Beauty Advisors: Your Secret Marketing Weapon

Sarah Chung is the founder and CEO of Landing, a B2B technology company helping brands launch and succeed at retail. Landing currently offers three tools: Marketplace, Clean PreCheck, and Training Publisher of Landing International, a B2B technology platform unlocking retail success for indie and minority-owned beauty brands. A beauty industry veteran since 2003, Sarah is a sought-after expert and trusted advisor to beauty retailers across North America. Since starting Landing in 2014, Sarah has launched over 200 emerging brands into retail doors, resulting in over $40 million in retail sales. Sarah was recently named one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Female Founders of 2021 for her work in utilizing technology to diversify the beauty industry.

Oliver Garfield is the CEO and a Board Member of Cos Bar, a company founded by his mother, Lily Garfield. Cos Bar is a 19 door omnichannel luxury multi-brand beauty retailer founded in Aspen, CO and headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. The company is now partnered with Tengram Capital Partners, a New York based Private Equity Firm, after a significant 2015 investment. Since its founding in Aspen in 1976, Cos Bar has successfully carved out a unique and engaging sales experience focused on the needs of highly discerning clients. Coupled with a carefully curated array of the world’s best beauty brands, this artful combination of selection and service has positioned Cos Bar as a leader in the luxury beauty space.

Chris created his first brand in his dorm room at McGill University and it did well enough that he graduated with a modest nest egg and an offer to be a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble. After almost 5 years at P&G contributing to brands such as Scope, Folgers, Old Spice and Secret, Chris earned an MBA at Harvard Business School and then built several consumer and technology startup companies, one of which was acquired by Fidelity Capital.

In 2014, Chris founded and launched the Patchology brand of targeted skincare which is sold globally at prestige and specialty beauty retailers such as Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom, Bluemercury and Saks Fifth Avenue. Patchology now forms the foundation for Rare Beauty Brands, a multi-brand platform that acquires, incubates and scales independent beauty businesses.

In addition to his responsibilities at Rare Beauty Brands, Chris is Vice Chair of the Board of the Independent Beauty Association (IBA) and an active fund raiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He resides in the Boston area with his wife and four children.

Paul is the Co-Founder / CMO at BeautyStat Cosmetics. He has 30+ years in the retail and wholesale business, having held senior management & business development positions in beauty & luxury goods companies across the USA and Europe. He holds a BSc. in Business Administration from SUNY Buffalo, an MBA from Nyenrode Business Universiteit in Breukelen, The Netherlands, and completed the Digital Marketing Strategy Program at Harvard University.

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.