Cynthia Houlton joined Sotheby’s in March 2021 as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Fashion and Accessories.
Cynthia is responsible for the entire fashion and accessories department including both handbags and accessories and sneakers and collectibles. Prior to joining Sotheby’s she launched and led the luxury handbag vertical at StockX and was responsible for the entire category including authentication, sourcing sellers and marketing to a new audience. She grew the business to over $20M run rate within 12-months of launching the category. Prior to StockX, she was Vice President of Business Development at Entrupy. During her tenure she launched the first instant authentication solution for luxury handbags including Louis Vuitton and Chanel leveraging machine learning, microscopy and computer vision. She built the data base by partnering with her network of handbag resellers to capture millions of microscopic images of luxury bags. Entrupy’s solution is widely used by the handbag secondary market to authenticate luxury bags. Prior to Entrupy, Cynthia was an early member of the leadership team at The RealReal. During her tenure the business grew from a few million in sales to $100 million run rate. She built and managed the dealer channel which included professional sellers of handbags, watches, fine jewelry and independent luxury boutiques. Cynthia also has experience from Amazon and has been a technology and startup consultant for nearly ten years.
She started her career in investment banking and was recognized twice by the Wall Street Journal’s in its annual “Best on the Street” survey as a senior analyst at RBC Capital Markets. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Wesleyan University.
