Estée Lauder Launches Emerging Leaders Fund to Advance the Next Generation of Women Redefining Leadership

Estée Lauder, the flagship brand of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., is proud to announce the launch of the Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders (ELEL) Fund, a charitable fund under The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation. The ELEL Fund’s mission is to redefine leadership by supporting a new generation of emerging women leaders and challenging the gender stereotypes of leadership. The Fund will support global organizations that provide opportunities for leadership development, cultivate supportive communities and advocate for emerging leaders who have a daring vision for change.

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Estée Lauder has made an initial $1MM investment into the ELEL Fund which will support mission-aligned organizations. Vital Voices, a global nonprofit that invests in women leaders, has been selected as the inaugural program partner of the ELEL Fund, with the program commencing in July 2022. Additional grants by the ELEL Fund will be announced in the coming year.

Global Leadership and Gender Report by Estée Lauder
To gain a deeper understanding of perceptions of leadership and gender bias around the world, the Estée Lauder brand commissioned Glocalities, an international market research agency, for a global study of more than 5,700 men and women across 11 countries. The research revealed that whilst there are still prevalent gender biases and stereotypes when it comes to leadership, both men and women value the same qualities in a leader - reliability, integrity and dedication - which are not attached to gender. However, while leadership qualities such as strength and determination are equally valued by both men and women they are more strongly associated with men. The study reveals the roadblocks and solutions for advancing gender-inclusive leadership.

Estée Lauder’s Legacy
As one of the leading prestige beauty brands in the world, Estée Lauder continues to be inspired by its founder, Mrs. Estée Lauder, and her belief in a woman’s infinite possibilities. The ELEL Fund will reinforce the brand’s commitment to women’s advancement by addressing some of the gender-based biases uncovered in the research and shifting the perception of leadership.

“The 75-year legacy of the Estée Lauder brand shows what one visionary woman can achieve,” said Stéphane de La Faverie, Group President, The Estée Lauder Companies and Global Brand President, Estée Lauder & AERIN Beauty. “Through the work of the Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders Fund and its program partners, we will champion women to contribute and lead in their workplaces and communities. We want to redefine what it means to be a leader and what it takes to lead. We want to see more women like Mrs. Estée Lauder in the world.”

The VV Visionaries Leadership Program in partnership with the ELEL Fund
The Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders Fund selected Vital Voices, a global nonprofit that invests in women leaders who are taking on the world’s greatest challenges, as its first official program partner and grant recipient. With the shared mission of advancing women and redefining leadership, the ELEL Fund and Vital Voices have built a custom online and offline leadership development program for emerging leaders globally. Program participants will join the Vital Voices community of over 20,000 women across 184 countries, which includes Estée Lauder Global Changemaker, Amanda Gorman. Applications are now open for the first and second cohort and can be accessed at www.vitalvoices.org/program/visionaries.

“At Vital Voices we have seen that women lead differently, and that difference is precisely what our world needs,” said Alyse Nelson, Vital Voices President and CEO. “Our partnership with the Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders Fund will identify emerging leaders with a bold vision for positive change and provide them with the skills, network and resources they need to make that vision a reality.”

To learn more about the ELEL Fund, visit esteelauder.com.

Follow @esteelauder and #LeadYourWay hashtag to join the conversation.

About Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder is the flagship brand of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Founded by Estée Lauder, one of the world’s first female entrepreneurs, the brand today continues her legacy of creating innovative, sophisticated, high-performance skincare and makeup products and iconic fragrances – all infused with a deep understanding of women’s needs and desires. Today, Estée Lauder engages with customers in more than 150 countries and territories around the world and across dozens of touch points – from in-store to digital. And each of these relationships consistently reflects Estée’s powerful and authentic woman-to-woman point of view. Follow @esteelauder on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

About The Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders Fund
The Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders Fund is a charitable fund of The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, a U.S. based charity incorporated and tax exempt in the United States of America.

About Vital Voices
Driven by the universal truth that women are the key to progress in their communities and that nations can’t move forward without women in leadership positions, Vital Voices Global Partnership has directly invested in more than 20,000 changemakers across 184 countries and territories over the last 24 years. It has provided early support for leaders who went on to become Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, U.S. Youth Poet Laureates, Prime Ministers, award-winning innovators, pioneering human rights defenders, and breakthrough social entrepreneurs, including Amanda Gorman, Malala Yousafzai, and more. Serving as a “venture catalyst,” the non-profit identifies leaders with a daring vision for change and partners with them to make that vision a reality. It provides connections, increased capacity, a peer network, financial support, skills training, and increased visibility for their work, which ranges from gender-based violence to the climate crisis, economic inequities. Follow @vitalvoices on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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Contact information

PR Contacts

Tara Connaughton, Estée Lauder, tconnaug@estee.com
Stephanie Katz, Estée Lauder, skatz@estee.com