Nike Greater China CEO Dong Wei Joins Estee Lauder Board of Directors

On July 11, Estée Lauder Companies announced a new board member, Dong Wei, who will serve until November 2023. She also joined Estee Lauder's Audit Committee.

According to the observation of CHAILEEDO, Dong Wei was ranked 39th in the 2022 Forbes list of China's Outstanding Women in Business, which was announced in March this year. In addition, she was named to Fortune's 2021 list of the most influential women in business in China.

It is reported that Dong Wei joined Nike in 2005, after holding management positions at Coca-Cola China and P&G. In 2015, she moved from CFO to CEO of Nike Greater China and is currently the Global Vice President and General Manager of Nike Greater China. She is responsible for planning and developing Nike Greater China's vision and growth strategy to enhance Nike's brand presence and strengthen its connection with consumers.

In addition to Estee Lauder, other international beauties and beauty-related brands have also made different personnel changes. On April 28, L'Occitane's Board of Directors announced the appointment of Christian-Matthias Klever as CFO, effective July 1. Klever was previously CFO of Breitling from 2017 to 2020. From 2004 to 2017, Klever held various financial and operational positions at Procter & Gamble, as CFO for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and CFO for IWC Schaffhausen. In the same month, La Prairie's global CEO was taken over by Philippe Lamy, who notably also worked for L'Oréal for more than a decade holding various positions in the luxury and travel retail divisions in the Asia Pacific and the Americas.

Moreover, in June this year, Estée Lauder appointed Karen Housman as Senior Vice President/General Manager, Travel Retail, Asia Pacific, effective July 1. Publicly available information is shown that she has been deeply involved in the travel retail business for 30 years and the travel retail division has become its leading business section in terms of market share across the entire category channels of skincare, color cosmetics, fragrance, and hair care covering duty-free environments such as airports, city centers, airlines, cruise ships, and border stores. It is one of Estée Lauder's fastest-growing channels. According to Estee Lauder's FY2021 data, travel retail accounted for 28% of the Group's total business contributing approximately $4.69 billion in sales. Karen Housman's new appointment as Senior Vice President/General Manager of Asia Pacific Travel Retail also represents the Group's new expectations for the travel retail channel.

On May 3, Estee Lauder Group announced its results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2022 (January 1 - March 31, 2022), during which the Group achieved net sales of $4.25 billion, an increase of 10% year-on-year. The Group reported net sales of $4.25 billion, an increase of 10% year-on-year, and a net profit of $560 million, an increase of 22% YOY.

By region, Estee Lauder Group's performance declined only in the Asia Pacific during the reporting period achieving net sales of $1.203 billion, down 4% year-on-year. For the performance decline in the Asia Pacific, Estee Lauder explained that due to the epidemic in many provinces in China during the reporting period, East China and other places were severely affected by the epidemic. The regional traffic and logistics transportation was poor and net sales of brick-and-mortar stores fell, which in turn led to a decline in overall net sales of the Group. However, Estee Lauder still achieved double-digit growth online in China offsetting part of the decline in physical stores.

The personnel changes of various international brands in the first half of 2022 show that, despite the decline in sales in the first quarter due to the epidemic, various international beauty brands remain confident in the online and travel markets in China believing that there is still huge potential.

Regarding the personnel changes to Estee Lauder's Board of Directors, William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman of Estee Lauder, said that Dong Wei's background in finance and her extensive experience in consumer goods brand strategy and marketing, particularly for Chinese consumers, will provide valuable input to Estee Lauder's Board of Directors.