L'Oréal USA Women in Digital Honors Female Tech Leaders

The L'Oréal USA Women in Digital program recognized five women leading groundbreaking digital companies that focus on how technology is revolutionizing the beauty industry during the NEXT Generation awards ceremony in New York. The L’Oréal USA Women in Digital "NEXT Generation Award" honors the most promising female entrepreneurs in digital technology.

"At L’Oréal, women are at the heart of our business and play a fundamental role in the company's success in the U.S. and worldwide," commented Frederic Roze, president and CEO, L’Oréal USA. "The Women in Digital program is a natural extension for L’Oréal USA, as we want to continue our lineage of celebrating and empowering women who will be essential to the growth of our company."

The winners of the 2012 L’Oréal USA Women in Digital "NEXT Generation Awards" are:

  • Doreen Bloch, founder and CEO, Poshly.com—Poshly is a beauty-meets-digital company that provides customized samples based on an algorithm that will help the beauty industry market to consumers with targeted samples and giveaways.
  • Bettina Hein, founder and CEO, Pixibility—Pixability is a video marketing company that helps organizations get the right video in front of the right audience, by driving more business and increasing awareness with online video, whether on YouTube, Facebook or any other hosting platform with its cloud-based online video marketing software.
  • Sarah McIlroy, founder and CEO, FashionPlaytes.com—FashionPlaytes is a girl-driven fashion and style commerce company. At the forefront of commerce innovation, the FashionPlaytes' website, FPgirl.com, empowers tween girls to create, share and wear original looks, transforming creative ideas into wearable fashions.
  • Kathryn Minshew, founder, The Daily Muse—The Daily Muse is a leading online community for professional women. With the recent launch of their career and job discovery tool at CompanyMuse.com, the site also helps connect hundreds of thousands of aspiring professionals with amazing companies.
  • Vivian Rosenthal, founder and CEO, GoldRun—GoldRun is an augmented reality mobile platform that transforms traditional digital media placements into immersive and immediately shareable brand-consumer engagements, such as through GPS-defined virtual photobooths.

Additionally, five finalists were named L’Oréal Women in Digital Honorees including: Sophia Kim, founder and CEO, Tellagami; Melody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat; Sarah Paiji, co-founder and CEO, Snappette; Janelle Shaffer, founder, My Best Friend's Hair; and Cheryl Yeo, co-founder, City Pockets.

"Having so many distinguished women involved with this initiative is a testament to our honorees and the community of women making strides at the intersection of beauty and technology," stated Rachel Weiss, L’Oréal USA’s VP of digital strategy and innovation.

Winners were selected by a panel of L’Oréal USA executives, venture capital partners and the L’Oréal USA Women in Digital board of advisors that includes Joanne Bradford, chief revenue and marketing officer, Demand Media; Shaherose Charania, co-founder and CEO, Women 2.0; Carolyn Everson, vice president, global marketing solutions, Facebook; Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief, Huffington Post Media Group; Jalak Jobanputra, managing director and founding partner, RTP Ventures; Karin Klein, business development, new initiatives, Bloomberg, L.P.; Katie Rae, managing director, TechStars Boston; Rudina Seseri, partner, Fairhaven Capital; and Shelley Zalis, CEO, Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange.

Honorees will be given the opportunity to meet with venture capital firms, L’Oréal USA executives and partners who can help advise them in taking their business to higher levels. In addition, L’Oréal Women in Digital will invite them on an ongoing basis to attend all L’Oréal Women in Digital meet-ups in local markets and will provide mentorship both internally and through the L’Oréal USA Women in Digital advisory board.

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