Lezlee Westine—former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, director of the Office of Public Liaison at the White House, and one of the Washingtonian’s Most Influential People—encouraged Thomas Myers to throw his hat in the ring to take her position as president and CEO of the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) when she announced her retirement in 2023.

Myers has worked with the leading national trade association for the cosmetics and personal care products industry for the past 15 years, getting his start as associate general council and general council before taking the reins of CEO in 2024.

“As General Council, I certainly had my fingers in everyone’s business at some point by the nature of the work,” Myers told Happi at the PCPC’s 2025 Science Symposium & Expo, which was held at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City, VA, on Oct. 28 and 29. “As CEO, I not only get to work with some great people, but I get to direct the strategies and give direction to the people. They’re looking to me to give some leadership, as far as direction, on where we need to be as an association to serve our members.”

A Robust Team

Indeed, Myers’ proudest accomplishment with the council is using his connections to bring in new blood that he said aligns with his vision for the industry. During his first year as CEO in the last year, PCPC appointed Tesia Williams as executive vice president, public affairs and communications. With a quarter-century of experience protecting and elevating brands, building coalitions and responding to crises, the former global media relations for Johnson & Johnson oversaw brand refresh initiatives at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the US Army Corps of Engineers. She also led communications efforts on the federal response to the Covid pandemic, product safety, workforce diversity and inclusion challenges, and critical supply shortages.

Most recently, the council vetted hundreds of applications in its appointment of Dr. Jaap Venema as chief scientist and executive vice president, science, effective Nov. 3. Dr. Venema will helm PCPC’s largest department, which places immense emphasis on product safety, Myers said.

Dr. Venema recently served in a similar capacity as chief science officer at the US Pharmacopeia, where he led scientific strategy and quality standards development for medicines, biologics, dietary supplements, food ingredients and health care practices. The holder of a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Leiden, Netherlands has a long career rooted in a commitment to translating complex science into meaningful public health outcomes. At PCPC, his first order of business is learning the systems and processes before advocacy with the country, the FDA and international bodies based on “sound science,” Myers said.

“I think he’s going to be thrown into the fire pretty quickly, but that’s OK,” said Myers. “I think he’s up for the challenge.”

Implementing MoCRA and More in the New Year

Speaking of challenges, full implementation of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA) is the PCPC’s biggest goal heading into the new year. MoCRA is the most significant expansion of the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate cosmetics since the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed in 1938.

When Myers took over as CEO in January 2024, he said PCPC was making progress on the issue, waiting on a number of rule makings to emerge to implement the law. However, rule makings on issues from fragrance allergens to good manufacturing practices were stalled during election season when MoCRA was not yet a priority for the Trump Administration.

“Understandably, they didn’t just want to necessarily put out ruling-making that was done by a prior administration, they wanted to take time to look at those to understand them before they move forward,” said Myers. “They’re taking a very deliberate approach. But that remains one of our priorities is to try to get MoCRA fully implemented in 2026.”

In particular, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) rule-making. Per the World Health Organization, GMP is the aspect of quality assurance that ensures that medicinal products are consistently produced and controlled to the quality standards appropriate to their intended use and as required by the product specification. GMP defines quality measures for both production and quality control and defines general measures to ensure that processes necessary for production and testing are clearly defined, validated, reviewed, and documented, and that the personnel, premises and materials are suitable for the production of pharmaceuticals and biologicals including vaccines. GMP also has legal components, covering responsibilities for distribution, contract manufacturing and testing, and responses to product defects and complaints. Specific GMP requirements relevant to classes of products such as sterile pharmaceuticals or biological medicinal products are provided in a series of annexes to the general GMP requirements.

“One of the things MoCRA did, it had preemption in the law for a number of different areas, but one area they did not had to do with ingredients,” said Myers. “States continue to put out laws that are reporting requirements or restrictions or even bans on ingredients that we use in cosmetics. And they often do this without science to back up their rationale or the reason for their bans or their restrictions. That’s been a real challenge.”

One example is Washington’s ban of lead in cosmetic products.

“That’s not an ingredient, it’s an impurity, and so it might be present in vanishingly small levels,” said Myers. “It’s very hard while we’re working with the states and trying to get them to understand that there’s no risk—it’s not a safety issue, this is just something they want, that’s been a challenge.”

Myers added PCPC would like to see impurities controlled by GMPs to deter the passing of redundant laws to ban impurities in ingredients.

“We’ll still be working with states to understand the science and make sure they’re doing the right thing with regard to the rationale or the basis of their bans or restrictions,” said Myers. “The reason the industry was fully in support of MoCRA at the time is because it gives comfort to the consumers, the states and the regulators that our products are safe.”

Leveraging AI

MoCRA implementation aside, AI will continue to take shape as a major industry trend in the new year. Myers surmises job eliminations akin to the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of the Information Age, with adapting to AI a large focus.

“There may be some jobs that are made obsolete through AI, which will be able to compile things and do things faster, develop reports … but I think there will be more opportunity for [employees] to be creative, to be able to pivot is going to be important,” said Myers. “I suspect there will be some job losses. I’m not speaking for cosmetics, but for the industry broadly. I think what our companies have been doing, as a trade association, is looking at how we can leverage AI in our platforms and in our work to make us more efficient and to deliver a better product. For us, to our members and for our members to the consumer.”

The personal care market was $598.59 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $1.15 trillion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 6.76% from 2025 to 2033.

In terms of delivering a better product and getting it to market faster, Dr. Samiul Amin, University of Miami, introduced FastFormulator during the symposium. The software platform turns lab data into AI that predicts which formulations will hit target specs before a batch is mixed. The software purports to take months of trial-and-error to ranked formulations in a matter of days. It’s built for R&D teams who need results quickly and business leaders who need confidence in the plan.

Other focuses in the new year will be on digital sequencing and getting the FDA to adopt the regulatory uptake of non-animal testing methods.

Product Essentiality and Tackling Tariffs

“The general message that we will be focusing on in 2026 is the essentiality of our products,” said Myers. “This at a time when people are facing a lot of insecurities and concerns with high tariffs and other things that are happening.”

In 2025, tariffs caught the industry off guard, Myers said, upsetting supply chain concerns with high tariffs from other countries, especially those that were globally outsourced or importing ingredients from countries that have high tariffs.

“[Companies] have been trying not to pass on those costs to consumers, but I think as long as these tariffs stay in place, I think that’s going to change,” said Myers. “I think they’re going to have to consider how they address that.”

He added PCPC is working “hand in glove” with the administration in working to get them to address tariff concerns. Myers said the council’s successful work to get the US Mexico-Canada Agreement in place was a feather in the cap, and that the council is in the process of it being reviewed for renewal. The agreement creates more balanced, reciprocal trade supporting high-paying jobs for Americans and grows the North American economy. Achieving so, he said, will be another significant step forward.

Given the growing overlap between beauty and wellness, Myers pointed to the essentiality of cosmetics products and their need for prioritization with regard to longevity, an ongoing trend that champions graceful aging as consumers desire to live longer, healthier lives.

“Beauty and wellness go hand-in-hand,” he said. “One of the messages that we’re trying to push out in the future is how essential our products are and how essential our industry is.”