MAM
Asia Society India Centre board names Sangita Jindal new chair
Mumbai: The Asia Society India Centre Board has announced the election of Sangita Jindal as the new chair of the board. Her role will be effective from 1 April 2024. “I am so delighted to welcome Sangita Jindal as chair of the Asia Society India Centre Board. She has been an immense support to our mission in South Asia and her work to support contemporary art in India and South Asia has been a transformative force; I look forward to working with her to strengthen Asia Society’s footprint in South Asia,” said Asia Society India Centre CEO Inakshi Sobti.
Sangita Jindal is president, of Art India and chairperson of the JSW Foundation, which is responsible for the social development projects of the JSW Group of Companies. In the twenty years that she has been spearheading the JSW Foundation, it has enlarged its scope of activities in the areas of education, health, livelihood creation, local sports development and conservation of arts and cultural heritage. She established the Jindal Arts Centre in 1992 and founded Art India, India’s premier art magazine, in 1994. She was among the team that conceptualised the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship in 2004. She has founded the Hampi Foundation that has undertaken conservation work at three temples in Hampi. She is a Global Trustee of Asia Society and a member of the Board of the National Culture Fund, Trustee of the World Monument Fund, advisor to TEDxGateway and a member of the IMC Ladies’ Wing Art, Culture and Film Committee.
Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with major centers and public buildings in New York, Houston and Hong Kong, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington, D.C. and Zurich. The India Centre was founded in 2006; it is the only Asia Society Centre in South Asia and aims to encompass all of the subcontinent in its mission to bring together diverse perspectives on modern Asia and cultivate a nuanced understanding of Asia-Pacific affairs. To learn more about Asia Society India, head to asiasociety.org/india.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
