Lorna E. Welshman-Neblett has reached a pinnacle that few women of color have attained in the fragrance industry. More than 20 years ago she launched Angel, the first Thierry Mugler perfume, in the U.S. market. The fragrance has been flying off high-end shelves since.
Welshman-Neblett’s career in the fragrance industry began in the late 1970s, when Elizabeth Arden established a separate fragrance company with Chloe, Burberrys and others. Welshman-Neblett started working with Thierry Mugler Parfums (now a division of Clarins Fragrance Group) in 1993, presenting the brand to retailers, establishing a sales team and creating a strategy to bring Angel to the market.
Energized by the creativity required to bring a fragrance
tomarket and to develop appealing packaging and descriptors, she holds, fittingly, the title of senior manager of sales and marketing administration for Groupe Clarins USA, U.S. arm of the Paris-based luxury cosmetics company. “What I enjoy most about working in the industry is seeing the happiness that a fragrance brings to a consumer. It is about the person who’s wearing the fragrance—for them to smell good and feel good at the same time,” she declares.
Born in Georgetown, Guyana, she is committed to her homeland and the Caribbean and seeks improved health care for women in the region through the Organization for Social Health and Advancement for Guyana and the Caribbean (OSHAG/C), a New York group that focuses on treatment, follow-up and cosmetic care for breast cancer patients
Welshman-Neblett earned a bachelor’s degree at Washington Business Institute. She is a staunch advocate of community involvement, evidenced by her recognition from the City of New York and former New York City Council member Una Clarke. “I learned from an early age that working in a community and organizing with others is the best way for people to come together for a worthy cause,” she says. In 2013, she was honored as one of 25 Influential Black Woman in Business by The Network Journal- a black professional and small business magazine.
