Coty Inc. has appointed five new independent directors to its board as part of a comprehensive refreshment aimed at stabilizing the company’s performance following a "disappointing" financial period. New directors Carsten Fischer, Alia Gogi, Robert Kunze-Concewitz, Maria Carla Liuni and Stephanie Plaines bring leadership backgrounds from Shiseido, LVMH, and Procter & Gamble.
This leadership overhaul follows Coty’s Q2 FY26 results, which showed a 3% decline in like-for-like (LFL) net revenues and a 45% drop in reported operating income to $148.2 million. The refreshment coincides with the initiation of the "Coty. Curated." strategic framework under Interim CEO Markus Strobel, designed to address a 6% LFL revenue decline in the consumer beauty segment and elevated promotional headwinds in prestige.
Key Board Appointments & Financial Context
- Financial Oversight: Stephanie Plaines (former CFO at JLL and Starbucks) will chair the audit and finance committee. She joins as Coty reports a reported net loss of $126.9 million for Q2, though the company successfully reduced financial net debt to $2.6 billion—a nine-year low—following the $750 million divestiture of its Wella stake.
- Prestige Expertise: Maria Carla Liuni (Ferrari, formerly P&G Prestige) and Carsten Fischer (former Shiseido executive) bolster a prestige segment that currently represents 68% of total sales but saw LFL revenues slip 2% this quarter.
- Retail & Strategy: Alia Gogi (Sephora Asia) and Robert Kunze-Concewitz (former Campari CEO) will support the "Coty. Curated." priorities of focused investment and improved execution.
- Board Exits: Directors Beatrice Ballini, Isabelle Parize and Anna Adeola Makanju have resigned effective immediately; Robert Singer will depart June 30, 2026. Gordon von Bretten has stepped down to become president of consumer beauty, a unit currently facing a 330 basis point decline in adjusted EBITDA margin.
Coty has withdrawn its prior FY26 guidance for EBITDA and free cash flow, forecasting a mid-single-digit LFL revenue decline in Q3 FY26.
!['[L]arger/international customers require compliance to foreign standards such as Leaping Bunny, EU standards compliance, etc.,' says Cohere Beauty's John Nolfi. '[T]he trend is more about being able to support 'clean' formulations with some data.'](https://img.perfumerflavorist.com/mindful/allured/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/cg-productionassembly.StVSo2THhj.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=191&q=70&w=340)
