PBA Updates Beauty Pitch for 2016

Beauty Pitch 2016

The Professional Beauty Association (PBA) announced new judges for Beauty Pitch 2016, which is a competition for beauty entrepreneurs to pitch their products to a live audience and a panel of celebrity judges. The five new industry leaders who will join the esteemed judging panel include:

  • John Paul DeJoria, cofounder and chairman of the board for John Paul Mitchell Systems and The Patrón Spirits Company
  • Emily Dougherty, beauty director for Elle
  • Kevin Harrington, CEO of Kevin Harrington Enterprises
  • Deanne Kaczerski, executive editor director for InStyle Digital Innovation, Time Inc.
  • Mark Spinks, president of CosmoProf and Armstrong McCall, Sally Beauty Holdings

The July 23 competition is also part of Inspire: A Night Celebrating Beauty Entrepreneurs, which kicks off PBA Beauty Week and Cosmoprof North America’s (CPNA) exhibition. Inspire will feature networking opportunities with industry professionals, including Christian Brinkman, president and CEO of Sally Beauty Holdings; Eddie Jhin, president of Jinny Beauty Supply; Mark Spinks, president of CosmoProf and Armstrong McCall, Sally Beauty Holdings; Steve Orzel, vice president of merchandising and planning for SalonCentric; and celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson. Net proceeds from the Inspire event will be divided equally between the PBA Foundation, which supports industry-related charitable initiatives, and City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer treatment and research center. Beauty Systems Group will select one professional brand from the Beauty Pitch competition to place on their online platform and in 1,200 stores nationwide. As a Beauty Pitch partner, Amazon Launchpad will build a dedicated namesake online boutique featuring the semi-finalist companies. “The Beauty Pitch competition was created to elevate and support the beauty entrepreneur,” says PBA executive director Steve Sleeper. “This year’s competition accomplishes both. Not only does it provide these up-and-coming beauty brands with broad industry exposure, it also provides them with the highly competitive and difficult-to-secure retail partnerships. Adding the Beauty Systems Group and Amazon Launchpad as Beauty Pitch partners raises the bar for this event and could be a game-changer for many of these businesses.”

For more information about Beauty Pitch 2016, visit probeauty.org/beautyweek.