Beauty’s changing of the guard continues.
Alexis Perakis-Valat has been named chief executive officer of L’Oréal USA and president of North America, succeeding David Greenberg, who has been named chairman of L’Oréal USA, a new position.
Perakis-Valat is currently president of L’Oréal’s Consumer Products division, the group’s largest, which includes the world’s biggest beauty brand L’Oréal Paris, plus Maybelline New York, Garnier and NYX Professional Make Up. That role will be filled by Fabrice Megarbane, currently the chief global growth officer.
The appointments will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
“This newly created role of chairman of L’Oréal USA underscores the strategic importance of the U.S. market for our future growth,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, chief executive officer of L’Oréal Group, in a statement. “David’s transformative leadership as CEO of L’Oréal USA and president of North America has been truly exceptional, marked by outstanding business results, a keen eye for emerging trends and a passion for his people.”
Greenberg, a 32-year veteran of L’Oréal, took the reins in March 2022, after Stéphane Rinderknech left the company for archrival LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Under Greenberg’s watch, the division’s sales have risen to almost 12 billion euros, making it L’Oréal’s largest global subsidiary. In 2021, shortly before he took the reins, sales were around the 8 billion euro mark.
The first American to helm the division, Greenberg became CEO just as the country was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. “We went from survival mode, where it was all about supporting the customer and making sure everyone got through it in the safest way,” he said, “to this incredible growth with a flywheel powered by social media, people embracing categories like skin care and fragrance, and a renewed appreciation for experience.”
Since then, the pace of change has only increased. “The industry has been very dynamic in the last five years,” said Greenberg, “with new channels of distribution, ever more information available to consumers, lowered barriers of entry. The industry is ever more challenging, dynamic and exciting.
“What makes me most proud is not that we’re number one,” Greenberg continued, “but that we’ve evolved, changed and transformed to be able to compete in a rapidly changing world. The U.S. is the market where things happen first, and remaining agile as we’ve grown and building a culture for a large company that makes it feel like a small company is something I’m proud of.”
In his new job, Greenberg will focus on external relations and public affairs, continuing in his role as chairman of PCPC and on the industry advisory board of F.I.T. He’ll also continue to shepherd relationships with retailers, academia and government. “We’ve had record setting growth and we want to make sure we have a smooth transition,” he said.
Despite the external volatility, Greenberg is optimistic about continued category growth in the U.S. “We’ve seen this year the consumer has gone through different phases. In the beginning of the year, they felt pressured, uncertain about the economy and the future,” he said. “But during the spring and summer, the consumer has been much more comfortable and confident.
“The consumer seems to be in a better place, but there’s a wide range of consumers here with a wide range of resources and ability to spend, and more than ever, we need to be catering to the market from top to bottom,” said Greenberg. “We have a lot of brands that compete in a lot of channels – one of our key priorities is to be thoughtful and targeted about what we do.”
By all accounts, Perakis-Valat is up to the task. A highly affable executive with French-Greek nationality, he’s a seasoned L’Oréal executive who took the reins of the Consumer Products Division in October 2016. During his tenure, its sales rose from 12 billion euros to 16 billion euros.
He joined L’Oréal as a product manager in 1995. Over the course of his career, he’s been managing director of SoftSheen Carson in the U.S., general manager of L’Oréal Germany, CEO of L’Oréal China and executive vice president of the Asia-Pacific zone.
“Alexis’s career is a testament to transformative leadership and strategic acumen,” said Hieronimus. “Since 2016 his vision and drive have fundamentally reshaped our Consumer Products Division, democratizing beauty, accelerating growth and igniting double-digit growth in merging markets.”
As head of Consumer Products, Perakis-Valat has successfully elevated the mass market, with the likes of serums and daily UV protection, as consumers worldwide perpetually demand more sophisticated beauty routines at accessible price points.
Perakis-Valat has championed innovation for all of the product categories within the division. Key launches during his tenure include Elvive Glycolic Gloss in hair care; L’Oréal Paris Panorama mascara and Maybelline’s Super Stay Teddy Tint for lips in makeup, and L’Oréal Paris Bright Reveal in skin care, for example.
Beauty services powered by tech have also grown for the division under his watch, such as L’Oréal Paris’ Beauty Genius, an AI-powered virtual beauty assistant.
Perakis-Valat’s strategic focus on emerging markets also has borne fruit. In 2024, 50 percent of Consumer Products Division’s growth was powered by emerging markets such as Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He believes the momentum will continue, and that the division is just scratching the surface of business in such developing countries.
On the M&A front, in late December 2024, the Consumer Products Division jumped onto the new K-beauty wave by acquiring Dr. G, the South Korean skin care brand created by a dermatologist, from the Swiss retail group Migros. It had been among the country’s top skin care brands for more than a decade and had developed a broadening pan-Asian presence and growth potential around the world.
For Perakis-Valat, financial and extra financial excellence are key. To wit, he helped shepherd in L’Oréal Paris’ annual catwalk display, during Paris Fashion Week, showcasing women’s worth, as well as the brand scaling up impact of its Stand-Up program against street harassment. Today, that has trained more than 3.5 million people worldwide.
Perakis-Valat has also successfully led the Consumer Products Division’s sustainability push. It redesigned some of its most well-known product ranges, and launched some refill pouches of hair care, with 60 percent less plastic, for instance.
“We know that to scale impact, we need something good for the planet and good for the wallet,” said Perakis-Valat, in the L’Oréal 2024 annual report interview on YouTube.
Despite ongoing geo-political headwinds, the Consumer Products Division keeps posting growth. In first-half 2025, it registered a 1.1 percent rise on a reported basis and 2.8 percent in like-for-like terms to 8.41 billion euros.
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