Virginie Courtin and Prisca Courtin, first cousins and granddaughters of Groupe Clarins founder Jacques Courtin, have lived and breathed their family’s beauty business from Day One. They’ve also had hands-on experience inside the group — which is the premium skin care leader in Europe that generated estimated sales of 1.68 billion euros in 2021 — working in different operational capacities while rising up through the ranks.
“I fully intend to take Clarins to new heights, all while pursuing the rollout of our ambitious CSR road map. This means: Strive to remain an undisputed leader in the cosmetics market, continue to expand worldwide, particularly in fast-growing markets, and make sure that CSR is present at all levels,” she said.
“I will contribute to my family’s entrepreneurial story and instill in Clarins the agility and innovative mindset it will need to stay ahead of the pack,” she continued. “My ambition is to build the future of Clarins, while remaining true to its values. Finally, reaching gender parity in the supervisory board is also important to me. This is why my first focus was to name Virginie Verin, as a member of Clarins’ supervisory board.
Mielle Organics also aims to reinvent the shopping experience for textured hair. “Even though some products are called multicultural, it labels you as in the ethnic outfield,” Rodriguez said. “There’s so much opportunity to just talk about texture, because textured hair has no culture. Textured hair can be for caucasian, Latino or Jewish people. There’s a lot of white space to speak to textured hair as a category, and not a segregated race or culture.
“I would like to see the direction move to where people of influence are showing that it’s OK to wear your natural hair, it’s OK to be who you naturally are in a state of professional environments, and when you’re on TV. They’re the ones who set the trends and have influence. Then, it changes the narrative of young girls who are growing up and seeing that it’s OK to be who I naturally am when I’m going on a job interview, or when I’m in a board room.
“Our mission is to make beauty better. A huge part of that is being earth-friendly, and how we make huge strides for the climate and for sustainability. I would like all of us to become activists, not just advocates. And what’s exciting about the beauty industry is that it has a lot of power.”