Amazon 2020 Beauty Download: Prime Day Recap & Trends Going Forward

Chad is a born problem-solver. His earlier success as an entrepreneur and prestige website owner & operator fueled his desire to take on one of the biggest challenges in retail …out Amazon-ing Amazon. Since then, he’s built a team at Market Defense that shares his vision of leveling the playing field so beauty brands of all sizes can have a stake in the online retail game. Led by Chad’s unwavering commitment to protect your business, the team’s top goal is your bottom line.

Prior to Market Defense, Vanessa was Director of Sales, Marketing & Merchandising at Beauty.com, where she led, negotiated and managed deals with some of the biggest brands and retailers in the business. Her history also includes influential roles in Marketing and Training & Development at MAC Cosmetics, Tiffany & Co. and The Body Shop. Leveraging her massive network of established relationships, she brings the world’s prestige beauty brands and Market Defense together, creating unique opportunities to drive online revenue and profits through the Amazon channel. A Partner in Market Defense, Vanessa is dedicated to each brand’s marketing and merchandising success.

Julian Chu is a senior advisor to consumer brands and B2B enterprises and an investor in early-stage companies in the consumer, eCommerce, and digital advertising markets. In these roles, he brings deep experience with technology-driven business innovation and growth.

He was most recently an Operating Partner at Castanea Partners, a private equity firm that works with founders of consumer passion brands to grow their businesses through a combination of capital and operating expertise. During his tenure at Castanea, Julian pioneered the role of operating partner and led strategic initiatives in the areas of digital marketing and eCommerce for such brands as Drybar, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Proenza Schouler, and MacKenzie-Childs.

Previously he was head of eCommerce for PUMA North America, the first head of Client Success for eCommerce software company Demandware (now Salesforce Commerce Cloud), and a business development and consulting practice leader in IBM’s retail/CPG industry group. Julian began his career as a management consultant working at the intersection of business and technology at Mainspring, Cap Gemini, and Digital Equipment Corporation.

A graduate of Harvard University, Julian continues to reside with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kelly Kovack is the CEO and Founder of BeautyMatter, a noted beauty authority, brand advisor and strategist. She began her career in beauty as one of the original executive team members at Bliss, taking on the way women bought beauty as the Managing Director of the Bliss Catalog. This venture fundamentally changed the way beauty products were merchandised, distributed and marketed to consumers leading the acquisition of Bliss by LVMH. As Vice President of Marketing for Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, she was at the forefront of defining the cosmeceutical category. Kelly also founded consultancy group Purpose Built, providing concept to counter solutions and strategic advisement for startups to Fortune 500 brand and everything in between. In addition, she's also built her own brands, most recently award-winning fragrance brand, Odin, which was co-founded in collaboration with the men's fashion brand. Kelly is the “lens” of BeautyMatter providing a fresh voice to the beauty industry with highly curated news and original content.