Cornell names Bluemercury founder, alum entrepreneur of the year

ITHACA, N.Y. — Barry J. Beck, the co-founder of Bluemercury, has been named the 2023 Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year, the university announced.

Beck, a 1990 graduate of Cornell, co-founded and served as the chief operating officer of Bluemercury, a luxury beauty brand that Macy’s acquired in 2015.

He will be honored April 13-14 at the Entrepreneurship at Cornell celebration event on the Cornell campus in Ithaca and will also speak at a Cornell Tech conference in New York City in November, the university said in a release on its Cornell Chronicle website.

Beck is also the founder and CEO of Evenly Technologies, Inc., a technology and telemedicine orthodontic platform, and founder of M-61 Laboratories, which created M-61 Skincare and Lune+Aster Cosmetics, the first clinical vegan and sustainable cosmetic brands.

At Cornell, Beck established the Marla and Barry ‘90 Beck Entrepreneurship Fellows Program in 2016. The program provides funding for Cornell students to pursue their entrepreneurial ideas without having to support themselves in a traditional paid job setting, per the release.

Beck was the 2020 recipient of Cornell’s Alpern Distinguished Alumni Award, the 2017 Retailer of the Year Award, and the 2016 Retail Innovator of the Year Award.

The Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year award is given annually by the Entrepreneurship at Cornell program to “a Cornellian who exemplifies entrepreneurial achievement, impact on humanity and an inspirational story or business outcome,” the release stated.