Nobody hands you a corner office when you grow up poor in Mediapolis, IA. Kecia Steelman was 20, a young mother, living in government housing, and doing what she had to do: folding clothes and stocking shelves at Target for $8 an hour. That was the starting point. Three decades later, she runs Ulta Beauty, the largest specialty beauty retailer in the United States, with more than 60,000 associates and 1,500 stores under her watch. The arc is remarkable. The work behind it is more so.
CSG’s Trailblazers series celebrates individuals who have made their own way and brought others along with them. This Women’s History Month, Steelman’s story stands out.
Kecia spent 12 years at Target, and will tell you she is grateful for every one of them. The company promoted her, invested in her development, and gave her a foundation in retail operations and merchandising she has built on ever since. By the time she left in 2005 as a district manager, Kecia had a clear picture of what good leadership looked like. From there she moved to Home Depot as Vice President and General Manager of Expo Design Centers, then to Family Dollar as Group Vice President of Operations. Each stop broadened her view of how retail works.
Kecia joined Ulta Beauty in July 2014 as Senior Vice President of Store Operations. Within a year she was named Chief Store Operations Officer. She became Chief Operating Officer in 2021, President and COO in 2023, and in January 2025, she succeeded Dave Kimbell as President and CEO, joining the company’s board at the same time. By the time she took the top job, she had touched every part of the business.
Two months in, she unveiled her strategic plan: Ulta Beauty Unleashed. The priorities were clear: reignite growth, strengthen the core U.S. business, and take the brand international for the first time. She moved fast. In July 2025, Ulta acquired SpaceNK, a UK specialty beauty retailer with 83 locations across the UK and Ireland. Licensing partnerships followed, bringing Ulta into Mexico and the Middle East. The company also crossed 1,500 U.S. store locations during her first year and raised its annual sales and profit forecast after topping quarterly estimates. Fiscal year 2025 revenue is expected to reach approximately $12.3 billion.
One of her most noted moves before stepping into the CEO role was the 2022 partnership she brokered with Target, placing Ulta shop-in-shop locations inside 500 Target stores nationwide. The deal expanded Ulta’s reach beyond its standalone footprint and brought brands like Fenty Beauty, Ouai, and The Ordinary to a new audience.
Outside of Ulta, Steelman serves on the boards of Pinterest, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Adler Planetarium, the Economic Club of Chicago, and World Business Chicago. In February 2026, she was named a TIME Woman of the Year and received the CEW Retail Leadership Award.
She describes her upbringing in three words: poor, hungry, and determined. Of those, only one is still with her. She has spoken openly about being passed over for promotions earlier in her career, not as a grievance, but as a rallying point for women trying to break through in their own industries. Ninety-one percent of Ulta Beauty’s workforce is women, a number that carries real weight coming from a CEO who knows what it is like to wonder if there is a path forward. For Steelman, there was. And she has spent her career making sure others can see theirs too.
This is the final installment in CSG’s Women’s History Month Trailblazers series. Read the full collection at chainstoreguide.com/offthechain/category/trailblazers.
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