Karen Ballou Bio

Karen Ballou is co-founder and partner at LB Equity, a private equity fund focused on emerging brands in skincare, haircare and cosmetics. She leads the firm’s efforts in product development, formulation and the sourcing of cannabis related brand opportunities. Karen is also chief executive and founder of LB Equity portfolio company, Immunocologie, a natural, luxury skincare brand, which utilizes a proprietary technology promoting skin health and appearance. In that role, she also has appeared on QVC and other related venues explaining the brand’s unique benefits. Karen started her career in skincare and cosmetics at Elizabeth Arden where she served in a variety of marketing and sales roles. Later at Redken, Karen was recruited to grow a small start-up company providing beauty tools and instruments for use by spas as well as for consumers to use at home, and then growing the company several-fold over a three-year period. As an independent marketing and branding consultant, Karen has successfully developed and helped bring to market more than 65+ brands in the beauty industry, with an emphasis on natural ingredients that are not only good for skin health, but are highly effective delivering proven results. Today, Karen is largely focused on new product ideation with biotech companies and naturally sourced ingredients from regions around the world sourced using fair trade and sustainable practices. Merging her business background with her industry knowledge, Karen is sought after as an industry leader bringing integrity to her formulations and the know how to be successful and shape brands for success.