Meet The 2024 Speakers

Fiona Lambert is President of The Twenty Club and was most recently Managing Director of Jaeger, previously holding C-suite roles with major retailers, Next, Dunelm, River Island, Jaeger at M&S and George at Asda, of which she was part of the inception next to the Founder, George Davies. With dual passions, product and people, she has a reputation for transforming brands and developing teams and individuals – Fiona is one of the UK’s leading business women in fashion retail. Whilst still consulting in the industry, she’s currently leading a charge against ageism in the workplace and about to publish a book about setting new goals at 60. Fiona is an ambassador for The Retail Trust and has been a Board Member at Matalan since May 2023.

Darren Williams has been GM with Specsavers since March 2024. He was previously the Global Head of Leasing for Impress where he led site selection, negotiation and legals to lease in all seven markets. Darren is the Founder of Williams Harding Consulting working with start-ups, expanding and distressed businesses, primarily in retail and hospitality, but also outside of these sectors. In addition, he is Non-Executive Chairman of men’s skincare company Scrubd and a Trustee at Action 4 Youth. Darren has formerly held senior roles in several retail and hospitality businesses, including Hotel Chocolat and Unilever. He currently holds two ambassadorial roles, including Schools Role Model for Stonewall, and fundraising and awareness for Target Ovarian Cancer. Williams Harding also partners with a Bulgarian dog rescue centre.

Charlotte Rees-John is the Head of Retail, Leisure & Hospitality Sector at Irwin Mitchell. She is also an Employment Partner with over 20 years’ experience. She acts for a number of key clients including Costa Coffee, PureGym and McArthurGlen and has worked for many other well-known brands in the Consumer Sector including Mothercare, McDonald’s, Arcadia Limited, Whitbread, Top Shop and Pets at Home to name just a few. Charlotte advises on all areas of Employment law but is particularly recognised for her commercial advisory work, advising on large scale restructures involving collective consultation, multi-jurisdictional project work, TUPE and matters involving potential brand damage/media interest. She also takes a keen interest in Diversity and Inclusion and has worked with a number of clients to create and implement clear D&I Strategies as part of their overall ESG commitments.

Jo Causon joined The Institute of Customer Services as its CEO in 2009, where she has driven membership growth by 150 percent and established the UK Customer Satisfaction Index as the country’s premier indicator of consumer satisfaction, providing organisations with an indicator of the return on their service strategy investment. Jo focuses on demonstrating a clear link between employee engagement, customer service strategies and organisational performance. Working across the public, private and voluntary sectors she provides strategic advice to Boardrooms to raise the standards of service provided by UK organisations and to provide evidence of the connection between customer satisfaction and operational efficiency and profitability.