Jamie Kern Lima
Jamie Kern Lima is an American entrepreneur, investor, and media personality. She co-founded IT Cosmetics, which she sold to L'Oréal for $1.2 billion, in 2016, becoming the first female chief executive officer of a L'Oréal brand. Kern Lima has been included on the Forbes list of "America's Richest Self-Made Women," since 2017.
Early life
Kern Lima was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in the city and also San Rafael, California. She was the first member of her family to attend college and went to Washington State University, where she graduated valedictorian. She received her Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, in 2004. During college, she was a waitress at Denny's and bagged groceries at Safeway. She learned, in her 20s, that she was adopted.Early career
Kern Lima won the Baywatch College Search, in 1999, and appeared on an episode of the television series. She won the title of Miss Washington USA, in late 1999, and she competed in the Miss USA 2000 pageant, which was held in Branson, Missouri. After considering a career in finance, she applied, on a dare, to be a contestant in the first season of the reality television series Big Brother. Kern Lima was the last female houseguest left on that season.After Big Brother, she started her career as a morning news anchor at KNDU in Tri-Cities, Washington. She also worked as a reporter and anchor for KNDU in Kennewick. In 2006, she left KNDU and moved to Portland, Oregon to work as a news anchor and reporter for KPTV.
Cosmetics career
In 2008, Kern Lima co-founded IT Cosmetics after having difficulties with makeup products due to rosacea and hyperpigmentation. The business struggled over the following years as beauty retailers rejected her products. Kern Lima was featured on a 10-minute QVC segment in which she wiped her makeup off, revealing her bare face to illustrate the use of IT Cosmetics concealers. All products sold out by the end of the segment.Kern Lima appeared in more than 1,000 live QVC shows and IT Cosmetics became the largest beauty brand on QVC's network. By 2015, the company had more than $182 million in net sales. Kern Lima remained with IT Cosmetics upon its acquisition by L'Oréal brand in 2016 until August 2019, when she announced she would be leaving the company.