Beth Neumann is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Starboard Cruise Services, a Global Retailer with 2,500+ employees operating on 90 Cruise Ships. Starboard sells “memories of the cruise vacation” including Fine Jewelry, Swiss Watches, Beauty, Spirits, and many mementos.
Prior to joining Starboard, Beth has had a consistent record of growing and transforming businesses. She led the $3 Billion Avon Fashion & Home business, where she built a talented merchant organization and drove growth through a transformational vision of accessible beauty and luxury.
Before Avon, Neumann was the Chief Marketing Officer at both Atkins Nutritionals and The Worth Collection, a luxury fashion direct sales organization. She began her marketing career at Kraft Foods. Early in her career, Neumann was a supply chain specialist at Andersen (Accenture) Consulting.
Neumann holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Engineering from Cornell University. She serves as an advisor to Friends of the Children, a non-profit organization dedicated to at-risk youth, where she served as Chairman of the Board from 2006 to 2010.
Beth is married to Michael Neumann, and they have 3 young sons.
Sneak Peek Into What You’ll Learn…
02:27 – Beth tells us more about Starboard Cruise Services and more about her career journey that led her to the C-Suite.
04:10 – Beth shares more about the jobs she’s held at Kraft, Atkins, and Avon that taught her how to run a business, and prepared her to lead a LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) company, Starboard Cruise Services.
10:12 – Beth talks about what equipped her to manage multiple pivots in her career.
13:24 – Beth looks back over her career journey and shares the challenges she’s faced.
18:48 – Beth talks about the role of mentors in her growing career.
22:10 – Beth shares key pieces of advice for other women interested in making it to the C-Suite.
24:50 – Beth tells us more about how she spends her days as President and CEO of Starboard Cruise Services.
27:58 – Beth discusses how she juggled her job when she gave birth to her first child.
33:12 – Beth talks about being hired while pregnant, on two different occasions, and how she maintained her career while having 3 children in quick succession.
37:48 – Beth shares the two biggest challenges she faces in juggling her career and life with 3 young boys.
45:28 – We learn about the personal habits that help Beth to be successful.
50:55 – Brass Tacks— The lightning round of concrete advice and tips.
Quotable quotes:
- “It’s easy to make a change when you feel very excited about it, but one of the things I’ve learned is that any time you make a jump, it’s a huge amount of work.”
- “Those kind of support networks [mentoring group] are super, super important, right, and just being able to honestly take a step back, breath, tell the truth, let your insecurities out, you know, be vulnerable, and let people help you, it’s really important.”
- “I think it’s about prioritizing what really has to get done and being ok that some things might not get done perfectly or finding a way to have other people support you so that you’re spending your time in the best, most productive ways both at home and in the workplace.
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