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Leading with her instinctive passion for beauty and sustainability, brand building and people development, Barbara De Laere is the Global Brand President for Aveda, the prestigious beauty and hair care brand that lives by The Art and Science of Pure Plant and Flower Essences. With a childhood ambition to lead a successful, purposeful company and serve winning teams, Barbara honed herself as a forward-thinking, disruptive strategic leader. She developed her deep hair and skin care expertise at L’Oréal, where she held senior international leadership roles in the Professional Products Division for more than 17 years. Her responsibilities included driving revenue growth, brand building and portfolio integration for multiple brands across the U.S., Western Europe and Asia/Pacific.
To be a success, Barbara believes in the strength of the whole and taps into the proficiency of all talent within a company and inspires them by example. Inspired by data and guided by intuition, she makes decisions on what is best for a brand through what she sees its customers want and appreciate. Her focus is on global brand integration, social/digital storytelling and a seamless omni-channel brand experience for the customer. For Aveda, Barbara’s vision is to become the beauty destination for the conscious consumer and enhance their lives with Aveda’s high-performance naturally derived products and unique salon experiences.
Carrie is responsible for overall management of the Beauty & Personal Care practice at Kline, which spans beauty and personal care, home care, OTC drugs, and industrial cleaners. She oversees all of Kline’s beauty and personal care-related market research programs such as Cosmetics & Toiletries, Salon Hair Care, and Professional Skin Care. She is responsible for leading new growth initiatives for the practice including Kline PRO, a powerful service for the professional beauty industry based on transactional data, and Amalgam, a digital tracking service. Since joining Kline in 1999, she has also participated in several proprietary assignments involving market analysis, business assessment, and strategic planning.
Carrie serves on the boards of Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Master’s Program in Cosmetics & Fragrance Marketing & Management. She is a frequent speaker at such industry conferences as PBA Executive Summit and Cosmoprof. She has led webinars in partnership with HAPPI Magazine and has been featured as a guest lecturer at FIT. Carrie is frequently quoted as an industry expert in various publications, including Women’s Wear Daily, CEW Beauty Insider, CosmeticsDesign, and Rose Sheet.
Carrie earned an MBA from New York University after majoring in marketing, management, and global business. She also holds a BS in marketing from The College of New Jersey, and she speaks conversational Spanish. She
resides with her husband and two children in northern New Jersey. She enjoys traveling, cooking, and volunteering for Girls on the Run, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and her children's schools.
Daniel Mason-Jones got his start with an apprenticeship in Atlanta and was inspired immediately. It wasn’t long after he started traveling the world to further his education. He has trained closely with renowned stylist Luis Llonguerras in Barcelona, Jacques Dessange in Paris, Charles Worthington in London, Franco Curletto in Rome, and many other industry greats around the world. His vast knowledge and training has earned him a huge following from all over the country including celebrity clients and allowed him numerous opportunities to work on set with television and film stars.
Daniel has a huge passion for traveling all over the country for L’Oreal Professionnel coaching and mentoring other beauty professionals on how to be successful. He is on a mission to elevate the industry and change the misconception of how rewarding
a career in the beauty industry can be when coupled with passion and hard work.
Debbie Penzone has a distinguished resume as a salon industry innovator, community leader, author, philanthropist, and lifestyle expert. She is passionate about wellness and inspiring others to live their fullest lives – and integrating these same principles into the business. Debbie is proud to lead a team of hundreds as president and CEO of Charles Penzone Incorporated, an Ohio-based group of world-class salons and spas with six locations that serve more than 300,000 guests a year. Debbie spent more than 30 years helping to strategically build and evolve the company as a stylist, artistic director, training director and senior vice president before taking the organization’s helm in 2008. Additionally, Debbie recently opened L I T Life + Yoga with the intent of spreading and empowering people with the message of wellness, health and beauty from the inside-out.
Raised in a tight-knit family in a small town, Debbie is passionate about giving back, from leading a nonprofit board to driving to the hospital and taking the time to style a cancer patient. Debbie donates a considerable amount of time serving on the boards of several industry, non-profit and charitable organizations. She is a certified yoga instructor and meditation guide, a marathon runner, a cyclist, a vegan, an optimist, a traveler, an art lover and a fashion enthusiast. She is a devoted wife to husband Charles, chairman and founder of Charles Penzone Incorporated. When not leading the business, you’ll likely find her cooking up a new recipe in the kitchen, laughing with her husband or on a yoga mat.
Gordon Miller is CEO of the pro hairdresser online, social and real-time community Hairbrained. Along with co-founders Gerard Scarpaci and Randy Taylor, Gordon works daily to empower professionals by way of inspiring content, engaging online and real-time education, and curated, professionally-focused e-commerce (on hairbrained.me, hblive.me and hairbrained.pro).
Over the course of his distinguished 40+ year career, Gordon has held a variety of senior leadership roles in the education and publishing segments of the industry (including VP/Member Schools, Pivot Point International; President, Milady Publishing; and Publisher, American Salon Magazine & .com). Considered a thought leader in social and digital media for the pro beauty industry, Gordon is passionate about sharing his deeply held belief in the power of these mediums to change businesses and careers for the better.
Gordon also hosts the popular weekly podcast, Hairbrained Conversations, and can be found online as @gordnm on Instagram, or at gordon@hbmail.me.
Originally from London, England, Leon began his career at Vidal Sassoon and became Sassoon organization’s General Manager. He went on to acquire and run a collection of 320 salons and spas located mainly in the United Kingdom. Leon next launched AVD Cosmetics Ltd; and is credited with growing the company to over 40 million dollars annual sales. In 2006 he launched Eurisko Design with a vision of designing space around the emotional needs of consumer, accommodating the functionality of service. He has studied how customers think and act within a specific environment and designs the location accordingly.
Leon’s educational background includes a Doctorate Degree in Behavioral Psychology from Roehampton Institute in London. He has been Keynote Speaker at a number of industry conferences including ISPA, Intercoiffure, ISBN, Aveda Congress, Serious Business and Eufora. Additionally, he has given a wide range of educational presentations to the retail and service industries including TED talks, ‘Why People Buy’, ‘The Ultimate Consumer Location,’ ‘Creative and Lateral Thinking,’ ‘A Window into the Consumers Mind,’ ‘The Future of the Beauty Industry,’ &’ It’s Time for a New Business Model.’
Leon is the Author of “A Window into the Consumers Mind,” and his primary objective is to elevate the level of thinking in the beauty industry.
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Mary Wilson has been a hairdresser for 30+ years and has worked in many aspects of product development including marketing, sales, education and schools. She has always believed the very best way to find success is to create beauty and to share your talents with your trusted clients while maintaining your own physical and emotional health. In addition to being a beauty industry leader, she is also a yoga teacher, reiki certified energy healer and leads wellness retreats in Laguna Beach and Palm Springs, CA with friend and mentor Ann Mincey-Jetton.
She is grateful for all this industry has provided her including opportunities to learn, travel, share, educate, and motivate. She will be sharing methods for managing our energy and emotions in order to be our very best self for our clients!
Pete is a Sales and Marketing Executive with over 20 years of management experience across both retail and professional channels. He has a consistent track record of driving sustained revenue growth across both Global and Domestic Omni channels and currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Global Sales for John Paul Mitchell Systems. Pete’s experience includes serving as Sr. Vice President of Sales for both Wella Professionals and for Luxury Brand Partners (Oribe).
Pete earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Cal State University, Northridge (CSUN) and is a graduate of University of Southern California’s Food Industry Management Program. Pete and his family are active supporters of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation where they are focused on “adding more tomorrows” to those afflicted with this condition. Pete has been married for 27 years to his soul mate Maria and they are proud parents of Pedro Antonio (24), Paulina Andrea (18) and Pablo Andres (13). They live in the Los Angeles area.
Randy Cotten is a serial people person entrepreneur. With a background in business engineering and a degree from Switzerland, he brings a well-rounded human focus to the beauty industry. Randy returned to the United States in 2016 to co-found Spruce
Labs - an experience software company focused on the beauty industry.
Joining SalonInteractive in May 2020, Randy is pushing the return of professional retail to where it belongs - in the hands (and pockets!) of beauty professionals.
His other passions include flying, surfing, rock climbing, and his new dog Sol. Randy lives in San Diego CA.
Sheila Phillips has worked in the industry since she was 14 years old. Starting as a salon part-time receptionist, she passionately worked her way through all departments of a successful salon and school organization, hiring, training, and retaining a staff of more than 200. With a background in Accounting/Management, she developed all internal systems for operations, compensation, retail management, and overall financial controls to sustain consistent growth and profitability.
After 28 years in the private salon and school sector, Sheila saw great career opportunities for industry professionals and founded a boutique distribution company, Liquid Assets, in 2003. At Liquid Assets, their commitment is to provide service excellence with brand partnerships and education programs that elevate the industry and develop leaders with an MBA - Masters in Business and Artistry!
Stacey Soble has been involved in the conversation of salon business for more than 26 years—as a reporter, a consultant, and the Editor in Chief of SALON TODAY, the professional beauty industry’s only business-focused media. Recently, her title evolved to Director of Brand Content Strategy and Events Programming for SALON TODAY. Under her leadership, SALON TODAY has expanded its SALON TODAY 200 recognition program; grown the SALONS OF YEAR décor competition; launched STAMP, a salon marketing recognition program; and created the Data-Driven Salon Summit, a business event that focuses on the metrics that drive salon success.
