When Michelle Freyre (MBA 1997) was a brand manager at Neutrogena, Michael McNamara, global president of the beauty brand at the time, asked what she wanted to do with her career. She answered, “I want to be you. I want to run Neutrogena.”

McNamara gave her some advice: Leave the comfort of marketing and join sales; learn the business from the inside out. The suggestion made little sense to Freyre, who considered herself a marketer and a brand strategist at her core. But she trusted her mentor, so left marketing and learned the commercial side of the business. That move served her well. She ended up leading Neutrogena, eventually becoming the president of US Beauty at Johnson & Johnson. Today, she is the global brand president of Clinique and Origins, both part of the Estée Lauder Companies (ELC).

“I am 100 percent sure that I would not be talking to you today if I hadn’t left marketing,” declares Freyre. The move to sales taught her about retailers, how consumers shop, and ultimately made her a better marketer and leader. “I tap into that diversity of experience every day,” she says.

It was through McNamara, and others, that Freyre learned early on the importance of mentorship in the corporate world. “Mentors have helped shape my career. They have pushed me to explore new areas of the business, to take risks, to not stay in one lane because I was comfortable,” she explains. While there wasn’t a lot of diversity among her mentors, they were all accomplished men who offered sound advice in both business and life.

“Now that I’m in this position of seniority, I feel a huge responsibility to pay it forward,” says Freyre. “Given that there are not many Latinas in my position within corporate America, I have an obligation to seek diverse, young talent and to teach the next generation of leaders how to take control of their careers.”

It is important to Freyre, a Latina herself, that she should provide guidance within a culture that greatly respects and values individuality. Of corporate culture more broadly, however, she acknowledges, “There are still some expectations as to how people should look, act, talk, and show up. I had experiences, earlier in my career, in which I was told that I spoke with my hands too much,” recalls Freyre. “And I would think through certain things, like whether I should wear red lipstick or big earrings, which is such a part of who I am as a Latina.”

In her current capacity at Clinique, Freyre works to foster a culture of inclusivity and diversity, not just in seeking talent but also in establishing what she calls a psychological safety zone, in which people can be their authentic selves. It’s good not only for her employees but also for business. “We all know that when you have diverse points of views, that is when the business thrives,” she notes.

Freyre recognizes that employees face challenges in trying to balance their work and personal lives. As the mother of six-year-old twins, she doesn’t hide the fact that some mornings are simply tough. “It’s important to be a great role model to employees,” says Freyre, “but I also try not to show up as the perfect working mom who has it all together, because I am not perfect, and I don’t have all the answers.”

It’s a matter of nurturing empathy, says Freyre, and encouraging others—both men and women, leaders and coworkers—to do so as well, especially as the pandemic has blurred the line between personal and professional. “If I wasn’t making an effort to really get to know the whole self of people on my team, I wouldn’t necessarily know that they are dealing with little ones at home and childcare issues. Or that they have elderly parents they have to take care of. To maximize how they show up at work, I’ve got to take the time to understand them.”

Part of getting to know her team is by being mentored by them, herself, in ELC’s Reverse Mentorship Program, in which earlier-career employees mentor their leaders. Freyre’s own young, Latina mentor has taught her more about social media and trends among the next generation—how it is feeling about the pandemic and hybrid work. “She really makes me think differently—about insights, about my consumers, about what the competition is doing—because she’s of a generation that lives on social media, every day, all the time.”

Freyre’s mentor also has helped her keep a pulse on the next cohort of leaders at the Estée Lauder Companies. Because, ultimately, that’s what this is all about: positioning the next group of Latina women to rise to their roles—not only with the skill and knowledge of the business but also with the empathy, understanding, and fearlessness to be themselves along the way.

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