Good morning. Sephora North America keeps making history when it comes to its C-suite appointments. The beauty retailer has appointed a woman as finance chief for the first time, following the appointment of its first female CEO.
The company said on Wednesday that Christophe Le Boterff, EVP and CFO of North America since 2017, will retire in April, and Delphine Herve will take over the role. Herve has served as SVP of finance, financial planning and analysis for the region since 2022.
Sephora North America, which includes the U.S. and Canada, is a division of Sephora, the French multinational beauty giant, owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH.
Herve has been with LVMH since 2011 after starting her career with Ernst & Young and living abroad in Australia. She joined Sephora North America in 2014 from LVMH’s spirits division Moet Hennessy, where she served in an audit function. Herve was hired by Sephora to help build the internal control capability for Sephora U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. She has held a variety of finance roles since, “strengthening the finance team’s process and leading with excellence,” according to the company.
Herve’s promotion to finance chief follows a chief executive transition. Artemis Patrick is the first female president and CEO of Sephora North America. Patrick began the CEO role on April 1, succeeding chief executive and president Jean-André Rougeot, who retired, Fortune reported. Patrick started as North American president last October, leaving her role as global chief merchandising officer. She joined the company in 2006 as director of e-commerce merchandising.
Patrick was born in Iran, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1979 at age seven. Experiences in her childhood helped shape her as a leader, especially how she thinks about belonging, inclusion, and hiring. “I think it’s critical that as a leader you hire people that have different points of view than you do,” Patrick said in a recent episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast. You need to surround yourself with people who know more than you on certain topics, she said.
Sephora, a private company, was acquired in 1997 by LVMH, whose CEO Bernard Arnault has a current net worth of $200 billion. In January, LVMH announced revenue of 86.2 billion euros (roughly $94.98 billion) in 2023, up 13% from 2022. In the announcement, Arnault also made a reference to the “ever-growing popularity of Sephora’s store concept worldwide.”
Sephora provides a shopping experience that includes an open-sell environment, which allows customers to freely browse, touch, and try a wide variety of beauty products, including makeup and skincare, on their own. Sephora also has beauty advisors available to give personalized recommendations, and integrate digital tools.
The beauty retailer was founded in France by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970. Sephora opened its first U.S. store in 1998. It currently has 2,700 stores in 35 countries worldwide, with an expanding base of over 700 stores across the Americas.
Herve and Patrick will soon become strategic partners with an agenda of inclusiveness. “I would say what’s incredible about beauty is it’s always had this tactile feeling of connection and belonging and being able to try new things,” Patrick told Fortune.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Barbara Larson was named CFO of SentinelOne (NYSE: S), an AI-powered cybersecurity platform, effective immediately. Larson has more than 25 years of SaaS experience in financial operations management and leadership. She has held various finance leadership roles scaling dynamic, high-growth public software companies. Most recently, she was the CFO at Workday. Before that, Larson held financial leadership roles at VMware, TIBCO Software, and Symantec.
Sean Sievers was named CFO of Merchants Bancorp (Nasdaq: MBIN), effective Sept. 9. Most recently, Sievers served as CFO at Rate (formerly Guaranteed Rate). His career includes leadership roles as CFO of Countrywide's Internet Bank and Retail Origination team, senior director at Freddie Mac, CFO of SunTrust's Consumer Banking Division, and CFO of Citibank’s Global Mortgage Business.
Big Deal
Risk appetite has slumped in September, according to S&P Global’s Investment Manager Index. “Investors are fretting about valuations amid intensifying political uncertainty and recession risks,” Chris Williamson, executive director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement. A survey indicates almost 57% of investors expect the U.S. to avoid a recession in the near term. However, about 44% of investors expect a recession, which is the highest percentage since last December.
The index has fallen from -10% in August to -29% in September, signaling increasing risk aversion over the past three months. Risk aversion is now at its highest since May 2023 as investors see the chances of a near-term market fall at their highest since January, said Williamson, an author of the report.
Going deeper
The U.S. Labor Department's consumer price index summary released on Wednesday showed that consumer prices rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier. This was the fifth straight annual drop and the smallest such increase since February 2021. Prices rose just 0.2% from July to August. This may clear the way for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next week.
Overheard
“It is one of the paradoxes of business that as companies expand and thrive, their success can lead them away from the core principles that originally fueled their growth. To navigate this challenge, leaders must constantly adapt and evolve.”
—Nirav Tolia, cofounder and CEO of Nextdoor, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, “Forget ‘founder mode.’ Here’s how Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, and Sam Walton mastered the ‘founder’s mentality.’”
