Sandy Saputo

Sandy is a passionate entrepreneurial leader with three decades of deep expertise in the beauty industry. She is a senior advisor at Norwest Venture Partners, providing counsel to Norwest’s portfolio companies in the areas of marketing, operations strategy, and execution. Sandy has a proven track record for successfully building global beauty brands for private, public, and Fortune 25 companies. She is currently the CEO of True Botanicals, where she is driving exceptional and profitable growth for the clean and sustainable direct-to-consumer luxury skincare brand.

Sandy began her career in beauty in southern California at Sebastian Professional, one of the most innovative salon haircare companies of its time. Sandy worked directly with the founders and gained responsibility across key areas of the business including global brand management, international sales, research & product development, and creative direction. After 10 years of building her early career there, Sebastian was acquired by global haircare giant Wella Germany, which was then acquired by Procter & Gamble. Sandy stayed on with P&G for eight years as Global Vice President for the haircare division, first in Geneva, Switzerland where she led the integration of the professional group while continuing to build the Sebastian brand globally through product innovation and international distribution. She then relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she had marketing responsibility over the multi-billion-dollar mass haircare division in the US.

When Sandy was ready to come back to her beloved California, she took on a key role as SVP/CMO for iconic consumer brand Bare Escentuals, owned by the Shiseido group, where she was responsible for helping the brand regain market leadership as the #1 complexion brand in prestige beauty and top five beauty brand. She also helped deliver new consumer acquisition with four consecutive #1 beauty industry launches. Sandy had direct responsibility for the global brand but also the direct channels, including e-commerce, subscription, and QVC, and partnered closely to build the business in beauty’s biggest retailers, Sephora & Ulta.

After an exciting five years at Bare Escentuals, Sandy went on to become the CMO for KENDO BRANDS, a division of LVMH. There, she was responsible for setting the global marketing strategies across digital, influencer, social, and creative for five brands including the explosive and disruptive launch of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, which fueled frenzy and connection with consumers globally, ultimately helping to influence the way other beauty brands consider & infuse inclusivity in their marketing practices.

Well-known for her management style and building best-in-class teams, whether it be a 20-person startup or an organization of 400+, Sandy’s fierce and compassionate leadership infuses hard work, humor, and humanity to unlock people’s fullest potential into delivering exceptional results with focus & integrity. Many have followed her to various companies over the years, with several lead team members working with her across 3+ companies.

Sandy has been a keynote speaker at Beauty Biz Roundtable, Columbia University Black Business Students Association, and most recently the globally streamed Google Marketing Live event where she shared how inclusion was woven into the fabric of the Fenty Beauty launch. Sandy has also garnered multiple industry awards over the years, including twice been the recipient of the “San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Women” award.

Sandy finds incredible joy in mentoring young women and supporting children and animal causes. She is an alum of the University of Southern California and she is fluent in several languages including French and Arabic. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.