Career Biography

Maria J. Ayerbe is a senior executive responsible for shaping and leading commercial legal strategy across the Americas for The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. She serves as a strategic business partner to executive leadership, advising on regional commercial strategy, global corporate and retail real estate matters, and complex cross-border business initiatives.

Maria has played a key leadership role in supporting business transformation across evolving distribution models, omnichannel acceleration, and retail footprint optimization. She partners closely with senior leadership to align legal strategy with growth enablement, risk-balanced decision-making, and long-term enterprise value creation.

She brings a multilingual, cross-cultural leadership perspective to global operations and a deep understanding of the prestige beauty industry, including its nuanced distribution channels and rapidly evolving global marketplace. Maria leads and develops high-performing legal teams across multiple subregions, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, drive, and strong commercial acumen.

Since joining ELC in 2014, Maria has progressed through increasingly senior leadership roles. She began with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, general liability litigation, and talent contracts, and expanded her scope to lead legal strategy for broader commercial-facing business units and enterprise priorities. Most recently, she served as Head of Legal for the Travel Retail Worldwide business unit, guiding the organization through significant global complexity, regulatory challenges, and strategic transformation initiatives across highly dynamic international markets, with particular focus on China and the broader APAC region.

Prior to joining ELC, Maria was an Associate at Fox Horan & Camerini LLP and Davis & Gilbert LLP in New York, as well as at leading law firms in Colombia, where she began her legal career. She is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and Universidad de Los Andes.

Maria lives in New York with her family and remains deeply connected to her Colombian roots. She is committed to mentoring, strengthening succession pipelines, and advancing sponsorship initiatives that support the next generation of leaders.