About Us    My NAWBO-LA    Membership    Partners    Events    Advocacy    Press Room    Legacy    Resources    

Woman Business Owner of the Year Award
The Woman Business Owner of the Year Award recognizes an exemplary woman entrepreneur who demonstrates her leadership skills by example, is committed to entrepreneurial excellence and has made a significant impact in the business community

Jane Wurwand
Founder
Dermalogica, Inc.

By creating products that have redefined skin health, 2009 NAWBO-LA Woman Business Owner of the Year, Jane Wurwand, has redefined an industry.

Owner of the Dermalogica skin product line, Dermalogica Skin Treatment Centers worldwide and The International Dermal Institute post-graduate training centers, Wurwand – today one of the world’s most recognized and respected authorities in professional skin therapy – has refocused the view of skin care as a health issue vs. as a cosmetic concern.

Over two-plus decades, Dermalogica has become the most prescribed skin care product across the globe. In the process, the company also has helped tens of thousands of women entrepreneurs achieve success as professional skin therapists.

“I came into the professional skin therapy business and it was entirely centered on beauty and pampering,” Wurwand said. “Through our educational programs and schools and the fact that Dermalogica is used in 50 countries, we have turned that image toward health, wellness and taking care of the skin as a necessity, not a luxury.

“In that journey over the past 25 years, I am proud to have been a part of building the businesses of over 90,000 professional skin therapists around the world who count on Dermalogica as their revenue stream. Ninety-eight percent of all skin therapists are women and we put more women into business than any other profession. Pretty cool!”

Seizing the Opportunity

Wurwand launched her impressive career by recognizing a need and staying focused on the task at hand. After emigrating in 1983, the United Kingdom native saw a huge gap in U.S. skin and body therapy education. So she opened a small classroom in Marina del Rey, Calif., under the name The International Dermal Institute (IDI), to provide skin care therapists with post-graduate training.

“By identifying the greatest pain in my industry [lack of training], I also identified the greatest opportunity and seized it,” Wurwand said. “Opening the IDI, our first post-graduate training center, in Los Angles in late 1983 sealed the direction of my career and laid the foundation for the launch of Dermalogica in 1986.”

She added, “I had no idea that over 92% of small businesses fail in their first year – no one told me that. Because failure didn’t enter into my head, I just went for it and built the business with my partner [now my husband], with us keeping each other focused with self-repeated enthusiasm!”

That can-do approach clearly paid off. Today Dermalogica generates in excess of $200 million annually and employs about 1,200. Meanwhile, the IDI – considered the international gold standard for post-graduate skin and body therapy – operates 40 locations worldwide.

Wurwand, who serves as a regular columnist for industry magazines on three continents and as a sought-after keynote speaker and guest lecturer, has been voted “The Most Influential Industry Leader” by the readers of American Spa Magazine for numerous years. She was one of the only women appointed to the Board of Directors of the Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and gave the keynote address at its annual Entrepreneurs Conference.

In addition, she currently sits on the Board of Directors of S.K.I.N. (Skin Care for Kids in Need) and works closely with the organization to provide products and education to improve skin health and create career opportunities for teens in foster care. Her Dermalogica Foundation also provides financial and volunteer support to grassroots organizations that benefit women and children in need.

Setting the Example

It’s all part of Wurwand’s belief that women business owners and leaders must stand together to support others.

“I think we have a responsibility to the next generation of women who will stand on our shoulders, and a debt to pay to the women who came before us who ensured that no opportunity would be denied to us,” Wurwand said. “We not only have a responsibility to women in our own country, but also to the women in so many other countries who do not even have basic rights. We must set the example and provide the leadership and voice to create change in our global marketplace.”

Wurwand believes that NAWBO-LA fills a pivotal role in this effort by providing a forum for sharing and discussing ideas and issues, and by offering other women access to role models who have the resilience to succeed in their own way – just as her own mother did when she was widowed before 40 with four young children, and worked as a nurse while raising them singlehandedly.

“Men are terrific and have their own strengths as do we all, but a woman’s style in running a business, managing people, solving problems and creatively developing ideas is unique and must be explored and expanded and celebrated,” Wurwand said, concluding, “Life is all about resilience – the strength both emotionally and physically to have a steely resolve to face down whatever challenges us and emerge the other side empowered.”

>> BACK