Private company

Aveda

Aveda Corporation ( ə-VAY-də) is an American cosmetics company founded by Horst Rechelbacher, now owned by Estée Lauder Companies, and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1978Founded1

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Aveda Corporation ( ə-VAY-də) is an American cosmetics company founded by Horst Rechelbacher, now owned by Estée Lauder Companies, and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Aveda manufactures skin and body care, cosmetics, perfume (internally called "pure-fume"), hair color, and hair care products, and trains students in cosmetology, massage, and esthiology at the Aveda Institutes in Minneapolis, New York City, Des Moines, Tampa Bay, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Orlando, Denver, Winnipeg, and many other cities.2

How it started

History

Aveda was founded by Horst Rechelbacher in 1978.

In 1970, Horst, on a trip to India, was introduced to the science of Ayurveda (the Hindu traditional holistic system of medicine and surgery from India), and formulated the first product, a clove shampoo, with help from Ayurvedic doctors - Vinod and Kusum Upadhyay. Today, Aveda is part of Estée Lauder Companies Inc., based in New York. Rechelbacher sold Aveda to Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., in 1997 for $300 million, although Aveda continues to be run as a semi-autonomous entity. Upon selling the product to Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Horst also sold off the chain of salons to his successor, David Wagner. The salons, formerly known as Horst and Friends, were renamed Juut Salonspa.

In 2004, Aveda was awarded the prestigious Corporate Achievement Award at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Aveda was one of the first beauty companies to endorse a set of principles designed to encourage greater environmental responsibility in business, known as The Ceres Principles (originally named The Valdez Principles).

From Wikipedia’s article on Aveda, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Leadership

Who has led Aveda, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Timeline

  1. 1978Founded Founded1

Sources

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