Courtesy Michelle Freyre

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 told her to leave the comfort of marketing and join sales, to learn the business from the inside out. That move served her well. She ended up leading Neutrogena, eventually becoming president of US Beauty at Johnson & Johnson. Today, she is 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.

It was through McNamara, and others, that Freyre learned the importance of mentorship in the corporate world. While Freyre, a Latina woman, didn’t have a lot of diversity among her mentors, they were all accomplished men who offered sound advice in both business and life. “Given that there are not many Latinas in my position in corporate America,” she observes, “I have an obligation to seek young, diverse talent, and teach the next generation of leaders how to take control of their careers.”

It’s a matter of nurturing empathy, notes Freyre, and encouraging others—men and women, leaders and coworkers—to do so as well, especially as the pandemic has blurred the line between personal and professional. “Everybody’s juggling so many things,” she says. “To maximize how my employees 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 younger generation—how its feeling about the pandemic and hybrid work. She’s also helped Freyre keep a pulse on the next cohort of leaders. 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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