In this episode of Women in Retail Talks, Women in Retail Leadership Circle Senior Editor Marie Albiges interviews Jill Scalamandre, CEO of Beekman 1802, a skin health brand based on two ingredients: kindness and goat milk. Listen as Scalamandre discusses the genesis of the family-founded brand on a goat farm (1:20), a brief timeline of the company’s growth (4:00), and Beekman 1802’s award-winning success over the years (5:00). She shares why consumers are drawn to the science behind its goat milk skincare products (7:00) and the  demographics that have shown interest in the science (8:20).

In addition, Scalamandre discusses lessons learned from Beekman 1802’s many successful brand partnerships (9:10), including the importance of finding partners that align on brand values (11:05), and the skincare company’s sustainability initiatives (13:20). She shares how the core value of kindness comes to life in the company’s culture (15:20), how she leads her team with kindness (19:35), and what drew her to join Beekman 1802 (21:15). Lastly, she details why she’s worked in beauty her entire career (23:20), the importance of having a mentor and champion (24:50), and what she’s looking forward to in 2024, including the launch of Beekman 1802’s Random Acts of Kindness initiative (28:00).

Scalamandre is an experienced CPG executive whose leadership spans across brands, markets, channels and technologies. With a reputation as a forward-thinking brand builder, she has created brands from scratch, turned around struggling established brands, launched new markets, acquired and divested assets and led technology driven teams to re-imagine traditional market approaches.

Prior to joining Beekman 1802, she acted as global president of Shiseido Americas, where she led the global turnaround of $300M bareMinerals while also incubating the socially driven Buxom Cosmetics. Her experience as president of Shiseido Group’s Global Makeup Center of Excellence (MCoE) gave her the opportunity to fuel growth across all of the company’s color brands, while acquiring and integrating augmented realty and personalization technology.

Throughout her career, she has advised private equity firms on various portfolio opportunities. Scalamandre helped build and oversee the successful sale of Frederic Fekkai hair care and salons to Proctor & Gamble, amongst other acquisitions and turnarounds. She is currently chairwoman of Cosmetics Executive Woman (CEW), an international organization of 10,000 individual members representing a cross section of beauty and related businesses. She lives in New York City with her husband where she loves the stimulation of the arts, fashion, and literature.

Date: January 23, 2024

Credits: Jill Scalamandre

Duration: 30:22