MAM
Kate Rouch steps down as OpenAI Chief Marketing Officer
Marketing leader prioritises health after late-stage breast cancer diagnosis.
MUMBAI: When the toughest battle moves from the boardroom to the personal front, even the sharpest minds know it’s time to step back and focus on winning the most important fight of all. Kate Rouch, chief marketing officer at OpenAI, has announced she is stepping down from her role to focus on recovery following a diagnosis of late-stage breast cancer.
In a heartfelt LinkedIn post, Rouch revealed she was diagnosed around a year and a half ago, shortly after taking on the CMO position. Despite undergoing intensive treatment, she continued to lead the company’s marketing function through what she described as one of the most challenging periods of her career.
She explained that while she remained deeply committed to her role and team, she had reached a point where prioritising her health and recovery had become essential. Rouch called the decision difficult, noting it required acknowledging personal limits and shifting priorities. She reflected that the experience had reshaped her understanding of courage not always about pushing harder, but sometimes about stepping back to focus on long-term wellbeing, family and sustainability.
Rouch expressed gratitude to her team and colleagues for their support. She mentioned that Gary will step in to help lead the function and recruit a successor. She plans to support the transition and remains open to returning in a different capacity in the future, depending on her health.
Prior to joining OpenAI, Rouch served as the first chief marketing officer at Coinbase and spent over a decade at Meta, where she was vice president and global head of brand and product marketing.
She also thanked well-wishers for their messages and shared that stories from fellow survivors had a meaningful impact during her treatment journey.
In the high-stakes world of tech marketing, Kate Rouch has always been known for her strategic brilliance. Now, she is showing a different kind of strength, one that reminds us that even the most driven leaders sometimes need to pause, heal, and come back stronger when the time is right. Wishing her a full and steady recovery.
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.
