Sonia Summers is a beauty maverick who has disrupted the antiquated beauty sales model, leveraging her unprecedented breadth of industry experience to transform beauty brands into market leaders. Following a successful career at Avon and Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Summers launched Beauty Strategy Group in 2008 to help incubate startup brands and help them gain distribution in prestige retail. She understood that gaining retail distribution is only half the battle, and the other more difficult task is achieving sell-through in store. She launched Beauty Barrage in 2015, an outsourced sales management agency complete with a highly successful and modern field team – helping to create signature experiences and a "human touch" at retail. Beauty Barrage provides training and education for retail associates, in-store events, pop-up shops, and sales support.
 
Ms. Summers also saw the value of incorporating technology and pioneered a proprietary web-based application that includes a real-time brand portal with monthly schedules, daily shift data, trends, and sales analytics in real time. The web app is equipped with a mobile application with geo-fencing technology and the ability to communicate directly with more than 300 field employees across the country. A few brands in Beauty Barrage’s portfolio include L’Oreal, LYS, Kerastase, Osea Malibu, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, and Skinceuticals.
 
Beauty Barrage is 100% woman-owned, 100% minority-owned, and certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council and National Minority Supplier Business Development Council. In 2023, the company was included in Inc. 5000 and was selected as #18 on Financial Times Fastest Growing Companies in the Americas 2020.
 
Ms. Summers is on the industry board of Independent Beauty Association (formerly ICMAD).