Cellese Inc. has tapped an aesthetics industry veteran to take the helm.
The Irvine-based regenerative aesthetics company on June 16 announced the appointment of Christopher Hausman as chief executive. Hausman brings three decades of experience across the aesthetics, dental and adjacent healthcare industries. Prior to Hausman, Cellese co-founder Ian Sanderson served as CEO.
“There are multiple innovative technologies in the pipeline that we’re really focused on, but then also evolving some of the existing technologies that we put on the market to provide more targeted benefits,” Hausman told the Business Journal.
Cellese was founded in 2009 and later acquired by Archimed, a French private equity firm based on healthcare investments, in 2024 for an undisclosed amount.
The company is a maker of exosome-based skincare and haircare products under the AnteAge brand.
Cellese is part of an increasing amount of regenerative aesthetics companies developing exosome-based skincare products, including Newport Beach-based Elevai Labs Inc.’s skincare subsidiary which was acquired by Carmell Corp. last year.
Built on Exosome, Biosome Technology
Cellese’s products are built on exosomes, which are proteins released by cultured stem cells.
The proteins “communicate” with skin cells, signaling growth factors to increase cell turnover and boost collagen production, Hausman said.
“You can formulate them and leverage them to visibly improve the overall appearance and radiance of the skin,” he said.
Exosomes are currently not FDA approved and are regulated as biological drugs. Cellese’s products “contain no stem cells or cell components” and are “compliant with FDA rules surrounding cosmetic procedures,” according to its website.
Early product development began in 2009 with exosome research getting underway in 2016 and officially launching in 2023.
Hausman said that the industry has seen “huge growth” in exosomes with take-home regenerative topicals representing the fastest-growing segment in the market.
Around 2024, the company also developed proprietary biosomes, or synthetic versions of exosomes.
“They act like exosomes, but they’re non-human derived for people that don’t want a human-derived technology,” Hausman said.
While the company doesn’t publicly share revenue, Hausman said that it is growing “quite rapidly.”
The AnteAge brand is distributed through dermatology offices and aesthetic clinics in 45 countries.
About 70% of the company’s revenue comes from in-office treatments, said Hausman. The other portion is made up of take-home technologies.
Last year, the company launched P.E.A.R.L, which it says is the first product to combine exosomes and PDRN in one treatment. PDRN, derived from salmon sperm, helps stimulate tissue repair and reduce inflammation, among other benefits.
Former Skinceuticals Exec
Prior to Cellese, Hausman was part of the original team that launched Skinceuticals and sold it to L’Oréal in 2005.
“One of the things that I really enjoyed about working on that brand was the scientific rigor behind the technologies,” Hausman said.
After the acquisition, he served as general manager of the division for about a year.
Later in his career, Hausman was CEO of a smaller skincare brand, Circcell Skincare, in Wyoming and executive vice president of Denver, Colorado-based Glo Skin Beauty—formerly Glo Professional before it merged its product offerings into one brand.
Hausman said that he left the aesthetics industry for a time, having spent eight years at ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers, because he felt the “industry had started to move away from real hardcore science.”
“I hadn’t seen a technology in quite a long time that really attracted my attention until I was approached about the Cellese and AnteAge opportunity,” Hausman said.
As CEO of Cellese, Hausman’s first priorities include building relationships within the medical community.
“Even though we have 4,000 distribution points, we still have a long way to go in translating the science into messaging that consumers can understand.”
