Melis del Rey, the Amazon executive largely viewed as transforming the platform into a main stage player in the prestige beauty world, has been named chief executive officer and board director of SPF brand Supergoop.
Del Rey, who will relocate from Seattle to New York for the position, will start her new role on Dec. 8.
Gregory Polcer, who has been serving as interim CEO since May 2025, will work closely with del Rey and will continue to serve on the Supergoop board of directors.
“Melis is a dynamic and visionary leader with a proven track record of building global brands, strengthening retail partnerships, and delivering exceptional consumer experiences,” said Edgar Huber, chairman of the board of Supergoop. “Her innovative approach to brand building and deep expertise across beauty, e-commerce, and omnichannel strategy make her uniquely suited to lead Supergoop into its next era of growth.”
In an interview with WWD, del Rey said she’s been tracking the brand for several years.
“When I think about what brands have such a beautiful and clear purpose married with such a strong product love from a consumer point of view, Supergoop stands out,” she said.
“I came across the brand back in 2019 as a consumer when I was in the U.K. At the time, it was making such big waves in the U.S. It was 2018 when Unseen was launched. It was a pretty bold category-defining innovation,” she continued. “From my perspective, Supergoop as a brand has a very clear mission when it comes to what it’s trying to accomplish with the expansion of daily SPF adoption in everyday life. There’s a lot of strong consumer momentum. There’s big potential to change this whole global behavior around skin health. I see a huge, enormous opportunity to build on that foundation. The focus will be on expanding the SPF adoption, accelerating innovation, and allowing more people to access the brand.”
Supergoop was founded in 2005 by Holly Thaggard, who built the company into one of the first and most successful high-end SPF companies in beauty. Hero products include Unseen Sunscreen, Glow Screen and Play Everyday Lotion.
In 2021 Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Supergoop. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In 2024, Lisa Sequino was named CEO, succeeding Amanda Baldwin, who then became CEO of Olaplex. Sequino departed in June 2025 and now leads the makeup division at the Estée Lauder Cos.
Just before that in April, Thaggard left the brand.
Most recently, del Rey served as general manager of Amazon U.S. Health and Beauty, where she led a major transformation of Amazon’s U.S. prestige beauty business.
Indeed, under her leadership Amazon has made great strides, attracting prestige brands that for years held off from joining the platform.
A key turning point came in 2023 when a few L’Oréal Luxe brands started selling on Amazon. A year later, the Estée Lauder Cos. launched Clinique on Amazon, and the beauty company now has a total of 11 brands on the platform in the U.S., in addition to an international push.
“It feels very natural now. It’s been a phenomenal 18 months. But going back, it wasn’t quite intuitive. There was a time when Amazon and the Estée Lauder Cos. stood at opposite ends of the table and that was no secret,” said del Rey at the WWD x FN x Beauty Inc Women in Power conference in September.
Key to forming this partnership was Amazon building features to tell the story of the Estée Lauder Cos.’ brands on its platform. Clinique, for example, was able to develop a skin analysis tool for its Amazon storefront to coincide with the launch.
“What we had to do is after we listened to their requirements, was go back and say, ‘OK, how do we innovate, how do we think about the shopping experience, use the power of technology and develop features that truly capture the consumers’ not just minds but hearts at the same time,’” recounted del Rey. “Because this is an area where we needed to elevate. We’ve created a new brand store experience. Our detail page experience was overhauled. We’ve actually worked with specific features, which was around enabling skin care diagnostics and shopping or finding the right shape or foundation. So really being true to the customer’s needs and using technology.”
Del Rey began her career as an engineer and researcher in academia, earning a Ph.D. in new product development and engineering design and a bachelor of engineering degree in manufacturing engineering and operations management from The University of Nottingham. She then moved to Procter & Gamble, where she spent more than a decade in marketing and sales leadership roles across brands like Pantene, Olay, Herbal Essences and Pampers.
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