Speakers

Mary van Praag is the Global CEO & Board Member of Milani Cosmetics. Ms. van Praag joined the Company in August of 2020, bringing over 30 years of global, Omni-channel leadership experience. She is an inclusive, visionary Executive leader with a proven history of driving P&L performance and executing growth strategies and turnaround for major brands and companies in the apparel, consumer, and beauty sector. She is recognized as a results-oriented, people-centric leader that transforms business.

At Milani Cosmetics, she has successfully orchestrated a turnaround with record setting top/bottom line while growing market share and expanding the consumer audience. She was recently recognized by WWD Beauty Inc. as Brand Builder of the Year -2023. Prior to joining Milani, she was President of the Intimates Group of Chico’s FAS/Soma Intimates, where she led significant growth and transformation of omni-channel Soma while launching a new Direct-ToConsumer business. Her decades of cosmetics and beauty experience include roles as Chief Executive Officer of Perricone MD where she led the prestige skincare brand through digital, broadcast, and international expansion. Previously, she held international and domestic executive leadership roles at Coty, Inc., including serving as General Manager of OPI Products Inc., General Manager of Coty Canada, as well as corporate and regional positions at Johnson & Johnson and Revlon.

Mary is a strong partner to entrepreneurial founders and management teams and has worked with both public company + private equity boards. Currently, she serves as a member of the Milani Board, operated by Gryphon Investors, a private equity firm. She is also a long-standing Board Advisory member for Women in Retail Leadership Circle, a leading industry trade group. She received a Bachelor of Science in Business, with a Marketing Major from Miami University, and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.