18th Annual Retail & Luxury Goods Conference
heritage reimagined: diversity, equity, & inclusion panelist
Sharalyn Orr
Executive Director, Global Local & Cultural Innovation at The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
Sharalyn Orr leads marketing and consumer experience for The Estée Lauder Companies’ Western Ageless Innovation COE. Her expertise spans beyond the Ageless focus of Generation X and Baby Boomers to include Millennials and Generation Z, having led the generational practice area at a market research firm. She spent most of the 2010s advising media, entertainment and beauty brands on the creation of brand and product strategies to engage Millennial and Gen Z audiences, while not negatively impacting brand equity with core Gen X and Baby Boomer cohorts. Her command of what connects each generation, not just their distinctions, stems from her approach rooted in a combination of cultural decryption, data synthesis and academic theory. A former broadcast journalist, Sharalyn is known for her ability to turn the broad and complex into the compelling and actionable and was one of the first experts to talk about Gen Z in the national media. Her perspective has been featured in many national and industry media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, NPR LA Times, Mashable, eMarketer and MediaPost.
LaToya Williams-Belfort
Executive Director at the 15% Pledge
As an equity champion and innovative non-profit senior executive leader, with over 20 years of experience fighting for equal access for historically excluded and financially under-resourced populations and communities, LaToya Williams-Belfort partners with Fifteen Percent Pledge founder Aurora James, as the Pledge’s inaugural Executive Director. Williams-Belfort leads the advocacy organization’s staff, programs, fundraising, financial operations, strategic growth and development; and overall execution of its mission. Prior to joining the Pledge, Williams-Belfort served as the Chief Development and Communications Officer with 100+ year old youth development and school-based mental health provider Partnership with Children and Jericho Project, a nonprofit that seeks to systemically end homelessness through assisting LGBTQ young adults, veterans and financially under-resourced families attain affordable quality housing.
Gabby Royal
Associate Vice President of DE&I Strategy at Victoria’s Secret & Co.
Gabby Royal (she/her) is a Belonging, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion executive, currently serving as Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy for Victoria’s Secret & Co. Gabby has held global leadership roles for Fortune 500 companies specializing in brand transformation and product strategy, employee engagement, and people development. Prior to VS&Co, Gabby led diversity in luxury goods, serving as CHANEL’s first Senior Group Director of D&I, leading strategy in their US market. Gabby spent the last twelve years as a diversity practitioner bringing expertise to former roles as Global Head of Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Head of Diversity Recruitment at Citigroup, and D&I roles within Higher Education. Gabby is a graduate of Texas A&M University and New York University. She is currently a doctoral student at University of San Diego pursuing her PhD in Education for Social Justice, and a DEI Instructor teaching corporate diversity classes to emerging D&I professionals.
Adina Sterling (moderator)
Management Division Associate Professor at Columbia Business School
Adina D. Sterling is a professor at Columbia Business School. Adina’s research advances an understanding of how inequality persists in labor markets and workplaces. In 2018, Adina founded the Equity by Design Lab (EBDL) while she was at Stanford University, has taught MBA, PhD, executive, and undergraduate courses, as well as consulted and trained employees at companies in high tech, venture capital, and law. She received her PhD from Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Organization and Management in 2011.