Emmerentia Wilding named General Manager, Oceania, Estée Lauder Companies

Emmerentia Wilding is warmly welcomed back by the Australian retail beauty business where her local reputation was forged in her role as Brand General Manager for Estée Lauder, AERIN and TOM FORD BEAUTY from 2008 – 2017.

Emmerentia will be based in Sydney; she will report to Christopher K. Wood, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific and will be part of the APAC Leadership Team.

She succeeds Terry Little who, as previously announced, has decided to retire at the end of 2019 following an outstanding 31-year career with the Estée Lauder Companies.

A joint statement by Mark Loomis, President, Asia-Pacific and Christopher K. Wood, Senior Vice-President, Asia-Pacific, tells us:

In her new role, Emmerentia will leverage her in-depth knowledge of the beauty industry and consumers in Australia and New Zealand to define business goals and deliver a robust plan to win in both markets. Working closely with New Zealand General Manager, Marie-Ann Billens, she will ensure both Affiliates share insights, innovation and resources to seize opportunities and drive business growth through locally relevant strategies.

In her 23-year career at ELC, Emmerentia has built a reputation as an enthusiastic brand builder, a great people manager and collaborative business partner. Since 2017 she has served as Vice President, General Manager, Estée Lauder and AERIN, UK & Ireland, where she built strategic partnerships and new capabilities to win in a very competitive market.

Emmerentia has led her team to deliver successive years of double-digit growth as well as major market share and market ranking gains with the Estée Lauder brand jumping from the number four to the number one ranking in UK prestige cosmetics within two years. Emmerentia achieved these results through initiating a granular sub-category strategy, transforming the brand’s resource allocation to strengthen the Skincare business as well as introducing numerous first-to-market initiatives in on-line trading, digital marketing and social media.

In addition, Emmerentia has assumed additional responsibilities, such as co-leading strategic transformation initiatives and supporting fundraising for the Breast Cancer Campaign.

After joining ELC in 1996 in South Africa and spending 10 years in roles of increasing responsibility.

There, Emmerentia was appointed Brand Manager for Estée Lauder, AERIN and TOM FORD BEAUTY in Australia, where she led multi-channel retail operations and successfully drove the brands’ business strategies.

Emmerentia’s consumer-centric approach, ability to embrace transformation and lead through change make her the perfect choice to spearhead the Oceania business.

esprit’s team personally congratulates Emmerentia on her new role and we wish her continued success.