With a passion for brand building from a young age, Dominique Gagnon brings her wealth of experience from over 20 years in the consumer goods and beauty industries to her role at Debut, a first-of-its kind, vertically integrated brand incubator bringing biotechnology-driven, climate-positive solutions to market which is backed by BOLD, L’Oreal’s venture capital fund.
Gagnon’s career first began as a part of her family business that launched European prestige skincare brands including Mustela into the US market. After completing her undergraduate education at Wellesley College and receiving her MBA from Harvard Business School, Gagnon honed her talent for identifying white space opportunities, driving profitable brand platforms concept to launch, and restaging existing brands for relevancy and expansion. Her resumé touts experience working with Fortune 100 companies, such as Nestle and Unilever, to VC-backed startups and celebrity founded brands.
At Debut, Gagnon has led the conception and launch of DEINDE, a skincare solution harnessing biotech-derived ingredients to target an emerging dermatological concern known as ‘inflammaging’ (a medical term that describes the chronic low-level inflammation that is one of the root causes of aging). DEINDE launched direct-to-consumer in January 2024 and has already taken the industry by storm being recognized by high-profile media outlets including Forbes, WWD, NewBeauty, Glossy, The Zoe Report, Esquire and People. Byrdie said the brand is “ushering in a new era of anti-aging” and was recognized by the 2024 MindBodyGreen Beauty Refresh Awards and Bustle’s Most Wanted Summer 2024 essentials. DEINDE is also nominated for the Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards.