Eseandre Mordi
So you're wondering who's running the show at ELF Cosmetics? Let me introduce you to Tarang Amin—the guy who's been calling the shots since 2014. He's not just some corporate suit who happened to land a cushy job. This man took a scrappy little beauty brand known for $3 lipsticks and turned it into a legitimate powerhouse that's giving the big players serious headaches.
Who Is the CEO of ELF Cosmetics and Where'd He Come From?
Tarang Amin is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of e.l.f. Beauty, and he's been running things for nearly a decade now. But here's the thing—he didn't start out in beauty at all. The man's got an MBA from Harvard Business School and cut his teeth at Bain & Company, one of those fancy management consulting firms where you learn how to dissect businesses and figure out what makes them tick.
His real training ground was Procter & Gamble, where he worked in brand management. That's where he learned the nuts and bolts of building consumer brands. But it wasn't until he landed at Schering-Plough (which later merged with Merck) as Vice President of Marketing that things really took off for him. He spent seven years there, working on blockbuster pharmaceutical brands and figuring out how to scale products globally.
Tarang Amin's Early Career: Following the Money Trail
Amin's first real paycheck came from P&G, though the exact numbers from back then aren't public. What we do know is that brand managers at major consumer goods companies in the late '90s and early 2000s were pulling in somewhere between $80,000 and $120,000. Not bad for a starting point, right?
But the real money started flowing when he moved up to VP of Marketing at Schering-Plough. We're talking $200,000 to $400,000 in base salary, plus bonuses that could easily double that. That's when Amin went from "doing well" to "doing really well." He was learning how to launch products, manage massive marketing budgets, and navigate the corporate world at a high level.
In 2009, he took on the role of President at Refresh Brands. While that was a good gig, it was really just a stepping stone to what came next.
The ELF Cosmetics CEO's Climb to the Peak
Everything changed in 2014 when Amin became CEO of e.l.f. Beauty. At that point, ELF was kind of the underdog of the beauty world—everybody knew them for cheap makeup, but nobody was taking them seriously. The brand had potential, but it needed someone who could see the bigger picture.
When he first signed on, his base salary was around $750,000, with a bunch of stock options thrown in. Now, here's where it gets interesting. Those stock options? They were basically a bet on himself. If the company did well, those options would be worth millions. If it tanked, well, they'd be worthless.
Spoiler alert: Amin made the right bet. He took the company public in 2016, and the stock absolutely exploded. Between 2016 and 2020, his total compensation was running between $5 million and $8 million a year when you factor in base salary, bonuses, and stock awards. The guy transformed ELF from a budget brand into a digital-first beauty powerhouse that Gen Z actually wanted to buy.
What's Tarang Amin Making Now?
Let's talk current numbers. While Amin keeps his personal net worth under wraps (as most smart wealthy people do), we can piece together a pretty good picture from public filings. He owns about 1.5% of e.l.f. Beauty's shares. With the company's market cap hovering around $7-8 billion lately, do the math—that's roughly $100-120 million just in stock holdings.
His salary's grown right along with the company's success. In fiscal year 2023, his total compensation package hit about $14.2 million. That breaks down to a base salary of $1.2 million, plus cash bonuses and equity awards. That puts him in the upper tier of beauty industry CEOs, though he's not quite at the stratospheric levels you see at the absolute biggest corporations.
There's more, though. Amin sits on the board at Target, which probably nets him another $250,000 to $350,000 annually in board fees. When you add it all up, most estimates put his total net worth somewhere between $150-200 million. Not too shabby for a guy who started out as a consultant, right?
Tarang Amin's Success Philosophy: What He's Learned Along the Way
So what's the secret sauce? What can you learn from the guy who runs ELF Cosmetics? He's been pretty open about his approach in interviews over the years, and there are some real gems in there.
- Make quality accessible to everyone. This is Amin's core belief—you shouldn't have to drop $50 on an eyeshadow palette to get something that works. His whole strategy at ELF has been about democratizing beauty. "Every eye deserves e.l.f." isn't just marketing fluff. It's actually how he's built the business, and it's unlocked a massive market that luxury brands were ignoring.
- Go digital or go home. Way before COVID forced everyone online, Amin was already betting big on e-commerce and social media. He figured out early that people were discovering makeup on Instagram and TikTok, not at Macy's cosmetics counters. That early investment in digital channels gave ELF a huge head start when traditional retail hit the skids.
- Move fast and stay nimble. Here's something Amin hammers on constantly—speed matters. ELF can get a product from idea to store shelves in a few months. Their competitors? They're still operating on 18-month timelines. When you're targeting younger consumers who want what's trending right now, that agility is everything.
- Do good, make money. Amin's not one of those CEOs who treats social responsibility like a checkbox exercise. From day one, ELF has been cruelty-free and vegan. They've pushed clean beauty standards and sustainability. His take on it? Doing the right thing isn't just ethical—it's actually profitable because people care about where their money goes.
- Your team makes or breaks you. Amin gives a lot of credit to the people around him. He's set up profit-sharing programs and built a culture where people feel empowered to take chances and try new things. His logic is pretty simple: happy, motivated employees make better products and create better experiences for customers.
When you ask who is the CEO of ELF Cosmetics, you're really asking about a guy who saw an opportunity everyone else missed. Tarang Amin took a brand that could've stayed in the bargain bin forever and turned it into a legitimate threat to the beauty industry's old guard. And honestly? That's a pretty impressive run for someone who started out analyzing spreadsheets at a consulting firm.
Eseandre Mordi
