The Estée Lauder Cos. has hired Dave Smith, an experienced M&A professional, as senior vice president of new business development.

Shana Randhava Courtesy of the Estée Lauder Cos.

Smith reports to Andrew Ross, executive vice president of strategy, new business development and integration. Shana Randhava, who was in the new business development role before Smith, has taken on a larger role leading Lauder’s New Incubation Ventures. She continues to report to Ross.

In a statement, Lauder lauded Smith as an experienced M&A professional with understanding across the spectrum of deal processes, including finding and evaluating targets, relationship building, strategic business case management, creative deal structuring, due diligence, negotiations and portfolio management for minority investments.

“Dave’s deep experience, global perspective and creative vision for New Business Development make him the ideal leader to help us further develop our progressive end-to-end M&A strategy,” Ross said in a statement. “He brings to ELC a blend of analytics and creativity, as well as an outstanding skillset in building and managing complex relationships with key stakeholders throughout the M&A ecosystem.”

Previously, Smith was at Corning Inc., an applied science business, where he was head of corporate venture capital and director of M&A. There, he led the company’s M&A strategy.

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Before Corning, Smith was senior director of M&A at eBay Inc., where he focused on M&A in user experience, machine learning and logistics. He also has investment banking, investment management and corporate strategy experience, and worked at BNY Mellon as a managing director. He is on the board of trustees at Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university.

Lauder has a long history of M&A, and has built up the company through buying core brands like MAC and La Mer, and making minority investments in other businesses, like Dr. Jart, which is recently bought outright, and Deciem.

For more from WWD.com, see:

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