Avon Products Inc.

Andrea Jung

Born:1959 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Avon Products Inc.

Andrea Jung is president and chief executive officer of Avon Products Inc., one of America's largest direct sellers of cosmetics and other beauty products. She was named Avon's CEO in November 1999, prior to which she had served as its president and chief operating officer since July 1998. She has been a member of the company's board of directors since January 1998. Jung has been widely credited for a top-to-bottom makeover of Avon's beauty product line and for reinvigorating the company's international marketing efforts. She first joined Avon in January 1994 as president of its U.S. Product Marketing Group. In July 1996 she was named president, global marketing, and that same year she was honored by Brandweek Magazine as one of its Marketers of the Year. She was promoted in March 1997 to executive vice president and president, global marketing and new business, a post in which she was responsible for the company's strategic planning, research and development, joint ventures and alliances, and market research.

Jung relishes her status as one of the country's few female chief executives of a major corporation. "I'm proud of my heritage and certainly my gender," she told New York Times writer Dana Canedy in an interview. "I think it's a privilege being a minority woman leading a Fortune 250 company." Jung appeared to be on a fast track to the top post at Avon in 1997 when the company's chief executive announced plans to step down. She and two or three other female executives were said to be on the shortlist of candidates for the top job. However, the company reached outside its own ranks,