Being snubbed or ignored for a job is a close to common expertise in a profession journey. When a setback hits, you need to face it with grace and persistence, not resentment, in line with Ulta Magnificence CEO Kecia Steelman.
“There have been times in all of our careers where we’ve been passed up, or we didn’t get that next role when we felt like we were ready for it,” Steelman mentioned at Fortune’s Most Highly effective Girls Convention in Washington, D.C., in October 2025. “And I said that the one thing that’s really true to me is, I think that you can either choose to be bitter or you can be better.”
Steelman took on the chief govt position on the magnificence retailer in January 2025 after 11 years with the corporate, most just lately as chief working officer. Ulta’s inventory is up 50% year-over-year and the corporate partnered with Beyoncé earlier final yr as a part of her Cowboy Carter tour, internet hosting in-store occasions and selling the pop star’s Cécred hair model.
The CEO ready for her new position for years below former Ulta boss Dave Kimball, who led the sweetness model starting in 2021.
“I learned as much as I could to prepare myself for the next role, and I think that actually allowed me to hit the ground running,” Steelman mentioned. “If I would have been bitter, I could have left and taken a CEO job someplace else. I had plenty of opportunities, but this is the company that I wanted to be with, and I took that opportunity to be better instead of being bitter.”
What was Steelman’s path to CEO?
Previous to her time at Ulta, Steelman started her profession as an assistant retailer supervisor at Goal in 1993 earlier than climbing the ranks on the huge field retailer. She later held senior administration roles at Residence Depot and Household Greenback.
Within the 10 months since beginning as Ulta CEO, Steelman has labored to execute the corporate’s turnaround plan, together with trying to implement agentic AI into the procuring expertise, in addition to constructing a base of tens of millions of loyalty prospects, who’re nonetheless spending on non-essential magnificence merchandise even in instances of financial uncertainty.
Steelman referred to her place because the “best job ever.”
“Our jobs are to make people feel really good about themselves,” she mentioned. “I could think of a lot worse jobs out there than that.”
The street hasn’t been fully easy. In August 2025, Ulta and Goal ended a shop-in-shop partnership that started in 2021. Goal staff had shared experiences on-line of the procuring expertise being underwhelming and situations of shoplifting and understaffing. Steelman mentioned the ending of the partnership was a mutual resolution and a “natural occurrence of business.”
“We had to get our swagger back,” she mentioned of Ulta’s turnaround. “I felt like we lost our swagger just a little bit, and I feel like we’ve got our swagger back.”
A model of this story was revealed on Fortune.com on Oct. 14, 2025.
Extra on Ulta and the sweetness business:
- Tony Cuccio began with $200 promoting magnificence merchandise on Venice Seashore. Then he introduced gel nails to the lots—and cast a $2 billion empire
- Ulta Magnificence CEO Kecia Steelman says she has the very best job ever: ‘My job is to help make people feel really good about themselves’
- Goal and Ulta simply broke up: Staff raised crimson flags about shoplifting, understaffing, and foot-traffic cannibalization
