Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Stephanie Cohen is leaving Goldman Sachs for Cloudflare, President Biden pledges $200 million to research women’s health, and a new exec takes the reins at Sephora. Have a lovely Tuesday.
– Path to the C-suite. Artemis Patrick has spent the past 18 years at Sephora, and next month she’ll become CEO of the LVMH-owned retailer’s North American business. Unlike so many female execs who get the CEO title in time for a turnaround or in a moment of crisis, she’s taking over Sephora’s North American market when the business is “on an upswing,” my colleague Lila MacLellan reports in a new story for Fortune.
Sephora posted “record-breaking profits” globally last year, Lila reports. (LVMH’s “selective retailing” unit, which includes Sephora, increased revenue 25% to $19.4 billion in 2023.) And while the retailer faces its challenges—tweens in Sephora, anyone?—it’s hardly a glass cliff scenario for Patrick, who rose the ranks mainly in merchandising roles.
Patrick’s own journey to Sephora’s leadership is equally unusual. Her family fled Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution when she was 7; her father was in danger as a pilot for the former Shah. During the Iran hostage crisis that followed, Patrick’s mother returned to Iran and was stuck. With her father unable to care for her, Patrick ended up in a group home and then foster care in the U.S.
The experience left her with an understanding of what it feels like not to belong, Patrick has said. As a beauty retailer, Sephora has often been at the center of conversations about diversity, inclusion, and racial justice. The retailer was accused of racial profiling and closed for a day for company-wide diversity training in 2019; since then, it’s commissioned a report on how to decrease racial profiling at retailers. Sephora was an early signer of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, in which retailers promise to devote 15% of shelf space to Black-owned brands.
“I’ve always led with openness and curiosity into diverse thoughts because I was welcomed in that way on several occasions,” Patrick says. “And when I was younger, sometimes I wasn’t.”
Read Lila’s full story here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Executive exit. Goldman Sachs executive Stephanie Cohen is leaving the investment bank after nearly 25 years to become chief strategy officer at IT company Cloudflare. Cohen, who most recently served as the bank's head of platform solutions, was one of two women to lead revenue-generating businesses at Goldman; both are now on their way out. Fortune
- Health order. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Monday pledging $200 million to expand the U.S. government’s research into women’s health. The White House said the order will “ensure women's health is integrated and prioritized” and “galvanize new research on a wide range of topics, including women's midlife health.” Reuters
- Award war. The family of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg criticized the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation for offering an award in Ginsburg’s name to a group of men and women that includes Elon Musk and Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch. Only women received the award when Ginsburg signed off on it in 2019; her family wants her name removed from this year’s award unless the original criteria are restored. Foundation chair Julie Opperman defended the change: “Justice Ginsburg fought not only for women but for everyone.” NPR
- Economic engines. A new report found that millennial women are the new major demographic force in 19 major economies around the world, including the U.S., Australia, and Japan. Compared to their male counterparts, these women are participating in the workforce more, entering more productive roles, and putting more of their wages back into the economy. Fortune
- Climbing the ladder. More women are entering leadership roles at business schools that funnel into deanships, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Women account for 43% of associate business school deans yet are still outnumbered in other business school faculty positions that also offer leadership paths. Bloomberg
ON MY RADAR
Why March Madness belongs to the women: star players, big ratings make it tourney to watch The Athletic
New Airbnb CFO takes helm at inflection point for travel industry Wall Street Journal
‘All that money can only give you a chance, not a guarantee:’ The cost of fertility treatments abroad The Cut
PARTING WORDS
"Everything in my career I do not just for that story, but strategic business decisions."
—Actor Sydney Sweeney on how appearing in the flop Madame Web helped her build a relationship with Sony and get other projects made
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