Meet the speakers from 2026

Peter Goggin is a seasoned technology leader with deep roots in retail and digital transformation. He began his career at a leading technology corporation before taking on consulting and software roles across the UK and Australia. Moving client-side, he led digital IT, customer experience, and marketing teams. Now CTO for EMEA at Dr. Martens, Peter blends a passion for iconic British brands with a customer-focused approach to innovation and long-term business growth.

Will Lockie is an experienced digital leader, with a strong track record of growing global premium brands, SME’s and private equity owned businesses, by building teams and products that deliver results. With 15 years in digital and 10 in retail, I find opportunities which unlock customer growth, drive sales and grow the bottom line. He is currently leading the transformation of the global digital function at NOBLE PANACEA and before that he was at Georg Jensen, where digital sales tripled since he joined. Previously, during his tenure at Evans Cycles, he doubled the share of the eCommerce business, which grew from 20% of total sales in 2010, to 40% in 2016.

Stefan Kühn is a Hamburg-based technology leader and CTO with over a decade of experience delivering data-driven platforms and AI solutions. He currently leads Sporting Rock GmbH as CTO and runs Stefan Kühn AI Coaching, focusing on data & AI strategy, football data science, unsupervised learning, and strategic mapping techniques like value stream mapping, impact mapping, and wardley mapping. Earlier in his career Stefan served as Football Data Scientist for FC St. Pauli and held senior data and ML leadership roles at air up, Fit Analytics, Visual Meta, Jimdo, and TOM TAILOR, building cloud-based data platforms and product-ready ML. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics with summa cum laude honors and a Diplom in Mathematical Optimization, underscoring a strong foundation in ML, optimisation, numerics, and data visualisation. With a rare combination of rigorous theory and hands-on execution, Stefan translates complex data into scalable, impact-driven solutions across sports and consumer goods.

Gracie Tullio, co-founder and creative director of PURESEOUL, a premier beauty business specialising in authentic Korean skincare and cosmetics. Dedicated to bringing the best of K-beauty to a global audience, PURESEOUL offers a curated selection of high-quality products that emphasize natural ingredients and innovative formulations. With a focus on radiant, healthy skin, PURESEOUL is committed to helping customers achieve their skincare goals while embracing the timeless elegance of Korean beauty traditions. Gracie’s passion for Korean skincare stems from her personal experiences living in Seoul. She witnessed firsthand the transformative power of Korean beauty rituals and the emphasis on preventative skincare. This experience inspired her to create PURESEOUL, a brand that embodies the essence of Korean beauty traditions.

Peter Williams is currently Chairman of ACS Clothing, the UK’s leading circular fashion enabler; Senior Independent Director at Home REIT plc; non-executive director of SGS UK Retail, which owns the shopping and leisure destinations at Lakeside, Harlequin Watford and Victoria Centre Nottingham; and is also a trustee of both Somerset House and The Architectural Heritage Fund. He has spent over 30 years in a variety of both executive and non-executive positions in consumer-facing businesses. In the retail sector he has worked in eCommerce; department stores; fashion, sportswear, and eyewear multiples; duty-free stores; and mail order. During his executive career, Peter was on the board of Selfridges for 13 years initially as Chief Financial Officer and then as Chief Executive, during its radical transformation to become the world’s leading department store. Following Selfridges, he was the Chief Executive of Alpha Airports Group plc, which operated duty free retailing and airline catering businesses in 15 countries. Peter has played a major role in the rapid growth of 3 international retailers with a significant online presence – as a non-executive at ASOS and as Chairman at both boohoo and Mister Spex.

Peter Cross is a leading authority on serving customers in a changing world.  After 20 years in London, Paris and New York and ten more in consultancy, Peter spent eight years in charge of customer experience at the John Lewis Partnership – renowned in the UK for going the extra mile for its customers. Today, Peter champions, consults and campaigns for better customer experience around the world. In  the UK he works with Jo Causon as aVice President at the Institute of Customer Service, is an Ambassador for the Retail Trust and a Leader in Residence at the University of Leeds. Peter’s first book, ‘Start with the Customer’ published at the end of 2025, became an instant bestseller and was referred to by the Grocer magazine as “the essential text on customer experience”

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.

Susannah Schofield OBE is the Director General of the Direct Selling Association, the industry body for direct-to-consumer (D2C) retail in the UK. Prior to this, she spent 18 years at Royal Mail, culminating in her holding the Board-level role of Commercial & Innovation Director, where she led a team of 300. A passionate advocate for women and young people in business, Susannah was awarded an OBE for her work in this area in the 2015 Queen’s Honours List. She continues to champion women in business, and is a regular speaker on the importance of flexible working and portfolio careers. As well as being a published author (of business strategy book Mind the Gap), Susannah has lectured for The University of Kent and City, University of London, and also served as an advisor to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Desi Reuben-Sealey is currently working as a Senior UX Manager at Victorinox and was the Senior UX/UI Designer for Debenhams until very recently. He offers a hands-on UX approach, to coach, mentor, grow and lead the design team in delivering a great digital product that crosses over the whole business. He has evolved the design language, utilised leadership skills to evolve the experience design strategy that supports the innovation and product streams of the organisation. Above all, Desi has established and evangelised UX methodologies, whilst embedding them as best practice and collaborating with other areas of the business, to make great UX a reality for debenhams.com.

Having started in retail at 16, Emily Mackay-Wright worked for Monsoon Accessorize, where she worked up to Cluster Manager, looking after three stores whilst finishing off her A-levels. Having then spent a summer volunteering on an environmental project,, she started working at Bravissimo when she turned 19.  For 18 months, Emily volunteered as a Special Constable in the evening, whilst being an Assistant Manager during the day. Working through the various leadership roles in retail, she then moved over to the People & Culture team, where she was Learning Manager, focused on development and performance across the organisation. Emily has also chaired Bravissimo’s Belonging Group and has a passion for driving inclusion and belonging. After 20 years, and eight different roles, she  is now the Customer Experience Manager, looking after an award-winning omnichannel customer service team, who provide exceptional experiences through virtual fittings, live chat and Calls to customers worldwide. 

Jodie Sanders is a customer-obsessed marketing director with a focus on homeware and lifestyle brands having worked in senior marketing, brand development and growth roles at Pooky Lighting, Waterford, Wedgwood, Jamie Oliver and Birchbox. She has a passion for building long-term brand partnerships that elevate consumer experiences and deliver tangible growth and has a strong commercial background, holding an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Danielle Sones has been Managing Director at Mystery Shopping and CX Measurement agency, ABa Quality Monitoring, since 2023, having joined the business in 2000. As MD, she leads ABa’s work with major Retail, Financial Services, Leisure & Hospitality and FMCG businesses. She combines business leadership – designing and implementing award winning MS, CX and compliance programmes – with insight on how service excellence drives customer engagement, workforce empowerment and business performance. Danielle’s experience has led to her being a sought-after speaker on Mystery Shopping best practice across Europe and being part of the judging panel for the ICS awards since 2015. As well as driving the direction and growth of ABa, Danielle’s day to day expertise goes from boardroom to shop-floor. Her engagement spans from inspiring and collaborating with C-suite executives of major brands and senior management, through operational programme leads, to the on-the-ground execution of programmes with frontline service teams.

Bruce Langlands is an experienced retail executive with a career spanning over three decades. He is currently the CEO of Trotters Childrenswear & Accessories Limited, a position he has held since April 2023. Additionally, he serves as a Non-Executive Director at Snowflake Luxury Gelato since March 2023. Prior to his current role, Bruce held several high-profile positions at Selfridges, Harrods, Superquinn and Marks & Spencer. He is known for his expertise in luxury retail. He has been described as skilled in negotiation, budgeting, luxury goods and business planning. Throughout his career, Bruce has been recognised for his leadership in premium and luxury brands, which has contributed to his success in expanding business horizons and delivering successful strategies.

Pim Vellenga is an accomplished leader in Operations Management and Strategic Programme Development, currently working on the physical expansion at Emma Sleep. He is skilled at translating visions and strategies into reality through pragmatism and analytical thinking. Pim has coached various startups in their physical and offline operations, getting their products to the customer. He was responsible for the physical operations expansion of VanMOOF.

Andy Letting most recent role was Interim Head of eCommerce, Digital Marketing and Data at Mr Fothergill’s Seeds. He was previously Interim Head of Data and Insight at MAG (Airports Group and before that the Group Apps & Retention Lead at Kingfisher. A senior digital professional, he is a results driven and commercially focused senior-level digital executive with extensive senior management experience, successful in strategic leadership, change management, digital channel development in the media, gaming and travel sectors.

Aled Patchett is the Managing Director, Head of Specialist Sales, Transaction Banking Solutions, he started with Lloyds in 2019 as Managing Director, Head of Healthcare and Consumer Goods. His previous role was Head of Capital Markets – Funding, Risk Management & Banking Relationships with Heathrow. Aled started his banking career in Hong Kong in 2006 as a Senior Manager, Private Banking Asia with Lloyds Bank.

Bunty Stokes was until recently the Managing Director of Pampeano – inspired by the rich heritage of unrivalled horsemanship and traditional leather work – Pampeano began by sourcing the finest leather polo equipment from local artisans before working closely with them to develop refined leather pieces that were unique, and inspired by the landscape and cherished artisanal techniques. She was prviously Consulting Managing Director at Asquith, eco activewear clothes for yoga. She was Managing Director of Sunuva from 2015-2020. Over the five years that Bunty was there, the company looked to leveraging the sales opportunity in ecommerce – not just in wholesale but to grow and develop the team around that, and scale up for future growth. Prior to that, she ran the UK business at Vente-Privee from 2009-2011, after which she set up her own consultancy firm and worked with companies including eBay and Cocosa. Bunty was previously Sales & Merchandising Director for Brandalley.co.uk from 2007- 2009 and also worked for TKMaxx owners TJX for five years from 2002- 2007, as a Senior Buyer and later as a Divisional Merchandise Manager.

Meg Ellis has been the Managing Director of LA Brewery since 2023. She was previsouly the Commercial Director for Honest Burgers who pride themselves onhomemade burger & chips with an uncompromising focus on quality & simplicity and an old school hospitality style for competitive advantage in a busy market. Prior to Honest Burgers, Meg’s had a wide sector experience in commercial leadership and strategic marketing most recently in the hospitality and food to go sector and prior to this across a reputable collection of consumer brands in retail, leisure & lifestyle. She describes herself as addicted to building brand equity to drive excitement, commercial return and create memorable experiences.

Dan Wrigglesworth joined Lloyds Banking Group in 2015 and has held several front‑office roles across the Commercial Bank delivering value for clients. He now leads the Lloyds Bank Market Intelligence (LBMI) data team, supporting major retailers and property owners with driving customer loyalty, engagement and overall spending growth. Dan’s team helps clients be more data‑driven with their decision‑making across physical store & online, location planning, business strategy, marketing, leasing, and asset management.

Simon Poland is a transformation and customer success leader with over 15 years of experience in retail and customer operations. During this time, he led global customer care performance, operational optimisation, and digital service transformation across the UK and South Africa, delivering major improvements in customer outcomes, contact reduction, and data‑driven decision making. Building on this retail expertise, Simon has evolved into a specialist in AI‑powered customer experience transformation, helping organisations adopt analytics, automation, and intelligent workflows to drive scale and commercial impact. He has held senior leadership roles in SaaS and BPO organisations — including EvaluAgent, MOJO‑CX, and Woven – leading customer success, professional services, and solutions strategy. Now serving as Transformation Director – Pre‑Sales at TP, Simon partners with global brands to design and deliver AI‑driven solutions that elevate customer experience, unlock efficiencies, and accelerate digital change. Recognised for his strategic, consultative approach, he brings together deep retail experience, operational expertise, and modern AI innovation to help organisations turn insight into action

Giles Smith is the former Head of Technology for Selfridges, responsible for the technology strategy and delivery of their Digital, physical retail and omnichannel technology. Prior to that he was the Digital Director for Burberry and has also delivered technology innovation and transformation at John Lewis, Arcadia, Matalan, Unilever, Diageo and more. He is a MACH Alliance founding board member and also a new judge on our prestigious People in Retail Awards 2024. He is currently advising, CTO, CPO, and CDO’s in various world-famous brands on broad aspects of Digital product, technology strategy and leadership.