For anyone at The Estée Lauder Cos., the success story of communications expert and company veteran Catherine Bomboy Dougherty is hardly breaking news.
But if you ask the company’s senior vice president of global brand integrated communications, she’d say her trajectory has been “a study in storytelling,” and the path to her cross-portfolio role had more turns and redirections than one might think.
“It’s been anything but linear for me,” Dougherty, among the 2025 CEW Achiever Award honorees, said. “I’ve had the opportunity to grow across brands and regions and disciplines, and each chapter has brought new challenges and lots of creative reinvention.”
Dougherty attended Boston University, where she interned at a slew of PR agencies and a magazine in Philadelphia. After graduating, her first big break in beauty came when she joined Marina Maher Communications working on Cover Girl and Max Factor, which were then owned by Procter & Gamble.
In 2008, Dougherty joined the Estée Lauder Cos. where she has been ever since.
While the media landscape has shifted dramatically since the 2000s, Dougherty thinks communications has only become more important — both internally and externally.
“Comms very much has a seat at the table now. It used to be looked at as a support function, and we’re brought in much earlier. The heart of communications is relationships, and people value that so much more now,” she said.
That applies to Dougherty’s leadership style as well.
“I’ve had the privilege of learning from some of the most extraordinary leaders, not just at the Estée Lauder Cos. but out in the industry as well,” she said. “Leadership isn’t static, it’s a living, breathing practice, and I try to evolve it every day based on the people I’m working with and the projects I’m leading.”
To sum it up in two words, though, Dougherty said, “Heart and hustle. I believe in having a vision, having emotional intelligence and in velocity. All leaders need to instill in their teams a clear and compelling north star, and then empathy builds trust, and that’s how you unlock the best in people.”
Dougherty makes a priority of mentoring and elevating “women across all stages in their career,” she said, and tries to take a more democratic approach to her team. “It’s creating space for these bold ideas. It’s not just having a seat at the table — it’s making sure these voices are heard, and they have the opportunity to shape the conversation.”
As for where she thinks her field, and the industry overall, will go, she expects a continuation of existing themes, as well as a few curveballs. “It’s not just how a product looks or performs, it’s what a brand means and stands for,” she said. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention AI, and it’s changing a lot of how we create and connect. For comms, it’s helping us listen differently. We can understand sentiment and subtext in real time, and you pick up on emerging conversations. It’s a new layer of insight.”