Edgar Huber Named Nest’s New Ceo – WWD

Nest has named Edgar Huber chief executive officer, taking the reins from Maria Dempsey, who is departing the company for a new opportunity, which has yet to be made public.

Huber, who begins his new role at the home scent and fragrance company on Monday, most recently served as global chief commercial officer of consumer beauty for luxury, and professional beauty products at Coty, and prior to that, as president of Coty Luxury.

Before joining Coty, he was president and CEO of Lands’ End between 2011 and 2015 and also has a 15-year stint at L’Oréal under his belt.

“I’m very, very happy to join Laura Slatkin, who is the founder of Nest, because she’s very, very gifted and very talented and a super creative and visionary founder,” Huber said to WWD in an interview. “I would not have joined the company if she was not there and she was not giving the future direction to the business.”

Slatkin, executive chairman of Nest, told WWD that she was “very excited” to have been able to attract someone of Huber’s caliber to lead Nest.

“It is a testimony to the brand’s reputation and its potential,” she said. “Our sales are now approaching $200 million in the U.S. and my goal over the next decade is to be a billion-dollar worldwide brand. With Edgar at the helm, we will reach that goal.”

As for Dempsey, who served as CEO of Nest since January 2019, Slatkin said, “Under her leadership, company revenues more than doubled and Nest became a stronger, more profitable brand with an enviable company culture in which our employees feel supported, appreciated and inspired.”

Huber’s focus will be on both international and category expansion. He told WWD that he believes Nest has a name that is much bigger than the business, which is “a great opportunity to grow it in the U.S. market, but also to grow it internationally.”

In particular, he has his eye on the U.K., the Middle East and Asia. Nest launched in the U.K. in 2021 through Cult Beauty and is now also available in Selfridges, while it made its debut in Dubai last month.

The CEO change comes just a few months after investment company Eurazeo sold its majority stake in the home scent and fragrance company to an investor group led by private equity firm North Castle Partners, in a transaction that valued Nest at about $200 million. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eurazeo and Slatkin retained minority ownership positions as part of the deal.

Of Huber’s appointment, Hemanshu Patel, a partner at North Castle Partners, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Edgar, who brings his extraordinary experience and capabilities to the Nest organization as we execute on a shared vision to grow the brand into an international fragrance powerhouse. He is highly regarded as a values-based leader who we believe complements Laura and the existing team extremely well.”