Emmanuel Goulin, currently President of L’Oréal Travel Retail, has been appointed to the key role of Europe President, succeeding Vianney Derville. Current President and Managing Director of L’Oréal Hong Kong, Eva Yu will take over from Goulin. Both roles will become effective 1 January 2026.
Goulin has overseen a period of significant change for L’Oréal’s travel retail division, adapting the business to the post-pandemic landscape and reshaping its focus around the traveller journey and airport ecosystem.
Notably, he has led the reinvention of the ‘beauty experience’ in travel retail.
He has also led a profound transformation of the organisation and operational model, enhancing agility and efficiency to better respond to shifting market dynamics.
Since joining L’Oréal in 2000, Goulin has held leadership positions in Japan, Hong Kong, the UK and France. As General Manager of L’Oréal Italy, he accelerated growth and advanced sustainability efforts, creating the conditions for sustained double-digit performance.
L’Oréal Group CEO Nicolas Hieronimus commented, “Emmanuel has a deep understanding of the European landscape, forged through leadership roles in three of its key markets.
“This, together with his great track record of delivering major business and transformational impact, positions him as the ideal leader to drive innovation, accelerate growth and inspire our teams in our biggest region.”
Eva Yu succeeds Goulin as President of Travel Retail. The highly rated executive will also join L’Oréal’s extended Executive Committee. Yu, currently President and Managing Director of L’Oréal Hong Kong, will divide her time between Paris and Singapore to maintain proximity to teams and to the business’s strategic centre in Asia.
Yu brings extensive experience in transformation and growth across diverse markets. Under her leadership, L’Oréal Hong Kong has achieved strong market share gains and been recognised for its retail excellence, talent development, corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives.
Yu began her L’Oréal career in 2000 as Brand Manager for Biotherm in Hong Kong, where she led the brand to a leading market position.
In 2011, Yu broke new ground as the first Asian and the first woman appointed Managing Director of Travel Retail in APAC. There she led L’Oréal’s duty-free business across 27 markets, driving remarkable growth in footprint, brand image and market share.
Hieronimus added, “Eva’s remarkable career, marked by her vision and incredible ability to foster unity and harmonise efforts across different functions and markets, makes her an outstanding leader.
“Her deep understanding of the Asian market and her proven track record in driving both business transformation and people development, positions her as the ideal choice to lead our strategic Travel Retail business into its next chapter of growth and innovation.”
Goulin made the announcement of his departure during L’Oréal Travel Retail’s annual media briefing at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes today. He said: “I’m very confident that Eva’s fantastic experience at APAC Travel Retail will bring this business and team to new heights.
“If we want to leverage fully the appetite for travel and solve our conversion issue we have to re-enchant our channel and bring the level of experience up. Travel retail has been too transactional in the past and the travellers of tomorrow expect to have experiences and we at L’Oréal Travel Retail aim to deliver.”
Yu said: “Over the past years travel retail has undergone a major evolution but it remains strategic for the group. I’m really excited to come back and I’m very confident because I see a lot of opportunities. We have a great team and plenty of innovation under the leadership of Emmanuel.” ✈
