Monia Barwitzki Lefèvre

About

Curiosity has decided almost every move in my career — I go toward what I don't yet know how to do, not toward what's comfortable to keep doing. That pull has taken me from brand marketing to ecommerce to full P&L ownership to commercial turnarounds — each move about taking on more of the business, not less. I want to understand how the whole thing works: the brand, the numbers, the people — and where it all needs to go next.

I'm a doer before I'm an advisor. Before I recommend an idea, I need to see it work with my own hands — so I step into the part of the business I don't yet fully understand, figure it out, and test what works. That instinct once took me out of corporate life altogether: I left to build my own direct-to-consumer beauty business from zero — sourcing, pricing, CRM, the full P&L — before bringing that founder's instinct back into corporate leadership. It's why I keep choosing the next hard problem over the comfortable one.

What drives me is performance — commercial results, and the impact a business makes because of the decisions behind it. I need to understand where a problem actually starts, not just where it shows up, and I don't hesitate to fix the foundation first, together with the team, before building anything on top of it. That's also where my leadership comes from: I look for people who want to be challenged as much as supported, and I try to be both for them — giving them clarity when the path isn't obvious, pushing them to own their part, and growing them into more than they expected of themselves.

What I leave behind is what I care about most: a business that's stronger and more clearly led than when I arrived, and a team that got there with me, not just for me.

I'm open to doing that as a full-time leader inside a business, or as an advisor working alongside one.

Based in: Zürich, Switzerland
Sector focus: Beauty & Fragrance — within Luxury & Premium Consumer Goods
Languages: French (native), English (fluent), German (B2/C1)
Certification: AI for Leaders, Harvard Business School (2026)
Also: Certified Digital Marketing Expert, DMI Pro (2022)
Prior organizations: LVMH (Guerlain, Sephora) · Estée Lauder · Swarovski · Williams Sonoma

Strengths

Brand Management

Builds and protects brand equity across positioning, portfolio and campaigns — from category management to global launches, across multiple luxury and prestige houses.

Brand-to-P&L Translator

Turns brand equity into revenue and margin for durable, long-term growth.

Strategic Thinking

Turns complex, ambiguous challenges into a plan a team can actually execute.

Leadership

Builds trust, develops talent, and moves collaborative teams through change across cultures and markets.

Entrepreneurial Ownership

A founder's instinct — builds, decides and delivers, inside a corporate structure or outside one.

Change Management

Holds performance steady through adaptability and pressure, without losing sight of the people doing the work.

Where I Can Help

Commercial & P&L Leadership

Diagnosing margin and topline issues, renegotiating brand partnerships, and building the portfolio structure and reporting that keep performance visible.

Margin & topline diagnostics
Brand partnership renegotiation
Portfolio & category management
KPI reporting & dashboarding for faster decision-making

Brand Strategy & Go-to-Market

Positioning, category strategy and launch planning that keep brand equity and commercial performance pointed the same direction.

Brand positioning
Category strategy
Launch planning
Global campaign orchestration

Ecommerce, CRM & Digital Transformation

Full-funnel campaign architecture and the UX/UI and onsite roadmap that moves conversion and AOV, paired with the customer data and lifecycle marketing engine — segmentation, loyalty and email — built from the ground up.

Full-funnel campaign architecture
UX/UI & onsite roadmap
Conversion & AOV optimization
Customer data strategy
Segmentation & lifecycle marketing
Loyalty program design
Email marketing

AI-Augmented Transformation

Applying AI strategy to brand and commercial performance for teams and leaders who feel behind on adoption — grounded in Harvard Business School's AI for Leaders program.

AI readiness diagnostics
AI-native workflow design
Team upskilling

Full-Time or Advisory Leadership

Stepping into a Senior Manager or Director-level seat — full-time or for a defined mandate: diagnose, build the plan, lead the team through it, hand off something stronger. I can also work alongside a leader directly as an advisor — someone to help steer ideas and execution on their side, without taking the seat myself.

Senior Manager / Director mandates
Advisor to a leader — ideas & execution

Open to full-time leadership roles and advisory mandates across beauty, fragrance, luxury and premium consumer goods — Europe and the US, based out of Zürich, hybrid.

Track Record

2025 — Present

Interim Director, Commercial & Digital Marketing Transformation

Paris8 Haute Parfumerie · Zürich

Brought in to lead a commercial turnaround for a €35M independent beauty retailer, directing a team of 20+.
Renegotiated key brand partnerships (+7% topline) and exited 15+ loss-making brands, restructuring margin conditions.
Reversed a declining sell-through trend from −3% to +2%, rebuilding the trade-marketing model and standing up KPI reporting across revenue, traffic, conversion, AOV and retention.

2022 — 2025

Head of Ecommerce & Digital Transformation

Estée Lauder · Zürich

Owned a €50M ecommerce P&L across 8+ luxury brands in DACH, leading a team of 18.
Grew topline +5% and net profit +3% over three years through commercial strategy and disciplined cost management.
Lifted conversion +5% and AOV +10% via a focused UX/UI roadmap; rebuilt CRM for 850k+ customers across the region.

2019 — 2022

Global Brand & Ecommerce Manager

Swarovski · Zürich

Directed ecommerce strategy for a €100M+ revenue portfolio spanning 30+ markets.
Orchestrated global brand campaigns generating half of annual sales, delivering +15% growth in key shopping periods.
Co-launched adaptive onsite search globally, contributing to an +18% conversion uplift across all markets.

2016 — 2018

Brand Category Manager

Williams Sonoma · San Francisco

Ran a $40M private-label and new-product portfolio; delivered +20% revenue growth and launched two new categories.

2014 — 2016

Founder

Myfrenchway.com · San Francisco

Built a profitable direct-to-consumer luxury beauty business from zero — sourcing, pricing, CRM and full P&L ownership — to deepen D2C expertise before returning to corporate leadership.

2010 — 2014

Brand Category Manager

Sephora, LVMH · San Francisco

Grew a $260M Makeup & Fragrance portfolio; lifted the Fragrance category +13% and beat the #1 private-label launch target by 50%.

2003 — 2010

Marketing Trainee → Marketing Manager

Guerlain, LVMH · Brussels

Rose from trainee to Marketing Manager over six years, leading a team of 7 and a €5M A&P budget across Benelux with double-digit revenue growth for five consecutive years.

In Their Words

"Monia led Paris8 through a critical commercial turnaround and her impact was immediate — integrating seamlessly into the business: rebuilding our CRM and full-funnel marketing, redesigning the trade marketing model, and helping us rethink and renegotiate key partnerships, margins and agreements, with real business acumen and retail expertise. Adaptable, focused on delivery, and a natural mentor. I recommend her without hesitation to any business needing senior leadership they can trust to deliver."
Ann Vandermeer — Dirigeante & General Manager, Paris8