By Karina Michel Feld | Authority Magazine | March 22, 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of our lives today. Many of us now have new challenges that come with working from home, homeschooling, and sheltering in place.
As a part of our series about how busy women leaders are addressing these new needs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daya Fields.
Daya Fields is the current President of Pipette and Purecane at Amyris Corporation. She has been a leader in the beauty and personal care space for almost 15 years. She previously served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Product Development at Alaffia, a mission-based, all natural, personal care brand in the categories of Baby, Body, Health & Wellness. Prior to this role, she spent a decade as a marketing leader in New York City. Working in New York, Daya spent a majority of her time at the Estee Lauder Companies (ELC). She has been recognized by prestigious organizations including Conscious Company Magazine’s list of World Changing Women and by INNOCOS’ Global Cosmetics Summit on their Forces of Change list. She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of Cosmetic Executive Women’s West Coast Committee, INNOCOS Global Cosmetics, Netrush, Saint Martin University’s School of Business and Homes First Non-Profit Organization.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Yes, I’d love to. I found this career path while I pursued my MBA at MIT during my first semester. At first, I explored the potential of a career in consulting. Although there were some aspects about consulting that were of interest when I was introduced to my first global cosmetics conglomerate at an international career fair in London — something just clicked. The European recruiter stayed in touch with me after the career fair concluded and in just a few short weeks I was set up with interviews out of the New York office. All went well and I scored my first corporate beauty gig as an MBA level summer intern. In general, since 2006, I never looked back. Beauty and personal care became not only a personal passion but a viable long-term profession. I had a successful internship that summer and was also introduced to the corporate recruiting office at the Estee Lauder Companies. For my full-time career choice after MIT I ultimately chose Lauder because of the professional development rotational program, longer employee tenure as compared to the rest of the industry and the respect the brands and company commanded in the specialty and department store space. And as much as I used to be a prestige & luxury marketing maven my focus and expertise has evolved throughout the years to main street beauty and personal care. My sales channel focus is now in Food, Drug, Mass, Grocer & Amazon — almost a complete 180 from where I started. The ability to adapt in an ever-changing environment has been my most valued skill.
