WSSN Stories

LOS ANGELES, CA— Essential Health Access welcomes Roger B. Sweis to their Executive Leadership Team as a Chief Financial Officer. Roger will lead the Essential Health finance team in fulfilling the commitment to equity in expanding and protecting sexual and reproductive health care for all.

Roger is an award-winning Chief Financial Officer with 20 years of leadership experience. In his career, he has helped mission-driven organizations take their operations to the next level. He is a Founder/Co-Founder of 13 social enterprise organizations and special assistant to founders of over 100 organizations, nonprofits, and real estate investment groups with a proven track record of successful government grant and contract management.

As Essential Access Health’s CFO, Roger will lead and oversee the organization’s financial, accounting, tax compliance, employee benefits, contracts, and facilities. He will be responsible for the strategic leadership of the finance, accounting, and administrative functions, and provide financial strategy, budget management and forecasting needs to the organization. This drives the Essential Access mission to advance health equity through a wide range of programs and services including clinic support initiatives, provider training, advanced clinical research, advocacy and public awareness campaigns.

Most recently, Roger served as the CFO of Community Health Councils in Los Angeles. In this role, he successfully managed a multidisciplinary team and the organization’s first large-scale federal audit. In addition, he led business process improvements in the HR, IT and Legal & Compliance divisions to help navigate 300% growth in revenue. Roger has also held CFO positions for organizations like Startup For America, SmarterHealth.io and The Wheelhouse Project, in addition to serving as Executive Vice President or Co-Founder.

Team awards Roger has been recognized with include American Health Data Conference’s Top 5 AHIMA Startup of the Year, Robinhood Foundation’s Social Impact Award and PepsiCo Challenge’s Innovation Grant Award.

Roger received his bachelor’s degree in finance and psychology from the University of Illinois. He received his master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in Finance & Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago, where he was a Capstone Award Recipient. Roger is a founding team member of Impact Hub Nashville and a member of the Nashville Social Enterprise Alliance and Disruptive Innovation.

For more information on Essential Access Health, please visit www.essentialaccess.org.

By Jasmyne A. Cannick

I do not get triggered easily. However, the Pepper Tree Elementary students in Upland, Calif. who say they were subjected to racist bullying managed to trigger random memories of my own childhood, as I am sure it did for many Black adults who went to predominately white institutions (PWI) for grade school.

As a young Gen Xer, it’s funny the things I can remember and the things I cannot (IYKYK).
I don’t remember much from my elementary school days during the 80s in Hermosa Beach, but I do remember that my best friend lived up the street from me, was white, and her name was Jeanette. I remember she came from a fairly large family?—?I think they were from Texas. And I remember that her family reminded me of the Beverly Hillbillies.

Let me preface all of this with, I didn’t know anything about racism as a child other than the carefully curated Black History we were taught?—?and that wasn’t much. The first 12 years of my life were very sheltered. Now I am sure my parents have their stories about being one of less than a handful of Black families in Hermosa Beach during the 80s, but whatever they endured, as a kid, I was oblivious to it. And for a time?—?maybe too long of a time?—?I thought I was just like all of the other kids at my school.

However, back to Jeanette and me. I don’t remember why Jeanette and I became such great friends, but we did. Her parents were always nice to me, and I remember that whenever they went out to dinner at Norm’s or Bob’s Big Boy, I was always invited to go along and vice-versa.

Jeanette had big brothers and kids back then and used to like to get into things. I remember one night, for no particular reason, her brothers decided they were going to “break in” to our local elementary school. And for context, breaking in just meant sliding through the gate. This was the 80s in Hermosa Beach, after all. I was spending the night at Jeanette’s, and we wanted to tag along, and they let us. I remember it was dark, and we were running across Prospect Ave., and I heard her brother say something to the effect, “Damn Jasmyne, you’re as Black as the sky.”

We all laughed, me included. I didn’t know any better. I didn’t think he was being racist at the time because I didn’t even have a concept of racism. Maybe he didn’t either, but looking back now, it was definitely a very racist thing to say.

While I can’t remember one minute after I put a pot of water on to boil for tea or where my keys are (IYKYK), I can somehow remember that comment from Jeanette’s brother 35 years ago. Now, of course, today, it doesn’t sit right with me, but I used this example to show how racism?—?even subconsciously?—?has a way of staying with us long after the incident and into adulthood.

That’s why when I heard the story of the Ethiopian 6th grader at Pepper Tree Elementary School in Upland, California, being given a “Golden N-Word Pass,” it enraged me. He didn’t even know what the n-word meant. He just thought it was a means to an end to stop being bullied for being Black.

Believe it or not?—?using the n-word as a term of endearment is an African-American thing?—?not an African or Black thing. So being an Ethiopian, as a child, he didn’t know what the n-word meant exactly. He just thought that if he signed it, he would stop being bullied. He had to go home and ask his mom what the n-word meant. His mother told reporters that she herself didn’t know what the “n-word” was and had to Google it.

“You might think I know that but from the country where I came from n-word means?—?it’s an alphabet for me,” said Kabene Gabremariam. “So I have to go ahead and Google that and I have to learn what the meaning of which really breaks my heart.”

Similarly, listening to 13-year-old Chloe Jenkins recount her experience being the only Black person in her class and assigned to be a slave in an American Revolution reenactment triggered another experience that I still can remember. I was a slave during a reenactment of a slave auction at Will Rogers Middle School in Lawndale. In fact, I can even remember that my friend Mitzie was the auctioneer.

But that was in the 80s, and it’s 2023. And while it wasn’t appropriate back then, I would like to think that we’ve made some progress?—?but it seems that we haven’t made enough.

Why is this still happening to Black children? I am not the world’s leading expert on child welfare or parenting, I don’t even have kids. That said, no one can convince me that the children involved in the racist bullying at Pepper Tree Elementary didn’t learn this behavior from the adults around them. Kids, especially those of the age involved in the bullying, have not been alive long enough to develop the kind of hatred they are displaying. They mimic the language and behavior they see and hear at home. Whether subconsciously or consciously, what we have is a situation where if this goes unchecked, these same children are going to turn into the same type of racist adults found in our schools and police departments today that we continue to work to expose and eradicate.

And it goes both ways.

I can remember driving in South L.A. some years ago with my then-kindergarten-aged godson. Something happened with another driver, and I must have said something aloud about it, because he quipped, unsolicited, mind you, “Stupid Mexicans!”

I was so shocked, and looking in the rearview mirror, I asked him where he learned that, and he said that’s what his mom always says. He learned that day from me, that was not something he should ever say?—?even if his parents say it.

I’m telling you, kids are like little sponges soaking up everything happening around them.

It’s hard to expect a child not to be a racist when their parents have given them the green light, literally and figuratively. If you ask me, having a racist parent as a child should be considered a form of maltreatment if it isn’t already. Child abuse is not just physical violence. It is any form of maltreatment by an adult, which is violent or threatening to the child, including emotional abuse that harms a child’s emotional well-being. I’d argue that being raised by a racist harms a child’s emotional well-being.

It’s sad to know that all of these years later, this is still happening in our schools. However, I am proud of the Black students at Pepper Tree Elementary for stepping forward publicly about the abuse they’ve endured from other children. But the onus is not on them to fix the situation. It’s on the parents of the bullies, teachers, and administrators who allowed this situation to fester and get to the point it is now. We know from the suicides of 10-year-old Seven Bridges in Kentucky and, more recently, 10-year-old Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor in Utah, that bullying is real and has real effects and consequences, whether verbalized or not, on children. Bullying cannot be left unchecked.

The students and parents at Pepper Tree Elementary are doing the right thing by exposing the racism and the bullying and, in doing so, are setting an example and adding to the playbook for other Black children and their parents on how to go up against Goliath (their schools)?—?and win.

Jasmyne Cannick is a Gen X award-winning journalist and on-air contributor in Los Angeles. She writes and talks about the collisions at the intersection of politics, race, and social issues. She’s online at iamjasmyne.com.

This oped can be link to online here.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

This past weekend, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans received insight on how the state government might implement recommendations the panel submits in its final proposal due before July 1.

Chas Alamo, the principal fiscal and policy analyst at the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), appeared remotely in front of the panel as an expert witness during the two-day meeting held March 3 in Sacramento.

Alamo offered “several paths that could be possible for ultimate recommendations” by the task force to “flow through the Legislature and become state law” and how they can “apply” to the creation of the proposed California American Freedman Affairs Agency (CAFAA). The agency, if approved, would oversee compensation the state authorizes to Black California residents who are descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

The LAO is a non-partisan office overseen by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC), a 16-member bipartisan team. It is the “eyes and ears” of the State Legislature ensuring that the executive branch is implementing legislative policy in a cost-efficient and effective manner. Its biggest responsibility is analyzing the Governor’s annual budget.

Alamo explained to the task force how the recommendations they make will likely become state policy.

“The creation of a new agency would be initiated through the governor’s executive branch and reorganization process, but other options exist,” Alamo said. “Regardless of the path, to initiate a new agency or enact any other recommendation that makes changes to state law, fundamentally both houses from the state Legislature would have to approve the action and the governor will have to sign it.

During discussions at the Sacramento meeting, the task force began the process of clearly defining CAFAA’s role, focusing on adding clarity to the agency’s mission as overseer for other entities offering reparations in the form of assistance to Californians who qualify.

After a two-hour spirited debate at the meeting – the 13th convening of the task force so far — all nine-members agreed that CAFAA that would have specified powers and its structure would include an administrative body that guides implementation.

“The proposed entity would be an agency, independent agency, that would provide services where they don’t presently exist (and) provide oversight to existing (state) agencies,” task force chair Kamilah V. Moore said.

Khansa “Friday Jones” Jones-Muhammad, is the vice president of the Los Angeles Reparations Advisory Commission. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

CAFAA would facilitate claims for restitution and would set up a branch to process claims with the state and assist claimants in proving eligibility through a “genealogy” department, the task force members said. A commitment to assisting with the implementation and operation of policies and programs being considered for recommendation would also be in the purview of the agency.

The concept of CAFAA is based on the defunct federal Freedman’s Bureau. On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees.” The bureau’s main objective was to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to newly freed African Americans.

Ward Connerly, the African American political activist who led the ballot initiative that outlawed Affirmative Action in California in 1996, Proposition (Prop) 209, told FOX News one day after the task force’s Sacramento meeting that offering reparations was a “bad” and a “goofy idea.”

Connerly, former President of the California Civil Rights Initiative Campaign, has made objections to reparations for about a year now as California gets closer than any government in United States history to making amends for historical injustices committed against Black Americans.

“California is a progressive state but we’re not insane,” Connerly told FOX News on March 5. “So, I think that people of this state would rise up and say ‘no.’”

The two-day meeting in Sacramento was held at the Byron Sher Auditorium at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) in downtown Sacramento. Both days attracted crowds, mainly comprised of interested individuals and groups from Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg attended the second day of the meeting. Steinberg is one of 11 mayors who pledged to pay reparations for slavery to Black residents in their cities.

Similar to efforts in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Richmond, Sacramento is focused on developing a municipal reparations initiative through the city’s ongoing Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity (SCORE) initiative.

“I wholeheartedly support reparations and think everyone should,” Steinberg told the task force panel on March 4. “If government should stand for anything, it should stand for investing in communities and people who have been the victims of discrimination and disenfranchisement for far too long.”

A participant stands and waits to give public comment at the March 4 Reparations Task Force meeting in Sacramento. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

The task force also recommended “appropriate ways” to educate the public about the task force’s findings and future reparations actions by the state.

The charge calls for building a collective base of knowledge to inform racially diverse communities in California about reparations, appealing to different ways of learning, expanding task force discussions into mainstream conversations, and inspiring reflection and action among all residents of California.

Task force members Dr. Cheryl Grills and Don Tamaki presented the proposal.

The next two-day task force will return to Sacramento at the end of March. For more information on the next meeting, visit the California Department of Justice’s website.

NEW YORK, NY— Patrick Cupid, an emerging, self-made contemporary fashion designer, unveils “Letting Go,” his ninth collection for the Fall – Winter 2023 collection. “Letting Go” celebrates the freedom of self-release from social conformity and embracing the simple joys of life through personal aesthetics.

The collection forgoes trends for a more classic approach in a focused manner that reflects the individual. Exploring the autumn of self-discovery by shedding the concepts that aren’t representative of the self while expressing a style that begins to define who you are. The collection will debut in Paris March 5, 2023.

“Letting Go” collection highlights the colors Midnight Blue to reminisce the wildness of New York’s nightlife. The colors Dalila, Electrified Orange, and Cream demonstrate a floating symphony and elegant wave of colors. These colors with floral prints will provide a bold look for the fall and winter.

The Fall – Winter 2023 Collection will integrate designs containing long flowy dresses with seductive cuts in silk material. This collection will also incorporate textured wool, that will top the look off. These designs are hand-crafted providing a chic look. To allow for a nostalgic feel.

“True style is innate and not fabricated. It is a defining characteristic that speaks in a quiet voice not related to trends but to the individual,” says Fashion Designer Patrick Cupid.

The following high-end boutique stores will carry his luxury designs: CityGirl Atelier (San Francisco, CA), Felt (Chicago, IL), EJ On Thames (Newport, Rhode Island), Sandy Glam Boutique (Rhode Island), De-Essentia (Charlotte, N. C.), Shop Boutique (South Carolina), Affaire Estrangers (Paris, France), Wolf And Badger (London, Britain).

For more information about Patrick Cupid, please visit www.patrickcupid.com, email info@patrickcupid.com and (212) 748-7302.

About Fashion Designer Patrick Cupid:

Patrick Cupid is an emerging, self-made contemporary designer fashion brand that plays the formality of elegance against the ease of elevated sportswear, enveloping a cosmopolitan instinct. The first collection, “All in Jest,” started a conversation around independent style without social restrictions in Fall 2019.

The brand tells a story of independence and evolving culture through clothing seamlessly translating from professional to social. Each collection features a custom print designed by Patrick Cupid himself, emphasizing the seasons’ concept’s philosophy.

By Lou K Coleman

“Going through your daily life and your daily routines acting as you know that you have tomorrow promised to you. You act like there is time to waste and things can wait. You put off the things of Me and you only concern yourselves with the things of this world. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. “Walk Circumspectly, Not as Fools, but as Wise.” Because I tell you, things are going to change dramatically. Do not be one of those who I have to turn away when all is said and done. Time is of the essence. [Psalms 39:4-6; 90:12]. Do not delay! You must get yourself together if you are going to be able to survive what is coming. Turn from your procrastination! Do what I’ve told you to do, and do not waste any more time! You’ve been warned! I, the LORD, have spoken! The time has come, and I won’t hold back. I will not change my mind, and I will have no pity on you. Therefore, “Walk Circumspectly Not as Fools, But as Wise!”

Listen, the Bible is actually very clear about what is coming. We are living in a very troubling time in this world. The world conditions have escalated from confusion to chaos. In Revelation God gives us three different accounts of the end time. These are given in the Seals, the Trumpets, and the Vials. Heed the warning as we near the Rapture and Great Tribulation prophesied in the Book of Revelation. For there is only one place to be safe and that is in Christ. So, consider today with some urgency your eternal life. With as much going on in our society and in the world today, tomorrow is not promised. “Walk Circumspectly Not as Fools, But as Wise!”

And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples. [Acts 19:8-10]. It then became too late!

By Tanu Henry and Maxim Elramsisy | California Black Media

On February 28 in Oakland, the California Black Freedom Fund (CBFF) hosted an event titled “Strengthening Democracy and Building Black Futures” followed by a reception for guests who attended.

The event included two panel discussions centered around the need for philanthropy to commit resources to building and sustaining a just, racially diverse, equitable and inclusive civil society.

“Civil society is the basis upon which you have a democracy, and civil society needs to be informed. It needs to be about achieving something. It needs to reflect the broader society,” said Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder in Residence, Policy Link, who presented during one of the panel discussions.

CBFF is a “five-year, $100 million initiative to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism,” according to the organization’s website.

In April 2022, CBFF named Marc Philpart its Executive Director, a leader with broad experience in social advocacy working with grassroots and community organizations.

Panelists at the event included Blackwell; author Steve Phillips (Brown Is the New White); Lateefah Simon (president of the Meadow Fund); James Herard (Executive Director of Lift Up Contra Costa); Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker (District 1 Antioch City Council); Kavon Ward (CEO/Founder of Where Is My Land); and James Woodson (Executive Director of California Black Power Network.

By Tanu Henry and Maxim Elramsisy | California Black Media

It was a history-making moment as Malia M. Cohen was inaugurated the 33rd California State Controller at Los Angeles City Hall on February 23. During the swearing-in, she was flanked by her husband Warren Pulley while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass administered the oath.

As California’s chief fiscal officer and top accountant, the State Controller’s office is an independent watchdog overseeing the disbursement of state and local funds, including one of the nation’s largest public pension funds.

Cohen, a San Francisco native will be the first Black person, and second woman Controller, as the state continues to make an intentional effort to break gender and racial barriers. Two of the top four largest cities, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are led by Black women Mayors, Karen Bass and London Breed respectively, and the state also elected its first Black in Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, who previously served under an appointment by Gov. Newsom.

“Mayor Bass and Congresswoman Lee: I know that you know all too well, that no matter the campaign budget difference, no matter how much they outspend you, leadership can’t be bought,” Cohen said in her inaugural speech.

By Tanu Henry and Maxim Elramsisy | California Black Media

March is Women’s History Month, and several California organizations are celebrating trailblazing women making history in our state — whether it’s recognizing the record-setting number of women who are state constitutional officers or lauding the unprecedented number of women serving in the Legislature ((50 out of 120).

Last week, the Black Women’s Collective kicked off Women’s History Month with an event organized to help build an Economic Action Plan for Black Women. It brought together experts in policymaking, labor, economic development, and entrepreneurship.

“Black women serve as breadwinners in 80% of Black households in California with over 70% headed by single mothers,” said Kellie Todd Griffin, President and CEO, California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute. Griffin was citing statistics from a report on the State of Black Women in California from 2018 and 2022.

“Typically, Black women have higher labor force participation rates than other women, meaning a higher share of Black women are either employed or unemployed and looking for work,” Griffin continued. “However, the economic safety net is not secure as Black Women makes less than most of their counterparts making .55 cents to White males, which is one of the lowest in the nation equally the wage gap in Mississippi. California falls short of the national rate at .63 cents.”

Panelists at the event included Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Hutt (CD10); Yvonne Wheeler, President, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, President and CEO, Center by Lendistry; and Denise Pines, Co-Founder and CEO, Tea Botanics and Women in the Room Productions. Moderators were Griffin and Regina Wilson, Executive Director, California Black Media.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

Two tax planning lawyers shared their perspectives on one of the ways to pay for the racial injustices suffered by Black Californians with the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans.

At the task force’s last two-day meeting held in San Diego on Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, the estate and tax planning attorneys Raymond “Ray” Odom and Sarah Moore-Johnson proposed several options to the nine-member task force for funding reparations through the federal tax code system — including an estate tax as a means to increase racial equity.

The tax discussion, held about a month ago, was as a lead-in to the task force’s next meeting in Sacramento focused on compensation and titled “Redressing the Harms Delineated in Report 1.” That meeting will be held Friday, March 3 and Saturday March 4 at the Byron Sher Auditorium at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) Headquarters, beginning at 9 a.m. both days.

Moore-Johnson kicked off her presentation at the San Diego meeting during a panel titled “The Forgotten 40 Acres: Repairing Wealth Disparity Using the Estate Tax and New Charitable Incentives.” She said, “the tax code has incentivized White wealth building for years,” and that she and Odom have now found a way to redistribute wealth through tax exemptions at the state level.

“For years, Ray and I intuitively understood that if we could harness those tax incentives to create a public-private partnership to help fund reparations we could get our wealthy clients to willingly enthusiastically embrace using their own money to pay for reparations,” Moore-Johnson said. “We believe that tax deductions should be allowed for private contributions to racial repair because individual taxpayers would be paying a debt of the federal or state government on the government’s behalf,” Moore-Johnson said.

Potential revenue sources, the attorneys say, could be the state estate tax, mansion tax, graduate property tax, and metaverse tax.

Johnson mentioned that the graduate property tax revenue would not apply to California because of Proposition 13, a law that restricts increases in the state tax code.

Odom and Moor-Johnson’s presentation was a condensed introduction to the wealth disparity resulting from chattel slavery and Jim Crow law and the connection to wealth transfer and wealth taxation. Odom, however, emphasized that their idea to use the tax code is intentional but it is not a manipulation of the federal tax system.”I really think that it is so important to set the narrative — and that narrative isn’t around who’s getting something for nothing, but what we are going to do about this gross wealth disparity,” Odom said. “We need to solve this problem for all Americans, but especially for Black Americans.”

Odom – a Chicago estate and tax planning attorney who works at Northern Trust and conducts racial wealth disparity speaking engagements across the country – is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). He is one of five Black tax attorneys among ACTEC’s 2,500 fellows.

Established in Los Angeles in 1949, ACTEC is a nonprofit association of lawyers and law professors skilled and experienced in the preparations of wills and trusts; estate planning; and probate procedure and management of trusts and estates of the deceased, minors and helpless.

Odom and Moore Johnson explained that the racial wealth gap started to expand in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was in office and the biggest tax cut in history took place. Odom said reparations would be an opportunity to replace “swollen wealth” with the “stolen wealth” of Black people.

Dorothy A. Brown

Moore-Johnson, an estate planning lawyer and a founding partner at Birchstone Moore in Washington DC, became president of the Washington, DC, Estate Planning Council three weeks after George Floyd was murdered in 2020. She is also an ACTEC fellow.

In March of 2021, during a national ACTEC meeting, Odom and Johnson came up with the idea of funding reparations for slavery through the estate tax. They started their research to better understand the history of slavery, post-slavery, reparations and the wealth gap. Through their research, the duo learned that the racial wealth gap exists, partly, because of the way the federal tax code is set up.

Task force member Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) stated that the tax attorney’s recommendations provided a “clear road map” to reparations.

“All that said, I think it’s comforting, informative and powerful,” Bradford said after the tax attorneys’ presentation. “As a legislator, the takeaway is, we can afford it. This is a debt that’s owed.”

Dorothy A. Brown addressed the task force by teleconference and shared her views about reparations and the tax code. She is a tax professor at Georgetown Law and the author of the book “The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans and How We Can Fix It.”

Brown’s literature goes to the core of how the complex federal tax system disadvantages the Black community and how it has helped White households secure more solid financial standing.

“Our tax laws as written have a racially disparate impact. Black Americans are less likely to gain access to their tax breaks than their White peers receive,” Brown said. “Therefore, (Black Americans) are more likely to pay higher taxes than their White peers.”

Brown told the task force that she supports a “wealth tax credit applicable to all taxpayers and households,” which would serve the majority of Black people and be available to all “regardless of race and ethnicity.”

“I want to be clear that I’m not providing tax advice or guidance for providing a possible analysis of any reparations payments,” Brown said. “I leave it to your tax council (economic experts) to make a final determination that you would rely upon moving forward.”

BLACK PR WIRE—- BALMAIN announced the appointment of Hans Dorsinville to
Senior Vice President (SVP), Global Creative, BALMAIN BEAUTY, effective January 2023. Hans will be based in New York and report directly to Olivier Rousteing, Creative Director of BALMAIN.

In his position, Hans will work closely with the BALMAIN and BALMAIN BEAUTY teams, including Estée Lauder Companies’ (NYSE: EL) executives Guillaume Jesel, President, Global Brands, TOM FORD BEAUTY, BALMAIN BEAUTY and Luxury Business Development, and Nathalie Berger Duquene, Senior Vice President (SVP), Global General Manager, BALMAIN BEAUTY. As SVP, Global Creative, Hans will be responsible for overseeing the full creative spectrum for BALMAIN BEAUTY including image, concepts, strategy, and alignment of brand voice with the fashion house. He will work with the team to ensure a cohesive experience across all touchpoints of the consumer journey.

Guillaume said, “Hans is an exceptionally talented and innovative creative leader, and I am delighted that he is joining the team to bring Olivier Rousteing’s groundbreaking vision for BALMAIN BEAUTY to life.”

Hans brings more than 25 years of creative experience to BALMAIN BEAUTY, having served in leadership roles across leading fashion, branding and advertising agencies, and while in-house at Donna Karan.

“Most recently, Hans held the role of Chief Creative Officer at Gotham where he led the strategic creative work across several large-scale fashion and beauty brands. Prior to Gotham, Hans was Chief Creative Officer at Select World, following more than ten years at Laird + Partners, where he was a founding partner. As Executive Vice President (EVP), Senior Group Creative Director at Laird + Partners, he led brand concepting, art direction for digital, print packaging design, merchandising and fashion shows for clients across luxury fragrance, high jewelry, and fashion.

Hans’s rise in fashion and beauty creative leadership began when he joined Donna Karan’s in-house creative agency in the early 1990s as Junior Designer. Assuming roles of increasing responsibility, Hans stepped into the position of EVP, developing campaigns for the Collection and the DKNY bridge line. At Donna Karan he worked across all fashion and licensees, including fragrance and skincare. Hans is a graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York and Paris.

Hans is known for championing diversity, inclusion and empowerment across his work and in the fashion and beauty industries. In 2018, Hans founded the Creative Coalition for Diversity in an effort to expand opportunities for a more diverse and inclusive group of creatives of color.

“We are thrilled that Hans will be taking on this creative leadership role, partnering with Olivier on the creative of BALMAIN BEAUTY. Hans’s deep and tenured experience in fashion and beauty and his reputation for producing bold and innovative creative make him ideally suited to take on this role. His unique strengths will reinforce the infinite possibilities of this exciting new luxury beauty brand,” Nathalie said.

In September 2022, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and BALMAIN announced a license agreement to collaboratively develop, produce, and distribute an innovative line of beauty products that will speak to luxury consumers around the world: BALMAIN BEAUTY. The collaboration is expected to launch in fall 2024, with the goal to transform the luxury and couture beauty world through exceptional design, singular craftsmanship, and an unyielding commitment to innovation.

About BALMAIN

For more than ten years, BALMAIN’s Creative Director, Olivier Rousteing, has been inventively building upon Pierre Balmain’s extraordinary legacy, while always remaining true to his own determination to design clothes that reflect the way his inclusive, powerful, and global BALMAIN customer wishes to live today. The result is a unique and instantly recognizable BALMAIN silhouette, style and attitude that highlights the singular craftsmanship of the house’s celebrated ateliers, while consistently referencing a rich Parisian heritage. For more information, please visit balmain.com.”