Laura Geller Beauty announced the appointment of a new board member –  Debbie Murtha, retail industry consultant. Murtha has more than 30 years of industry experience in retail marketing and merchandising, brand building, and strategic industry partnerships.

Rich Gersten, a Partner at Tengram Capital Partners said,  “As growth and further expansion into wholesale distribution is part of the brands core growth strategy, having Debbie on-board will bring a tremendous knowledge base and expertise to the team.” Elana Drell-Szyfer, CEO of Laura Geller Beauty, said that “I have known and worked with Debbie over the course of twenty years in the beauty industry. In my opinion, she is one of the leading strategic thinkers in beauty retail and I am thrilled to have her expertise and insight as part of the Laura Geller Beauty team.”

Murtha spent 10 plus years as senior vice president/general merchandising manager of the national, cosmetics and fragrance businesses of both Macy’s Merchandising Group and May Merchandising Company.

Among Murtha’s long list of professional accomplishments, she directed the 2011 launch of Give Back Brands’ Justin Bieber charity fragrance that earned recognition as Macy’s top-selling brand in the history of celebrity fragrances, was the highest-grossing of all 2011 fragrance launches and won Women’s Wear Daily’s Beauty Biz Award as the top prestige fragrance of the year.