The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has named Akhil Shrivastava as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective 1 November. He replaces Tracey T. Travis, who will retire from the company after more than 12 years of leadership and service.
As previously announced, the highly regarded executive will remain at the company until she steps down on 30 June 2025 to ensure a smooth and successful transition.
Shrivastava will report to Executive Chairman William P. Lauder and President and CEO Fabrizio Freda, maintaining the same reporting structure as Travis.
Freda said: “With over 25 years of extensive financial and leadership experience, Akhil is an exceptional and capable leader whose financial and strategic expertise and insights have been important in supporting the company over the past several years, and he will be instrumental in driving forward our strategic direction and decisions.
“I look forward to partnering with Akhil as we continue to rebuild stronger, more sustainable profitability and sales growth acceleration across the business.”
In his new position, Shrivastava is charged with overseeing the beauty group’s Global Finance, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Investor Relations and New Business Development organisations.
An experienced business leader, he is well-positioned to lead ELC’s Global Finance & Strategy (F&S) organisation, with a focus on further cultivating its already talented team, the company noted.
He will also continue to promote agility and a consumer-centric approach throughout the organisation to drive long-term and sustainable value creation, governance and strategic business objectives.
Shrivastava brings extensive experience to his new position, having held senior finance roles since joining ELC in 2015. He previously served as ELC Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller, overseeing Corporate Accounting and Financial Planning & Analysis, the International and Online Finance organisations, Pricing and Value Chain Finance. The role was under both the Finance & Strategy Leadership Team and Executive Leadership Team.
He was also in charge of the Operational Excellence pillar as part of the Profit Recovery and Growth Plan focused on driving strong inventory, cash and cost improvements for the company.
Prior to his current role, Shrivastava was Senior Vice President, Treasurer, where he oversaw core Treasury functions, the Enterprise Risk Program, Real Estate and oversight of the ELC’s retirement funds.
He will become a member of several of the company’s senior management leadership groups. These include the Executive Leadership Team, Investment Development Committee, Fiduciary Investment Committee and Corporate Risk Management Committee. In some cases, his membership will continue, and, in others, he will be a new member.
Lauder said: “Akhil has demonstrated his capabilities as a transformational, visionary and collaborative leader who combines finance and strategy with an appreciation for the creativity within our business and our brands with consumers at the heart.
“He also has a keen ability to cultivate high-performing teams and organisations and will continue to strengthen the tremendously talented Finance & Strategy organisation, which will be instrumental in continuing to drive our strategic business objectives and priorities for the long-term.”
Shrivastava first joined ELC as Vice President, Global Finance & Strategy for the Estée Lauder brand.
He was then promoted to Senior Vice President, Global Finance & Strategy for Jane Hertzmark Hudis’ Brand Cluster in January 2019. He was notably lauded for providing strategic leadership and financial guidance while maximising business and transformational opportunities across the brand.
He specifically helped allocate resources to support and promote the best growth opportunities from a consumer, sub-category, geography and channel perspective, ELC said.
Shrivastava has played an important role as a valued member of many key enterprise initiatives within ELC. He provided strategic financial direction for projects which include transforming the company’s planning processes and capabilities to support the end-to-end business from consumer demand to delivery.
Shrivastava said: “With its leading portfolio of iconic brands, extensive global reach and impressively talented people, I am honoured to lead the Global Finance team.
“I look forward to helping to advance the company’s multiple engines of growth to rebuild stronger, more sustainable profitability and support sales growth acceleration across brands, product categories and regions while evolving the business for the future.”
Before joining ELC, Shrivastava spent 18 years at Procter & Gamble, where he worked in several finance and leadership roles across Asia, North America and global businesses, including Finance Director for Gillette, North America.
He is a graduate of Engineering College in Rewa, India and has a Master’s Degree in Finance and Control from Delhi University. ✈
