EXCLUSIVE: Olive Young Names First U.S. CEO

K-beauty retailer Olive Young has named its first U.S. CEO ahead of its Los Angeles store opening and Sephora North America rollout.

And stepping up to the role at the K-beauty retailer is Gaeun Kwon, who was previously director of global business at the company. Her appointment comes as Olive Young gears up for its first U.S. brick-and-mortar foray, with a flagship slated to open in May in Pasadena, Calif.

The retailer, owned by South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, will also debut a dedicated e-commerce platform for U.S. consumers at the same time. And later this fall, Olive Young will bring a curated K-beauty assortment to Sephora online and in 650 North America stores as it ramps up efforts in the market, where demand for“For more than two decades, Olive Young has helped shape how consumers discover and engage with beauty in Korea, and our next focus is the U.S.,” said Kwon, who has spent more than a decade at Olive Young, in a statement. The retailer will launch a “preview store” in Los Angeles’ Westfield Century City mall ahead of the Pasadena flagship opening in late May, and has confirmed another permanent L.A. store will later open in Torrance’s Del Amo Shopping Center. To support mounting efforts in the region, Olive Young has opened an inaugural North America logistics center in Bloomington, Calif., which entered K-beauty in 2017 with CosRX’s snail mucin-infused products, tapped Landing International in 2025 to curate a multicategory mix of next-gen Korean brands including I’m From, Mixsoon, Some by Mi, Rom&nd and Medicube, the latter of which is the highest-grossing beauty brand on TikTok Shop.The retailer is reportedly in talks with more than 400 K-beauty brands as it builds out its U.S. assortment, which will span legacy and indie lines alike, as well as Olive Young’s private label brands including Colorgram, Bring Green, Bioheal BOH and more. In its home market of South Korea, Olive Young operates 1,390 stores. While Kwon will head up the company’s U.S. entity, presiding CEO Lee Sun-jung will continue to oversee Olive Young’s global business. “Our goal in the U.S. is to build a differentiated platform on a strong, sustainable foundation,” Kwon said in a statement. “By combining Korea’s fast-moving innovation ecosystem with localized market insight, we are committed to building an omnichannel beauty platform that not only introduces new brands and trends, but also fosters deeper consumer education and long-term brand growth.”. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google WWD and Women's Wear Daily are part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Fairchild Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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