Meet The 2021 Speakers

Andy Smallwood is the Chief Executive Officer of Ribble Cycles. Appointed in 2017, Andy’s strategic vision and leadership has dramatically transformed and reinvigorated the 124 year old British brand into an industry leading, dynamic, award winning and world-class proposition. A product and R&D led, digital first business, with a unique DTC business model that provides customers with an unrivalled level of personalisation and customisation, the brand's transformation and legacy thrives in continuing to innovate and disrupt the cycling & leisure marketplace. With over 20 years industry experience, Andy was formerly Managing Director of Boardman Bikes and instrumental in the creation of a new British bike brand with British Cycling Legend - Chris Boardman.

Victoria Betts has been the Chief Commercial Officer at Hotter Shoes since July 2019, she was previously the Omnichannel Director there for three years, responsible for the Hotter customer across all channels, all customer touchpoints and all markets, including leading and aligning the trading channels by creating an omni channel strategy that delivers customer metrics required to fulfil the brand commercial ambitions. Prior to Hotter, Victoria was Global eCommerce Trading Director for MIssguided, accountable for driving the transformation of Missguided to a global brand, with full accountability for their global e-commerce sales. She has also been the Chief Marketing Officer for Sofology and Head of Sales & Marketing for Shop Direct.

Janis Thomas is responsible for leading eCommerce and marketing at Look Fabulous Forever, the innovative DTC cosmetics and skincare brand designed to meet the needs of older women. She is an expert in driving digital marketing to deliver increased revenue and profitable growth in ecommerce & subscription businesses and she has grown diverse brands from Birchbox to Playboy. Janis has held senior consumer marketing roles in eCommerce, digital media and entertainment businesses.

Graham Johnston started as Senior Director - Omnichannel Customer Support with Asda in January 2021. He previously led the omnichannel transformation for Three UK for four years, which is accountable for delivering innovative solutions that will transform the customer interactions through existing channels, alongside exploring new emerging technology solutions to further enhance the customer experience and support sustainable growth for the business. Prior to his career at Three, Graham was Divisional Director at Optical Express for four years, responsible for the commercial performance and operational efficiency of four Regions (67 stores) in the Southern Division of the company.

Graham Wilson has been Head of Business Development at Sofology since December 2020, with responsibility for driving and growing the Digital side of the business. Before his time at Sofology, he was Head of Delivery at AO.com, where he was responsible for the delivery of IT change across the UK and saw the business develop from a single category, single country e-tailer to a multi-category, multi-country market leader. Throughout Graham's career, he has been incredibly fortunate to work on a number of projects for different sized organisations in a variety of sectors ranging from the NHS and Local Government, Oil and Gas, Financial Services and Sports / Gaming.

Gracia Amico is Chair of Closer Pets and a Non-Executive Director for Stiched,she was previously Chief Executive at pets accessories retailer Pets Pyjamas. Formerly eCommerce Director at Hobbs, she previously spent five years at Topman heading up its global ecommerce department. In 2007 she spent a year at the luxury fashion company Burberry, to set up its ecommerce marketing strategy. Gracia was part of the first wave of ecommerce start-ups back in 2000, securing venture capital investment for her own dotcom company.

David Stacey is the Commercial Director of Ribble Cycles, responsible for innovating and augmenting the dynamic new retail vision and commercial growth for one of the oldest bicycle brands in the world. Passionate about all aspects of retail, from customer experience and brand retail engagement, innovative product, added value and fully immersive digital and physical environments - David has most recently redefined ominchannel retailing with a Landmark destinational Flagship showroom and roll-out program which personalises the physical in store experience and combines a digitally enabled environment. David has held various senior positions in retail and FMCG, starting his career at Halfords and going on to lead commercial teams at the Co-operative and the Bestway Group, prior to taking up the retail lead and exciting transformation at Ribble Cycles.

Darren Williams 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. He is also the Executive Chairman of a men’s skincare company Scrubd and a Trustee at Action 4 Youth. Darren has formally held senior roles in a number of businesses in retail and hospitality, including Hotel Chocolat and Unilever. He currently holds two ambassadorial roles, being a Schools Role Model for Stonewall, and fundraising and awareness for Target Ovarian Cancer, Williams Harding also partners with a Bulgarian dog rescue centre.

Ayla Erimer is the Head of Product at Love Home Swap, an award-winning home exchange platform. Interested in how technology can enable and enrich real-world experiences, she is passionate about leveraging membership networks to drive new sources of value in leisure travel. She has previously worked on some of the world’s biggest travel experience products, such as Priority Pass and LoungeKey. Before catching the travel bug, Ayla led digital products in the culture and heritage sector, focusing on how technology can help tell some of humanity’s best stories and create new sources of revenue in institutions such as the British Museum.

Dhi Matiole Nunes is the Co-founder of the experience store The Latest. With his expertise from various positions in the retail industry, Dhi has combined retail-as-a-service and customer experience in one concept to empower future shaping entrepreneurs to bring their product innovations to market whilst avoiding the risks and costs of traditional retail. With The Latest, brands gain direct access to a fast-growing network of innovation seeking communities worldwide.

James Coughlan has worked for some of the biggest organisations driving compelling digital transformation across the retail, telco, technology, transportation and entertainment industries. This includes both owning and consulting for PE & VC backed startup's delivering large scale digital strategy execution, e-commerce and commercial marketing. Companies include Vodafone, HMV, Bullitt Group, Universal Music and Northgate plc.

Steve Farr joined Experian in 2017 as Product Marketing Director, before becoming their VP Marketing & Solutions in April 2021. He was previously responsible for creating an online community of over 250,000 data scientists, and has held senior positions at Microsoft, Oracle and TIBCO. He is a 30 year veteran of the IT industry, holds a Master’s degree in Strategy from Henley Management College and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Matthew Furneaux is the Director of Location Intelligence for Loqate, a GBG solution. He’s responsible for strategy and innovation and has over 20 years’ experience in the location data space, particularly in the retail sector. He works with many of the world’s leading retailers from ASOS and Missguided to Boots and eBay, helping them improve the ease, speed, and convenience of online transactions.

Katy Clark is Head of Industry, Grocery at Facebook. With over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and commercial roles within the retail and grocery industry, she joined Facebook in 2018 and leads the team responsible for partnering with grocers to help them acquire new customers, increase loyalty, drive store foot traffic and sales, grow e-commerce revenue and measure the efficacy and impact of their marketing programmes.

Paul Morris has 22 years’ experience leading marketing, digital & eCommerce both retail agency and brand side. He was previously Director of Digital & eCommerce at Marshalls PLC, Head of Marketing at Tesco Bank, Global Digital eCommerce Director at PZ Cussons, led Digital marketing across the Co-op Group, Acquisition Marketing Director for retail specialist eCommerce platform Visualsoft and has further retail experience with the likes of Wickes, Stance & Cash Generator.

Steve Ledgerwood is CRO with Findologic, where he has successfully led commercial organisations in the MarTech space for over 15 years across key global markets, including EMEA, APAC and the Americas. His heavy involvement within the eCommerce community and vast experience makes him well placed to address the challenges of online retailing. Steve has a 360-degree understanding of the ecosystem from customer demands and engagement to digital monetisation. As a result, he continues to be a driving force behind Findologic's expansion and market-leading offering as well as a respected member of the ecommerce and tech communities.

For almost four years, Lisa McIntyre has been part of the product management team as Nuxeo's Product Manager, responsible for guiding the success and strategy for product features and capabilities for digital asset management. With over 17 years of experience in the advertising industry and over 15 years in the DAM space, Lisa was first a client of Nuxeo’s and then joined the Nuxeo team as a solution engineer.