Jury

AMINA GRIMEN - Cofounder, Power Beauty

Amina is a Co-founder of Powder, the region’s first and most comprehensive destination for insanely good, obsession-worthy products with a conscious DNA, hand-picked from around the world by beauty devotees who want to educate and empower everyone to shop based on their personal values, without compromising a thing.

In 2018 Amina cofounded Powder as a passionate, but frustrated beauty consumer disappointed by the lack of choice and guidance in the regional beauty market.  Powder is the pioneer of conscious beauty in the region. As the trusted guide for safe, sustainable, and transparent products that are kinder to both our bodies and to the environment. Powder is committed to brands that embody the values of our conscious customers but will only ever stock what’s truly worthy of a spot on our shelves and, more importantly, yours.

Amina has over 10 years’ experience as a corporate communications professional and she has extensive experience working with financial services, legal, technology and lifestyle businesses in the Middle East.  Amina has been based in Dubai for the past 16 years and holds a MA in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

AMNA ABBAS - Consultant, Beauty & Fashion Middle East, Euromonitor

Amna Abbas is Senior Analyst at Euromonitor International in the UAE. An expert on Beauty and Fashion in the Middle East, she focuses on analyzing topics such as beauty and personal care, personal accessories and eyewear, apparel and footwear, consumer health and luxury goods within the retail landscape. Her professional interests include understanding the continuing dynamics of beauty and fashion within the Middle East region, with keen interest in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. Along with regular interactions with major global and regional beauty and fashion industry players, she has been proactive contributor to articles and interviews through various platforms such as exhibitions, TV, radio and press media on the same such as Beautyworld, CNN, Forbes, Euro News, Dubai Eye, Gulf News and Images Retail ME.  

Amna holds a Master of Strategic Marketing, top graduate, from the University of Wollongong. She has been active in the field of market research intelligence for more than a decade, bringing with her rich insights on the region.

ANISHA OBEROI - CEO & Founder, Secret Skin

“Our secret skin is the deepest, purest part of us - it’s also the strongest. Yet we hide its truth from the world, afraid of being judged, deeply conscious of our vulnerabilities. My mission is to evoke self-love and strength of purpose beyond socially-conditioned restrictions and biases of color/ gender, and channel this energy to promote a revolution of Mindfulness.”

Anisha Oberoi started her corporate career in Hospitality and Fashion prior to joining the Ecommerce industry in 2014 as part of the founding team that launched Amazon Fashion in India and Australia. She moved to the UAE in 2019 to launch the online vertical of Bloomingdales Middle East.

Secret Skin was born in 2020 with a unique framework committed to ‘People, Planet and Purpose’ as an award-winning ecommerce discovery platform that connects global conscious brands to beauty consumers in the Middle East.

“Secret Skin’s story is my story. I was addicted to the superficial as one often is when younger, and my frustration at not being able to find any toxin-free beauty or safe personal care products during my cancer treatment that wouldn’t disrupt my hormones or negatively impact my fertility became the inspiration to create a brand that women like myself could trust; one that would reinforce the importance of women’s health through the narrative of Beauty. I chose to fight back in 2010 and I’m alive today because I had a stubborn desire to live - to see what I was made of, to experience what lay ahead.”

“With our solution customers can buy safe and affordable toxin-free beauty/personal care products and give back to the community - in a single click. Our sustainable brands maintain high standards of product integrity, use ingredients ethically sourced through fair trade, are cruelty-free and gender-neutral with sustainability practices across the flywheel of sourcing, production, packaging and shipping. Through our Eco-Rewards program we enable customers to recycle their plastic bottles and be incentivized for pro-environment behavior.”

Anisha holds an MBA from INSEAD (ranked top 3 in the world by FT) and a digital marketing qualification from Columbia Business School. Having battled Breast Cancer at an early age, Anisha works passionately with hospitals to raise awareness of early detection amongst the youth. She also mentors young women leaders and MBA aspirants in their career progression path and has been featured in many global publications.

Secret Skin has received wide coverage locally and internationally across print, digital, radio, TV and podcasts since its launch in October 2020 including CNN.

Winner of Women in Tech 2021, Secret Skin also won a Beauty Independent Beacon Award for Online International Retailer of the Year, was a finalist at Beauty World Middle East for Homegrown Talent, and was nominated at Gulf Capital SME Awards for Marketplace Technology Startup of the Year. In 2021, Secret Skin also took home the prestigious She Loves Tech competition title for the Middle East region.

50% of Secret Skin’s investors are women.

BILAL AL-GBURI - Managing Director, CLC Cosmetics

A chemist and professional skincare formulator based in the United Kingdom, Bilal has created hundreds of unique and innovative formulations for internationally recognized brands and retail stores over the past 10 years. He is a qualified safety assessor and the Responsible Person for several brands in the UK. 

Since 2008, the Middle East region has been going through a production boom. With the increased number of small manufacturers, a market gap has been created for supply of raw materials for beauty products to the region. Bilal has been working to provide high quality materials for start up manufacturers to create their beauty brands locally and providing technical and machinery setup advice larger production units.

DOMINIQUE BRUNEL

FERNANDA PIGATTO – Beautystreams

As Global Marketing Director for Beautystreams, Mrs. Pigatto leads the overall marketing strategy and works closely with regional teams to tailor and execute this worldwide. As a trend expert, Mrs. Pigatto has over 15 years’ experience as a correspondent and editor for international web-based media and was previously Trend Director for Latin America at Stylesight. Mrs. Pigatto’s diverse experience allows her to conduct projects with global corporations, and strong collaborations with leading trade shows.

GAELLE DORÉ – General Manager, Cent Degrés

CENT DEGRÉS is an international strategy and creative agency founded in 1988 in Paris. Specialized in brand creation and intelligence, visual identity, product design, packaging, and architecture. With 14 offices worldwide and 100 talents, CENT DEGRÉS works with the most famous international brands in beauty, food & beverage, fashion, jewelry, services etc.

With more than 10 years of experience in the creative and design fields, Gaëlle Doré started her career at CENT DEGRÉS Paris for 6 years as a Project Manager, before being appointed General Manager of  CENT DEGRÉS Dubai in 2014. 

Gaëlle Doré is passionate about brand creation & brand transformation, and her main mission is to support international and local brands in boosting their creative development within a particularly dynamic local and regional market.

NATHALIE NEUBERT –News Editor, BW Confidential

Nathalie Neubert is News Editor for Paris-based business-to-business media for the international beauty industry, BW Confidential. She covers all the major beauty categories including make-up, skincare and fragrance, and regularly interviews key industry players.

RAY BURNS

With a passion for luxury, Ray has had success working with  some of the world’s most prestigious beauty and fragrance brands, he has spent his 25 year career surrounded by taste makers and innovators in the beauty world.

With his start in fashion working with retailers Barneys New York and Saks Fifth Avenue, Ray soon found himself drawn into the world of beauty. 10 years of his career was spent at NARS Cosmetcs as Vice President of Sales & Marketing, where he worked with the top makeup artist and tastemaker of his generation, Francois Nars. Other most notable career highlights was his move to Europe, where he workd for 6 years at Space NK and helped distribute and develop brands under the Space Brands portfolio as Director of Brands. Most recently, Ray worked  for the ICON herself, Pat McGrath as a Managing Director for EMEA.

Ray also had found a love for fragrance working with some of the  world’s top fragrance masters, learning the art of carefully designing a fragrance that inspires, transports and transfixes the wearer.  He went on to help create and market some of the top selling and most innovative luxury niche fragrances on the market.

Ronny Froehlich – Co-Founder, COO, Chief Consumer Brands Officer, Golden Scent - KSA, UAE

As a founder of the company, I have directed, set up or been involved in practically all departments of the company, its operations, its growth from zero to multi-million USD market leader in its category, from conceptualising visions to their realizations. I’m also very involved in the creation and growth of brands, where we work with world class fragrance houses and supply chain partners across Europe, Middle East and Asia as well as make use of state of the art data infrastructure in search of the latest consumer trends in order to create world class consumer products.

Golden Scent pioneered fragrance & beauty e-commerce in the MENA region when it launched in 2014. Today, GoldenScent.com has the largest fragrance library worldwide covering more than 20,000 products from perfumes to home fragrances, aromatherapy, beauty products and much more. Headquartered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and with hubs across the region, Golden Scent delivers to across the GCC region and to over 80 countries worldwide.

SADIF NAZ – Training Manager, Al Futtaim

"For as long as I can remember, my go to to feel good, would be shopping & what better way to feel better than buying the latest offering in the beautyworld.

That’s where it all began for me.

I possess 15 plus years of being in the Beauty Industry. An accomplished make-up artist who started at Iman Cosmetics, then Mac Cosmetics where I honed my craft, was exposed to make up artistry on a larger platform, I went  on to do backstage for London Fashion Week, Music Festivals & the annual Jingle Bell Ball at the O2.

Being a people person & having gained all the knowledge over the years, I wanted to share that & so the next step was a very natural foray into the educator/ trainer role for myself. I went onto become the Resident Trainer for Mac Cosmetics Middle East Qatar.

Working for a brand such as Mac enabled me to be exposed to all other brands, that were in the Estee Lauder group of companies portfolio, both luxury & affordable. Being a freelancer meant I was always on the look out for the next IT product. Over the years, I have become very passionate about products that are coming into the market, the concept, the inspiration or the need from which the product has evolved. I am always amazed at new formulas, trends & how we are getting better, not just for us consumers, but on a whole, as a planet, where clean beauty can be obtained, where sustainability is in place without compromise.

This brings me to my latest role, as Trainer for Watsons, the worlds leading Health & Beauty Retailer. I find myself on familiar grounds doing what I absolutely love in regards to training & once again I am exposed to brands from all over the world & that really excite me, as a consumer that I can share with like minded people."

SANDRA PETROVIC – Executive Editor at Fragrantica

Sandra Raicevic-Petrovic is working as Fragrantica Executive Editor since the early beginnings of the site, and strongly participating in the building the content. From the early childhood she was passionate about perfumes, collecting them and enjoy learning about all the aspects of perfumery. She especially enjoys reporting and coverage of the prestige perfume exhibitions, installations and events, recognizing changing trends in industry, heartily follows major launches and find inspiration from the fresh ideas of talented creators of our time.

SERGEY BORISOV – Beauty Editor and Journalist

Sergey Borisov has started his perfume collection since his student days, and started writing about perfumes for local Siberian radio, newspapers and perfume-related websites (nickname moon_fish). His perfume columns have been published in Russian glamour magazines like GQ, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Interview, The Rake, Glamour, Collezioni, Allure, TSUM Magazine, Departure, Robb Report and others. In 2013, Sergey joined the Fragrantica international team as English-Russian editor and journalist. He specializes in new niche brands, new local brands, and perfume history.