Meet the 2025 Speakers – 2026 speakers coming soon!

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.

Sean Ghouse is the UK Retail Director for Fortnum & Mason. With a career in retail which began almost 30 years ago, his passion for product, customers and people management developed at Harrods, where he was responsible for their men’s formal wear. His career went on to include spells as Area Manager, Menswear at Selfridges, before joining NikeTown London as their General Manager. Several senior retail roles followed as he joined Matches Fashion.com, before heading up retail for Dunhill’s flagship in Mayfair. A committed people person, Sean is passionate about the next generation of retail talent in the UK and works to promote the industry whenever possible. He describes working for Fortnum’s as ‘the greatest privilege’ and is an integral part of the team working on their innovative five-year strategy.

Luke Phillips started the role of IT Director at nail care brand Townhouse in June 2023, after serving as Programme Director Studio Retail since 2020. He was previously Head of IT at Kurt Geiger and IT Director at Crew Clothing Company. Luke is passionate about developing high performing IT organisations to meet the needs of growing consumer facing businesses.

Trevor Gordon is a customer-centric digital, technology and transformation leader who consistently delivers results through innovative use of customer insight, data, AI, and technology to drive game-changing growth, improvements, and efficiencies. With a proven record of driving complex transformation (people, process, tech) and operational leadership for several world-class global businesses in various sectors.   He is recognised for attracting top talent, building and leading culturally diverse, high-performing teams, and fostering a positive, success-oriented work environment. Backed by a proven capability to communicate effectively with senior executive leadership to create a shared strategic agenda, he thrives in crafting strategic visions and steering organisations towards successful implementation. Currently he is Chief Digital & Technology Officer at Save the Children UK, and his recent focus has been on driving transformation by developing new experiences, operations, strategies, propositions, products, services, and new business models for the digital age.

Janis Thomas is the Managing Director at Look Fabulous Forever (LFF), 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 eommerce and subscription businesses. Previously responsible for leading eCommerce and marketing at LFF, Janis has grown diverse brands from Birchbox to Playboy. She has held senior consumer marketing roles in eCommerce, digital media and entertainment businesses.

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).

Andrew Xeni is a visionary technology and retail entrepreneur; founder of award-winning businesses that are reshaping their industries. After building a successful family manufacturing business supplying the UK high street, Xeni went on to establish responsible fashion brand, Nobody’s Child, named 2023 & 2024 Drapers Retailer of the Year (<£100m), as well as building technology ventures; Fabacus, where he serves as CEO, and Soreto, where he acts as Chairman. Operating globally, his businesses are servicing some of the world’s largest organisations in licensing and retail, including Tesco, NBCUniversal and Samsung. Xeni also welcomed Marks & Spencer as a strategic investor and minority shareholder in Nobody’s Child. Passionate about shaping the future of sustainable retail, in 2023, Fabacus and Nobody’s Child collaborated to launch a Digital Product Passport solution driven by compliant product catalogues, in preparation for incoming legislation around the world, set to redefine and evolve the retail landscape.

Nick King, as the Insight Director at Auto Trader, analyses and interprets the trends in consumer adoption of technology and what this means for manufacturers and retailers. By doing so, can demonstrate strategies for customer acquisition and retention through digital and traditional offline channels. He has a particular focus on best practice in digital retailing today; how to stand out in digital marketplace – what are successful retailers doing today to win and; what will be the must have technologies – AI, VR, augmented reality.

Catherine Loftus is Brand Director at Bird & Blend Tea Co., the UK’s leading, B Corp certified tea mixology company with 25 retail stores around the UK & a thriving international ecommerce website. As Brand Director, Catherine looks after Bird & Blend’s brand growth strategy through an exciting calendar of seasonal campaigns, awareness channels, new product development & B2B, as well as nurturing the overall health of this lovemark brand by championing customer experience excellence at every touchpoint across the business. 

Adam Smith leads Iceland’s first in-house retail media team, driving innovation across both physical and digital advertising channels. He’s modernising the supermarket experience by pioneering digital in-store media and creating impactful brand connections.

David Gomez joined Kingfisher in January 2022 and has over 15 years’ experience in the marketplace and eCommerce space in Europe and the UK – mainly in electronics, DIY and home improvement. As Group Marketplace Director at Kingfisher, he is responsible for defining and leading the group marketplace strategy across its markets and empowering Kingfisher banner brands to define the best marketplace approach to succeed in each of their local markets.

Lauren Leeson is a senior leader with over 13 years of experience in fast-paced, agile and high growth tech and apparel brands. She is a dedicated retailer pssionate about health and wellness, thrilled to now be a brand and community builder, specialising in consumer behaviour and trends with one of the world’s most disruptive fitness brands. Lauren started with Gymshark as a Store Manager and became a store director in September 2024.

Eric Ledroux is the CEO of the group that operates the Interflora brand in 8 continental European countries. Created 100 years ago, Interflora has become a digital platform connecting customers with 7,000 artisan florists delivering bouquets and gifts. Over 85% of the group’s business is done online, which has been made possible thanks to investments in best in class teams and technologies. Before joining Interflora in 2013, Eric had spent the first 24 years of his career in the car (Renault) and car rental (Avis, Europcar) industry in UK, France and then in the US managing an online car rental business. His strong B2C and ecommerce experience has proven relevant to accelerate Interflora’s digital transformation and European consolidation under Private Equity ownership.

Leading timber expert, Donaldson Group, appointed Graham Johnston as CEO of its Retail and Distribution division in September 2022. Graham joins the Donaldson Group from ASDA where he was senior director of omnichannel customer support, running a large UK and international operation alongside delivering a technology and cultural transformation programme to provide an innovative customer experience for millions of customers, across multiple channels. He also spent a decade at Hutchison 3G UK (Three), where he was most recently head of omnichannel, responsible for the creation, deployment, and delivery of a strategy to provide best-in-class customer experience across online, app, retail, contact centres, and indirect channels.

After 20 years of experince in the tech space, Lavinia Dumitrache is tapping into the fascinating world of consumer data insights within transaction  banking solutions at Lloyds Corporate & Institutions. Strategic, innovative and a dynamic sales professional, she has expertise in analytics, IT&C and Telco, with a true passion for client management and driving exceptional results.

Lisa Garthside joined Medallia in 2019. Since then she has advised on a range of companies across sectors on driving change & building cultural transformation through listening to the customer. With a focus on enabling CX strategy, customer centricity and robust governance. Lisa has been in the CX arena for over 20 years. Prior to joining Medallia, she was responsible for developing M&G’s program, worked closely with clients at Confirmit, as well as managing Confirmit’s VoC programme, and has also had a long career in market research at a number of top agencies.

Amy is a Senior Insight Manager in the Customer and Colleague Experience Insight team at Sky. She’s worked in research, insight and data roles for 15 years, in diverse industries including gaming, tech, advertising, social media and international development At Sky, Amy focuses on customer and employee experience, listening to what people need and want from Sky and helping the business translate that into action.

Lucy Litwack is one of the most experienced executives in the global lingerie industry. With over 20 years’ international experience in lingerie and the retail world, she has managed a series of luxury and mainstream icon brands. Lucy has been CEO of Coco de Mer for the last 10 years, leading an MBO of the business in 2017. Under her leadership, Coco de Mer has grown from a niche business to a global luxury brand reaching new audiences and markets. Collaborations with Sotheby’s, Pamela Anderson, The V&A Museum and Helena Christensen amongst others have driven creative evolution, business growth and industry innovation. Prior to Coco de Mer, Lucy held director positions at brands including La Perla, New Zealand based lingerie business Bendon and Victoria’s Secret in New York in addition to developing and launching David Beckham’s Bodywear line.

Shetal Bhatt is Global Head of Digital Marketing at Costa Coffee, leading consumer engagement, loyalty and CRM strategy and operations. She was previously the Head of CRM & Marketing Operations at SSE Energy Solutions for just under two years and before that, she was the Senior Director – Digital Customer at Sixt and before that, she was 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’.

After joining the Angling Direct as Retail Transformation Director in December 2020, Craig Jones is now Chief Operating Officer of the UK and European businesses, responsible for retail store performance, growth, expansion and format development, logistics, both UK and EU distribution centres, central operations, and property. Prior to joining Angling Direct, he built a wealth of experience in specialist retailing and consumer facing organisations leading large teams across multiple functions. Craig was  previously UK Operations and Customer Experience Director at Weight Watchers accountable across 4000 site locations, business transformation, retail sales, customer experience and contact centres. He previously held the position of Director of Retail at Holland and Barrett, with over 1600 stores and has also held the role of Sales Director at Phones 4U.

Clare Olding is a people led marketing leader with over 20 years in marketing experience across a hugely diverse range of sectors and brands, including, Frasers Group, Experian and Gala Bingo. For the last 10 years she has specialised in CRM and is currently leading the team through delivering of a new CEP system as a maternity cover before moving on from July 2025.

Nuno Miller is a transformational digital and tech-oriented executive, with 30 years of experience as CxO on fast growing B2C marketplaces – as Farfetch -, on large listed or privately owned international omnichannel retailers – as Sonae, Worten and Parfois – and on VC backed C2C marketplaces– as Videdressing. He has just left N Brown, a 150+ years old retailer and consumer credit operator that owns and operates brands as JD Williams, Simply and Jacamo, where he served as the Digital COO over the last 4 years, leading a whole Transformation covering both Technology, Organization and Ways of working, moving from a catalog retailer into a data-led customer centric digital powerhouse, that uses AI capabilities as superpowers for their people. Nuno was elected the European CIO of the year in 2014, by Cionet and Insead, for the work done at Farfetch.

Edward Hall leads the strategic partnership with Iceland Foods and the rollout of one of the UK’s most ambitious in-store digital screen retail media networks. With over 11 years of experience in the retail media industry, Edd has held senior roles at leading agencies including Publicis, WPP, GIG Retail, and SMG. His career has centred on helping retailers and brands collaborate to deliver impactful, data-driven shopper campaigns. At PRN, he is focused on ensuring retail media drives measurable value for both retailers and brands.

Teresa Long joined WTW Willis in 2019 and has over 33 years-experience collaborating with clients on their risk and insurance strategy, creating bespoke insurance programmes, and implementing risk mitigation strategies. Her role at WTW is the Industry Leader – Retail, Leisure & Hospitality for GB Risk & Broking and the main purpose of this role is to engage with clients and insurers, to ensure that the services and products WTW offers meets the current and future needs of the sector. Teresa’s approach is to understand the sector, overlay the client specific risks and needs, and work with them to explore insurance or risk management strategies that match their risk appetite and budget. She has worked with a broad range of clients – those who operate boutique or smaller operations, to those who have a significant global presence. Teresa has a strong technical knowledge in general insurance with significant experience in leading client teams and engaging with the insurance market.  As well as working within the insurance broking industry for almost 30 years, Teresa held a senior role at a major insurer as Lead Underwriter for four years.

Julian Burnett is VP, Head of Retail at Capgemini in the UK, helping retail businesses unlock the transformative value of technology. He is also Chairman & Founder of Quercus, an independent expert network and advisory business that helps companies and not-for-profit organisations to amplify and accelerate their ambitions for sustainable growth. He has an award-winning track record in eCommerce, digital and technology innovation underpinned by several decades of leadership in consulting, strategy, transformation and operational roles in retail, consumer and tech industries. Julian is an experienced board member and influencer, with an extensive professional network and leadership career developed with world class brands including Sainsbury’s, John Lewis Partnership, House of Fraser, British Telecom, BNP Paribas, CapGemini and IBM.