Developing an industry collective for women founders in the beauty industry is the inspiration of Carol Christopher, CEO of Ellis Day Skin Science. It was founded on the belief that although members of the collective are competitors in the beauty industry,the collective would create a space for mutual education, mentoring and awareness-building. Over 300 founders have joined this industry collective and what a great idea it has proven to be. Could you form a collective in your industry?
In this podcast you will discover:
- How Carol decided to start a collective for science-focused women founders/CEO’s in the beauty industry?
- What were the most important steps in getting the collective off the ground? (building worldwide awareness, getting women to join, etc.)
- What were the surprises in how the women of the collective interacted and worked on the collective initiatives?
- What, if any, have been the disappointments or challenges of maintaining and growing the collective?
- What are a few examples of how Carol personally have benefited from the women of the collective?
- And how has Carol personally been able to mentor or assist other women?
Developing an Industry Collective for Women Founders in the Beauty Industry
Podcast
Carol Christopher Social Links
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-christopher-0b14bb27/
Science of Beauty Collective LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/72580245/admin/
Ellis Day Skin Science Linkedin Profile https://www.linkedin.com/company/26481185/admin/
Ellis Day Skin Science Website: https://ellisdayskinscienc.referralcandy.com/
Ellis Day Skin Science Special Offer
Use the following discount code for Ellis Day Skin Science purchasers for 25% discount off your first offer
FEMED25
Carol Christopher Bio
Carol has spent more than 25 years in the biopharma industry, focused on translating new technologies into valuable commercial products and sustainable businesses. As Director of CNS Drug Discovery at ALZA Corporation, Carol built ALZA’s CNS pipeline, and is an inventor on several of its patented products, which led to ALZA’s sale to Johnson & Johnson for $13B in 2001. After ALZA, Carol spent 10 years as a founding team member of three consecutive venture capital-backed biopharma companies (AeroGen, Alexza Pharmaceuticals, and NuMedii), where she held executive roles in finance, business development, and product development.
Carol also spent four years as the Director of Drug Discovery and Development Initiatives at Georgetown University, where she led several entrepreneurial collaborations with the FDA, NIH, and international academic and government research institutions.
Carol has leveraged her industry expertise in mentoring academic entrepreneurship as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Stanford University’s StartX Med accelerator, and a pharmaceutical industry mentor for both the NSF and NIH I-Corps™ programs.
In 2017, Carol became the founding CEO of SmartPhage, Inc. (dba Ellis Day Skin Science), a company developing and commercializing topical bacteriophage-based products to balance the skin microbiome. In 2021, Carol co-founded the Science of Beauty Collective, a group of beauty company founders and CEOs committed to building brands backed by scientific data, and mentoring other beauty entrepreneurs to do the same.
Carol holds numerous patents for her work on novel pharmacokinetics of CNS drugs and the repurposing of drugs for GI diseases. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has a PhD in economic anthropology. She has researched, taught, and published on entrepreneurship in India, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
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