Nancy Mahon is a transformational, collaborative leader and independent board member with deep experience in global strategy, branding, and management of high-growth companies. Nancy has launched and built high-performance teams that drive value across luxury, consumer goods, ESG and healthcare sectors. In what she has called “the golden age of purpose,” Nancy is a trusted and sought-after advisor and speaker. Her expertise focuses on embedding positive social and environmental practices and good governance across businesses to drive measurable value and decrease risk with key stakeholders—consumers, investors, employees and government regulators.
In her current role at The Estée Lauder Companies, Nancy serves on the CEO’s Executive Leadership Team, reports directly to the Chairman and CEO, and regularly presents to the Board of Directors. Nancy meets regularly with investors to brief them on enterprise progress and critical trends in the field. Under Nancy’s leadership, ELC has built industry leading practices, reaching critical milestones in key areas including Climate and Human Capital and, as a result, significantly increased its performance across leading indices including MSCI and SASBY. Nancy now leads cutting edge projects on how investments in Climate and other ESG practices can drive brand loyalty, pricing power, and market share.
In addition to her enterprise-wide role, Nancy has an award-winning track record in purpose-driven brand marketing. Nancy led MAC Cosmetic’s MAC Viva Glam campaign for over a decade, scaling the campaign to raise more than $60M annually and $500M over its history. She also globalized MAC’s packaging take back program, “Back to MAC.” Nancy produced and placed branded content in major outlets, including Netflix and Hulu and partnered with a range of influencers—from Lady Gaga to government officials—to target messaging to key stakeholders. Prior to ELC, Nancy was the Executive Director of God’s Love We Deliver.
Nancy now serves on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of TPG’s PACE Beneficial Finance, a NYSE ESG focused SPAC. She is also a Trustee of NYU School of Law Foundation and a member of The Parsons School of Design Board of Directors. Nancy was appointed by the 44th President Barrack Obama to Chair the Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS, which she led for five years, reporting directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. She served as Private Delegate to the UN and Commission on Women. She serves on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women and AdWeek’s Sustainability Marketing Council.
Nancy’s enterprise leadership has garnered numerous awards like The Climate Group’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Award and recognition from top publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. As an individual, Nancy has been named by GreenBiz’s as a Top 20 Women in Climate, by Holmes as a member of Innovation 25 and by Out Magazine as an Out 100 Leader.
Nancy has written for and appeared in a wide range of media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, Refinery29 and Fast Company. She frequently lectures at universities. Nancy is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French and has conducted business in both languages globally.
Nancy received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and a J.D. from NYU School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and Editor of the Law Review. She is also a graduate of the Yale SOM’s Women on Boards and Stanford Law School’s Directors’ College.
Nancy and her partner live in New York City with their teenage son and daughter.
