NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--John Demsey, Group President of The Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL), announced today that Karen Buglisi has been named Global Brand President of M•A•C Cosmetics, effective immediately.

M•A•C Cosmetics Promotes Karen Buglisi to Global Brand President (Photo: Business Wire)

Ms. Buglisi has been Senior Vice President/General Manager of M•A•C, responsible for global sales, artist training and development and finance and forecasting. In her new role she will add marketing and global communications to her responsibilities and will work closely with the creative and product development teams.

Ms. Buglisi joined M•A•C in 1998 as Vice President of North American Sales and Artist Training and Development. During her tenure she built an infrastructure and leadership team that has nurtured and developed a talented and dedicated team of makeup artists which now number 12,000. She has taken on additional responsibilities and two years ago added international markets to her portfolio. Under her leadership, MAC’s international business has seen double digit growth, outpacing market growth in all regions.

“Karen has superb leadership skills and has been instrumental in developing M•A•C into the number one makeup artist brand in the world,” Mr. Demsey said. “She has done a tremendous job inspiring our M•A•C makeup artists, who are at the heart of the brand and the key to our success.” Mr. Demsey will continue to have direct responsibility for M•A•C’s creative, product development and charitable efforts, including the MAC AIDS Fund, of which he is chairman.

Ms. Buglisi has been instrumental in targeting strategic locations for M•A•C’s growing number of freestanding stores, including one that opened earlier this year in the heart of Times Square in Manhattan, which has become its largest freestanding store in terms of average weekly retail sales. The dynamic store is staffed with 60 multi-cultural makeup artists who between them speak nine languages.

M•A•C also has been in the forefront of digital commerce and communications. It has launched mobile e-commerce in the U.S. and Japan to complement its traditional e-commerce activities and its Facebook page has attracted more than 1 million fans, the most of any U.S. beauty brand.

M•A•C is the number one makeup artist brand in the world. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2010, M•A•C had the three bestselling makeup stock keeping units in U.S. prestige department and specialty stores, according to NPD. M•A•C is sold in more than 70 countries and territories worldwide.

“I have had the honor and privilege to work with a team of incredibly talented professionals over the last 12 years. I’m proud that we’ve been able to grow MAC’s business without compromising the brand’s core values, which are even stronger than when I started” Ms. Buglisi said. “M•A•C still has great expansion potential, particularly internationally, and we will ensure that it stays consistent worldwide, yet culturally relevant in all its markets.”

Prior to joining M•A•C, Ms. Buglisi worked for Adipar, a fragrance distributor that was owned by Escada, a global fashion house, and was a field sales manager for Borghese, a global beauty company.

Ms. Buglisi is a member of the Board of Directors of the MAC AIDS Fund and is on The Estée Lauder Companies’ Executive Leadership Team.

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The Company’s products are sold in over 150 countries and territories under the following brand names: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Lab Series, Origins, M•A•C, Bobbi Brown, Tommy Hilfiger, Kiton, La Mer, Donna Karan, Aveda, Jo Malone, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Michael Kors, American Beauty, Flirt!, Good Skin™, Grassroots Research Labs, Sean John, Missoni, Daisy Fuentes, Tom Ford, Coach, Ojon and Smashbox.

An electronic version of this release can be found at the Company’s Website, www.elcompanies.com.

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