In her keynote address at the 28 th Annual Wharton Women in Business Conference in Philadelphia, Thia Breen, president of Estee Lauder Americas and head of Global Business Development, cited three factors that have elevated her to one of the most powerful positions in the American retail market: “people, passion and performance.” The theme of the event was “Business & Beyond: Forging Our Own Paths in Career and in Life.” The daughter of a small-town druggist in Benson, Minn., Breen knows quite a bit about forging a career. “I guess I have always had ‘retail’ in my blood,” she said. “I’m still selling cosmetics and my brother runs the drug store back home.” The turning point in her own career came relatively early, she noted. “That was the day I learned I was about to be fired, or, let me correct that — almost fired.” As a young graduate of the University of Minnesota, Breen had gone to work for Marshall Fields, the retail chain, in Minnesota. Work was her only option then.…