MANY THANKS TO OUR 2025 SPEAKERS

Maria Hollins is Chief Executive of Ann Summers, and over the past four years, has been responsible for leading the turnaround and growth of the iconic multi-channel retailer as it continues its mission to empower all. Originally joining Ann Summers as a commercial consultant in July 2018, Maria was appointed Joint Managing Director in February 2019 and sole Managing Director in February 2022. In July 2023, it was announced she would step into the role of Chief Executive. Starting her career at Arcadia, Maria has more than 30 years’ experience working within the retail industry and has previously held Board positions at both ASOS and House of Fraser.

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.

Helen Dickinson leads the team and sets the strategic direction of the BRC. She joined in January 2013 and has been working with retailers for over 25 years. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for Services to Retail. Helen is passionate about diversity and inclusion in retail, acting as the BRC’s Social Mobility Commission ambassador; participating in the Timewise Innovation Unit, looking to support more flexibility in jobs, particularly at senior levels; supporting the Everywoman Retail Ambassadors Programme; and having previously been the Chair of Working Chance, a charity helping women offenders find employment. Helen believes retail can make a strong contribution to communities, and is also on the advisory board for Pennies, a charity which offers digital charity boxes to businesses. Helen was previously UK Head of Retail at KPMG, driving and developing the retail practice and leading relationships and audits for many clients.

Andrea Nunn is the Customer Experience Senior Manager at John Lewis, a position she has held since November 2023. She has over 15 years of experience in proposition and format development, driving brand growth across physical retail, services, and online. Andrea is known for her customer-first approach, using data and insights to influence changes and optimize the omnichannel customer experience. She focuses on creating seamless end-to-end journeys and driving innovation by staying up-to-date on market trends. Previously, Andrea developed and trialed the new Store Format Strategy for John Lewis.

James Rutter has been the Chief Creative Officer at COOK for the last six years, he was previously their Brand & Strategy Director for 14 years. Establised in 1997, COOK Trading produce award-winning, frozen meals and puddings, with values baked into everything they do.

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.

As Employer Brand Content Producer for Fortnum & Mason, Sam Bleazard is a communications leader and content creator, focused on authentic human storytelling and the employee experience. He is also a podcast creator and host of the Comms from the Shed interview series.

Charlotte Fraissé is Senior Programme Manager at eBay with over nine years of experience in technology, consulting and eCommerce. In her current role, she is leading special projects to help eBay sellers navigate the complex, ever-changing regulatory environment. She plays a key role in shaping policies, enhancing seller engagement, and driving trust and safety on the platform. Previously, Charlotte was part of Farfetch’s commercial team, working with luxury retailers on global growth initiatives and omnichannel innovation in luxury eCommerce. With expertise in strategy, digital marketplaces and regulation, she is passionate about the future of e-commerce and industry transformation.

Scott Taylor is Executive Director of Marketing for American Golf – the largest golf retailer in Europe. Passionate about digital marketing, he has been on the board of American Golf since 2021 – driving their success as an omnichannel business. He has more than 18 years of experience in marketing and customer relationship management with some of the UK’s largest retailers. With top-level experience in digital marketing, customer loyalty, data insight and creative brand management, Scott has worked with many major brands including Selfridges, Ted Baker, Arcadia and Uniqlo. An LGBTQ+ advocate, Scott is also the host of The Rainbow Roundtable which features guests to celebrate and discuss all things LGBTQ+ within retail.

Michelle McWhinnie is the Operations Director at Usborne Publishing, heading up Usborne Community Partnerships, the direct selling arm of the business.  Her role is to support, motivate and inspire the Independent Usborne Partners to share the business opportunity and Usborne’s award-winning books to spark children’s curiosity, expand their minds and grow their confidence.  With decades of business experience working in leadership roles in the finance and tech industries and a passion for helping other fulfil their ambitions she offers a unique perspective to help shape the growth strategy for the business.

Katheryn Thomas is the Senior CRM Manager at L’Occitane Group, managing the CRM team to produce data-driven results via a customer-centric approach.  She is an enthusiastic CRM champion, with a customer-centric and data-driven mindset, providing key actionable insights. Katheryn’s main interests include driving customer loyalty and has launched a successful loyalty programme previously and continues to focus on customer retention, particularly of high value customers. She is a personalisation pioneer, leading projects on customer segmentation and optimising customer journey’s to ensure success. Katheryn was previously the Customer Relationship Management Manager at Molton Brown for two years and started her career at Harrods as a CRM Assistant Manager.

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).

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.

Tim Curtis chairs Cotswold Collections and Lifestyle Fitness, provides multichannel retail consulting services, and mentors business leaders and entrepreneurs. His experience covers all B2C channels across many non-food categories and includes most functions from marketing and merchandising to logistics and IT.  Tim’s career evolved from military engineering and strategy consulting via out-of-town retailing and a dotcom start-up to running Mothercare Direct and Lands’ End Europe.

Jonathan Haywood was until recently the Director of Digital, Loyalty, CRM, Transformation at Holland & Barrett, improving customer experience and growing sales through loyalty, CRM and subscription transformation; omni channel improvements; CX and digital trading. He has since founded his own business consultancy Tarren, consulting for the direct to consumer sector, focussing on retail and digital customer experience and retention strategies.

Raishma Islam has created over 2,000 couture and bridal gowns since 1998. In 2013, with the help from the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme-qualifying investment, she entered the ready-to-wear business, creating a range for the premium high street.

Darren Sanderson-Williams has been General Manager 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.

Rhea Fox is the former Digital Director of Ted Baker and has previously led the ecommerce channel at Monsoon Accessorize and Paperchase. Obsessive about marketing measurement and CX, she’s led customer strategy and marketing transformations across sectors. 

With 20 years in the Direct-to-Consumer industry, Zara Harding is a specialist in micro-entrepreneurship, sales systems, and community-driven growth. As Sales, Business Intelligence, and Projects Lead at Oriflame UK, she has played a key role in driving an 89% market growth in 2024 as part of the Incubator Market project. Passionate about challenging the status quo, she combines expertise in compensation programmes, training, and technology to deliver results that empower entrepreneurs and transform sales strategies.

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

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. 

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.

Sanish Mondkar is the founder and CEO of Legion. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in products, technology, and cloud operations. Before founding Legion, Sanish was the EVP and Chief Product Officer at SAP with responsibility for all procurement and business network areas, representing over $1B of annual revenue.  Prior to SAP, Sanish was Chief Product Officer and EVP at Ariba, where he was responsible for the creation of several market-leading enterprise products, including the Ariba Network from the ground up, which is the largest business network in the procurement space. Sanish holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from Pune University and a Masters of Computer Science from Cornell University.

 

Ed Duggan joined Fishpools in the summer of 2013 as their CFO & Commercial Director, where he has built a considerable multi-site retail finance, commercial and operational skill set in businesses of varying size and complexity. He currently has responsibility for all aspects of finance, brand & communication strategy, online development, plus marketing. He started his career as a member of the Tesco Graduate Scheme, working his way up to more recently as Finance & Commercial Director for Furniture Village and is now at Fishpools.

Greg Tufnell is currently Managing Partner of Prime Advantage Capital Partners, a business advisory and corporate finance company specialising in the consumer, automotive, energy and data sectors. In addition, he is on the Advisory Board at Cabin Zero, a fast-growing travel lifestyle brand for travel hungry millennials and Boulevard Online, a rapid growth VC backed marketplace super seller. Greg is also Chairman of Chinti and Parker, a premium knitwear brand; Common Objective, a sustainability platform for the fashion industry and Radiant Law, in the legal technology sector. Prior to this, he was Chief Executive of Marchpole Holdings for four years, specialising in the management of designer brands such as Yves St Laurent, Ozwald Boateng and Emanuel Ungaro. He was Managing Director of Boxfresh, Mothercare and Burton Menswear, having started his retail career as Buying and Merchandising Director at Next in 1994.

Ines Clark is a Franco-British strategic leader with over a decade of experience at the intersection of retail and technology. Having held key roles in both wholesale and retail, she most recently served as Head of Group Strategy at Farfetch. Throughout her career, Ines has been instrumental in driving omnichannel and digital transformation initiatives, leading complex, cross-functional programmes for iconic brands like Chanel and Farfetch, as well as for the wholesale SaaS platform NuORDER. Ines is known for her customer-centric approach and commitment to innovation, consistently helping brands navigate the evolving retail landscape. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Board Member, advising tech start-ups on growth strategies. Drawing on her deep expertise in retail technology, she founded MartyAI, a cutting-edge platform focused on enabling brick-and-mortar retargeting and personalisation.

As Managing Director of Retail at concentrix,  Mark Guest is a commercially driven and highly successful senior leader that has a proven track record of delivering sustainable results within numerous organisations and industries. With retail is his specialism and passion, Mark’s focus is always centred around the customer being human, whilst ensuring technology is used to make all interactions efficient, easy and ultimately achieving the desired outcomes.

 

Ryan Llewellyn-Pace is Founder and Chairman of Hay Life clothing, a new unisex fashion brand set to break boundaries as one of the first lifestyle brands to be fully dedicated to unisex fashion. He is also Founder and CEO of the Pace Partnership London (PPL). PPL is a consultancy business working with retailers and brands in the industry including the Frasers Group, Nobody’s Child and Spoke to name a few. Previously, Ryan has been in director roles of world’s leading rugby company Canterbury, working in the JD and Pentland Groups and Managing Director (UK&I and Global Distributors) with Barbour, one of UK’s greatest fashion success stories.  He has worked across US, EMEA and APAC from wholesale, global distributors, Global DTC (heading up Barbour’s Global E-commerce) and licensing.

Andy Letting is currently the Interim Head of Data and Insight at MAG (Airports Group), he was previsouly 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.

Brittany Wright is the Senior Partner Growth Manager for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) retail market at Lightspeed Commerce. Brittany specialises in driving strategic alliances and business development, with a strong track record of building and nurturing relationships across diverse industries, identifying opportunities for growth and collaboration through data-driven insights and strategic development.

Linda Campbell has a track record of driving business change and transformation gained in health and beauty brands. Passionate about creating a positive culture whilst delivering results, she is a custoner champion with expensive experience gained in value led founder omnichannel businesses. 

Titus Trossel was responsible for corporate development and strategy at Currys, where he assessed industry trends, peers and competitors to inform internal strategy, assesses new growth and innovation opportunities and M&A projects. Following eight years woking in transformation and strategy at the retailer, Titus has gained an in-depth understanding of the UK retail landscape and the inner workings of a major retailer. He started his career at Accenture in corporate transformation and has recently joined SquareTrade as their Director of Business Development.

Nicole Greer is a dynamic technology leader with nearly two decades of experience in driving digital transformation and customer satisfaction across multiple industries.  As Vice President of Products & Technical Solutions at Teleperformance, she leads a global team of Digital Consultants specialising in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Products, delivering innovative solutions that drive business growth and operational efficiency.Nicole is renowned for her strategic leadership, innovative thinking, and ability to translate emerging technology trends into actionable business solutions.  Her collaborative approach, combined with her expertise in strategic leadership and customer relationship management, makes her an influential voice in the digital transformation space.

David Williams is a passionate ecommerce and digital director with extensive experience building and scaling high-performing digital businesses for leading brands across diverse verticals. Companies he has worked for include Charles Tyrwhitt, Deckers Brands (Ugg and Hoka), Bowers & Wilkins. He also has his own consultancy DHW Digital which has worked with businesses such as New Look, Hawes and Curtis, and Unilever. More recently has been working in the B2B ecommerce space. He is passionate about building omnichannel customer experiences that satisfy the consumer and drive value for the businesses he works for.

Matthew Heptonstall has been at Reveal Media for over two years. Coming from a retail background, he has overseen and managed the growth of the retail industry within Reveal Media. He is currently managing key accounts and partners to ensure safety across their workforces.