Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman went from earning $8 an hour to running the U.S.’s largest beauty retailer

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the rise of Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman.
The big story: The Mamdani era begins in NYC.
The markets: Down, with big drops in Asia.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. There was an unusual line at the grocery store across from our Manhattan office yesterday, in part because the self-service checkout was not accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer or EBT payments. Customers were confused over SNAP benefits that remain in limbo amid the government shutdown, the teller explained. People were going through the checkout and abandoning cartloads of food when payments didn’t go through, resulting in lost revenue for the store and lost productivity as workers had to put everything back, not to mention the sad fact that some SNAP recipients did not have alternate ways to purchase those items.

Consumer spending plays an outsized role in the U.S. economy, accounting for roughly 70% of GDP versus less than 50% in countries like China, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. And transfer payments to consumers often translate to revenue for U.S. business, whether that’s the 250,000 stores that accept SNAP payments or the hospital systems that rely on revenue from Medicaid and Medicare. That doesn’t impact the debate about reforming such programs, but it’s a reminder that the vaunted resilience of the U.S. consumer and wealth effect from stocks is limited to relatively few.

The top 10% of U.S. earners now drive half of all consumer spending. Meanwhile, the bottom tier of earners are carrying credit card debt at a record high of $1.33 trillion. 56% of households earning less than $50,000 carry a balance from month to month. A prolonged shutdown—already the longest ever—will widen that divide.

This week’s conversation with Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman on Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast is a reminder that America’s strength comes from enabling those who face great hardship to achieve great heights. Steelman says she grew up “poor, hungry and determined” in Mediapolis, Iowa, getting pregnant as a teenager and working her way up from being a floor associate making $8 an hour at Target to running the country’s largest beauty retailer with some 1,500 stores. “Being really grounded and humble with my beginnings, I wouldn’t change that,” she told us during a conversation taped at the recent Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh. And she’s thankful that she spent the first 12 years of her career at Target: “They really invested in you as an individual and it’s where I honed my leadership skills.”

You can check out our conversation on Apple or Spotify.

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Democratic sweep

Democrats swept three major U.S. elections on Tuesday night. Zohran Mamdani won the race for New York City mayor, House Representative Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, while Abigail Spanberger will become Virginia’s first-ever female governor. Mamdani’s win represents a loss for Wall Street, whose titans tried to fund his defeat and must now work with the mayor-elect. Bill Ackman, who spent $2 million against Mamdani, struck a conciliatory note Tuesday night: “If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do.”

AI bubble fears

Global equities are poised for another day mostly in the red amid investor concerns that the value of AI stocks are inflated. The CEOs of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley stoked those fears on Tuesday, warning that investors should brace for a market downturn in coming years.

U.S. government shutdown sets record

Wednesday marks day 36 of the U.S. government shutdown, topping the 35-day funding pause during President Donald Trump’s first term as the longest ever. Speaking Tuesday, Trump showed little interest in negotiating with Democrats, instead signaling that he planned to continue withholding government spending. He said that SNAP food aid, which helps 42 million Americans, will be given "only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government.”

IBM job cuts

IBM is the latest Fortune 500 company to announce job cuts as it repositions itself for the AI era. Big Blue will slash thousands of jobs this quarter, though it says the reductions will affect a small fraction of the 270,000 workers it had globally at the end of last year.

Meet OpenAI’s Greg Brockman

While Sam Altman is OpenAI’s flashy, globetrotting CEO, president Greg Brockman has emerged as its savvy operator. “He is the executive leading OpenAI’s aggressive infrastructure buildout, a project to which it has already committed roughly $1.4 trillion to deploying the equivalent of 30 gigawatts of compute capacity,” writes Fortune’s Sharon Goldman in a new profile.

Nvidia widens India footprint

U.S. chipmaker Nvidia will join a $2 billion India Deep Tech Alliance to mentor and train the country’s emerging startups, expanding the company’s footprint in one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets. India is nurturing its AI ambitions with nationwide funding programs and plans to host the AI Impact Summit in 2026.