THE WHAT? L’Oréal’s Chief Digital Officer, Lubomira Rochet, has tendered her resignation after seven years with the company. The French beauty giant has announced Asmita Dubey as her successor, effective immediately.

THE DETAILS Dubey is currently Chief Media Officer for the Group and Chief Digital Officer for the Consumer Products Division. An Indian national, with a long-standing career in China, Dubey is credited with having spearheaded marketing and digital transformation programs in the world’s largest and most complex market and built the French beauty giant’s first joint-business partnerships with Alibaba and Tencent.

Commenting on Dubey’s appointment, Nicolas Hieronimus, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal, in charge of Divisions, said, “Asmita is a real expert in her field and is a true strategic thinker, with a unique ability to simplify within complexity. With her long-term experience in digital marketing, trendspotting and consumer centricity, she is the perfect choice to build the next big phase of our digital transformation. Under her leadership, we will continue to evolve L’Oréal’s

marketing model, adopt new tech- and data-driven solutions (such as Artificial Intelligence and zero-party data), and accelerate emerging business models (such as social commerce). I am very excited that Asmita joins our Executive Committee.”

THE WHY? L’Oréal said that Rochet, who was named as a candidate for CEO in October but passed over in favor of Nicolas Hieronimus, had decided to ‘continue her career outside of the company’. A separate press release issued by JAB, reveals that she will join the tech company as Partner but will not deal with any matters related to Coty. Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal, commented, “Over the past seven years, Lubomira has transformed our approach to digital, which is now fully embedded across all of our divisions, brands and countries. Thanks to her leadership, millions of consumers around the world can now try on make-up, select hair colour and conduct skin diagnostics – at their leisure and wherever they are. We would like to warmly thank Lubomira and wish her every success for the next step in her professional career.”