Iranian Immigrant to the C-Suite: How Sephora’s North American CEO Is Shaping the Beauty Industry
Iranian American immigrant Artemis Patrick’s background shaped her ideas around beauty, which now inform her decisions as Sephora’s North America CEO. Over the years, she’s watched beauty trends change through social media, and hopes to educate younger consumers on making the best choices for their health.
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00:00Isn't that funny? Everything is cyclical. I think back to when I was 13, 14 and going to the mall
00:05and I'm dropping my daughter off at the mall. And I remember a few years ago thinking,
00:08is that ever going to happen again? And it is, and it's happening in a big way.
00:15Welcome to Leadership Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership.
00:20I'm Michal Avram and I'm Diane Brady.
00:23Listeners will be familiar with the Sephora brand, but they may not be familiar with you.
00:28So I want to start by actually asking you to tell us a little bit about you.
00:31I was born in Iran. So I immigrated to the US in 1979 when I was seven years old. And
00:39at that time I didn't actually speak any English. It was very difficult for my family and I.
00:46And then my mom went back to Iran and unfortunately this was during the Iranian hostage crisis. So
00:52she got stuck there and my father wasn't able to take care of me. So I ended up moving into
00:57a group home and then grew up with foster parents since I was 10 years old.
01:01And so I really think that very much shaped who I am, not just as a person, but as a leader.
01:08And especially as you think about, you know, the world of beauty and historically
01:13how, you know, there was one definition of beauty, especially when I was growing up
01:17in the eighties and I certainly did not fit that mold. So it has really, really guided
01:24how I think about beauty, how I think about belonging. And I think that that's always
01:30sort of been my North, my North star. Obviously Sephora is an incredibly strong
01:36brand. I have 12 and 14 year old girls, so I live it. But I'm curious, like, how would you
01:43characterize this moment in time in which you stepped into this role? What are the, you know,
01:49there's been so much, uh, very fast evolution in the retail space and the e-commerce space with
01:55tech over the last few years and different, you know, consumer trends that seem to be evolving
01:59so quickly. So how would you characterize where things are today for Sephora?
02:03Yeah. I mean, I have a 13 year old girl, so, so I feel you. Um, you know, I would say what's,
02:08what's incredible about beauty is, uh, it's always had this, this tactile, um, feeling of,
02:15you know, connection and belonging and being able to try new things. I think the inherent
02:22love of beauty among every generation, um, across all ages has always been there.
02:30Obviously what has evolved is access and social media. And I do think this idea and understanding
02:36of, of specifically skincare, uh, I, I know that I probably did not take the best care of my skin
02:43when I was younger and I see my daughter packing up her super group in her backpack and, you know,
02:49that's, that's exciting. And, but that's because of, you know, Tik TOK and, um, other forms in
02:54YouTube and other forms of social media. Um, and, and the speed at which things come to light is,
03:01is just, you know, it's, it's mind boggling. And I have been at Sephora for 18 years. So I've seen
03:08different evolutions of this. Certainly. I remember when Instagram first launched and I
03:12remember contouring, it was just like, I was thinking to myself, how many contour kits do
03:17people need? Right. And, and so we've, we've seen it before. It's not new in that sense,
03:22but it is in terms of the speed and the democratization of it all. And just the
03:27access to all the information, especially around ingredients and a deep understanding
03:33of what people are putting on their skin, on their hair, on their body.
03:36Sticking with the topic of, of kids shopping in Sephora, there has been some concern over what
03:42young girls are putting on their faces. Like, do they really need retinol? Do they really need some
03:47of the stronger products or anti-aging stuff like that? What do you, what's Sephora's response to
03:53that? And what do you see as your responsibility for educating younger shoppers? Well, I believe
03:58we have a huge responsibility as well as our hundreds of brands to educate the consumer on
04:04what is right for their skin, regardless of their age. And where I think that we have a competitive
04:10advantage is our beauty advisors. We have 25,000 incredibly well-trained, unbiased, non-commissioned
04:17beauty advisors. So it's actually been a really easy pivot for us to focus those educational
04:23moments of which we have many, specifically on skincare and skincare ingredients. So that is
04:29where we are seeing, you know, a lot of the chatter and the noise and making sure that they
04:34know, yes, you need, you know, at a certain age, you need to wash your face, you need sunscreen, and you
04:38need some moisturizer, but no, you don't need retinol. And making sure that, that we share that
04:43information. You know, at the end of the day, there's only so much, you know, a salesperson can
04:49do. We can educate. And then beyond that, it really is the responsibility of the consumer. But I feel
04:55that we are very well-poised to at least be able to share our knowledge on that and make sure that
05:00they understand what they're buying. What kind of technology do you think has really moved the
05:05needle in the stores to create a better shopping experience? One of the core tenants of everything
05:11we always do from a tech perspective is that it has to enhance the consumer experience. So I'll
05:16give you an example of that is our proprietary skin scan, where we do almost 100,000 scans a week
05:23with a 70% conversion rate. So what happens is a consumer can come in and we have this proprietary
05:29tool, and it essentially looks at the skin and it will make a foundation match. At the same time,
05:35it also goes through a skin diagnostic and tells you whether your skin is oily or dry and makes
05:39product recommendations. So that is not something a consumer will do on their own. That is a
05:44conversation starter between our beauty advisor and the client. And that to us is what is really
05:50exciting about technology. So that's how we really think about it. How do you enhance the
05:55consumer experience? How do you make it easier for our beauty advisors to have those conversations
06:01and create that really human connection? So it's digital for the sake of human,
06:05is the way I sort of think about it.