Marla Malcolm Beck

Marla is the co-founder, CEO, and visionary behind Bluemercury Inc., a high-growth luxury beauty retail chain, e-commerce provider, and cosmetics brand developer. She leads Bluemercury’s merchandising, marketing, supply chain, store operations, IT, and finance functions. From 1999 to 2006, she served as Bluemercury Inc.’s chairman of the board of directors. In 2006, Marla also co-founded M-61 Laboratories, makers of M-61 Skincare, the first highly technical, natural cosmeceutical brand. Bluemercury’s innovative retailing model 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. Marla is often invited to share her entrepreneurship, branding, and innovation expertise. She has appeared as a guest on CNBC, CNN, and Fox Business News and has also been a guest speaker for 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. In 2014, she received an appointment by Harvard Business School as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. She was also named one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs for 2014. Marla was Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. Prior to founding Bluemercury, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPA from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She sits on the advisory board of Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. Marla resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three children—Ariel Beck ’21, Sophie Beck ’23, and Luc Beck ’25.