Janet Gurwitch: Beauty Entrepreneur, Baseball Aficionado

While a lot of beauty execs will no doubt be tuning into the World Series this week and next between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves, one in particular will be watching more closely than most. Janet Gurwitch, the retail executive turned entrepreneur, is an investor in the Astros who also sits on the team’s board.

Gurwitch took a stake in the team in 2012, after businessman and friend Jim Crane became its primary owner and asked her if she would be interested in investing. For Gurwitch, who founded the Laura Mercier cosmetics brand in 1996 and built it into a leading player in color, the answer was an immediate yes.

“I had read the book ‘Moneyball’ by Michael Lewis and I was fascinated by the statistical approach the Oakland A’s took,” said Gurwitch, referring to how then-Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane transformed the team’s fortunes by using statistical analyses to put together a competitive team despite its relatively small budget.

“I gave the book to my Laura Mercier team at the time and told them, ‘We are the Oakland A’s competing against the big guys like Chanel and Lancôme.”

When Crane approached Gurwitch a few years later, she told him she was interested — but she had one caveat. “I told him I also wanted to be on the board,” she said.

While he didn’t doubt her ability as a businesswoman, “he asked me, ‘What do you know about baseball the game?’ recalled Gurwitch. Crane did appoint her to the Astros board — today she is the only woman on it — and also gave her a book about the game. “Today I know a helluva lot!” laughed Gurwitch, noting she’s gotten pretty good at being able to identify a variety of pitches by sight and attends as many of the 162 games in a season as her schedule permits.

While she is still drawn to the metrics aspect of baseball, Gurwitch has also become emotionally vested in the outcome. “You really see how hard it is to be a professional athlete — the players are just incredible,” she said. “The psychology of sports is fascinating. On any given day, any one team can beat the other. There are so many factors that contribute to who wins.”

This will be the third World Series for the Astros during Gurwitch’s time with the team: They won in 2017, lost in the seventh game and are now back again in a matchup many baseball experts expect will go the full gamut, too. And it’s not the only return for Gurwitch. The entrepreneur recently joined Advent International as an operating partner, which acquired BareMinerals, Buxom and Laura Mercier from Shiseido for $700 million in August. Gurwitch will be a key part of the team overseeing those businesses, too. No doubt she’ll hit it out of the park.