Kecia Steelman, President & CEO, Ulta Beauty, 3/24/2026

Yeah. Well, yes. Small town Iowa girl here. I graduated with 60. You know, I have one of my classmates that I graduated with actually in the audience. He went on to become a Navy Seal, went to Stanford, and is very successful in light of his own career. So Jamie Cummings, I'm giving you a shout out. Yes, congratulations. So, I'm proud of my little hometown where I grew up. You know, you talked about it was a farming community. My parents, we were probably poorer. We were not traditional middle class. We were, you know, if we wanted to do something fun, it was in the back of the pickup truck down by the river fishing with my dad. So, you know, I didn't think that was odd at the time because I didn't know anything any differently. So, if my dad didn't kill it, we probably didn't eat it, which is a little unique today. And I'm not afraid to try new things. So, that's a benefit. But you know, it was a very humble beginning and I wouldn't change it for the world. I have a younger sister. My parents got divorced when I was in high school and times were tough. I actually had to go to work to help my mom pay the bills. And that understanding of what a dollar was and how to work hard early on in my career I'm forever blessed for. You mentioned, you know, I had a child when I was in my 20s. I only had one. I had the second one at 24. So I didn't have two at 20. It's tough enough bad enough but two by 24. And you know, being a really young mom, living paycheck to paycheck, living in the government housing projects, you know, I often say there was this pivotal time for me, and I remember it just crystal clear of, you know, in the projects looking back at the mirror. I'm like, this is not where I want to be in my life. And the only person that can get me out of this situation is looking right back at me. So, what am I going to do about it? And I started working at Target and I loved it. Every day was different. I worked really hard and that's where my retail career really began. So I feel like I wouldn't change anything because even to, you know, yesterday I was in a store in New York and when I'm talking to these cashiers or the people on the front lines I know what that's about and I can relate and understand and for that I'm always very thankful.

Yeah, so my first job was ready to wear and men's team lead. I thought it was really cool. So, I got to fold the clothes and make sure everything looked great. And then they promoted me to be a guest services lead. So, they saw that I was really great with people. So, I was kind of running the registers. And then I went and I ran logistics. That was an overnight type operations. So, I, you know, understood what not having a lot of sleep was like. So, and my career really grew over 12 years there. So, I'm very thankful for Target because that was in the early days where they got it to invest in your people and teach them soft leadership skills and that's why I am where I am today. So, I'm really blessed that I had my first retail job there.

Yeah. Well, long story short, listen, Family Dollar, it was tough retail. If you've seen where the Family Dollar stores are located, they're in some tougher areas of the country. And I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to work there also because there are probably parts of the world I would have never experienced or been in. And I have a better understanding. It's really driven my passion for being involved in nonprofit work because I want to help make a change and make this world a better place. And I was working there for about four years and some really bad things had happened in a very short period of time. Actually I had three of my team members were murdered in the store and to go through that was pretty tough for me personally. You know, to have to go to those funerals and be the face of the company and just it was weighing very heavy on me and a recruiter called me and said, you know, they wanted to talk to me about Ulta Beauty and I didn't know what Ulta Beauty was. I mean I was a traditional counter purchaser of beauty products. So I'm like well let me go in and see what this Ulta Beauty is and I went in and I'm like where has this store been my whole life? So that was the first thing I was like, well this is remarkable and if I don't know about this, how many other people don't really know about this and there's something really special here. And then I had the opportunity to interview with Mary Dillon and you know Mary was a formidable force. She was fantastic at marketing. I just wanted to work for her. She was the first female at that senior level in that more C-suite that I worked directly for that was a woman and I'm just blessed that I had the opportunity to join her and so they had gone pretty far in an interview process and I'm like they need to hire me. I'm like I will stalk you whatever I have to do you need to hire me please and the rest is, you know, as you said it was it's been a great ride over the last 12 years.

Yeah, I often say retail is a pretty simple business that we work every day to overcomplicate because you've got to have the right products. You've got to have them in the store. You've got to take great care of your guests that are coming in. If you do those things really well and take care of your team, you're going to be successful. It's all the noise that kind of happens that you can really take your eye off the ball. Core to who we are and what we're focused on is that we want to keep our guest and our associate at the center of all of our decisions. If we're making decisions for both, we're probably going to be focused on the right things and making the right decisions. So, when I, you know, and I was in the strategy role before I was leading strategy before I came into the CEO role, it was hard for me to remember all the things that we were working on. And I'm a very simple, I like simplicity. And so I'm like, you know what we need to do is we really need to reframe how we're working on our strategy. So it's really three pillars. It's driving the core business. If we drive the core business and we do it well, we're going to be successful. The second was around looking at margin of creative businesses that can be add-on to our growth. And the third was really realigning our foundation for the future. And that's about cost efficiencies, getting cost out, making sure we're running good businesses, and also the culture in our team. So everything that we're working on is around those three pillars and it's really easy to understand. I know you mentioned in the introduction, I think everyone needs to understand the role that they play and I got this when I was at Target. There were times where I was doing things and I'm like I don't understand why I'm doing them, why, you know what this is about. And if we can make the person that's working in the back room of the store all the way to our board members understand the role that they're playing and why we're doing what we're doing, your likelihood of success is much greater. And so those simple words helping them understand with clarity of what the expectation is, that's made all the difference in the world this last year.

Yeah. Well, listen, the stock's taken a little bit of a dip more recently. Market's a little crazy out there. But you know, I'm not telling you what to do, but what I'm saying is that, you know, if you are driving topline revenue growth, which we have, and you're running a good business from a profitability perspective, that's a good business to be running. I'm playing the long game. You know, I try really hard. We're focused on doing the right things. We've been in business for 36 years. My role and responsibility is the next chapter of growth and how do I have another great 36 years because I care. We have 60,000 associates that work for us. Those associates are true to like I work for them. I want to make sure that I'm providing great jobs where they can have the opportunity to grow like I did. And then also for our shareholders that want to invest into our company. So, we were running pretty hot my first year. I hate to even throw it out there. We were up 84% at one time in our stock. We're now closer to the 45%. That's still pretty good for a first year. I'll take this environment. Absolutely. Take that. I'll take that. I'll take that. But you know, the thing is I'm playing the long game. Like I said, I want to make sure that we're focused on doing the right things for the overall health of our business.

Yeah. Well, if you look at the average consumer's makeup bag, we'll just talk makeup for a second. If you open up the makeup bag of anyone who's using products, they have a whole mix of brands in your makeup bag. I know I do myself. So, you know, it can be anything from NYX, which is viewed as more of a mass brand or E.L.F., that's a mass brand, to YSL or Chanel, and it's everything in between. So, you know, while, you know, we talk about all ages, all life stages, and all price points, it's really about what the consumer is wanting and I think to have the ability to do even a trade up. So, right now we're in our promotion called 21 Days of Beauty. And what we do during that promotion is that we have prestige products, prestige and luxury products that we mark down on either just a single day or for the week at 50% off. And it gives everybody the ability to try a luxury item. And then the hope is that they like it so much that they will save their pennies and buy it the next time again, too. And the brands love it because it gets somebody new into their brand. And that's what we're really about. I love the fact that you go into our stores and you'll see some associates that have full face makeup. You'll see some that really aren't wearing any makeup. You see all walks of life, which I think is great because it reflects our communities. And we're not there to make you beautiful. We feel you already are. And we just want you to be the best version of yourself. And that makes me really proud to be leading Ulta Beauty because that's what our focus is.

Yeah, I mean what I was just actually in Paris this last week meeting with many of our high-end luxury brands. They love the ability that it gives them the opportunity to be in front of a potential new guest. You know, maybe you were buying the NYX and as you progress in your career or you become even more engaged in makeup, now we can transition you into those luxury brands. There's no one else out there that does that in this space in a truly authentic way. So, they don't mind. Now, what I will say is that they do like to have their special fixtures and they like to look elevated and they don't want to just be in a regular gondola. And I understand that we want to reflect their brand in a truly authentic way, but they don't mind that we've got other makeup brands that are close to them because it gives them the opportunity to be in front of a potential new guest.

Yeah. Well, we have 46.7 million loyalty members. So, make sure we get the number. We got to get credit for every one of them. And we grew 5% this last year. So, to be able to grow on that large of a base, it means that we have something that's a value to the guest. What they get for that is there's three tiers. And the top tier, they'll get one and a half points if you're a diamond. If you're platinum, you'll get 1.25 points for every dollar that you're spending and those dollars can be converted into real cash to be able to purchase products. So there's a good value for the guest. For us, you know, we see how often they're purchasing, what they're buying when we market to them directly. What value is different things to different individuals. It could be a gift with purchase for someone. It could be a discount for another. It could be a percentage off for someone else. When you're leveraging AI into this really rich first-party data, it's incredible what you can do with the marketing dollars. In the past, you used to just do a blanket market of 20% off for everyone. You don't have to really do that anymore. So that's one powerful tool from a profitability perspective. And then the second is, you know, this rich first party data is very important to the brands that are out there. And we have this thing that we call UB Media which is actually like a retail media network where the brands will give us the money and we will market to the individuals and we own that data for them. So that's another revenue source for us at Ulta Beauty. What's so exciting though is with how we're just continuing to leverage AI. We're as much of a data company as we are a retailer because to have that much clean, rich data that 46.7 million loyalty members, they've had to have shopped in the last 12 months. So, it's a current active loyalty member base. I hear some other programs out there that have these huge numbers, but it's because they made one purchase. You know, ours is really refreshed. So, it's a powerful tool that is really important. I think especially as we're continuing to add more AI capabilities into our organization.

Yeah, well, we don't really share those numbers. I feel like I'm talking to the investment community right now. We don't really break that out. But what I will say is that the ROI for our brands when they give us the dollars for us to invest to market, the return is really really good. So that's why there's got to be, it's got to be a win-win. I believe in great partnerships with our brands. If we win and they don't, it doesn't work and vice versa at the same time. But you know, I will say like connected TV, you're hearing that out there. Connected TV is really picking up. Pinterest is, that's why I'm excited about being on the Pinterest board. Pinterest is another way like you want to be part of the social conversation. We announced in March, March 17th that we're on TikTok Shop now. But you want to be a part of the conversation and part of that social relevancy. So that's really where we're leaning in and we're spending some of our incremental dollars in marketing in a different way that's more your traditional print. We're backing away from that going forward.

Well, that kind of goes into that second pillar of our overall strategy, which is driving margin and creative businesses. International falls under that heading, right? And I'm looking at a way that we can really bring our brand to life in the way that works best for the market. So, let me just touch base on those three. So, in Mexico, our joint venture with Group Oaxo, they're a great partner. The culture is very similar. When you're trusting your brand with someone else and you're getting in a relationship, you've got to make sure that that is a good relationship you're going to be in for many years. I get going through a business divorce is never fun. So, you know, we wanted to make sure that we had the right partner to be able to bring our brand to life and they were the right one. I don't see us doing a tremendous amount of more joint ventures. It's easier when you're a little closer to home than if you're getting too far outside of the United States. The franchise relationship with Alshaya is they're one of the best in the industry with franchises. They brought so many US-based organizations to the Middle East and that's a really light lift for us and it's not a heavy capex burden for us at the same time. And then this opportunity with SpaceNK that came up for us to acquire them. It's one of these situations and I've said it time and time again. It's like 1 plus 1 equals 3. We have a lot of cultural similarities, but they're high street. They're predominantly all prestige to luxury brands. They're fantastic at clientelling, storytelling. And I think that we can learn from them to make Ulta Beauty even better. And what we can help them with is their backend operations, DC management, warehouse, supply chain, and store operations where we can help them at the same time. We're different, but we're a lot of similarities at the same time. What I like about this is it shows the market and the industry that there's not one way that we're willing to grow. We're going to grow the right way for us. And I think that keeps everybody on their toes a little bit more.

Yeah. No, it's not. If you can't take a US-based company and try to make it just exactly the same elsewhere, you're not going to be very successful. So, I'd say to our core, when you walk into our stores, you can tell that it's an Ulta Beauty, but we have nuances and I think those nuances actually make us even better in those markets. One of the things that we've really focused on is bringing local brands in our Ulta Beauty store and that means a lot to the market, the consumer that's shopping in that country that they see brands that are reflective of themselves and that are founded by the community, which is great to me. And I, you know, I think we're getting close to having one of our first ones that is a brand that came through the Mexican stores and we will be bringing that brand into the United States. To me, that's where this power of global retailing really can happen and that's exciting to me. So, we want them to be authentically who they are, but still with the Ulta Beauty essence, so you can tell it's an Ulta Beauty store.

Yeah. No, no, I can't. Sure. But I can tell you I literally have flown around the world. Okay. And I do want to grow Ulta Beauty outside of just where we already are today. But I want to go to the communities and to the countries where it makes sense that there's a request for it. And I'm a true believer, you know, as the CEO that I need to have my eyes on it myself along with the key leaders of my team. We just don't want to take somebody else's word for it. We've got to really see it to believe it. And thank goodness I like to travel a lot because I've been putting out a lot of miles. But no, I'm really excited about where next is going to be. And I think it's going to make sense because you want to be where the beauty market is growing and where it makes sense for our brand to be brought to life. There's no one out there that's even, you know, abroad that's really doing it the way that we are, especially when you add the services element to it.

Yeah, well, beauty itself in the US is about a hundred billion dollar business. Wellness in the US is about a $400 billion business and wellness is growing faster than beauty and there's this convergence of beauty and wellness and the consumer is thinking of wellness and beauty as one and the same. So that's why it makes sense that we would want to lean in is that the business opportunity is there and it doesn't cannibalize your, if you're buying lipstick you're not going to not

Buy an ingestable, if that makes sense. So 91% of our guests that are coming in are buying ingestables. So why would we not want to have a highly curated assortment that just is an add-on while they're already shopping in our stores? What we've heard loud and clear when we've done a lot of research and surveys is that the guests trust Ulta Beauty out of all of the retailers. And I think part of that is the relationship we built with our loyalty members. 95% of our guests that are coming through our stores are part of our loyalty program. They trust us. And there's four areas that we're really leaning into in wellness. One you mentioned already is nutrition and supplements. The second is rest and renew. So if you get enough rest, you definitely look better. So there's a lot of this makes a lot of sense to focus on rest. And then the third is around these devices. So red light therapy masks is really big and so that's really important too that we are offering that. And the other thing is just this wellness shopper feels like they want to have somebody that can engage. And this is where the fourth category and it's really important to us is on intimate care. So you know, you think about we talk about all life stages for all ages. There's periods of time literally that you need to have somebody maybe help you on that journey. And if you can help a woman or girl with something that's very personal, that relationship will last many, many years. So whether you're talking about your first cycle to menopause, which is a real situation. Yeah, I'm living it. It's like, you make this better for me, I'm going to shop with you forever. So to be able to have that kind of a relationship with our guests and have them trust us, I think is really, really important.

Yeah, we're testing concepts right now where we've got a larger footprint in some stores. We've tested that in three stores right now. We have some expanded gondas in 400 stores. And then we've got...

A gondola is like if you think about the fixture that's holding all the products. It's a longer run of products and then a lot of times like the fixture itself is the same but the way that you skin it, it looks very different. So, like you wouldn't know that behind the scenes the fixture is the same, but it does look different and it feels a little different. So, that's a gondola. Yes, for those non-retailers in the room. Yeah, jargon talk. Sorry. But you know, we're testing it and we're seeing what this looks like, but I do think that there's this synergy between beauty and wellness and I don't know that I want to see us separate them. I think that they're one and the same.

It's remaining pretty steady. You know, our very best guests in our stores are using our services because it's the trip frequency. Okay. You know, if you've got to do a root touchup or you're getting your haircut, your frequency can increase or your brows. You know, we also do brows in almost all of our stores. So, it's part of that experiential shopping. You know, until drones can do brows and color your hair, you're going to be able to do my brows. You're going to still need to come into an Ulta Beauty store. So, that's what's really been interesting. You know, this last year, I'm really proud because in 2024, we had lost share in beauty and in 2025, we took share in every quarter in both brick-and-mortar and our e-commerce. So, you know, you hear this like Amazon is taking over the world. Hey, listen. They're a formidable competitor, but experiential shopping is still really important. You want to touch and feel and engage with someone and that's what makes our stores so special. You know, 80% of our business is still today coming through stores. Even though our e-commerce is growing, so is our store business growing. So, stores are still relevant.