L’Oréal has announced the appointment of Sanford Browne as President of Research & Innovation (R&I) for its North America Zone. Browne will report to Stéphane Rinderknech, Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal USA and President of North America Zone, as well as Barbara Lavernos, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Research, Innovation and Technology. He will also serve as a member of the L’Oréal USA’s Management Committee, as well as a member of the Global R&I Management Committee.

Browne assumes the role after serving as Senior Vice President of R&I for L’Oréal’s Asia-Pacific Zone, where he helped build a complete R&I division across the Zone, including the research Hubs of China and Japan, along with Seoul, Bangalore and Singapore. A great advocate for cultural diversity, Sanford made a strong contribution to developing local researchers in L’Oréal’s Asia-Pacific zone. He joined L’Oréal in 2013 as Vice President of R&I in China, where he was the major architect of research and strategic partnerships that drove the innovation needed to meet the specific consumer expectations of the market, growing business across all divisions. Prior to joining L’Oréal, Browne served in various research and leadership roles at Unilever and P&G.

“Cutting-edge science and technology are at the heart of our vision for a more sustainable, inclusive, personalized beauty future,” said Stéphane Rinderknech, CEO, L’Oréal USA and President, North America Zone. “Sanford brings with him an extensive knowledge of the expectations and beauty rituals of consumers, a track record of delivering on consumer-centric product innovation, and a drive to build our innovation capabilities through external strategic partnerships. His mission will be to strengthen our North American Research and Innovation hub and enable us to seize the consumer shifts that are key to our future success.”

Browne moves into a role that was previously held by Stephan Habif, who has recently retired from L’Oréal.

L’Oréal invests more than USD1 billion in research and innovation annually with more than 4,000 people working in 7 of L’Oréal’s R&I centers around the world every day. This global R&I workforce discovers, invents and develops the company’s latest consumer products and services, providing a continuously improving response to the beauty needs and aspirations of consumers, while the products they create are ever more effective, and provide the highest standards of quality and safety.