AdFest 2025 Welcomes Kelly Mahoney as Speaker

Kelly Mahoney, Chief Marketing Officer at Ulta Beauty, will bring more than 20 years of experience in data-led marketing and customer engagement to the AdFest 2025 Fireside Chat Brand Marketing and AI: Representing Your Brand’s Purpose and Values in Changing Times. Over nearly a decade at Ulta Beauty, Kelly has helped transform the guest experience through brand marketing, the Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty program, and UB Media, the company’s retail media network. At AdFest, she’ll share her perspective on how to preserve authenticity and brand purpose while embracing AI—exploring the balance between personalization and responsible storytelling, the risks of misrepresentation, and the importance of aligning teams around brand ethics.

---

A proven leader, Kelly Mahoney brings more than 20 years of experience driving revenue growth through data-led marketing solutions. As CMO at Ulta Beauty, she is responsible for shaping the voice and vision of the guest experience and ensuring brand excellence, while spearheading marketing strategies to foster sustainable growth for the enterprise. In her role, Kelly oversees the company’s brand marketing, its best-in-class Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty program, media planning—including its retail media network, UB Media—along with public relations, consumer insights, and social media and influencer strategy.

Over her nearly 10-year tenure at Ulta Beauty, Kelly has been a driving force behind innovation, holding key leadership roles across marketing and strategy. Prior to becoming CMO, she served as Senior Vice President of Customer and Growth Marketing, where she played a pivotal role in delivering value-added programs that enhance member engagement, empower associates to provide exceptional service, and drive top-line growth. Most notably, she led the rebrand of Ulta Beauty Rewards and was instrumental in growing the program to over 44 million members, who drive approximately 95% of the company’s sales—an achievement unparalleled in retail. Before transitioning to customer and growth marketing, she served as Director of Strategy at Ulta Beauty, where she optimized retail processes and orchestrated the development and execution of omnichannel solutions, mobile payment, associate training, and communications.

Prior to Ulta Beauty, Kelly built a strong foundation in strategy, marketing, and customer engagement across diverse industries. She held leadership roles at BP, leading loyalty and digital engagement initiatives, and at Eire Direct Marketing, where she specialized in loyalty programs for major retailers. As a Strategic Advisory Board Member at Hatch Loyalty, she contributed to communications strategies and business growth. Her early career at Accenture focused on financial and process analytics, laying the groundwork for her success in consumer-centric innovation.

Kelly holds an MBA in Management from DePaul University’s Driehaus College of Business and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Loyola University Chicago.