"I started my career in advertising in Chicago in 1989, but those fabric cubicles quickly sucked the soul out of me. My dad had worked in corporate but dreamed of entrepreneurship. He never took the leap. He had a family to support. A part of me wanted to take the risks he didn't. In 1994, I moved to California in search of something creative and met Sandy Lerner, the cofounder of Cisco Systems. She was launching a beauty brand and saw potential in me."
"Urban Decay filled a gap in the industry: back then, it was mostly neutral department-store makeup or low-quality drugstore options. We created high-quality products in bold colors. When we sold to L'Oréal in 2012 for over $300 million, my sons were in middle school - an age when they needed me more than ever. I stayed on as Chief Creative Officer, which kept me busy, but it also gave them a front-row seat to what hard work and creativity looked like."
"Most days, my boys came to the Urban Decay office after school. It was a place full of strong, creative women running the show. That became their model. To this day, I'm proud that they genuinely respect women because they grew up seeing talented female leaders build a brand. They didn't just hear about women being powerful - they saw it firsthand every day."
Wende Zomnir left advertising in Chicago and moved to California in 1994 to pursue creative work and cofound a beauty brand with Sandy Lerner. She helped build Urban Decay by creating high-quality, bold-color products that filled a market gap between neutral department-store makeup and low-quality drugstore options. The company sold to L'Oréal in 2012 for over $300 million, and she remained as Chief Creative Officer. She raised her sons while running the business, exposing them to female leadership and entrepreneurship. She later founded Caliray when her sons went to college, and they developed an interest in entrepreneurship.
Read at Business Insider
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