Kao bolsters commitment to sustainability with new leadership appointment

Japanese beauty group Kao, the owner of Molton Brown, John Frieda and Goldwell, has promoted Nicola Bäuerle to the new role of Director Sustainability, AEMEA.

With the newly created position, Kao is joining up its sustainability expertise in a central function, across all three business sectors of Kao: Salon, Consumer Care and Cosmetics.

As part of this, Bäuerle becomes the central sustainability lead for Kao’s business in the AEMEA region, driving strategies, policies, and guidelines in alignment with the group's global sustainability strategy, the Kirei Lifestyle Plan.

She will lead various project teams across the business with the aim to advance collaboration, synergies, and consistency.

Priority projects across the business include packaging, sustainability communications, external partnerships, lifecycle analysis and sustainability data reporting. Bäuerle will also represent Kao in external forums and partnerships.

"We have made great progress to reduce our environmental footprint over the past years. We now need to step up even further to address mounting environmental concerns, but also to meet increasing international regulations and our own ambitious goals and milestones at Kao," said Bäuerle.

"Bringing together the great resources we have in the business will enable us to synergise, speed up processes, decisions and actions and I am excited to be leading these efforts to future-proof the organisation and build our position as a leader in sustainability in the beauty and consumer goods industry."

Having previously led the sustainability efforts of Kao’s Consumer Care Business for AEMEA, Bäuerle has extensive experience within the business, where she started her career 25 years ago. Her new role now expands her responsibilities.

"Nicola has led the Consumer Care sustainability efforts with great dedication, passion and professionalism", said Guido Kirchhoff, President of Global Operations at Kao.

"With her vast business experience and knowledge in the field of sustainability, she is best placed to further advance the joint efforts and goals of our AEMEA business."