In Conversation with Lesley McIntosh

Tell us about your background:
I’m a consumer marketing and business leader with 20 years of experience working across beauty and personal care, wellness, and home. I’ve built my career inside global organizations — including L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble, Revlon, and Philips — as well as within founder-led businesses. My experience working across different business models and retail channels underscores the perspective I bring as a seasoned marketer.

As a brand builder, much of my career has involved operating with accountability for brand strategy and performance, portfolio development, creative direction, go-to-market, and commercial outcomes in fast-moving, highly competitive categories. This scope of responsibility means balancing long-term brand building with near-term performance, while staying attuned to shifts in consumer demand, market conditions, and retail dynamics.

Throughout my career, I’ve been trained to think about brands through a commercial lens, grounded early in P&L fundamentals and portfolio management, and ultimately holding full P&L ownership. This grounding has never diminished creativity. It has allowed me to protect it. When teams understand the business context and the problem the brand is solving, creativity becomes more focused, more purposeful, and more likely to break through.

I also spent five years building and operating Luvi Beauty & Wellness, an ecommerce destination that curated over 600 products from 30+ independent beauty and wellness brands. Building Luvi gave me a firsthand view into the realities founders face, balancing brand-building ambition with capital constraints, margin pressure, and day-to-day operating decisions. This hands-on entrepreneurial venture sharpened my digital and customer acquisition acumen and deepened my category experience.

What has remained constant throughout my career is a deep respect for the consumer and a belief that building strong brands is fundamentally a business discipline. Whether working across skincare, cosmetics, or home appliances, I’ve seen that sustained growth comes from clear strategy, meaningful innovation, financial stewardship, and well-defined priorities.

What leadership qualities are important to you?
I value leadership that reduces ambiguity through the clear communication of goals and priorities. When teams understand what matters most, they can focus their energy and make better decisions. I also believe strong leaders foster cultures that encourage new ideas and creativity. My goal as a leader is to remove distractions, set direction, and create space for work that truly move the business forward.

How do you define success in your career, and how has that definition evolved over time?

Earlier in my career, I probably measured success the way a lot of people do — title, compensation, promotions, and whether I was taking on bigger roles with more responsibility. Those things still matter but, over time, my definition of success has expanded.

Today, it’s less about milestones and more about the quality of the work and the impact it has. Recognition is still important, but not only from those in senior leadership. It matters just as much when peers, direct reports, or potential future team members reach out to say, “I want to work for you,” or “I’d love to work together.” That kind of recognition tells me the way I lead and the work I put into the business is resonating.

At this stage, I also think about whether I’m helping build brands that can sustain momentum, whether the decisions I’m making are sound, and whether I’m setting teams up to operate well after I step away. Success, for me, is knowing the work holds up and that the impact lasts beyond my time in the role.

How has networking contributed to your professional growth and success?

Networking has played a meaningful role in my professional growth. Conversations with people outside my immediate teams or organizations have helped me see how roles evolve, what different leadership paths can look like, and where my experience might translate in ways I hadn’t fully considered.

Beyond one-to-one conversations, training programs, industry events, and professional forums have been equally valuable. They expose me to new ideas, emerging services, and different ways of working, which helps counter the risk of becoming too internally focused. As marketing evolves, having an external point of view keeps my thinking fresh and strategies competitive.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleymcintosh/

Website: https://www.brandbotany.com/

Instagram: @misslesleymcintosh