Chairman of the Board & Co-founder (retired) Matrix Essentials, Inc. – Palm Beach, Florida
Sydell Miller began her career as a salon owner with her husband, Arnold. Together, they saw a need for a manufacturer that would offer salons a full spectrum of innovative, high-quality hair products – shampoos, conditioners, hair color and perms – and in 1980 they founded Matrix Essentials which has grown to be the largest manufacturer of hair care products in the professional salon industry. Mrs. Miller’s vision of offering women complete beauty services led their salon to be among the first to offer hair services, facials, and nail services in addition to a clothing boutique. In keeping with the Millers’ commitment to “total beauty”, they added skin care, cosmetics, body care and sun care products to the company’s popular hair care lines. As the creator of the “day spa” concept, Mrs. Miller has spearheaded the movement among salons to offer a total one-stop beauty experience known as “Total Image Consulting”. Following her husband’s death in 1992, Mrs. Miller continued to build the business, doubling sales in two years and exceeding the $300 million sales mark. In 1994, in order to facilitate product development and global expansion, Mrs. Miller sold Matrix Essentials to the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company where she remained active as Chairman of the Board of Matrix until her retirement. Today, more than 7 million use a Matrix product each week. Mrs. Miller has been profiled in Entrepreneur magazine, has been named one of the “Top 50 Women Business Owners in America”, and has been inducted into the National Cosmetology Hall of Fame. Sydell Miller serves on many corporate boards and development committees, and she has been instrumental in organizing the salon industry’s anti-drug program, S.T.A.N.D. (Salons Tell America No to Drugs). Mrs. Miller is a generous supporter of medical research and children’s charities and is a renowned benefactor of the arts.
