udy Greenbaum’s office is in the heart of New York’s garment district. But fragrances, not apparel, are how she makes her fashion statement. As director of marketing for Liz Claiborne Cosmetics, it’s her job to develop new fragrances to be sold in department stores where Liz Claiborne cosmetics are distributed worldwide. It requires working with a team of professionals on everything from what the fragrance will actually smell like to the shape of the bottle and the advertising campaign. The entire process usually consumes a year to 18 months. 

“You have to have a finger on the cultural, political, and social pulse, and then make some informed judgments. You need to have mental agility, be able to move fast and do a million things at once,” says Greenbaum, B.A.’82, who graduated magna cum laude from Albany with a double major in English and political science. 

“I had a fabulous four years at Albany. They served as a springboard to what I’m doing today. My (undergraduate) experiences taught me how to think on my feet and gave me confidence and self-esteem,” says Greenbaum, now 38. She was also busy with extracurricular activities, including serving as secretary of her junior class, chairing Telethon committees four straight years, and co-chairing Parents Weekend in 1980. As graduation approached, she was thinking about law school when a recruiter told her about a possible summer job at Estee Lauder, Inc. 

“I had no résumé and no suit. I borrowed a suit and put together a portfolio of all the stuff I did while I was at Albany—the brochures I wrote for Parents Weekend, the things I did for Telethon, and so on. I took a bus to the Port Authority, changed my clothes in the ladies’ room of the Plaza Hotel, and then went to the interview. The rest is history,” recalled Greenbaum, who now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her husband, John L. Reggio, a vice president with Mitsubishi Chemical America. 

Greenbaum spent three years as an assistant marketing manager at Estee Lauder, then moved on to chief marketing jobs with Colonia, Inc., Boyle-Midway Household Products, and Revlon before assuming her position at Liz Claiborne Cosmetics in 1992. One of her biggest assignments was the introduction in 1997 of the Lizsport for Women and Claiborne Sport for Men fragrances. Liz Claiborne Cosmetics is one of 18 divisions within Liz Claiborne, Inc. which reported $2.4 billion in sales in 1997.