I’m a little surprised at this. Avon is considered the K-Mart of direct sales makeup. Not at all the upscale image Jobs likes Apple to project. Mary Kay is more along that path. Not sure what she brings to the table here...If you simply wanted solid business acumen, you could have gotten that anywhere.
I suspect it has more to do with: Female, Chinese, Fluent in Mandarin, Successful CEO. Apple is pretty big in Japan, but I don't think their Chinese presence is large. They would probably like to sell a ton of Ipods and iPhones there.