Steering the ship as CMO at a challenger skin care brand like Facetheory is a dream many beauty executives aspire to, and one that seasoned industry veteran Marc Gallagher has achieved.
Facetheory – founded in Sheffield, UK, in 2015 – has made a name for itself over the past ten years as a science-led, vegan skin care brand that focuses on affordability.
Gallagher, who started at make-up brand Benefit Cosmetics and has worked for skin care giant Elemis during his staggering 25 years industry experience, joined Facetheory in 2023 as its CMO.
His role is to steer the company's creative and marketing strategy in order to take the brand to the next level.
Below, Gallagher charts his career growth, the skills needed to make it in leadership roles at some of the biggest brands, and reveals the things that delight and excite him at his role at Facetheory.
Being at a challenger brand like Facetheory, with our independence still intact, gives us enormous creative freedom
Tell us about your first job in beauty?
I originally studied architecture, drawn to the balance of structure and creativity, but quickly pivoted to high-tech during the late 1990s dot-com boom.
After a decade in software product management and design agencies, I found myself at the unlikely, but exciting, intersection of technology and cosmetics when I joined Benefit Cosmetics in 2009.
My role was to relaunch the brand’s entire digital ecosystem – from the website to e-commerce – at a time when ‘influencer’ was not a word in our vocabulary yet.
With the mentorship of LVMH’s Valerie Hoecke and the visionary support of CEO Jean-André Rougeot, we built the foundation for what would become some of the most disruptive digital campaigns in the industry.
What was a lesson you learned early in your career?
Jean-André Rougeot once told me: “If it doesn’t make me nervous, it is not worth doing”.
That sentiment still rattles around in my head whenever something feels a bit too safe.
One of my architecture professors also told me that no project is ever truly finished; it is simply taken away from you.
That philosophy has served me well in the beauty industry, where the shelf life of content is
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