Annie Kane is the managing editor of Momentum's mortgages titles: The Adviser and Mortgage Business.
As well as writing about the Australian broking industry, the mortgage market, financial regulation, fintechs and the wider lending landscape – Annie is also the host of the Elite Broker and In Focus podcasts and The Adviser Live webcasts.
Shelley Sullivan is the former Founder & CEO of beauty powerhouse MCoBeauty. She is a visionary brand leader and industry disruptor, has become a soughtafter voice for her invaluable insights and is widely recognised as one of Australia’s top female entrepreneurs. After reshaping the global beauty landscape by making luxury-for-less beauty accessible to all with ANZ’s best-selling beauty brand MCoBeauty, she will now leverage her impressive business expertise and skillset on international ventures.
In February 2025, Sullivan announced her departure as CEO of her beauty brand, MCoBeauty,
selling her remaining stake to DBG Health. At the time of the acquisition, MCoBeauty was valued
at over $1 billion. This transaction marks on of the most valuable merger and acquisition ever led
by a female business owner in the Australian market.
Following the DBG announcement, Sullivan was signed by the world’s leading entertainment and
sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
Before venturing into beauty, Sullivan ran a successful model agency for nearly a decade. She then
founded her first makeup brand, ModelCo, in 2002, introducing groundbreaking products such as
the first heated lash curler and, later, the world’s first airbrush self-tan.
In 2020, Sullivan launched her second brand, MCoBeauty, with a commitment to luxe-for-less
beauty and a bold goal of cracking the masstige cosmetics market. Starting with just six products,
MCoBeauty has become a household name, known for Sullivan’s ability to tap into trends and
forge innovative partnerships. Over the years, she has initiated highly successful collaborations
with celebrities and creatives like Hailey Bieber, Celeste Barber, Elle Macpherson, Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley, and Karl Lagerfeld.
In 2018, ModelCo partnered with Karl Lagerfeld to launch the KARL LAGERFELD + MODELCO
limited edition colour cosmetics collection. Sullivan’s signature viral marketing tactics included
painting Paris “ModelCo pink” for the launch, with a street activation featuring an army of Karl’s
Beauty Butlers taking over iconic locations, including the Eiffel Tower, The Tuileries Garden, and
Place Vendome.
Proudly female-founded, under Sullivan’s leadership, MCoBeauty has experienced remarkable
growth, rapidly expanding across top retail channels in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, where it was recently recognised as a top beauty launch in Target US. MCoBeauty is now
the number one selling cosmetics brand in Australia and New Zealand, with a billion-dollar
valuation. The brand has successfully captured market share from global beauty giants such as
L’Oréal, Maybelline, Rimmel, CoverGirl, and Revlon. Widely regarded as a true category disruptor,
Sullivan and MCoBeauty have received numerous business accolades over the past two decades.
Most recently, Sullivan was honoured with the retail category win at the Australian Financial
Review Women in Leadership Awards in 2024.
Sullivan is celebrated as a visionary leader in business. As Fashion Editor of the Australian
Financial Review, Lauren Sams states, “Shelley is a force, she sees opportunities and seizes them,
and clearly works to build teams around her to bring her vast vision to life, she is an impressive
business leader.” , AGL Chairman Patricia McKenzie also credited Sullivan on her success: “Look
at what she’s done,” she said. “She’s taken it [MCoBeauty] from nothing to a billion-dollar
turnover. And, she seems to have done it in a way which has been quite inclusive in her business.”
Fuelled by an incredibly strong work ethic that sees her in both the boardroom and the
warehouse, Sullivan has an intuitive knack for what her customer wants. Sullivan states that her
drive and tenacity has often come from being underestimated. “When I started MCoBeauty, the
market was dominated by the big global beauty icons Revlon, Maybelline and Rimmel,” she recalls.
“We had just 6 MCoBeauty SKUs on the shelves and I told someone in the industry that my goal
was to break into the global masstige beauty space. They told me it was not possible. This set the
challenge in my mind — and I just went for it. There really is nothing like being told you can’t do
something to give you drive, and for that I’m grateful.” – Shelley Sullivan.
