Dive Brief:

• Makeup company Stila Cosmetics appointed Estée Lauder alum Steve Rosen as its chief finance officer, one of several executive moves coming as the firm attempts to bolster its brand awareness and growth, according to a Monday press release.
• Rosen is the latest Estée Lauder veteran to take a leadership role at the Glendale, California-based Stila, which once counted itself among Estée Lauder’s portfolio of brands. In 2023, Stila tapped Daniel Annese and Beth DiNardo, both veterans of the beauty industry behemoth, to serve as members of its advisory board, noting that the two “[Estée Lauder] alumni will leverage their decades of industry expertise to help Stila accelerate its strategic initiatives and generate scale,” according to a press release at the time.
• Stila is returning to familiar shores for its executive leadership team as it looks to revitalize its growth after a period of seeming stagnation, with the company’s brand awareness and shelf visibility having contracted over the past decade.

Dive Insight:

An experienced financial executive in the cosmetics industry, Rosen served in key executive roles during his over two-decade tenure at Estée Lauder, including serving as its VP of finance and strategy for the company’s designer fragrances and lab, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has also served as finance chief for BECCA Cosmetics and most recently as CFO for skincare firm ZO Skin Health.  

Alongside Rosen, Stila also appointed fellow cosmetics industry veteran David Reece as its chief operating officer, according to its Monday press release. Both appointments reinforce “the company's commitment to growth and innovation in the beauty sector,” and come as the brand looks to expand its portfolio globally, according to the Monday press release.

The makeup brand will tap Rosen and Reece’s expertise in the makeup industries as it embarks on a plan to recapture its brand awareness, following a tumultuous decade in which Stila was challenged by an ongoing chain of new ownership and complicated litigation.

 A rising star in the makeup industry during the 1990s and early 2000s, Stila Cosmetics itself has joked over its own apparent disappearance on its social media accounts in recent years, according to an October 2024 Forbes article chronicling the ups and downs of the brand over the past decade.

Part of that vanishing act could be due to the company rapidly changing hands since Estée Lauder — which acquired Stila in 1999 — sold the brand to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners in 2006, Forbes said. Sun Capital then sold Stila to private equity firm Patriarch Partners in 2009.

Following that sale, Stila was embroiled in complex litigation involving Patriarch’s founder Lynn Tilton after three funds managed by Tilton, and which had invested in Stila, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with a Delaware court ending Tilton’s managerial control of Stila in 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported. The brand is currently owned by a “consortium of financial institutions,” according to Forbes.

With its revitalized leadership team, however — including its appointment of Pure Barre alum Michelle Kluz to its CEO seat in August 2022 — Stila has taken several steps over the past few years to rebrand itself. The company has refreshed its social media strategy, joining platforms such as TikTok in a bid to attract a new generation of customers and increasing its marketing outreach, Kluz told Forbes last year during an interview with Chief Marketing Officer Mary Rodrigues — yet another former Estee Lauder executive who has joined Stila’s ranks.

Stila did not immediately respond to requests for comment.