cluster, including La Mer, Clinique, Origins, Dr.Jart+, Darphin and Lab Series, while Justin Boxford will continue to lead Estée Lauder and AERIN Beauty.
The company confirmed that Shane Wolf will continue to manage the haircare brand cluster, including Aveda and Bumble and bumble, and Guillaume Jesel will continue to lead Couture brands such as Tom Ford and Balmain Beauty.
It also announced that Jo Dancey will lead Estée Lauder's lifestyle fragrance brand division with oversight of Jo Malone London, Kilian Paris and Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle.
The makeup brand cluster, consisting of MAC Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, Too Faced, Smashbox and GLAMGLOW, will be overseen by a leader who will be named at a later date.
Function updates
In the new position of Executive Vice President, Chief Value Chain Officer, Roberto Canevari will assume leadership of the company's packaging and engineering organisations, in addition to maintaining responsibility for the global supply chain.
Carl Haney, Executive Vice President of Global Innovation and Research and Development, is evolving his role to be solely focused on driving product innovation across every facet of the company’s R&D network, including reducing the amount of time it takes to deliver new innovations to consumers.
As previously announced, following the retirement of Michael O’Hare, Executive Vice President of Chief Human Resources Officer, Michael Bowes has also been named Chief People Officer.
The new appointments come as Estée Lauder launches a new strategic plan to restore sustainable growth and recover profit after sales dropped in the golden quarter.
The company saw net sales decrease 6% to $4 billion (£3.2 billion) in the second quarter ending 31 December 2024, compared to $4.2 billion (£3.3 billion) the previous year.
Stéphane de La Faverie, President and CEO at Estée Lauder Companies, said: "To deliver our action plan priorities, I am pleased to announce my new executive team and structure, reflecting the need to create a flatter, leaner organisation and simplified operations across the business to better serve our consumers.
"Through a combination of elevating top talent internally and recruiting externally, we will make decisions with greater speed and agility, breaking down silos and allowing us to develop a leadership bench for the future.
"This new organisational structure will improve communication, accountability, collaboration, and empowerment at every level of the organisation to be more decisive and faster-to-action. I have full trust in the new executive team. Their level of collaboration, boldness and accountability is and will be equal to no other. As one team, I am confident that we will deliver sustainable results to all our stakeholders."