L’Oréal has announced the appointment of Lucia Dumas as the new Executive Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs, effective January 2018. Dumas will also take a position on the company’s Executive Committee.

Joining the French beauty giant from Essilor, Dumas has a wealth of experience in designing and deploying brand identity, roles she also undertook for the Rhodia Group – where she helped implement a merger with Solvay.

L’Oréal said in a statement, “The diversity and richness of Lucia’s expertise, combined with her knowledge of industrial sectors where innovation and technology play a key role, are all assets in continuing to increase L’Oréal’s reputation vis-à-vis all of its stakeholders and to spread its image throughout the world.”

Dumas will succeed Isabel Marey-Semper, who’s leaving her role to take on a professional position outside of the company. Marey-Semper had a high-level scientific background and as a result led L’Oréal’s Advanced Research for five years, before becoming a member of the Executive Committee in charge of Communication and Public Affairs in 2015.

During this time Marey-Semper also took on the General Management of the L’Oréal Foundation and led the group’s ‘Simplicity’ project.