Mary Dillon

Dillon is the victim of her own success. Despite regularly outperforming most retailers in sales growth, shares of Ulta took a beating this summer on fears the chain can’t keep up its torrid run forever—at least not with Sephora going toe to toe with it, and Amazon poised to jump more aggressively into beauty. Still, with ­double-digit percentage sales growth each quarter, and Ulta lining up more coveted brands, Dillon keeps coming up with moves that have made Ulta a rare retail Cinderella story.

Read our piece from last year on “How Ulta and Mary Dillon Are Winning the Beauty Battle."