French luxury house Kering has created a beauty products division called Kering Beauté and appointed ex-Estée Lauder Raffaella Cornaggia as Chief Executive Officer. Based in Paris and reporting to Jean-François Palus, Group Managing Director of Kering, she will be a member of the Group’s Executive Committee.

Through the creation of the new beauty division, Kering wants to develop an expertise in the beauty category for some of their iconic brands such as Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Pomellato and Qeelin. The group sees the beauty segment as “strategically important” and as “a natural extension”.

Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, two key brands of the group that have already expanded in beauty through licence deals with Coty and L’Oréal, respectively, are not included in the scope of the new division.

An Italian national, and a graduate of Bocconi University in Milan, Raffaella Cornaggia has over 25 years of experience in the beauty industry, spanning three continents, in multiple channels.

Raffaella Cornaggia began her career at L’Oréal where she occupied various roles for 10 years in Italy and in France, before joining Chanel Parfums Beauté as Global Vice President, Marketing Makeup. In 2008, she joined Estée Lauder Companies at the time of the creation of its EMEA region to lead the marketing for Estée Lauder and Tom Ford Beauty, based in Paris. She then moved to Asia where she was appointed Senior Director, Brand Development for Estée Lauder and Tom Ford Beauty, and later promoted Vice President and General Manager for MAC Cosmetics in the region. In 2017, she spearheaded the development of the Travel Retail business worldwide for Estée Lauder and Aerin, as Senior Vice President and General Manager, based in New York. She then became International Senior Vice President and General Manager for the brands in 2020, responsible for worldwide business outside of the US and Canada.