Meet The 2022 Speakers

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 several 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.

Alan French is the CEO of the relaunched Thomas Cook. He has decades of experience in leading major digital business and transformation projects at retailers including Boots and Marks and Spencer and worked at the former business leading digital and strategy. Since forming this new Thomas Cook, Alan has, in the space of three years, led a team that has built a new digital platform and holiday company from the ground up launching in September 2020 and with ambitions to become a major international online holiday business once again.

Marc Palmer has been the Brand Director at Auto Trader for just over six years, leading the data and insight work for its manufacturer and agency customers. Turning billions of data points and market research into simple stories and key themes - from audience behaviour to macro trends, brand challenges to emerging opportunities - Marc applies his vast industry experience to help the UK's car brands connect with more buyers.

Rob George is currently the Customer & Digital Director at McColl's and a member of the senior leadership team. He is accountable for keeping customers at the heart of all channels across the business by leading the digital, customer proposition, plus th customer, marketing and services (e.g. Post Office, News, parcels) divisions. Rob has over 15 years' experience leading complex, large scale transformational change that delivers for customers, commercially and inspires colleagues of all levels across large & small multi-channel organisations.

Moses Rashid is the Founder and CEO of The Edit LDN - a global online marketplace for limited sneakers, streetwear and collectables. Having successfully founded and established companies in digital advertising and hospitality, Moses turned his personal passion for ‘hype’ sneakers from a hobby starting in his bedroom in Jan 2020, into a multi-million pound global online business, with three large retail concessions spaces in both Harrods and Galleries Lafayette, in just two short years. Featured in Forbes, The Times, GQ, Hypebeast and more - Moses & The Edit LDN are an authority in the limited sneaker space, globally.

Vishal Talreja has been a senior operator in the retail and hospitality industry for 20+ years. He has been leading Itsu's property strategy since 2018 and utilising his in-depth sector knowledge, which has resulted in many successful openings. Prior to Itsu, Vishal worked with leading businesses including Yo!Sushi, KFC and Yum! Brands.

Rowland Gee has been the Chairman of The Board at Cell Workout Athleisure for the past four years. He is an experienced retail manager with over 35 years of public company experience in the retail, marketing and design sector - he was CEO of Moss Bros Group from 1989-2002 and helped develop Hugo Boss retail operations in the UK to 17 stores. With two co-authors, Rowland wrote The Retail Start Up Book published by KoganPage, which was released in 2019 and is specifically targeted at the retail start up community. He has also founded Grey4Gold.com (G4G) and has recently completed a contract to mentor retail businesses in Wales, and with Cherwell District Council, Shropshire Councils on re-invigorating town centres and on the restoration of the UK high streets.

Robert Kulawik has been the Chief Operating Officer at Everything5pounds.com since 2014, which was a natural progression from his previous role of Business Development and Operations Manager, following an acquisition by Market Tech Group. In this role, Robert was overseeing a broad spectrum of operations, facilitating change and implementation of procedures, ensuring compliance with relevant industry legislation and regulations as well as forecasting growth and future-proofing. Everything5pounds.com is a trading name of Fiver London Ltd, part of a group that combines the iconic Camden Market real estate assets with an eCommerce business operated through online platforms including camdenmarket.com and market.com. In its 9th year running, everything5pounds.com is the original fixed price clothing retailer, fulfilling over 1.5m orders per annum. We have proven that quality and value can go hand in hand and continue surprising customers with garments from well known, trusted and long-established high-street retailers.

Shetal Bhatt has been the Senior Director - Digital Customer at Sixt since February 2022. She was until recently the Head of Digital Marketing with Alshaya based in Kuwait, where she was co-creating and implementing the digital/CRM/loyalty and data strategy for their multiple Retail franchise Brands ranging from fashion to food and entertainment (inc. Starbucks, Boots, H&M, Pizza Express). Shetal has previously held national and international roles at Engine, Subway, Shell, British American Tobacco and Philips, which involved digital and CRM leadership, data management, and implementing the Martech stacks needed to facilitate the marketing strategies of these organisations. She was the winner of the 2015 Data IQ Award for 'Data professional - Client'.

Mark Dunhill recently joined Stelar London as their CEO and is also joining the board of another premium start up business, this time in the beverages space - Knoops. Prior to this he was Managing Director of Whittard of Chelsea from 2014 to 2019, where he faced the objective of transforming the company from a UK high street retailer to a global aspirational brand. Prior to Whittard, Mark worked for T.M. Lewin as International Director from early 2011. Before that role, Mark held the position of CEO of Faberge, where he led the multi-national team to restore the famous name to its former position as one of the most desirable jewellers in the world.

Julian Burnett is an executive digital and tech leader, working as Board Advisor to various industry leaders in the tech, apparel, sports equipment, retail property and wellbeing categories. His current engagements include Ann Summers, as a Board Advisor - Transformation & Technology, looking after a three year digital, technology and data transformation strategy, focused on agile organisational design, roadmap development and tech modernisation initiatives. He also works with the Retail Trust - as an Ambassador & Advisor -Digital Transformation - supporting the CEO and Trustees in strategy development with specific focus on digital and data strategy, and development of a strategic partnership with Microsoft.

Maxim Gelmann founded Stroodles four years ago. Stroodles is an eco-tableware company, famous for its pasta straws, featured on Dragons Den, BBC Good Food, Unilad, Huffington Post and many more. The Stroodles portfolio also includes edible biscuit spoons and stirrers, edible wafer cups, eco wheat bran plates, biscuit bowls and saucers. The Alchemist, de Longhi, Benares, Marriot, Hilton, Selfridges and Whole Foods are already stroodling. Stroodles offers uncompromising solutions to the everyday consumer and business and inspire how fun and easy sustainability can be. Stroodles is part of a larger global effort to change the way we consume products, one Stroodle product at a time. Maxim is an enthusiastic, proactive, future oriented, multi-skilled and strongly networked entrepreneur, investor and freelancer with over 13 years of strategy consulting, mentoring, investment and operational and interim management experience across industries, with a focus on retail, fashion and FMCG.

Dr Edda Blumenstein is an experienced manager and consultant in omnichannel retailing transformation. Her current role is as the Director of Customer & Retailing Transformation at BYKO, a leading hardware and home improvement retailer in Iceland, where Edda leads the organisation's transformation from multi- to omni-channel retailing. Edda is also a board member at The Center for Retail Studies and a part-time teacher at the University of Bifrost. As a consultant, Edda has worked with leading Icelandic retailers to craft holistic omnichannel strategies, including Kringlan Iceland's largest shopping mall and Kronan, a leading Icelandic grocery retailer.

Terry Knott has over 25 years' experience working in the IT industry in SaaS / cloud-based application, hardware and software sales. He also has extensive experience in the MSP and distribution landscape.With a background in a mixture of sales management, product and commercial management, and marketing, Terry has also acted as CEO running for his own business, managing the entire spectrum of profit / loss, marketing, business planning and budgetary performance, as well as operations.

Andrew Gough has managed the growth of final mile customer experience providers such as Narvar, HelloDone, and now parcelLab, helping retailers to extend their brand beyond the buy button to increase revenue and deflect low-value contact. He has worked with leading enterprise software suppliers such as IBM, Oracle, and Pegasystems, and in recent years has focused on the Retail Post Purchase market. As a sideline, Andrew is a frequent presenter of history and mystery-themed television documentaries, as featured on international networks such as History, Discovery, and Travel Channel.

Leanne Oddy has over ten years' merchandising experience and a demonstrated history of working successfully within the global retail industry. She is responsible for all UK, international wholesale and 3rd Party activities for both Ann Summers & My Viv and has been in this role since 2019. Leanne is currently working on growing awareness of a new female sexual wellness range - My Viv - developed in partnership with Breast Cancer Now, the range is designed to support every woman through every stage of their life. Leanne was previously Franchise Trading Manager (Merchandise Manager) for Top Shop and Top Man for over four years and worked for Arcadia before that, as an international merchandiser.

Laurina Kennedy has been the Digital Marketing Manager at Skinny Dip London since April 2018. She is highly motivated analytical and results-driven eCommerce and digital marketing expert with over 9+ years' experience in web content, content strategy, and relationship marketing. Identify and capitalise on new growth opportunities through customer focus, market research, product expertise, and proven business acumen. Prior to Skinny Dip, Laurina was eCommerce Manager at Thomas Lyte and before that she was Web Content Editor at Mr & Mrs Smith.

Claudiu Cioba has been a product designer for the past 15 years building successful digital products for multiple startups and top brands such as Uber and PayJunction. He is highly data driven and focused on turning complex problems into simple, easy to use consumer experiences. Due to the rise of video creation and consumption, Claudiu launched VideoWise in April 2021, with the goal of creating a dedicated video solution for the eCommerce industry.

As customer and industry insight manager at UKG UK & Ireland, Neil Pickering partners with forward thinking organisations in the retail, hospitality and services sectors to help them engage their employees, control labour costs, increase productivity, and minimise compliance risk. By leveraging next generation cloud based Human Capital Management and Workforce Management technology - exploiting big data analytics, AI and machine learning - Neil helps retail businesses' to optimise and drive maximum value from their greatest resource - their people. With more than 20 years' experience in the technology sector, Neil has a deep understanding of the strategic levers organisations can operate to improve business performance. Delving deep into organisational processes, identifying the opportunity for business transformation and presenting compelling cases for business improvement are his key attributes.

Emily Laws is Head of Brand for Lucky Saint, the 0.5% superior unfiltered lager dedicated to changing alcohol-free beer forever, and finally rewarding those who aren't drinking with the beer they deserve. Emily joined Lucky Saint six months ago, having previously worked for premium mixers brand Fever-Tree as Brand, Activations and Partnerships Manager.

Graham Johnston recently joined the Donaldson Group as their Retail & Distribution CEO, bringing together the retail, eCommerce and distribution businesses. He was previously the Senior Director for Omnichannel Customer Support & Transformation at Asda and formally headed up omnichannel transformation for Three UK. For the past 10 years, Graham has led large-scale transformations in customer interactions, focussed on innovation to bridge the gap between physical and digital. Graham also hosts his own podcast series 'Think Omnichannel' where he speaks to fellow Omnichannel experts about the use of digital innovation to create better customer experiences.

Andrew Hall is an executive leader, specialising in innovation and strategy in customer engagement management and growth. He has been in the outsourcing and technology domain for over thirty years and brings considerable knowledge of transformation and operational excellence, into his relationships with clients and teams, delivering exciting operations and customer-centric tech-enabled transformation. Andrew has a focus on working with clients to develop relationships and solutions, that truly impact their business and their customer's experience with them, ensuring measurable benefits and outcomes. He is recognised in the customer engagement space as a lead thinker in innovation and the future of technology in customer engagement.

Harpreet Cheema has been with Sodexo for over ten years, most recently as Head of Workplace Services, leading the development, deployment, performance management and awareness building of workplace services through the 'Vital Spaces'proposition in the UK & Ireland. Prior to that, he was Head of Promotions, Digital & Insight for four years, putting guest insight at the heart of everything to create an omnichannel engagement strategy, that is delivered to over 40,000 employees and 1,000,000 customers per day. He started his career at Sodexo as a Promotions Manager in 2012, delivering the promotional strategy for the UK & ROI across 800 sites which included food, retail and hot beverage promotions.

Peter Scott has extensive industry experience, having led a number of high-profile businesses globally, including 18 years in CEO / Exec Board /NED roles. Peter's early career was at Marks and Spencer, BHS and Arcadia. He now works with private equity partners and as an interim consultant in an advisory role.

With 15+ years in ecommerce, including early Amazon UK and Tesco, Thomas Vosper has a detailed insight on strategy, marketing and operations across thousands of eCommerce sites, high street stores, and digital marketing agencies. He is an international awards judge and a TEDx speaker about the challenge of building the startup aisle 3 as a first-time founder. He has raised over £1m in funding during the past 24 months and built an international team, as aisle 3 looks to remove the need to open another tab or app to shop.

Andrew Mann is an omnichannel leader with a consistent record of breakthrough commercial success within data driven insight, Loyalty CRM, brand development, and digital transformation. His broad experience includes Cadbury Schweppes plc, The Coca-Cola Company, Clubcard Director at Tesco plc, Insight & Loyalty Director at Sainsbury's plc , Customer Director at Coop, VP Insight, Pricing & CRM at Asda, and most recently, Head of Insight & Loyalty at M&S. He now heads up NorthBailey, a market research led business consultancy working with retailers, CPGs and tech suppliers. Andrew is a data driven commercial leader who is passionate about innovating and transforming the customer experience and driving customer numbers and L4L growth. He identifies the heart of the commercial challenge, making complexity clear, and listening to customers, to develop customer led solutions to solve commercial challenges.

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 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.

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.

Krisi Smith is the visionary behind the incredible tea innovation at Bird & Blend Tea Co. Nearly nine years after launching, she continues to tirelessly work in an incredibly hands-on way to grow the business, do good in the world and create magic through tea. Now with a team of 100+, 15 retail stores & a thriving international online store, Bird & Blend is leading the way in tea innovation in the UK.

Geoff Bull has been the Chief Marketing Officer at Swyft since its launch in April 2020, where he is responsible for building the Swyft brand, delivering amazing customer experience, along with driving performance and business growth. Swyft Home is a fast growth, VC backed, DTC start-up that’s on a mission to change the furniture market. Geoff has 17 experience years leading teams in marketing, digital marketing, brand marketing, digital product development and digital strategy, for Wiggle, Johnlewis.com, MORETH>N, Chain Reaction Cycles and Riverford.

Russell Danks has spent the majority of his career working in brands across the globe, specifically in marketing, innovation and strategy roles. Brands include Tesco, YUM Brands, KFC, P&O Cruises, Cunard & UK pub groups Greene King & Punch Pubs & Co. Becoming famous for challenging the 'status quo' and delivering big change in big business. Russell is acknowledged as having an ability to predict human behaviour and in particular how technology is impacting the way we interact with the world and the subsequent changes on big business. His unique ability to see what is on the horizon and translate this for business, coupled with his ability to build structure and strategy has built him the reputation as the man who knows the 'art of the possible' and led to the creation of the Future Factory London (FFLDN) in 2017. Russell now leads the charge as the Marketing & Strategy Director at Punch Pubs & Co where he is been in role since 2018.

Chris O'Reilly is the CEO of Presto Music, an award-winning independent music shop and website with a wide range of classical and jazz recordings, sheet music, music books, accessories and musical instruments.
Prior to Presto Music, Chris read Music at the University of Birmingham, and went on to complete a Masters in Historical Musicology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Aside from his role at Presto, in 2008 Chris became Chairman of Independent Classical Specialists (a trade association representing Independent Classical Music shops across the UK), and from 2010, spent 6 years on the Board at the Entertainment Retailers Association, including three years as Treasurer and Member of The Executive Board.

Jack Sweeney is the Founder & Chief Strategist at JDS, a boutique consulting firm that empowers consumer product brands with strategic marketing & sales. Previous to this, he spent 10 years working for household name brands, most recently as Marketing Director for Karcher UK. Relentlessly customer-centric, data-driven and profit-focused, Jack believes in a strategic no-nonsense approach to business, always seeking to simplify the seemingly complex.

Celynn Morin is an award winning speaker, author of two books and registered health practitioner (registered dietitian and nutritionist), certified embodiment and HeartMath coach. She has worked in the area of workplace wellbeing since 2000. Her raison d'etre is to help create exceptional, thriving cultures either through remote working or at workplaces using holistic wellbeing frameworks that are practical and easy to sustain. I have a unique style that is effervescent, non-preachy, science-backed, practical and playful. Celynn is committed to helping reduce the burden on national health systems by empowering business leaders and their employees to make better lifestyle choices to sustain optimal performance, health and resilience. French by heritage she considers herself a foodie and champagne lover. She was brought up in South Africa and now lives and works out of the UK, based in Surrey. She also loves to dance salsa and West Coast Swing and has a longstanding meditation practice. Her top three values are: Curiosity (an avid learner and curious about everything), Community and Celebration.

You've done all the courses, You've read all the books. You know what you need to do, the strategy, the to do list .... thats the easy bit!
But you're not doing it. You're scared, filled with self doubt, worried what other will think. Your mind is a powerful tool. You can use that to your advantage or let it hold you back, stuck, frustrated, overwhelmed and not doing all the things you want to. And thats where I come in.
I'll help you get really clear on what you really want to be, do or have.
Together we will work out what the hell is really holding you back.
Most importantly you'll learn tactics & strategies to master your mindset even in the toughest times so that you believe in yourself to take action, to do the thing, to be the woman you want to be.
Ready for change in your life? Come have a chat with me at the event.

Jennie Farmer is Chief Commercial Officer at luxury furniture company Oka. Since she started at Oka in January 2021, Jennie has been able to demonstrate her passion for crafting distinctive client-centric strategies and her track record for building unique global brands. Jennie’s career experience in luxury retail is extensive with previous stints as Brand & Product Director for De Beers Jewellers, Head of Luxury Fragrances for P&G Prestige, as well as experience leading cross-border teams working for various global wine houses in the LVMH family.

Milly Ellis is the founder and CEO of BeHeard, a company she started in 2004. Since then, she has worked with amongst others, Banks British Airways, Yum, Pret a Manger, Poundland and The White Cube. Royal Ballet. Victoria and Albert Museum. Other corporate clients include The Financial Conduct Authority, Glaxo Smith Kline, Woodmeadow Trust & GEFCO France, KFC in France, Germany and Spain, Barclays Bank, Lazard, Deloitte, Unilever, Garrad's, Orange, Vodafone, EE, Talk Talk in London and India, Felix Charity, Fat Face, White Stuff, Debretts, The Palace, Members of The House of Lords and Parliament, British Museum, and the V&A Museum. In 2014, Milly coached Margaret Thatcher's granddaughter to read the lesson at her funeral in St Paul's. Her Ted Talks include The Power of Letting Goâ„¢, Insa Klasing TedxBerlin, Olly Hicks The Benefits of Risk and Olly Hicks at The Economist Sea Tourism Summit.
Milly has also helped editors at Conde Nast, The Evening Standard, The Independent as well as artists at White Cube, designers, politicians, poets, barristers, prisoners and princesses. In the theatrical world, she has worked with actors such as Sir John Gielgud, Robert Downey Junior, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Juliette Binoche. Anna Friel, to mention but a few. Other clients have included, Sir Anthony Dowell, Darcey Bussell, Diamond Dance, Akram Khan, Paloma Gormley, Mara Galeazzi, Hanif Kureishi. The Fabula Collective. In television, Milly worked on BBC Two HD. Heyday Films, Sky's Fortitude, Path©, BBC Films and Bend It Films, The Viceroy House, HBO, BBC1 The Casual Vacancy KBO, Churchill's Secret, Telluride, Judy, with Sir Michael Gambon and Assassins Anonymous, Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix, The Hollow Crown with Neal Street Productions, The Crown with Suki Waterhouse. Most recently, she has been working on the Disney / Lucas production of Willow.

Elizabeth Cowper has over 20 years of leadership experience and is a working mother of three and founder of Ludo, providing HR tech for inclusion. She spent her career working for brands such as Planet Organic, Harvey Nichols, LVMH and most recently Tapestry, the umbrella owner company for Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, where she was VP HR for Europe and Global Head of Wellbeing. Elizabeth has been described as the culture adjuster and has been listed in the HR Most Influential Awards for the last 5 years.

As the CEO and founder of GDR Creative Intelligence, Kate Ancketill has accrued more than 21 years of experience in trends affecting business sectors and consumer behaviour, sharing her visionary insights around the world. She is the innovation partner to around 30 of the world's largest consumer brands, supplying market leading consultancy and professional speaking to P&G, Tesco, Waitrose, Target, Sephora, Microsoft and Google. Kate is a business futurist, adept at making complex societal shifts and emerging technologies relatable for any audience. She also advises on the future of customer experience, how marketing is evolving, and how the best of the best are using tech to adapt to new customer behaviour.

Neil Tunbridge is the Co-Founder of Mellow.store, the trusted online destination for customers and brands to learn, buy and sell CBD. He is also the Co-Founder of Egg Brands, a portfolio of luxury British heritage brands that are being gradually revitalised and relaunched, starting with John Pound - the oldest luggage brand in the world. He was a director & co-founder of Pivot International, an eCommerce marketplace agency which was acquired by Muloot.com in January 2020 and as Managing Director of Muloot, Neil is building a high-growth marketplace trading and financial services agency via a suite of business growth tools.

Ken Daly is CEO of JML, the innovative consumer product group with global sales through retail distribution, ecommerce and TV home shopping. Ken joined the company in 1994 shortly after it was founded following a background in electronic engineering. JML now employs 250 people in the UK and has distribution partners in more than 50 markets worldwide.

Annie Rose Lougher is Commercial Director for the internationally renowned fashion brand Bella Freud, where she has achieved fivefold growth over the last 4 years. Annie has also recently worked with Alexa Chung from July 2020 until September 2021, where she was brought in to overhaul the eCommerce business.
Panel Session 2: eCommerce innovation - building engaging experiences across a 360 omnichannel ecosystem
Capturing attention of today's consumer is getting more and more difficult - join our panel who will share their expertise on how to successfully transition to the new eCommerce reality. We will examine building an engaging website, strategies for keeping customers coming back to the website time and again, maintaining a premium customer experience online, and best practices for optimising customer journeys from homepage through to basket.

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.

Callum Campbell is CEO of Linnworks, an industry leading SaaS commerce platform which empowers brands and retailers to grow their business. Linnworks works with the worlds major marketplaces and sales channels including Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento to help businesses conduct commerce wherever their customers are. Prior to joining Linnworks, Callum founded Autonative, an automotive software and services business that continues to be a key player in the automotive eCommerce industry today.

Shweta Pamula is currently European Category and Campaign Insights Manager at Samsung Electronics. She is a customer insight professional with eight years experience in leveraging customer and market data to inform business strategies and decisions across product, marketing, customer experience, digital and brand teams. Shweta was previously Strategy And Insight Manager for Debenhams, where her role entailed using a broad variety of quantitative and qualitative data sources to ensure that market context and customer insights was at the heart of the business. Prior to that, she was a Research Manager with River Island, providing actionable insights to the business across all levels, to inform product strategy and develop the brand equity and positioning.

Trevor Gordon is currently Global Director - Customer Capability of a large global CPG. He was previously Global Director of Omni-Channel Retail at Sodexo (Sodexo is a Global Services company that operates in 80 countries and serves over 100 million customers a day). He has extensive experience of successfully building and leading teams for Global Brands on both client and agency side. Trevor specialises in the transformation and digitalisation of consumer facing businesses in a broad range of sectors including retail, telco, entertainment, and financial services.

Guy Bosworth has worked in the retail and F&B space for over 12 years, working with some industry heavy weights such as Pret A Manger, KFC, Aldi and Boots. Now as Head of Store Operations for Ole & Steen, he is leading the stores on an adventurous growth journey to build on the 30 year history the business has in its home country (Denmark). His passion has and always will be the people that work for him, developing them to be the greatest that they can be - he has a rather strange mantra - 'to create a team that no longer needs him". Developing a strategy that enables his team to deliver the standards and experience that every customer deserves, therefore creating raving fans.

Shelagh Stoneham has been President of Power WearHouse since 2019, a professional line of weighted wearable training products that helps build power and endurance for serious athletes. She was previously Senior VP & CMO at Chico's FAS for three years and before that, Shoppers Drugmart for two 2 years. A general management, marketing and digital leader with a successful track record in improving P&Ls to optimise shareholder value, Shelagh’s expertise is in creating and articulating a clear brand vision and customer-centric omnichannel strategies that have led to successfully launching, building and revitalising brands. She has been on the RightFit Technologies Advisory Board since 2019 and the Global Retail Marketing Association’s Retail and Hospitality Board since 2017.

Mei Chen is Head of Fashion & Luxury for UK, Spain and Northern Europe & Head of US Luxury at the Alibaba Group, which she joined four years ago. In the past two years, Mei has primarily focused on helping global luxury brands and fashion businesses understand and seize the opportunity that lies for foreign brands in China, by leveraging the innovations and technologies on Alibaba Group’s ecosystem. Shei is also leading various innovations projects across Alibaba Group’s ecosystem and is the international lead for Alibaba's flagship fashion shows Tmall Collection, Taobao maker festival's West Lake show, and Tmall China Cool, among others. Mei brings extensive knowledge of the retail and technology industries to the role, having spent over four years at Google.

Andrew Goodacre is CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira). He assumed the role in September 2018 following more than five years as CEO of the Residential Landlords Association and three years as head of retail staff at the Federation of Small Businesses. Before entering the not-for-profit sector, Goodacre worked in hospitality for more than 25 years, including as national operations manager at Punch Taverns.