Aleena Khan
Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer, CTZN Cosmetics
Aleena Khan is a passionate entrepreneur, storyteller and thought-leader dedicated to reimagining representation in the beauty industry. As co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of the Tik-Tok viral brand CTZN Cosmetics, Aleena's forward-thinking approach has paved an entirely new destination within the beauty community that previously never existed. CTZN Cosmetics is the first brand championing the intersection of Beauty meets Culture. As seen on Forbes, CTZN reinvented the popular Get Ready with Me format by creating Culture-Torial™, Get Ready with Me while I teach you about my culture! For the first time, you can learn about culture through a makeup brand's platform - taking inclusivity and diversity to a deeper level beyond shade range and campaign casting.
Amna Abbas
Consultant, Beauty & Fashion Middle East, Euromonitor
Amna Abbas is Senior Analyst at Euromonitor International in the UAE. An expert on Beauty and Fashion in the Middle East, she focuses on analyzing topics such as beauty and personal care, personal accessories and eyewear, apparel and footwear, consumer health and luxury goods within the retail landscape. Her professional interests include understanding the continuing dynamics of beauty and fashion within the Middle East region, with keen interest in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. Along with regular interactions with major global and regional beauty and fashion industry players, she has been proactive contributor to articles and interviews through various platforms such as exhibitions, TV, radio and press media on the same such as Beautyworld, CNN, Forbes, Euro News, Dubai Eye, Gulf News and Images Retail ME.
Amna holds a Master of Strategic Marketing, top graduate, from the University of Wollongong. She has been active in the field of market research intelligence for more than a decade, bringing with her rich insights on the region.
Anisha Oberoi
CEO & Founder, The Secret Skin
“Our secret skin is the deepest, purest part of us - it’s also the strongest. Yet we hide its truth from the world, afraid of being judged, deeply conscious of our vulnerabilities. My mission is to evoke self-love and strength of purpose beyond socially-conditioned restrictions and biases of color/ gender, and channel this energy to promote a revolution of mindfulness.”
Anisha Oberoi started her corporate career in Hospitality and Fashion prior to joining the Ecommerce industry in 2014 as part of the founding team that launched Amazon Fashion in India and Australia, before moving to UAE in 2019 to launch the online vertical of Bloomingdales Middle East.
Secret Skin was born in 2020 with a unique framework committed to ‘People, Planet and Purpose’ as an ecommerce discovery platform that connects global conscious brands to beauty consumers in the Middle East.
“Secret Skin’s story is my story. I was addicted to the superficial as one often is when younger, and my frustration at not being able to find any chemical-free beauty or safe personal care products during my cancer treatment that wouldn’t disrupt my hormones or negatively impact my fertility became the inspiration to create a brand that women like myself could trust; one that would reinforce the importance of women’s health through the narrative of Beauty. I chose to fight back in 2010 and I’m alive today because I had a stubborn desire to live - to see what I was made of, to experience what lay ahead.”
“With our solution customers can buy affordable, plant-based toxin-free beauty and personal care products, and give back to the community. Our brands maintain high standards of product integrity, use ethically sourced ingredients through fair trade, are cruelty-free and gender-neutral with sustainability practices across the flywheel of sourcing, production, packaging and shipping. Through our Eco-Rewards program we enable customers to recycle their plastic bottles and be incentivized for pro-environment behavior.”
Anisha holds an MBA from INSEAD and a digital marketing qualification from Columbia Business School. Having battled breast cancer at an early age, Anisha works passionately with hospitals to raise awareness of early detection amongst the youth. She also mentors young women leaders and MBA aspirants in their career progression path and has been featured in many global publications.
Secret Skin won Women in Tech Global Pitch competition in 2021 and has received wide coverage locally and internationally across print, digital, radio, TV and podcasts since its launch in October 2020.
Bengt Jacobsson
VP Bespoke Division, BEAUTYSTREAMS
Bengt Jacobsson is the VP Bespoke Division of BEAUTYSTREAMS and leads the company’s development of its Bespoke consultancy service. Supervising all Bespoke projects, Bengt brings together networks of local industry experts to best cater to clients’ unique projects.
With over 25 years of international experience in creative direction and trend forecasting across the beauty, fashion, and jewelry industries, Bengt is a multi-disciplinary creative visionary and has led the implementation of trend-led creative directions for companies like Stylesight, Coty, Oriflame, H&M, and Swarovski, contributing to their global success.
Today, Bengt brings invaluable creative insight and a 360° vision when accompanying clients such as L’Oréal, Merck, Mistine Cosmetics, and Kiko Milano with made-to-measure strategic guidance across branding, creative direction, trend forecasting, and product innovation.
Caroline Bassoni
Regulatory Affairs Director, Cosmed
Caroline Bassoni has recently joined Cosmed as Regulatory Affairs Director, bringing 20 years of experience in the cosmetic industry, mainly within Johnson & Johnson, IFF -International Flavours & Fragrances and Boots on various product categories : skincare, hygiene, suncare, perfumes.
As part of Cosmed, the trade association federating around 1000 French cosmetic companies, Caroline together with an expert regulatory team represents, defines and defends the cosmetic sector positions and interests within various French and EU organizations and commissions to anticipate and shape the future.
Caroline develops and promotes as well Cosmed scientific expertise and guiding tools (regulatory monitoring, training...) at EU and international level.
Kinshen Chan
Senior Beauty & Personal Care Analyst, Mintel
KinShen is based in Singapore and provides distilled insights into the Beauty & Personal Care space.
Prior to Mintel, he worked in R&D at Procter & Gamble for about 8 years, delivering on multiple upstream beauty innovation projects for brands like Olay and SK-II.
Ellen Rucker Sellers
CEO & Co-Founder, Rucker Roots
Ellen, the perfectionist, is a proud mother to Kai Michelle, fraternal twins-Stokely Taggart and Sadie Ellen and married to Bakari Sellers. She is passionate about providing clean products for her family, which motivated her to leave her private practice as a Chiropractor in 2014 to focus solely on growing Rucker Roots into a National Brand.
Ione Rucker Jamison
Co-Founder, Rucker Roots
Ione majored in Child Development (Education) at Spelman College, then earned a masters in Elementary Education at Converse College - this passion for education motivated her to start the Rucker Education Scholarship Fund in 2014. She is also a devoted mother to her three children, Kathryn, AJ, and Rucker.