Brands
upGrad onboards Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO – International
Mumbai: EdTech company, upGrad has announced the appointment of Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO-International to spearhead growth across the APAC, EMEA and US regions. She assumed office in August this year.
With over two decades of experience in global and digital businesses, Myleeta will be responsible for managing end-to-end international operations and creating region-specific product pipelines, thereby driving high-impact revenue and profitability results.
Myleeta AgaWilliams will be leveraging her experience in scaling businesses through strategic interventions across content and global distribution for broadcast and streaming media. She will engage with managerial teams based in multiple geographies to align short-term and long-term business objectives for accelerating profitability.
Previously, she has managed diverse product portfolios and led marketing and sales teams across geographies at Netflix, BBC Studios, Discovery, and UTV, amongst others.
Commenting on the appointment, upGrad co-founder & MD Mayank Kumar said, “We are at such a high point of our international expansion that we require a leader who has seen these markets evolve to make sound business decisions. Myleeta comes with a strong entrepreneurial mindset and cultural intellect that will augment our operations across existing and upcoming markets.”
“While we are leading the higher education space in India and have penetrated successfully across SE Asia, we felt it’s the right time to go aggressive with other geographies, which will require strategic linear and non-linear movements to support the growth. Myleeta, who has built and scaled operations across niche markets including Asia, will continue to accelerate our ambition of becoming a global leader within the LifeLongLearning segment,” Kumar added.
“Taking the hugely successful online learning portfolio that upGrad has pioneered to transform the lives and careers of learners across the globe is a fantastic opportunity,” said Myleeta while talking about her new role at upGrad.
“In this next stage of growth, we will be looking at each of the markets in which we have ambitions to achieve scale and apply a nuanced and focused strategy, leveraging my past experience and deep knowledge of digital consumption habits. I am thrilled to be joining Ronnie, Mayank, Phalgun, and the leadership team at this exciting phase of high growth,” she concluded.
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.
