Marla Beck

Marla Malcolm Beck is the co-founder, CEO, and visionary behind Bluemercury, Inc., a high-growth luxury beauty retail chain, e-commerce provider and cosmetics brand developer. She leads Bluemercury’s merchandising, marketing, supply chain, store operations, IT, and finance functions. From 1999-2006, she served as Bluemercury Inc.’s Chairman of the Board of Directors. In 2006, Beck also co-founded M-61 Laboratories, makers of M-61 Skincare, the first highly technical, natural cosmeceutical brand.

Bluemercury’s innovative retailing model has been the topic of numerous books, including "Shopping: Why We Love it and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience" and "Be Happy at Work: 100 Women Who Love Their Jobs and Why."

Beck is often invited to share her entrepreneurship, branding and innovation expertise. She has appeared as a guest on CNBC, CNN and Fox Business News and has also been a guest speaker for WWD’s Beauty Innovation Forum, HBA’s Global Beauty Conference, Harvard University’s Luxury Branding Speaker Series and Columbia University’s Lang Center for Entrepreneurship’s Distinguished Speaker Series. I

In 2014, Beck received an appointment by Harvard Business School as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. She was also named as one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs for 2014. Ms. Beck was Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. Prior to founding Bluemercury, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Economics, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a member the Advisory Board of Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the Board of Directors of the National Retail Federation, and the Board of Trustees at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC. She resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three children, ages 11, 9 and 7.