Beauty Meets Wellness Initiative Members
Angela Ackerman
Founding Principal, Social Butterfly Management Group & Founder, The Business Doctor, United States
Angela Ackerman is a 20 year serial entrepreneur, wellness influencer, success psychologist, keynote, and thought leader with a Bachelor degree from Tufts University in Bio-Psychology and Post-grad degree from Yale University in Behavioral Economics. She runs the Social Butterfly- an event production lifestyle enterprise on a journey to empower, inspire and connect across socioeconomic and geographic boundaries. For the last decade Angela has also owned a business development consulting firm called The Business Doctor, Inc bringing neuroscience into the workplace, providing capital and consulting through a holistic approach to profit growth by closing the information and confidence gap for majority-women owned/operated businesses in transition specializing in the mind, body, beauty industries.
Karen Ballou
CEO, IMMUNOCOLOGIE, United States
CEO Karen Ballou’s relationship with IMMUNOCOLOGIE began following a 2-year bout with lymphoma. After more than 30 years of experience in the skincare industry, the many questionable ingredients found in the products she was using as a part of her skincare regimen compelled Ms. Ballou to question the effects these products were having on her overall health as she went through treatment. Her connection to the IMMUNOCOLOGIE philosophy and product line was formed out of a necessity for a healthy lifestyle, beginning with her skin health.
Dr. Toby Call
Co-Founder & CBDO, Chronomics, United Kingdom
Toby entered the world of wellness after he co-founded Chronomics, the world’s first epigenetics testing platform for preventative health management, wellness, and longevity. His passion for data driven wellness comes from personal experience with an environmentally triggered autoimmune condition. He was always fascinated by how our world and universe works, spending a small stint with NASA and the ISU, and studying synthetic biology at UCL. Toby met his some of co-founders at University of Oxford and others while completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge.
Christine Cole
Beauty Retail Business Development Strategist, Speaker, Contributing Author, United States
Christine has over 25 years of sales, marketing and strategic planning expertise in the beauty/retail industry. She has a 360 view of the retail landscape with executive level management of national key accounts. Driving growth through strategic account planning and tactical go to market implementation, she is responsible for leading sales divisions and developing strategic sales & marketing plans that promote growth & customer satisfaction. She is able to identify and develop strategic business opportunities to drive the top line. She is experienced in applying shifts in consumer demands that translate into opportunities that ultimately lead to profitability. For the past 15 years she has been invited to keynote speak to Fortune 1000 & privately held companies.
Pierre-Louis Delapalme
CEO & Co-Owner, Biologique Recherche, France
With over 25 years’ experience in the beauty industry (including time with Unilever and Yves Rocher) , Pierre-Louis Delapalme is the C.E.O. and co-owner of Biologique-Recherche. Biologique-Recherche is an exclusive, result oriented and professional Skin Care brand with 35 years of existence, a very selective network of partners in more than 70 countries, and recurrent double digit growth.
Sonya Denton
Founder & CEO, weDstll Inc., Canada
Sonya has over 15 years of communications and storytelling experience. After spending a decade as a reporter and news anchor for two major Canadian broadcasters and acquiring her MBA from the Schulich School of Business, Sonya knows what drives people to emotionally connect and support each other. She believes that it is the context of people’s life experiences that resonates, surprises, and highlights what we share in common. Her love of contextual stories, wellness and passion for giving people the right information to make informed decisions led to entrepreneurship. Sonya’s mobile platform weDstll uses data analytics and business intelligence to match shoppers with each other and with natural beauty brands based on their shared values, so they can help each other achieve their goals.
Mary-Elizabeth Gifford
Board Member, Demeter-USA, United States
Deeply rooted in agriculture, Mary-Elizabeth Gifford serves on the Board of Directors of Demeter-USA, the Biodynamic agriculture movement considered ‘beyond organic,’ and is the oldest ecological certification in the world, founded by Austrian thinker and author, Rudolph Steiner, and on the Board of Directors of Stellar, a U.S.D.A.-authorized certifier of Organic farmland and products. Known for her work in plant-based beauty, Mary-Elizabeth is a spa industry expert and strategist whose work as a Chief Marketing Officer for many prominent brands has been recognized globally. She is immediate past president of the Washington Spa Alliance and sits on the Board of the Center for Responsible Travel, an advocacy and research group affiliated with Stanford University and based in Washington, D.C.
Karin Hermoni, PhD
PhD, Head of Science and Nutrition Team, Lycored, United States
Karin has extensive research background focusing on health and beauty benefits of natural phytonutrients. Karin’s work emphasizes the potential of nutritional approaches in different aspects of wellness and provides insights into the molecular level. Lycored is a wellness company dedicated to combining nature’s nutrition potential with cutting edge science to deliver natural and effective wellness solutions into the dietary supplements and beauty/ingestible skin care industries.
Allison Howard
Founder & CEO, Nollapelli, United States
After noticing that her skin looked “slept on” first thing in the morning and remembering her grandmother’s satin pillowcase, Allison Howard became curious about fabric properties and what actually happens with skin during sleep. What she learned prompted her to leave corporate America and launch Nollapelli, an innovative textile company engineering new fabrics that work with your body’s natural chemistry. Her first products- patent-pending bed linens- are designed for ultimate comfort, durability and ease of care while maximizing skin health, making them a great addition to any bedroom, hotel guest room or spa. She has a background in chemical engineering and 20 years of chemical industry experience in the US and abroad.
Joana Kebss, MD
MD, Orthomolecular and Lifestyle Medicine, Brazil
Joana is driven to connect her scientific know-how from 10 years in Orthomolecular medicine with her creative talents from a masters degree in branding. She likes to reinvent traditional models in companies, strategize with top leaders, and she takes an evidence-based approach to ensure ingredients are thoroughly audited. Joana strongly believes that clean beauty can also beautify the planet, as non-toxic products made without ingredients linked to hormone disruption and environmental effects are emerging from innovative brands in response to conscious consumers. Going green has become not fad, but a lifestyle for Joana and many others.
Milana Knowles
Senior Director of Spa Development, Clarins USA, United States
With more than 20 years of experience in the spa and beauty industry, Milana Knowles is highly recognized for her innovative reach across multiple disciplines including spa marketing, retail development and operations. As Senior Director of Spa Development at Clarins, her operational strategies are based on Clarins’ founding principle that health and wellbeing are inextricably linked to beauty—a concept of total wellbeing that the company was the first to apply when the original Clarins Spa opened its doors in Paris in 1954.
Paayal Mahajan
Founder & Chief, Dynamo at Essential Body Couture Skincare, India
Paayal Mahajan is a renowned wellness and skincare expert and the Founder, Formulator and Chief Dynamo of Essential Body™, the most luxurious, award-winning, and only couture skincare product line from India. Her supporters and fans include several well-known names in beauty, fashion, film and business from around the world. Paayal and her brand, Essential Body™, have won accolades from Harpers’ Bazaar India and renowned beauty guru Bobbi Brown among others. She is regularly featured in the press, including Beauty Independent—the world’s most respected authority on indie-beauty. Steeped in modern, adaptogenic phytoscience, Essential Body™ formulations work to balance the body’s neurosensory system, while remapping the skin’s cellular matrix. She combines her formulations with her practices of Reiki, meridians, crystals, and massage to create truly nourishing and therapeutic holistic treatments. She concurrently helps run India’s largest much accoladed free Emergency Service for women which has served over 10 million people, and continues her work as a popular wellness educator, community
Kim Marshall
Founder, The Marshall Plan Marketing & Communications, United States
Marshall launched S’Well Public Relations in 2018 to bring a unique set of branding & strategic skills to the wellness world. Having worked as an executive at iconic properties like the Golden Door, Rancho La Puerta and the Grand Wailea Resort, Marshall was the original public relations and branding representative for ISPA, the spa industry’s largest trade organization and she served a four-year term on the Board of the Green Spa Network. She currently serves as a Media Advisor to the Global Wellness Summit; she is a member of the Global Wellness Institute’s “Beauty to Wellness Initiative” – having recently chaired the BWI L.A. Roundtable that live-linked to Roundtables in London, NYC and Hong Kong — and she is the original of 83 Global Wellness Day Ambassadors from around the world.
Claudia P. Murillo
Founder & CEO, Lovacado, Canada
Claudia Murillo is a seasoned business professional with 20+ years of experience across industries and practice areas. Her longstanding passion for natural, non-toxic, cruelty-free beauty products led her to create Lovacado in 2013. Lovacado is a holistic beauty and wellness company. It focuses on developing products that leverage the restorative properties of natural plant oils and botanicals to heal and nurture the body.
Laurie Nicoll
Founder & CEO, Stemulation® Skin Care, United States
Founder and CEO of Stemulation® Skin Care, Laurie Nicoll is an accomplished entrepreneur, having established several successful business entities in finance, entertainment, fashion and beauty. In 2008, she collaborated with renowned specialists on applying stem cell science to the healing and regeneration of skin, and formulated a luxury skin care line featuring growth factors, antioxidants, and botanicals that is highly efficacious, ecologically-friendly and ethically-produced.
Jennifer Norman
Founder & Chief Human Officer, The Human Beauty Movement & Humanist Beauty, United States
Jennifer Norman possesses over 20 years of marketing, management and leadership experience in the beauty and natural product industries. She has worked with major mass brands such as L’Oréal, Victoria’s Secret and Neutrogena as well as premium indie brands such as Stila Cosmetics, Honest Beauty and Derma E. Ms. Norman is passionate about inclusivity, humanitarianism and holistic mind-body-soul-planet wellness. In her most recent move, Jennifer Norman founded The Human Beauty Movement, PBC and Humanist Beauty skincare to foster radical inclusion, wellness and regeneration in the beauty/lifestyle industries. Additionally, Jennifer Norman is the author of the award-winning children’s picture book series, The Adventures of SuperCaptainBraveMan, which promotes early-age friendship, kindness and understanding of individuals presenting physical or neurological differences.
Susan O’Connor
Principal, PranaHealth Strategies, United States
Growing businesses is in Susan O’Connor’s DNA. Her specialty is value-generating strategies that help companies reach a new inflection point of growth. Susan’s expertise is understanding the intersection of science and wellness, and using evidence-based approaches to realize the potential of a business. She led global businesses at Pfizer and is trained in mindfulness and Ayurveda.
Alison O’Neil
Key Note Speaker, Author and Aesthetic Health Industry Expert, United States
Alison O’Neil, B.S.M.E., A.R.S. is a pioneer in the fields of Medical Esthetics and Aesthetic Rehabilitation (Appearance Therapy), now confronting the NEW Aging Frontier directly through the advent of Geriatric Aesthetics©. A founding committee member of the ACS Look Good…Feel Better Program, her own Beauty Becomes You™ 501(c)(3) Prevents Failure to Thrive Syndrome by serving the Aesthetic Health and Hygiene needs of senior adults.
Dr. Elizabeth Trattner
Owner, Dr. Elizabeth Trattner, AP DOM, United States
Dr. Elizabeth Trattner has been practicing acupuncture and integrative medicine in Miami since 1991, specializing in women’s health. Elizabeth is a graduate of University of Arizona’s Center of Integrative Medicine, holds a chef certificate from the Natural Gourmet Institute and received Shamanic training and initiation. She’s a current Member of the Global Wellness’ Beauty Meets Wellness Initiative Committee and is a contributing expert for hundreds of publications and digital media.
Robbin Turner, M.Ed
Founder, Violet Botanical Skincare, United States
Robbin Turner is the Founder of Violet Botanical Skincare. She has spent over a decade working as a marketing director/regional director in nonprofit organizations. Robbin’s passion for wellness led her to pursue a graduate degree in kinesiology from Temple University. She worked as an exercise physiologist in clinical settings and a strength and conditioning coach in athletic settings. Now she pours her love of wellness and clean beauty into her skincare business.
Mark Wuttke
President and Chief Operating Officer, Babor North America
Mark Wuttke, is a globally recognized leader in the spa and wellness industry, known for his high-profile work in beauty, spa, skincare, and wellness. Celebrated for his inspirational leadership style and passion for wellness and sustainability issues, he is founder of the Wuttke Group, an advisory specializing in guiding global companies on corporate strategy, M&A, alliances, portfolio management, and organizational workplace culture. Wuttke is a John Maxwell Team member, a global group of certified professional Coaches, Trainers, and Speakers; and founding Alumni board member of the Global Spa and Wellness Summit.
