Nathalie De Gouveia was recently appointed general manager of the Wella U.S. market, a newly created position. She will oversee Wella’s U.S. portfolio of brands, including Wella Professionals professional hair color, OPI, Sebastian Professional, Nioxin, and the Clairol professional and retail brands.
De Gouveia leads the strategy, the teams, and the plans to deliver the company’s growth ambition for the U.S. market, focusing on the professional beauty business and an omnichannel strategy in premium retail and digital.
Most recently, De Gouveia served as Wella Company’s general manager in Brazil, a robust and growing market that mirrors the dynamism and diversity of the U.S. Upon joining Wella Company in 2019, she worked with her Brazilian team to build a multi-faceted business model that drove both Pro Color and Prestige Care, targeting both pros and consumers while prioritizing prestige retail and ecommerce channel expansion. Over the past year, she led the Brazilian organization’s separation from Coty to join the fully independent Wella Company.
Previously De Gouveia held beauty and fashion management roles at L’Oréal and at the Body Shop in Spain and Portugal as well as in Brazil. A key ingredient to her leadership success has been her ability to galvanize people around her to share in the excitement of the journey.
In this interview with MODERN SALON, De Gouveia expressed her enthusiasm for Wella, her strategy for team building, and a few sneak peeks for brand launches.
MODERN EXCLUSIVE: An Interview with New Wella U.S. GM, Nathalie De Gouveia
“I discovered that I am the first women leading the US market, and I think this is wonderful because in our industry, there are so many women. People need to see themselves represented.” –Nathalie De Gouveia
MODERN SALON: What most excites you to jump into immediately in your new role?
NATHALIE DE GOUVEIA: My greatest excitement is that I’m still in the company that I fell in love with five years ago, and to be leading the US, the biggest beauty market in the world—it’s an unbelievable opportunity and responsibility. But I like challenges.
We have an amazing team here in the US and it is very exciting to work with them. Wella is growing everywhere, and it is always good for us to remember our DNA, which is all about supporting the beauty professionals in hair and nails. Our role, as a strong player in the industry, is to help them develop and help them grow in their career.
MS: You have some very inspiring talent on your education team, hairstylists who are very recognized names in the professional beauty industry. How is this team inspiring the next generation of stylists?
ND: Here in Calabasas (in California, the US headquarters), we’re lucky to have so much under one roof, from the dynamism of our research and development, and of our innovation, to a very strong education team, resulting in the quality of our products and our ability to always be inspiring professionals.
All the brands have developed very big programs around education, in formats that include both face-to-face and digital. With digital, everyone can access it, and it is very democratic, but digital is in addition to our in-person, not instead of. Connection is one of the big values I have and that Wella Company has, and we must be sure that we’re always delivering the right education and the right products to the customers, face to face, and made available and supported digitally.
Our goal is to keep inspiring with trends, with products, and with hands-on education. At our Wella Studio Creative Nights, for instance, we invite our customers and artists to an evening to connect and to create. There is education with our artists, and I really believe this is the heart of the Wella strategy and it is at the heart of what I believe, too—to bring the best education, always.
And that is why I’m so excited to have an education leader in Martin Dale. He has 30 years of experience and is very well known. This was the first decision I made, having someone on my team leading education who reports directly to me. He will oversee all aspects of Wella North America’s education, including curriculum, field in-person and hybrid education, social media and events.
MS: The ongoing evolution of the beauty industry includes the rise of independent stylists, especially here in California. How is Wella offering education and opportunity to the independent?
ND: We have developed what we call the Wella Hub, which is a one stop for hair and nail tools. There is content with essential techniques, we have fact sheets, product information, video, seminars, and many resources for improving skills and staying connected with Wella.
A very popular feature is the interactive chat which allows stylists to navigate the Color Portfolio from their phone and they can also connect with a Wella Educator. We encourage beauty professionals to explore the Wella Store and to be part of our mailing list. Our goal is to make it easy to access and speak to Wella, anytime, from any place.
MS: I believe something you have done throughout your career is you have built teams. How do you begin this process, and do you have any suggestions for bringing people together, so they are working collaboratively?
ND: All my energy comes from my team, from working with them, and from being connected to them. The first thing I do is to make sure we define a clear vision and that everyone is aligned with this strong vision. It’s the notion of an ‘all-in culture,’ of everyone looking in the same direction.
Then, you want to set up ambitious objectives, a little bit higher than what we think we can achieve. We work together on how we will deliver. This is important; work with your team, don’t just sit back and think a miracle will happen.
I also believe in high performance organizations and for that to happen, people need to be engaged—that is when people achieve, if they have an ownership mindset and a sense of accountability.
It’s important to remember that the grass isn’t always greener and that if you are looking for what isn’t perfect, you will always find it. Instead, adopt a growth-mindset, that says if things aren’t perfect, work towards making them better.
I only work with brands that I love, and for a team to be highly functioning, people need to be proud of where they are working.
MS: What are some things we can see coming from your brands soon? Anything you’d like to give us as a sneak peek?
ND: We have had a recent launch from Nioxin with our Hair Fall Defense Shampoo, which acts as a serum to strengthen hair from the roots and fights hair fall.
In color, we are celebrating the Pantone trend of ‘Golden Hour,’ and our artists have curated the products and colors to create these beautiful shades.
Most exciting from OPI is our Intelli-Gel System which is self-correcting and creates a brighter, richer color in a single stroke. It’s also easily removed, and the combination of the two—ease of application and of removal—means the nail pro can work faster and with more accuracy.
Wella Pro Ultimate Care has some strong innovation coming in 2025 which we are very excited to be rolling out.
Ultimately, working together, we can be agile, quick, and bring to market the innovation that the beauty professionals are waiting for. There is so much to look forward to.
For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.