Ben Steele
Ericka Rodriguez
Ericka Rodriguez is the founder of Axiology, a planet-first beauty company.
Karen Lee-Thompson
16 years of industry experience working for the world’s leading health and beauty retailer - Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., Karen is an expert in beauty product innovation, development and sourcing. During her time at WBA, she led a cross country innovation sourcing team and was instrumental in fuelling innovation to brands such as No7, Soap and Glory, Liz Earle and all the rest of Boots skincare & cosmetics brand portfolio. In 2017, she left her corporate career to pursue her dream and founded Beauty Consociare Ltd – a start-up committed to connecting people through beauty; and in March 2020, she launched her first “all-inclusive” skincare brand Wǒ.
Michele Scott-Lynch
Bouclème is the revolutionary range that was created out of a desire for a product that delivered healthy, frizz free curls using plant powered ingredients. Curl Expert and Founder Michele Scott-Lynch, battled against her hair until she was into her 30s. Bouclème launched over 5 years ago due to a lack of clean and effective hair brands tailored specifically to curls, kinks and coils. The arrival of the internet brought these women (and men) together sharing common issues and empowering one another to embrace and be proud of their natural hair. This market area has been driven directly by the curly community who were ignored by the beauty industry for way too long, particularly in the UK.
Rhea Cartwright
Siqi Mou
Jessica Blackler
Jessica Blackler is the founder of gender free, vegan friendly makeup brand Jecca Blac. With a background in makeup artistry in film and television, Jessica began Jecca Blac as a safe space studio for those who wished to learn about makeup in a judgement free setting. While building a client base of predominantly trans women who wished to start their journey with makeup, Jess noticed the oversight of the beauty industry in not considering the needs of transgender women. Because of this, Jessica decided to launch her own range of products, beginning with the Correct & Conceal Palette which was developed with those in mind who wished to conceal beard shadow, and went on to win ‘Best Concealer of 2020’ at the Beauty Bible Awards.
Megan Robison
Anna Brightman
When Anna discovered that more than 500,000 tonnes of coffee grounds that are consumed each year in the UK alone are sent to landfill, she decided to start collecting coffee from cafes across London and transforming them into skincare products. Since launching four years ago UpCircle has saved over 275 tonnes of coffee. Based on their current rates of growth it is estimated that this will rise to 1000 tonnes in the next 5 years. The brand also rescues and reuses ingredients from the argan, tea, juice, date, olive and wood industries.
Adrienne Kramer
ProBeauty Partners represents emerging independent beauty brands to the retail and e-tail marketplace globally. With an eye for brands that can tell a story while fulfilling a need in the market, ProBeauty Partners curates lines that become successes. The brands are all something that each team member would want to use. While there are many companies that can sell a line to a retailer, ProBeauty Partners is the true partner to these brands that have an idea and don’t know how to bring it to fruition. The company helps them find resources as well as chart the financial path so they know what they need to be successful. In addition, ProBeauty helps them craft the language and presentations to retailers so that the brands’ stories will be so compelling the buyer must take them!