The CEO prepared for her new role for years under former Ulta boss Dave Kimball, who led the beauty brand beginning 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 said. “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.”
“We had to get our swagger back,” she said 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.”
