Erica C. Bowen

Erica C. Bowen
Vice President, Marketing
L’Oreal Paris
New York, N.Y.

Growing up around the influence of her grandparents’ barbeque restaurant in Memphis, Tenn., Erica Culpepper Bowen had her sights set on superstardom “When I was a little girl and somebody would ask me ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’  I’d always answer, ‘I’m gonna be a superstar!’ And I would say it with so much passion and conviction and attitude, that people believed me.” Today she is Vice President of Marketing at L’Oreal Paris, the Paris-based beauty-care megabrand. From her New York City office, she sets the marketing vision and leads the development of strategic initiatives to build brand equity and drive sales for the L’Oreal Paris signature brand in the U.S.

Bowen has a bachelor’s degree in journalism/public relations from Howard University and a M.B.A. in marketing from Clark Atlanta University. While in college she dreamed of working for Maybelline, which had yet to be acquired by L’Oreal, but spent the first seven years after college at Johnson & Johnson. She joined L’Oreal in 2004. “I love the fact that I do work that is truly meaningful to women. Every day I get to go to work and come up with tools and solutions to give women the confidence they need to go out and face the world. For me that’s the best feeling in the world,” says the Memphis native. “Because when you feel good about how you look on the outside, it permeates to the inside and vice versa.”

To Bowen, a busy mom of three, indulging in personal pleasures is a luxury. Her favorite ways to relax are working out in the park near a body of water and simply sitting in silence. She says, “I love being at one with nature and enjoying the peace and quiet of silence and the peace that comes from having a still, quiet mind.”