Desiree Rogers, Cheryl Mayberry McKissack on building a beauty empire: ‘A lot of people are rooting for us’

Their makeup is picture perfect. And they’re both wearing Black Opal. Of course.

Desiree Rogers and Cheryl Mayberry McKissack are the new proud owners of two cosmetics companies — the global Black Opal line purchased in June, and Johnson Publishing Co.’s iconic Fashion Fair Cosmetics line, a surprise purchase at its bankruptcy sale Nov. 7.

“We just could not let this incredible iconic brand get away from us, so we went in there, and we were so lucky, blessed, to be the winners,” said Rogers, 60, as the two sat down with the Chicago Sun-Times for an exclusive interview on their journey to a budding beauty empire.

It all started with Rogers, who, as CEO of Johnson Publishing Co. from 2010 to 2017, led JPC’s struggle to maintain publication of the legendary Ebony and Jet magazines and reignite its one-time celebrated but dimming cosmetics line.

Ever since exiting her position as CEO of Fashion Fair in June 2017 — JPC’s struggle with its media operation had ended a year earlier with the sale of Ebony and Jet to black-owned equity firm Clear View Group — Rogers had sought a return to the beauty industry.

Negotiations with the 25-year-old Black Opal firm, in fact, began soon after Rogers left JPC.

“I came out, and spent two years really thinking for the first time about what do I want to do, and I definitely wanted to stay in the field, just because of the impact that I saw it have on women,” she said.

“It seems like nothing. But I honestly believe that women that feel they look good — even if it’s just the lip gloss, or maybe an eye shadow, or foundation, whatever it is — we just do better. When we feel we look good, we’re like, ‘Yay! Let’s get it done! I’m ready,’” Rogers said.

“So I saw that, and I said, if I can get back to that in some way, where I can really think about beauty in my own way, and how I think it should be done, that would be a wonderful place for me to cap off my career. So I began looking for a great cosmetics brand,” she said.

Rogers looked at 30 different brands before settling on Black Opal, a cosmetics and skin care line for women of color founded by Greek businessman Nikos Mouyiaris and his Jamaican wife, Carol Jackson-Mouyiaris, in 1994.

That’s when she brought the idea to McKissack, who had worked alongside Rogers and JPC heir Linda Johnson Rice in the struggle to save the empire that publishing pioneer John H. Johnson built from a $500 loan from his mother in 1942.

Under Rogers, JPC began the scissoring off of assets in 2010, with sale of its historic, 11-story headquarters at 820 S. Michigan Ave., the first and only downtown Chicago high-rise designed by a black architect — John Warren Moutoussamy — to Columbia College.

McKissack came on board as JPC’s chief operating officer and president of digital in 2013, and after the sale of Ebony and Jet, went to work for Clear View Group as CEO of its Ebony Media Operations, until 2017.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times

“It really didn’t take much convincing when she told me we might have this opportunity with Black Opal. For me, yes, it was about beauty and cosmetics and skin care, and it was also for my community and women of color. And I loved all that,” said McKissack, 64.

“But I also love business opportunities,” said the business growth development expert who has run her own consulting firm, Nia Enterprises, LLC, for 19 years.

“I felt there were so many opportunities here, both in the industry, and even with this brand. People buy differently now. Women buy differently. So the opportunity to be able to service them online, or in a better way at large retail locations, to be able to handle their needs globally — that was the challenge and business opportunity I felt we could meet,” she said.

The two got investor Alec Litowitz, CEO of Evanston-based Magnetar Capital — among the nation’s largest hedge funds — to back them in buying Black Opal for an undisclosed price; and he again backed them in their purchase of Fashion Fair for $1.85 million at auction.

“He believed in our vision and what we are trying to do, and he wanted to be a minority investor in Fashion Fair as well, so you know, it just all came together,” said Rogers.

Rogers brings a storied background to this foray into the $532 billion, white-male-dominated beauty industry. She was the first female African American president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, the White House Social Secretary under President Barack Obama — a stint not without controversy — and most recently, board chair of the city’s tourism agency under Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Prior to its sale, Black Opal, available mainly at drug and grocery stores like CVS and Walmart, reportedly raked in more than $10 million in retail sales a year. While its distribution center remains on the East Coast, its headquarters is now in Chicago.

In its heyday, Fashion Fair Cosmetics — the 46-year-old brand created by Johnson’s wife, Eunice, in 1973, quickly filling a niche for African American women not being served by mainstream companies — reportedly generated more than $56 million in annual wholesale sales.

“We’ve received so many unbelievable emails since the announcements. People are just happy that we’ve been able to bring back this iconic brand, and they want us to win. They want us to be successful. There are a lot of people that are rooting for us,” said McKissack.

Johnson Rice had filed for bankruptcy protection in April for what was left of her firm.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Its renowned archive of more than 4 million prints and negatives chronicling 70 years of black history was auctioned off in July, bought for $30 million by a consortium of philanthropic groups pledging to donate them to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and other cultural institutions.

Rogers and McKissack, who have hired many former employees of Fashion Fair, expressed regret over the demise of the publishing empire that had once bolstered the nation’s Civil Rights Movement. Ebony Media, which apparently bit off more than it could chew, in the spring ceased publication of the magazines.

“There’s certainly sadness about the transition of something that was so important and so meaningful to so many of us, certainly to people of color,” said McKissack, whose background includes a 23-year corporate career in technology, including 14 years with IBM Corp., and stints at 3Com — formerly U.S. Robotics — and Open Port Technologies, Inc.

“I had the opportunity to have met both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and I can remember Mr. Johnson telling stories about some of his experiences, and grown people like myself sitting there just in awe of someone who had done and experienced so much,” she said.

“But unfortunately, these things do happen. I think we’re trying to learn from them. I mean one of the things we know is that you’ve got to be capitalized if you’re going to run these businesses, and that’s one of the reasons why we made sure that was not going to be an issue for us,” McKissack added.

Rogers prefers not to dwell on the word “demise.” “I think it’s been an evolution,” she said.

“I think that there’s always, you know, a point in time where some things work, and then they don’t work anymore, and so we all have to evolve and do the very best we can, as this thing called life propels and pushes us on,” Rogers said.

“And so maybe there’s not a print edition of Ebony today, but we have this incredible archive everyone’s going to be able to see now, and I’m thrilled those four institutions came together to ensure that legacy will be preserved, and that on this side of the house, Cheryl and I were in the right place at the right time to be able to give this iconic brand future life,” she said.

And being in that right place at the right time meant winning the auction within budget.

“It wasn’t an emotional process for me at all, because I was convinced our number was the right number, and we would stay in until we got to that number,” said Rogers. “Would I have been depressed if we didn’t get it? Probably, but only because I see this enormous future in what we can do, and how we can inspire, that I’m not sure would happen with others.”

Rich Hein/Sun-Times