Maly Bernstein is Bath & Body Works’ chief commercial officer. It’s a big job—overseeing stores, distribution, loyalty, and digital for the $7.3 billion retailer of scented soaps, candles, lotions, and more. Late last month, we connected as she was finalizing an important launch for the company: its own presence on Amazon, a major channel it had not previously utilized.
I also wanted to talk to Bernstein about a trend she is part of. Before she was Bath & Body Works’ chief commercial officer, she was CEO of Bluemercury, the prestige beauty retailer. Bluemercury is a much smaller scale than Bath & Body Works, and it’s owned by Macy’s, so Bernstein was part of a larger team there too. But still, she’s an example of female ex-CEOs who are taking jobs other than chief executive as the next step in their career.
It’s a trend that was noticed at OpenAI, where Fidji Simo joined as OpenAI’s CEO of Applications after serving as CEO of Instacart; Sarah Friar joined as CFO after running Nextdoor; and Denise Dresser became chief revenue officer after serving as CEO of Slack (within Salesforce). My former colleague Beth Kowitt wrote a great analysis for Bloomberg in December, in which she said that the “women of OpenAI are sending a message.” This was around the same time that LeanIn.org’s research on a growing “ambition gap” among women ruffled some feathers.
