Doug Jacob
Co-Founder & CEO, &vest
Building beauty brands into companies built to last.
Doug Jacob is an American entrepreneur and the Co-Founder & CEO of &vest, the New York beauty transformation platform. &vest acquires, advises and operates consumer beauty brands. He is the operating partner of Morphe. He founded the creative agency JWALK, acquired by Shiseido Americas in 2017, and co-founded FAST Acquisition Corp.
Key facts
| Name | Doug Jacob (legal name William Douglas Jacob) |
|---|---|
| Role | Co-Founder & CEO, &vest, the New York beauty transformation platform |
| &vest founded | August 15, 2019, with Michael Lastoria; headquartered at 1220 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001 |
| Operating partner | Morphe, since &vest's April 2023 acquisition of parent Forma Brands with Jefferies Finance and Cerberus (about $690 million in debt relief, per Bloomberg) |
| Founded | JWALK, 2010; acquired by Shiseido Americas in March 2017; then Chief Creative Director, Shiseido Americas |
| Capital markets | Co-Founder and Co-CEO at IPO, FAST Acquisition Corp (NYSE: FST, $200 million, August 2020); Co-Founder, FAST Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: FZT), which became Falcon's Beyond in October 2023 |
| Incubated | Beauty Labs, acquired by Amyris in August 2021 at approximately $125 million enterprise value |
| Also | Co-founder, &pizza; partner, Tenjune; co-owner, Toro NYC |
| Education | Gettysburg College, Business Economics |
| Born | October 19, 1982, Cleveland, Ohio |
| Based | New York |
| Page updated |
Who is Doug Jacob?
Doug Jacob is the Co-Founder and CEO of &vest, the New York–based beauty transformation platform he co-founded in August 2019 with Michael Lastoria. &vest acquires, advises and operates consumer beauty brands, embedding its own leadership as portfolio operators and deploying an in-house transformation stack: &code (agentic AI and automation), AND Studio (performance creative) and &human (clinical talent intelligence).
In April 2023, &vest joined Jefferies Finance and funds managed by Cerberus Capital Management in acquiring Forma Brands, the parent company of Morphe, out of Chapter 11. Jacob has since served as an operating partner leading Morphe's repositioning from an influencer-led to a product-first brand, with expanded distribution at Ulta, Amazon and Target.
Jacob incubated Beauty Labs, the beauty AI and commerce technology company acquired by Amyris in 2021, and co-founded the special purpose acquisition companies FAST Acquisition Corp (NYSE: FST), FAST Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: FZT) and Velocity Acquisition Corp.
Earlier, he founded JWALK, a full-service creative agency formed in 2010 whose beauty clients included bareMinerals, Buxom and Shiseido. JWALK was acquired by Shiseido Americas in March 2017 and became its in-house creative group; Jacob served as Chief Creative Director of Shiseido Americas. With Lastoria he also helped launch the restaurant brand &pizza.
Jacob is a graduate of Gettysburg College and is based in New York.
Now
&vest
Co-Founder & CEO. The beauty transformation platform: owned and advised brands, one operating playbook, three in-house agencies.
Morphe
Operating partner since 2023. Product-first reset, portfolio consolidation, retail expansion to Amazon (2024) and Target (2026).
&code · AND Studio · &human
&vest-owned agencies for agentic AI & automation, performance creative and clinical talent intelligence.
Timeline
- 2010JWALK founded — full-service creative agency for beauty, luxury and hospitality
- 2010&pizza launched with Michael Lastoria
- 2017JWALK acquired by Shiseido Americas; appointed Chief Creative Director, Shiseido Americas
- 2019&vest founded with Michael Lastoria
- 2020FAST Acquisition Corp (NYSE: FST) IPO; led Beauty Labs Series A
- 2021FAST Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: FZT) and Velocity Acquisition Corp IPOs; Beauty Labs acquired by Amyris
- 2023Forma Brands / Morphe acquired with Jefferies Finance and Cerberus; &vest assumes operational control
- 2026Morphe launches at Target; &vest operating Morphe and Kopari Beauty
Press & Features Full list and press kit →
- What I Wear to Work: JWALK's Doug JacobBloomberg · Nov 2015
- Shiseido Americas Acquires JWALKShiseido Company news release · Mar 2017
- Shiseido Has a New Creative DirectorGlobal Cosmetic Industry · Mar 2017
- Here Comes Another Restaurant SPACRestaurant Business · 2020
- NYSE Dealmaker: Doug JacobNew York Stock Exchange · video
- Former SEC Director Bill Hinman Joins &vest as PartnerPR Newswire · May 2021
- Forma Brands Completes Sale to Investor GroupPR Newswire · Apr 2023
- Morphe Wants to Become Product-first, Not Influencer-ledWWD
- Morphe's New Launch Positions the Brand as Product-firstGlossy · May 2023
- Can Morphe Execute a Big Comeback?Beauty Independent · May 2025
- Morphe's Bold ReinventionBeautyMatter · Jul 2025
- &pizza and JWALK (feat. Doug Jacob & Michael Lastoria)Apple Podcasts
Frequently asked
Who is Doug Jacob?
Doug Jacob is an American entrepreneur and the Co-Founder & CEO of &vest, the New York beauty transformation platform. He founded the creative agency JWALK, acquired by Shiseido Americas in 2017, co-founded FAST Acquisition Corp (NYSE: FST), and has been the operating partner of Morphe since 2023.
Who is the CEO of &vest?
Doug Jacob. He co-founded &vest in August 2019 with Michael Lastoria and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. &vest is headquartered at 1220 Broadway in New York.
What does &vest do?
&vest acquires, advises and operates consumer beauty brands, embedding its own leadership as portfolio operators and running one operating playbook backed by three owned agencies: &code (agentic AI and automation), AND Studio (performance creative) and &human (clinical talent intelligence). It currently operates Morphe and Kopari Beauty.
Who owns Morphe now?
Morphe's parent company, Forma Brands, was acquired out of Chapter 11 in April 2023 by an investor group of &vest, Jefferies Finance and funds managed by Cerberus Capital Management. &vest assumed operational control, and Doug Jacob has served as Morphe's operating partner since.
What happened to JWALK?
JWALK, the New York creative agency Doug Jacob founded in 2010, was acquired by Shiseido Americas in March 2017 and became the group's in-house creative agency. Jacob then served as Chief Creative Director of Shiseido Americas.
Who founded FAST Acquisition Corp?
Doug Jacob co-founded FAST Acquisition Corp (NYSE: FST) in 2020 and served as its Co-CEO. He also co-founded FAST Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: FZT), which completed its combination with Falcon's Beyond Global in October 2023.
Where is Doug Jacob from?
He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, studied Business Economics at Gettysburg College, and lives and works in New York.
Elsewhere
Press and business inquiries: hello@andvest.co