Counter Brands, parent company of clean beauty pioneer Beautycounter, announced today that the brand’s Founder, Gregg Renfrew, will return as Chief Executive Officer beginning Feb. 1, 2024. Renfrew stepped down as CEO of Beautycounter in January 2022, roughly nine months after selling a majority stake to global investment firm The Carlyle Group, valuing the firm at $1 billion. She founded the company in 2011; its first product launched in 2013.

“Consumers are demanding, now more than ever, the things that we have brought to the industry from the very beginning: transparency, health and safety for people and the environment, innovative products, an engaged community and a business that is much more than its bottom line. Who we are, and the work we do, truly matters to so many people. I’m energized to build on our history of disrupting to create a movement for change and a higher industry standard,” Renfrew said in a statement.

Marc Rey, former CEO of Shiseido Americas, took the helm of Beautycounter in February 2022. In May 2023, Rey stepped down and Mindy Mackenzie, a Board Director at Beautycounter, was named interim CEO.

Beautycounter is best known for pioneering the clean beauty movement, as well as for its leadership in ingredient innovation and transparency, namely with The Never List, a compilation of more than 2,800 questionable or potentially harmful ingredients that are never used in its product formulations. The list has since pushed other brands to take steps to increase their own safety and transparency. Beautycounter has also tirelessly spearheaded the passage of 16 pieces of health and environmentally-protective cosmetics regulation, including the milestone passage of MoCRA (the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act), the first major update to industry regulation since 1938 which goes into effect this year.

“We are thrilled to welcome back Gregg to lead Beautycounter in this important next phase of growth,” shared Roberto Marques, Board Chair.  Mackenzie will remain as a member of Beautycounter’s Board of Directors, effective Feb. 1, 2024.