Bernd Beetz is chief executive for Coty Inc., the French-founded fragrance and cosmetics company based in New York City.

Beetz, who doubled Coty’s revenue in his first five years at the helm, is credited with the resurgence of celebrity fragrances. Previously, accepted practice was for Hollywood stars to lend their names to a fragrance in the twilight of their careers. Beetz turned that idea on its head with the highly successful 2002 launch of Glow by JLo from young actress Jennifer Lopez. Subsequent alliances with supermodel Kate Moss, singers Celine Dion and Gwen Stefani and the Beckhams proved this triumph was not a fluke. Beetz also upped the ante when he shortened the lifecycle of fragrance launches from the standard 12-18 months to just nine months.

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German-born Beetz graduated from the University of Mannheim in Germany. Before he took over as ceo at Coty, Beetz spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble and then led a turnaround at LVMH-owned Parfums Christian Dior France as president and ceo.

In 2001, Beetz was named ceo at Coty, when the company was highly dependent on the Davidoff brand. He led two key acquisitions: the 2005 buy of Unilever Cosmetics International with its marquee Calvin Klein fragrance, and in 2007, the purchase of DLI Holdings, known in the beauty industry as Del Laboratories (parent company of Sally Hansen).

Beetz, often lauded for his risk-taking nature, has pledged to turn Coty into a $5 billion empire by 2010.