2025 was the year Kecia Steelman took control.
After more than a decade in the C-Suite at ULTA Beauty, the largest specialty beauty retailer in the United States, Kecia Steelman stepped into the CEO role early in 2025 and hasn’t looked back.
Under Steelman, now one of the most powerful women in the beauty business, the company has grown its retail and e-commerce businesses and impressed Wall Street along the way.
“We’ve hit 1,500 stores,” Steelman said, in addition to expanding internationally in the U.K., Mexico, and the Middle East.
The key for Steelman: creating a clear strategy, one she called “ULTA Beauty unleashed,” that “everyone from the backroom of a store to the boardroom, to the investment community, understands.”
The Less-Traveled Road to the C-Suite
Steelman’s effectiveness is rooted in her 30+-year career in retail, which began with an hourly job at Target.
At 20 years old, Kecia Steelman was “a single mom living in the government housing projects” and desperately needed work. “I was too proud to take food stamps, so I was kind of hungry,” she recalled.
Standing in her bathroom mirror one day, she had a revelation: “The only person that can get me out of this situation is looking right back at me.”
She prayed for just one thing: “If I can just work somewhere where they give me an opportunity to learn and grow, I’m going do everything I can to be successful.” Target gave her that chance, hiring her as a team leader in the men’s department for $8 an hour.
From there, she moved up the ladder at Target and eventually into larger roles at Home Depot and Family Dollar before landing at ULTA Beauty in 2014.
“I’ve been in all realms of retail, but it does really get in your blood. I love what I do,” Steelman declared.
A Not-So-Undercover Boss
Thanks to her days on the sales floor at Target, Steelman has a deep appreciation for ULTA Beauty’s associates.
“One of the most important people in that store is the cashier,” she insisted. “If you have a bad checkout experience and that person isn’t friendly, it totally tarnishes the entire experience.”
With that in mind, she enjoys visiting ULTA Beauty stores nationwide. Although these days, she says, it’s difficult to go unnoticed.
“I don’t do an undercover boss very well because even when I try to put the baseball cap on… I usually get spotted pretty quickly,” she says.
And when she visits stores, she pays attention to the details. “I would always rather see a store that maybe didn’t look as sharp because we could fix that quickly, versus a store that didn’t feel good, “she says.
“Culture is everything. If the store feels good, the associates like working in the stores, that’s great,” she says.
Creating A Winning Team
When putting together her team, Kecia Steelman looks for three qualities: IQ, EQ, and AQ. Intelligence matters, of course, and emotional intelligence is equally crucial. The third element is AQ, the adversity quotient, which might be most important for Steelman.
“I see so many successful people that hit a plateau because when they hit a bump in the road, they can’t figure out how to go over it or through it or around it,” she explained. “And those that really excel know how to do that… and are humble enough that they share their experiences.”
Steelman also loves identifying talent across the company.
“I kind of can tell when somebody has that, what I call the it factor,” Steelman says. “In the last couple of years, we’ve created 6,000 management positions for females in our company. So, to turn somebody that’s like how I was when I started, where I took it as a job and then it became a career… I love that.”
A Growing Family & Support System
Her life today stands in stark contrast to her days as a young single mom. Her two children are grown, and she’s been married to Gray Steelman for about as long as she’s been with ULTA Beauty. The two have a blended family, including three grandchildren and one on the way.
She says her husband has been an incredible source of support throughout her career.
“He reads me pretty well. He will say to me… ‘Never forget that you’re the best at what you do,’ Steelman says. She finds that helpful when she needs to get into the right headspace before approaching work.
The perks of her job have also been beneficial. ULTA Beauty helped launch Beyoncé’s hair care line Cécred and was a sponsor of the Grammy-winner’s Cowboy Carter Tour. Not surprisingly, Steelman got a VIP seat at the tour’s stop in Atlanta.
“I actually got to watch the show with Miss Tina (Knowles), which was a special treat. I took two of my daughters with a friend and me, and it was a total experience,” Steelman recalls.
When told this made her “the coolest mom ever,” she laughed.
“Well,” Steelman replied, “you need to tell my kids that.”
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