PORTFOLIO COMPANY NEWS
Seasoned Retail Industry Consultant Debbie Murtha Joins Laura Geller Beauty Board of Directors
May 05, 2015 - Laura Geller Beauty announced this week that Retail Industry Consultant Debbie Murtha has joined Laura Geller Beauty as a member of the Board of Directors. With more than 30 years of industry experience, Debbie brings her all-encompassing expertise in retail marketing and merchandising, brand building, and strategic industry partnership development to the Laura Geller Beauty brand.
Rich Gersten, a Partner at Tengram Capital Partners said "We are thrilled to add Debbie to the board of Laura Geller Beauty. The brand is experiencing significant growth in all channels, and has been on a path of evolution and expansion. As growth and further expansion into wholesale distribution is part of the brands core growth strategy, having Debbie on-board will bring a tremendous knowledge base and expertise to the team." Elana Drell-Szyfer, CEO of Laura Geller Beauty, said that "I have known and worked with Debbie over the course of twenty years in the beauty industry. In my opinion, she is one of the leading strategic thinkers in beauty retail and I am thrilled to have her expertise and insight as part of the Laura Geller Beauty team."
An esteemed cosmetics retail senior executive, Debbie spent 10 plus years serving as Senior Vice President/General Merchandising Manager of the multibillion-dollar national, cosmetics and fragrance businesses of both Macy's Merchandising Group and May Merchandising Company. While at Macy's, Debbie oversaw the nation's top-grossing cosmetics and fragrance business generating $3.5 billion annually and forged successful partnerships and collaborations, including the creation of Macy's first national television campaign. She is recognized for her track record of spearheading marketing, merchandising and operational enhancement initiatives that lead retailers to surpass sales and profit goals and achieve top sales volume among competitors.
Among Debbie's long list of professional accomplishments, she directed the 2011 launch of Give Back Brands' Justin Bieber charity fragrance that earned recognition as Macy's top-selling brand in the history of celebrity fragrances, was the highest-grossing of all 2011 fragrance launches and won Women's Wear Daily's Beauty Biz Award as the top prestige fragrance of the year.
ABOUT LAURA GELLER BEAUTY:
With a delightfully different happiful approach to beauty, Laura Geller Beauty is dedicated to creating refreshingly uncomplicated products that brighten every aspect of life. Taking the guesswork out of beauty by offering high-performance, multi-tasking and color-corrective products the brand is well-known for its award-winning Spackle® and Baked in Italy franchises that have changed how women apply makeup. These innovations, combined with expert advice and time-saving tips, work to make makeup fun, easy and accessible for all women. Laura Geller Beauty retails on QVC in the US, UK, Germany and Italy, at ULTA and Beauty Brands retail locations, and online at laurageller.com and a number of high-profile beauty sites. Laura Geller Beauty's web site is www.laurageller.com.