DON'T MISS A THING

At Love Happens, we believe in the power of women lifting each other up and reshaping the rooms where decisions get made. Through our Empowered Women Empower series, we celebrate visionary leaders whose influence opens new worlds for others. Few embody that spirit quite like Kathrin Lausch, the New York-based luxury strategist, co-founder of CIRCLE, and founder of Pink Pony Productions.

Over a dynamic 25-year career, Kathrin built and sold two international production companies. She later led global creative agencies including Studio Cadeaux, Maison BETC, and Al Dente. Along the way, she helped shape cultural narratives for iconic houses from Prada and Saint Laurent to Boucheron and Mikimoto. Today, through Pink Pony Productions and CIRCLE, co-founded with Alise Trautmane-Uzuner, she unites capital, culture, talent, and remarkable women around tables of twelve.

We recently met Kathrin through the Luxury Marketer Luxury Women to Watch 2027 list and couldn’t wait to share her! Read on and be inspired by Kathrin Lausch, CIRCLE, and Pink Pony Productions in this edition of the LH Empowered Women Empower series.

Be Empowered by Kathrin Lausch, Co-Founder of CIRCLE & Founder of Pink Pony Productions

Love Happens: As our name and the tagline of our publisher, KOKET, denotes, at Love Happens Mag, we are firm believers that you cannot achieve any level of success without love. When did your love affair with bringing people together begin? How did it make you feel?

Kathrin Lausch: I think I’ve always been a connector. Even as a young woman, I was fascinated by people, their stories, and their ambitions. I loved seeing what could happen when you brought the right personalities together. I still love that electric moment when two people meet who would otherwise never have crossed paths, and suddenly something extraordinary becomes possible.

Throughout my career, I’ve brought together creative minds, entrepreneurs, CEOs, artists, celebrities, and leaders with tremendous influence. I’ve always believed that the most interesting things happen at the intersection of different worlds. Above all, I genuinely love people, and I’m endlessly curious about what makes them tick.

There is something incredibly satisfying about making an introduction that changes someone’s trajectory. Sometimes it creates a business opportunity, sometimes a friendship, and sometimes something much bigger. The wonderful thing about connecting people is that the possibilities are almost limitless. You never quite know what you’ve set in motion.

I’ve come to believe that the most valuable thing we can give someone isn’t necessarily an opportunity. It’s access to a world they didn’t know was open to them.

Lh: Tell us a bit about your past, from Maison BETC to Studio Cadeaux, and what led you to co-found CIRCLE and lead Pink Pony Productions.

Kathrin: I’ve had a wonderfully unconventional career. Looking back, however, there is a very clear thread connecting everything I’ve done. I started as an entrepreneur, building two international production companies that I eventually sold. That experience gave me an early education in leadership, creativity, risk-taking, and trusting your instincts.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of luxury, fashion, beauty, advertising, entertainment, and culture. I served as CEO of Studio Cadeaux, Stagwell’s luxury-focused agency, co-founded Maison BETC in New York as CMO, and later became CEO of Al Dente in the United States. In addition, I held leadership positions at companies including Technicolor/MPC and MediaMonks/S4, working with extraordinary houses from Prada, Saint Laurent, and Boucheron to Mikimoto.

Increasingly, though, what interested me wasn’t just building brands. It was understanding the people behind them, the consumers they wanted to reach, and the shifting meaning of luxury itself. At a certain point, I realized my greatest asset wasn’t simply my experience in luxury marketing. It was the relationships, trust, and cultural intelligence I had developed over decades.

CIRCLE, which I co-founded with Alise Trautmane-Uzuner, grew out of that realization. We wanted to create something that didn’t exist: a truly global, private ecosystem for exceptional women uniting capital, culture, influence, and meaningful connection. Meanwhile, Pink Pony Productions is another expression of my entrepreneurial instincts. It combines my roots in film and production with brand strategy, talent partnerships, luxury storytelling, and extraordinary experiences.

In many ways, I’ve come full circle. I’m back to building businesses that I own, creating things I believe in, and bringing together everything I’ve learned. I no longer think of myself as operating in the luxury industry. I’m interested in shaping what luxury becomes next.

Lh: CIRCLE is a private community for women who have everything except a room that is truly theirs. When did you know that room needed to exist?

Kathrin: It happened gradually, over hundreds of conversations with remarkable women. These are women who own companies, manage family fortunes, invest in businesses, collect extraordinary art, and influence culture every day. And yet, so many spaces where wealth, influence, and opportunity intersect have historically been created by men, for men.

I used to joke that women needed our own version of the Freemasons—except with better shoes, better wine, and far more interesting conversations. Underneath that joke, however, was something quite serious. Today’s women hold unprecedented financial independence, intelligence, and influence. Still, there are surprisingly few spaces where they can connect as equals without being sold to, solicited, or expected to perform.

With CIRCLE, Alise and I wanted to change that. We didn’t want another networking club or a social calendar filled with beautiful dinners. Instead, we built a trusted ecosystem where women exchange ideas, deploy capital, collaborate, mentor one another, and build something enduring. Our gatherings are deliberately intimate. The most powerful conversations rarely happen in a ballroom with 300 people; they happen around a table of twelve.

Women don’t need another seat at someone else’s table. We need to own the table, decide who’s invited, and determine what happens next.

Here is where the magic happens: our salons don’t just create conversations. They create outcomes. At almost every CIRCLE dinner, something extraordinary unfolds. A piece of art finds a new collector. A founder meets her next investor. A venture capital investment takes shape, or someone writes a check that allows an independent film to finally get made.

I’ve seen a casual conversation over a glass of champagne turn into a six- or seven-figure investment or a life-changing introduction. None of this needs to be forced. We carefully curate the women around the table, and the chemistry takes care of the rest. Nobody is standing around exchanging business cards or delivering elevator pitches. We measure our success not by how many people attend a dinner, but by what happens after everyone leaves the table.

Perhaps the most beautiful outcome of all is genuine, lasting friendship between women who might never have met otherwise. Ultimately, wealth and career access cannot replace the joy of finding your people. That’s what CIRCLE is really about. We bring women together for the possibilities, but they stay for the belonging.

Lh: You’ve brokered pairings such as Emily Blunt x Mikimoto. What makes a talent–brand match feel exactly right?

Kathrin: The best partnerships never feel like advertising. They feel inevitable. Working across Hollywood, luxury houses, and the creative industries taught me that a great match requires far more than fame or social reach. It comes down to cultural relevance, shared values, timing, authenticity, and chemistry.

Emily Blunt and Mikimoto are a wonderful example. Emily embodies a distinct modern elegance—intelligent, accomplished, and sophisticated, yet warm and accessible. Meanwhile, Mikimoto represents exceptional craftsmanship, heritage, understated confidence, and timeless beauty. There is a natural conversation between those two worlds.

I am also fortunate to collaborate with Jennifer Frommer, founder of The Curation Society. Jennifer brings deep relationships across entertainment, music, and sports talent, while I bring decades of strategic experience across global luxury, fashion, and beauty. Together, we build partnerships that go far beyond traditional celebrity endorsements.

One especially exciting frontier is the intersection of luxury and sports, where athletes are becoming the new cultural icons. We’ve developed collaborations involving L’Oréal Luxe and NBA talent, including New York Knicks player José Alvarado, reflecting how high fashion, beauty, and professional sports are converging. Today’s athletes are entrepreneurs, style icons, and cultural tastemakers with deeply engaged audiences.

Whenever I evaluate a partnership, I ask two questions. Does this person genuinely elevate the brand’s story? And equally, does the brand enhance the person’s own identity? It has to work both ways. Luxury has become far too obsessed with follower counts, which don’t automatically translate into desirability or sales. Sometimes one credible person wearing a piece of jewelry in the right context is infinitely more powerful than a campaign reaching millions. True luxury isn’t about reaching everyone. It’s about meaning something to the right people.

Lh: You describe “generosity as strategy.” What does that mean in practice?

Kathrin: I believe generosity is one of the most underestimated forms of power. Throughout my career, I’ve introduced people, shared opportunities, and opened doors without worrying about what I would receive in return. In doing so, I discovered that generosity creates something far more valuable than a transaction: it creates trust.

Of course, I’m a businesswoman. I understand commercial value, negotiation, and building profitable enterprises. Generosity doesn’t mean giving away your expertise or letting people take advantage of you. Rather, it means understanding that the strongest relationships are reciprocal, even when that reciprocity isn’t immediate.

At CIRCLE, this philosophy is fundamental. A member might introduce another woman to an investor, open a door in a new country, or champion a cause close to her heart. We want women to become one another’s greatest advocates. Sometimes generosity is simply making someone feel included, seen, and valued. Transactional relationships create deals. Generous relationships create legacies.

Lh: CIRCLE channels its members’ capital into causes such as FemTech and women’s health. How does CIRCLE empower women to shape not just markets, but the world?

Kathrin: For me, this is where CIRCLE becomes much more than a private membership community. We bring together women who collectively control extraordinary financial capital, intellectual capital, social influence, and access to decision-makers. The real question is: What happens when we coordinate those resources intentionally?

Historically, women have been underrepresented in allocating investment capital, even as they generate and control a growing share of global wealth. The consequences are visible everywhere—especially in women’s health, longevity, and FemTech, where enormous opportunities remain underfunded. Through CIRCLE, women can discover high-conviction investments, back female founders, and direct capital toward overlooked sectors.

Our vision also extends beyond investing. We are exploring new models for luxury living, longevity, and retirement communities designed around how women actually want to live, age, and stay connected. Women are redefining every stage of life, so why shouldn’t we redefine later life too? Ultimately, our three pillars—extraordinary luxury experiences, curated investment access, and a more meaningful future—move women from individual success to collective influence.

When women control capital, they can participate in markets. When they coordinate capital, they can change them.

Lh: What empowers you most?

Kathrin: Freedom. Specifically, the freedom to make my own decisions, take risks, reinvent myself, and build work that reflects my own values. After years in demanding, often male-dominated industries, I’ve learned that titles and external validation are not the same as power. Real power is knowing who you are, understanding what you bring to the table, and walking away when something no longer serves you.

I’m also enormously energized by other women—especially those who reject society’s limits on age, ambition, or success. At this stage of my life, I’m more curious, more ambitious, and more willing to take risks than I was at thirty. There is something wonderfully liberating about that. I don’t believe women have an expiration date. In many ways, we’re only just getting started.

Lh: If you could give one bit of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Kathrin: Trust yourself sooner, and don’t waste so much time trying to convince people of your worth. Early in my career, I worked incredibly hard to prove I deserved to be in certain rooms. Looking back, I was often bringing far more to those rooms than I gave myself credit for.

I would also tell her that reinvention is not failure—it is one of life’s greatest privileges. I’ve built companies, sold companies, held global leadership roles, and started over more than once, learning from every chapter. Finally, I’d tell her to be a little less patient with people who mistake kindness for weakness. You don’t have to become harder to become more powerful. You just have to become more discerning.

Lh: Do you have any mottos or favorite quotes you like to live by?

Kathrin: I love the sentiment behind the saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It captures what we’re building with CIRCLE. Beyond that, I live by a few personal rules: never stop being curious, never underestimate people, always make the introduction, and never confuse a title or wealth with character.

I believe in taking risks, keeping a sense of humor, and never making yourself smaller to make someone else comfortable. If I had to choose my own motto, it would be: “Build your own table. Fill it with extraordinary people. And make sure everyone leaves with more than they arrived with.”

Lh: What’s next for Kathrin Lausch, and for CIRCLE?

Kathrin: We’re just beginning. My ambition for CIRCLE is to build a truly international ecosystem centered in New York, Paris, and London, with deep connections into the Middle East and other global markets. We envision intimate gatherings, cultural experiences, curated investments, and eventually physical spaces shaped around how our members want to live. We are also helping luxury brands engage this elusive audience in an authentic way, while remaining fiercely selective about the quality of every room.

At the same time, I’m continuing to grow Pink Pony Productions, developing ambitious collaborations across global brands, talent, and culture. After more than 25 years in this industry, I have the experience to spot opportunities, the relationships to make them real, and the freedom to pursue what excites me.

Most of all, I want CIRCLE to become something future generations of women inherit, expand, and make their own. After all, having the freedom, resources, and relationships to create a life of meaning is the ultimate definition of luxury. My next chapter isn’t about accumulating more success. It’s about making success more meaningful, and bringing extraordinary women along for the journey.

All Photos Courtesy of Kathrin Lausch

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