Executive Bios

Date Joined Mary Kay:
March 6, 2000

Julia A. Simon serves as Mary Kay’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary overseeing the company’s Legal, Risk Management, Governance, Compliance, Public Affairs, Corporate Communications, Sustainability, and Corporate Social Responsibility functions. She also serves as both the Senior Privacy Officer and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the company. Her teams protect and advance the company’s reputation and operations in over thirty-five markets around the globe.

Julia has more than 30 years of legal experience starting her career in private law practice at McGlinchey, Stafford & Lang in New Orleans, and then at Locke Purnell Rain Harrell in Dallas. She was elected as a shareholder at Locke Liddell and Sapp. She joined the Mary Kay legal department in 2000 and has served in many positions during her 22-year tenure. 

Julia was instrumental in creating the company’s Global Data Privacy Compliance Program and has led numerous litigation and business strategies that positively impacted the company and the direct selling industry, and she has proudly served as a mentor, formally and informally, through Mary Kay’s mentorship programs and other professional organizations. 

Julia was appointed as the company’s first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer in 2020. In this role, she collaborates with cross-functional teams around the globe to build upon the solid foundation of diversity and inclusion that was laid by the company’s founder, Mary Kay Ash. Under Julia’s leadership, the company launched its first global sustainability initiative, including the first comprehensive sustainability report. A champion of women’s empowerment and equality, she is proud to champion the company’s efforts to find innovative ways to encourage and support women entrepreneurs. She is especially proud to have been a part of the creation of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator, a multi-partnership initiative launched by Mary Kay Inc. with five United Nations agencies to promote entrepreneurship for women.

Julia earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and a law degree from The University of Texas School of Law. 

In 2022, Julia received the 20th annual Robert H. Dedman Award for Ethics & Law by the Texas General Counsel Forum and was recognized as one of the Top 500 Business Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth by D CEO magazine. In 2021, she was spotlighted by Business Insider as one of the most influential Black businesswomen in the United States. Julia was listed as one of the most powerful executives in corporate America by Black Enterprise in 2017 and 2019. In 2015, Julia was honored by D CEO Magazine and the Association of Corporate Counsel as the Best Deputy General Counsel. In 2010, the Dallas Business Journal named her a top Minority Business Leader. Julia received the Texas General Counsel Forum Diversity Award in 2009 and was listed as a Rising Star in Texas Monthly’s Texas Super Lawyers Rising Star edition for 2004, 2005, and 2007. She was also featured as one of Texas’s top in-house lawyers by Texas Lawyer in 2005. 

FAVORITE MARY KAY QUOTE:

“Listening may be the most undervalued communication skill.”