Olaplex shakes up leadership with new CFO, CMO appointments

Olaplex Holdings has announced the appointment of two seasoned leaders to its executive team, less than one year into Amanda Baldwin’s tenure as newly appointed CEO at the hair care brand.

Catherine Dunleavy will join Olaplex as chief operating officer and chief financial officer, effective August 13, and Katie Gohman will join the New York-based company as chief marketing officer, effective July 15.

In her new role, Dunleavy will oversee the breadth of Olaplex’s business operations, aligning all functions to most effectively execute on the company’s strategy and drive results. Gohman will oversee the execution of the firm’s global marketing efforts, driving greater brand awareness, relevance, and affinity with both stylists and consumers

Dunleavy brings more than two decades of experience driving strategy and performance at premier consumer brands. Most recently, she served as president, and, prior to that, as chief financial officer at Away, following tenures at Nike, Comcast, NBCUniversal, and GE. In her new role, she will oversee the breadth of OLAPLEX’s business operations, aligning all functions to most effectively execute on the Company’s strategy and drive results.

Meanwhile, Gohman is an experienced marketing and brand leader who brings experience nurturing and growing prestige retail and beauty brands. She began her career at L’Oréal and went on to hold marketing leadership positions at L’Oréal, Ralph Lauren, Coach, and most recently served as the CMO at Marc Jacobs. 

“I am thrilled to welcome these two talented executives to Olaplex as we continue developing a strategy that is designed to harness Olaplex’s many strengths and enables our company to achieve its true potential,” said Baldwin, who was appointed CEO of Olaplex late last year.

“Catherine is a proven leader with a strong track record of executing high-impact strategic, operational, and financial initiatives at scale at some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Katie’s marketing and creative acumen will be instrumental in our efforts to maximize the power of the Olaplex brand and empower and enable the success of our stylist community. I am honored to have the chance to work with each of them as we deliver on the priorities that are aimed at putting us on a trajectory to generate consistent sales and profit growth.”

A biotech hair care brand founded in 2014, Olaplex has been struggling with lagging sales of its hair products. In its most recent trading update, the company reported net sales decreased 13.1% to $98.9 million, coinciding with a 63.1% decrease in net income for the first quarter.