Over 50 multicultural beauty industry executives are leading the initiative to organize the Global Beauty Alliance (GBA), a global beauty organization. The mission of the organization is to support entrepreneurs serving global populations with curly hair textures. Mario de la Guardia, President of Strength of Nature Global, and Multicultural beauty industry veteran Lafayette Jones, President of SMSi-Urban Call Marketing and Publisher of Urban Call, are spearheading the initiative.
The organization hosted its initial meeting during the 2015 Cosmoprof Conference in July at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Subsequent meetings were held in Atlanta on the 49th floor of the Atlanta Commerce Club in August during the Bronner Bros. Summer Show and in November. During the most recent meeting, nearly 20 beauty industry leaders pledged more than $100,000 in start-up funds to support the development and infrastructure of Global Beauty Alliance.
Bob Bell, Founder of House of Cheatham, kicked off the meeting with invocation. He was followed by Mario de la Guardia who welcomed the guests and presented the Global beauty Alliance’s mission and objectives. Lafayette Jones called the meeting to order, facilitated the meeting and later presented “The Multicultural Edge: The Rising Super Consumer,” a report highlighting how multicultural consumers are transforming the U.S. mainstream. Committee chairs from Innovation, Category Marketing/Communications, Finance/Budget/Bylaws, and Regulatory/Legal committees provided a status update on their progress.
Also during the meeting, guest speaker Romina Brown, President of Strategic Solutions International (www.ssiconsults.com), provided a category overview which included Category Size, Channel Summary, Manufacturer Summary, Brand Summary, Segment Summary and Impact of New Naturals. Special remarks were made by Richelieu Dennis, Founder of Sundial and Shea Moisture, and LisaRaye McCoy, celebrity actress and Founder of LisaRaye Beauty Products. At the end of the meeting, beauty industry pioneer Joe Dudley, Sr., Founder of Dudley Products, was given a standing ovation from the membership and closed the meeting with the benediction.
“Global Beauty Alliance will give us a powerful collective voice and leadership role in our various industry global publics—domestic and international trade, consumer, salon, media, governmental, regulatory and community,” said Lafayette Jones, Managing Partner of SMSi-Urban Call Marketing.
Membership is open to all beauty industry members, which includes brand owners, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, media, sales representative companies and beauty industry related suppliers.
To learn more, please visit GLOBALBEAUTYALLIANCE.com.
