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Photo by Miki Chishaki/Tatcha
As a teenager in Houston, Texas, and one of the few Asian students in her high school, Vicky Tsai (MBA 2006) recognized that didn’t fit the accepted beauty standard. She was more drawn to the Western luxury skincare brands her mother sold in her beauty products store than the pots of Chinese herbs simmering in the family kitchen.
During her twenties, travel broadened Tsai’s perspective. On a trip to Japan, drawn to the country’s approach to well-being, she adopted geisha skincare rituals based on rice, green tea, and algae. In 2009, based on those same rituals, she launched Tatcha, a line of skincare products initially deemed too “niche” and “exotic” by retailers; in 2019 Unilever acquired the company for a reported $500 million. Tsai stepped down as CEO after being asked to do so, but was recently asked to return; that experience, and others over the years, have caused her to reflect on her tendency to downplay her ability and her accomplishments. “In the 10 years I spent leading Tatcha, I never felt comfortable or worthy of being called the CEO,” she told Inc. “I came up with the title of ‘chief treasure hunter’ to throw people off the scent, and hid that I had gone to Harvard Business School to avoid seeming boastful.”
Today’s heightened awareness of marginalized communities offers an opportunity for change, says Tsai. “For a long time, I tried to ignore my heritage and become something else. I kept my head down and allowed people to tell me that I wasn’t good enough at my job. As a mother, I would never want my daughter, who is now 11, to go through that.”
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