Marla Malcolm Beck

Marla Malcolm Beck
Born	Marla Malcolm Beck Oakland, California, United States
Alma mater	University of California, Berkley Harvard Kennedy School of Government Harvard Business School
Board member of	The Children’s Place [NASDAQ:PLCE] National Retail Federation Trustee, Sidwell Friends School Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard Business School, Rock Center for Entrepreneurship
Spouse(s)	Barry J. Beck
Children	2 daughters 1 son

Marla Malcolm Beck is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bluemercury and M-61 Laboratories.^[1] Beck founded Bluemercury, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing luxury beauty retailer and spa in the country, with her husband Barry J. Beck.^[2][3]Bluemercury opened its first location in Georgetown, Washington, DC in 1999, and has since expanded to over 100 stores across the country.^[4][5] The company was acquired by Macy’s in 2015 for $210 million in cash, and continues to grow.^[6] The couple also founded M-61 Laboratories, a highly technical and natural skincare line, in 2012. The line is sold in Bluemercury stores and was picked up by Home Shopping Network in February 2015.^[7]

Career

Marla Malcolm Beck and her husband, Barry J. Beck, founded Bluemercury in 1999.^[8]They came up with the concept for Bluemercury, a friendly neighborhood store with expertly trained staff, to provide an alternative to the more impersonal department store sales models.^[9]The couple opened their first store in 1999 in Georgetown, Washington, DC. Marla Malcolm Beck is the CEO of Bluemercury and leads the company’s merchandising, marketing, planning and store operations teams.^[10][11]

Prior to founding Bluemercury, Marla was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.P.A from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.^[12]

Marla currently sits on the Advisory Board of Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, the Board of Directors of the National Retail Federation, the Board of Trustees at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., and the Board of Council for Public Leadership, at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.^{[13][14][15][16]} Beck also serves as an independent director on the Board of Directors of The Children’s Place [NASDAQ: PLCE].^[17]

In the media

Beck is often invited to share her entrepreneurship, branding, and innovation expertise. Marla's entrepreneurial career has been the topic of numerous books, including Shopping: Why We Love it and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience and Be Happy at Work: 100 Women Who Love Their Jobs and Why.^[18]

Beck has appeared as a guest on CNBC, CNN and Fox Business News. She has also been a guest speaker at WWD’s Beauty Innovation Forum, HBA’s Global Beauty Conference, Harvard University’s Luxury Branding Speaker Series and Columbia University’s Lang Center for Entrepreneurship’s Distinguished Speaker Series.^[19][20] In 2014, she received an appointment by Harvard Business School as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.^[21] Marla was also named as one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs for 2014 and was Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005.^[22]

Additionally, Beck is often sought after for her seasonal beauty picks and industry insight. She maintains a blog in which she discusses her product favorites and sneak peeks of upcoming launches.^[23][24]

Personal Life

She currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three children.^[25]

References

External links

• Bluemercury
• M-61
• Marla Malcolm Beck Beauty Blog