• by Sarah Mahoney , July 17, 2025

Still working to recover from a misstep in China and weak global results, Estée Lauder is expanding its leadership bench, adding Aude Gandon in the newly created role of chief digital and marketing officer. Gandon is currently the global CMO for Nestlé, where she developed strategic partnerships with major tech platforms, including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Netflix. She’ll report directly to Stéphane de La Faverie, president and CEO, who took the helm last year.

With a remit spanning digital, marketing, and media, Gandon is tasked with turning Lauder’s digital commerce into a much-needed growth engine.

In the announcement, de La Faverie cited Gandon's "global perspective and proven track record of leading large-scale marketing, digital and media transformations [that] make her the ideal leader for this critical role as we shape the future of prestige beauty."

A spokesperson for the company tells Marketing Daily Gandon will be based in New York. “She will lead a cross-functional global team focused on elevating how we connect with consumers across the full brand portfolio, maximizing the impact of our marketing investments, and unlocking new opportunities for growth in an increasingly complex digital world.” 

The hire shows how far the company, which was slow to warm to retailers like Amazon and Sephora, has come in rethinking the beauty universe. The future of the beauty industry will exist as a “merger of the digital and the physical world,” de La Faverie said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. And artificial intelligence is changing the way people shop for cosmetics, he said.

While this is a newly created role, Women’s Wear Daily points out that it shares similarities with that of former chief data officer and executive vice president, enterprise marketing Jane Lauder, who revealed her departure last year.

Gandon joins the company next month, amid early signs of progress in its turnaround.

In May, the company reported third-quarter numbers that were sobering, but better than expected. Revenue fell 10% to $3.55 billion, with the steepest drops in skincare and haircare. Operating income sank 42% to $306 million.

However, observers are becoming more hopeful, especially given the announcement several months ago that Lauder plans to lay off 7,000 people. HSBC recently upgraded Lauder from a “hold” rating to “buy.”

And Dan Su, who follows the company for Morningstar, sees Lauder as well-positioned to benefit from its concentration of higher-end products.

“We see Estée as poised to benefit from premiumization trends, as beauty consumers in developed and emerging markets alike upgrade for perceived better-quality ingredients, efficacy, and services,” he writes. “Outside its North America home market, we view Estée as well-positioned in Europe, where premium beauty demands have proven resilient over the past decades, as well as in Asia (where skin care makes up 50% of premium beauty spending).” 

Still, there are plenty of risks, as the company tries to catch up with rivals L’Oréal and LVMH, given pressures in the economic environment that are causing many customers to trade down. The company expects sales to decline by as much as 9% in 2025, due to continued weakness in Asia and the travel retail sector. (It does see the potential for return to growth, if tariff questions are resolved. Adds Su: “Additionally, Estée may need some time to refresh its lackluster cosmetics portfolio, leaving the firm vulnerable to market share loss to rivals.”