Former Estée Lauder executive Thia Breen has died at 73.
A native of Minnesota, whose first job in retail was as the Bonne Bell buyer in her father’s drugstore when she was in the eighth grade, presaged a career in which Breen broke boundaries as both a brand and retail executive. As high up the ladder as she climbed, Breen never forgot those
“Thia Breen was among the greatest executives at the Estée Lauder Cos.,” said Leonard A. Lauder, chairman emeritus. “She always had her pulse on what was happening in the industry and especially in our home market. She was a wonderful person and will be sorely missed.” “Thia had very deep, important relationships with people across not only the Estée Lauder Cos. but the entire retail community,” said John Demsey, the former executive group president of the Estée Lauder Cos. who worked closely with Breen. “She was instrumental in the foundational building of the Clinique brand in North America, and when she served as president of Estée Lauder, it was her initiatives that started the acceleration of that business in China.
“I knew Thia since she was a regional at Aramis and I was a DMM at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1985,” said Muriel Gonzalez, who is today president of The Vitamin Shoppe. Gonzalez oversaw beauty at Macy’s when Breen ran North America at Lauder, and the two spoke daily for eight years. “The Estée Lauder/Macy’s partnership was very special and it was because of Thia,” said Gonzalez. “She understood what it was to be both a vendor and a retailer, as did I.
That combination of business acumen and human caring made Breen one of the most liked and respected executives in the industry. “I first met Thia when I was just starting out as a young buyer at Saks. Even then she had an impressive reputation that preceded her and I was slightly in awe just to be in her presence,” said Kate Oldham, senior vice president, general merchandise manager, beauty and jewelry, at Saks.
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