Founders at all stages, this is your opportunity to engage directly with investors during a relaxed breakfast focused on funding. Come prepared with your questions and leave with actionable insights tailored to your brand's growth journey.
Quick Box // Leaders in Marketing Excellence // Leaders in Operational Excellence
QuickBox
Website: https://www.quickbox.com/
QuickBox revolutionizes e-commerce fulfillment using innovative reporting technology, a committed client services team, and superior order processing skills. With fulfillment centers in Carson, CA, Denver, CO, Atlanta, GA, and Wayne, NJ, QuickBox allows your brand to reach customers quickly, reducing inventory errors and shipping delays. Our locations offer tailor-made warehousing solutions, ensuring reliable and economical order fulfillment, inventory management, and shipping. Expect enhanced productivity and streamlined operations with QuickBox.
Our awards elevate visionary brands, disruptors, and sustainability heroes, hosting a celebration that empowers the entire beauty community.
Awards Committee:
Akshay Talati
Chief Innovation Officer
Supergoop!
Carla Ruiz
Senior Vice President, Global M&A
Shiseido Group
Carla Ruiz, SVP of Global M&A at Shiseido, brilliantly merges financial expertise with her passion for beauty. With an MBA from Columbia and a background in investment banking and global business development at Johnson & Johnson, she brings deep industry insight.
At Shiseido, Carla has spearheaded pivotal deals like the Drunk Elephant acquisition and the Tory Burch beauty license partnership. She leads her M&A team with a collaborative, founder-centric approach, seeing the industry's rapid change as an opportunity for respectful, accelerated growth. Beyond deals, Carla champions mentorship at Shiseido and supports first-generation college students through America Needs You.
Malena Higuera
CEO
NOYZ
Malena Higuera is a recognized leader in product innovation, culture and community-first marketing, and digitally-forward strategic vision, blending creative brand development, operational excellence with a passion for fostering diverse and inclusive cultures. With 25 years of experience on multiple brands at L’Oréal across all channels, key markets and categories, Higuera has built a reputation for fostering strong connections with consumers, retailers, and stakeholders, while always keeping a pulse on fast-paced business needs.
Ilya Seglin
Managing Director, Investment Banking: Consumer, Retail & E-Commerce
Cascadia Capital
Use real-time consumer insights from social media to shape product development, marketing, and trend forecasting. Learn how brands use social listening to stay ahead and connect more deeply with their audience.
Annabel Norman
Managing Partner
Norman Consultants
Understand what the shifting priorities of strategics around formulation ownership mean for your brand & how intellectual property (IP) rights can impact your valuation.
Discover how coveted brands are expertly balancing continuous innovation with their core values and authentic identity. By embracing forward-thinking ideas, brands are securing their differentiation in this hyper-competitive market.
Aurelian Lis
CEO
Dermalogica
Aurelian Lis is the global CEO of Dermalogica, a subsidiary of Unilever Prestige. For over 30 years, Dermalogica has been committed to elevating the skin care industry through providing world-class education to professional skin therapists and salon owners, as well as cutting-edge, professional-grade products that deliver results. Dermalogica is a standalone company headquartered in Los Angeles and is sold worldwide. Since 2016 the company has embarked on a digital transformation that has redefined the brand to new consumers seeking healthy skin. Dermalogica’s FaceMapping® technology is just one of the many examples.
Danessa Myricks
Founder & CEO
Danessa Myricks
As a makeup artist, photographer, and entrepreneur, Danessa Myricks is one of the most influential leaders in the beauty industry and is widely credited for leading groundbreaking product development for some of the most popular brands before launching her own brand, Danessa Myricks Beauty, in 2015. Referred to as the “Willy Wonka of Beauty”, Myricks takes a revolutionary approach to product development resulting in award-winning, innovative, multi-use products like the Blurring Balm Powder, Colorfix, and the viral Lightwork Freedom Palette System, earning over 80 accolades and recognition from Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies List, Allure Best of Beauty, and featured on TIME Magazine’s Closers List to name a few. As CEO, she continues to push boundaries, fostering a global community rooted in love, creativity, and inclusivity while connecting hearts and minds through beauty.