Ulta Beauty's Women-Led C-Suite Ties Team Diversity to Growth

Kecia Steelman stepped into the chief executive officer role at Ulta Beauty in 2025 with a long list of tasks, and she has described assembling the right leadership team as the most urgent of them.

Addressing the 2026 Women in Power Summit, Steelman framed execution as a question of people rather than plans, arguing that the strongest teams bring together individuals who think differently and reached their positions by different routes.

Her executive bench includes chief retail officer Aimee Bayer-Thomas, chief merchandising and digital officer Lauren Brindley and chief marketing officer Kelly Mahoney, all of whom appeared alongside her at the event.

Brindley, who joined the company just over a year ago, said her time outside the organization — building brands and working across other retailers — gave her a distinct vantage point that could sometimes push existing thinking in new directions. She described the mix of experience and viewpoints around the table as producing better decisions than any single executive would reach alone.

Mahoney carried that idea through to the customer, noting that a balanced set of perspectives at the top of an organization is reflected at the consumer level. Steelman tied the approach to growth across the retailer's store network and its wider business.