Meet the 2025 Speakers

Simon Ellis has been the Head of AI Transformation and Enterpise Architecture at Pets at Home since 2020. Driven by having the ability to develop technology strategy, based on business strategy, Simon Ellis took an opportunity to first join the retail sector with Boots in 2016, first as a contractor then as a permanent member of staff, working on a number of great programmes, ultimately running their Enterprise Architecture team. Latterly with WBA (Boots parent company), he was assigned as the global Enterprise Architect on their global cloud transformation programme, whilst also being the delivery lead for the cloud transformation element outside the US. An amazing learning experience, working with some great professionals and working across the breadth of the business and operations.

Rob Murphy is a senior marketing leader with extensive experience in CRM, loyalty strategy, and proposition development. He has a proven track record in transforming customer engagement and driving commercial performance through innovative, data-driven approaches.  As a member-owned business, the UK’s leading food convenience and quick commerce retailer, number one funeral provider, a major general insurer, growing legal services business and largest entertainment venue, CRM at Co-op is uniquely varied.  Currently, Rob leads CRM for Co-op’s Online Grocery and Life Services businesses – driving customer engagement, lifetime value, and commercial performance. 

Olaf Akkerman is a member of Microsoft’s UK Senior Leadership Team and leads the Retail & Consumer Goods Industries. A seasoned leader in the UK tech industry for more than 20 years, he drives a customer first approach and focusses on building inclusive and high performing cultures. Olaf and his team work closely with a diverse set of customers across the sector to enable them to create better and more sustainable outcomes for consumers worldwide. He has held various senior sales positions at Microsoft, including leading the Media & Telco, and Professional Services industry teams. Prior to this, Olaf was the VP of Sales EMEA for Rackspace where he led several companywide transformation projects, expanded into new markets across Europe, and launched new service offerings that drove significant customer and business impact.

Amanda Uduku is a TikTok Shop Partner Project Manager, specialising in merchant & agency collaborations and partnerships at TikTok Shop UK. With 15+ years retail experience spanning brick-and-mortar retailers and marketplaces such as ASOS Marketplace and eBay, Amanda is skilled in driving strategic initiatives at the intersection of e-commerce, social media, and digital strategy.

Paul Hornby has nearly 20 years of experience across eCommerce, Digital, Product and Technology, during which time he has been responsible for many areas including digital strategy, performance marketing, product management, UX, engineering, insight and analytics. He has worked at both large and medium-sized online businesses (The Very Group and Matalan), whilst also supporting start-ups via his work with Baltic Ventures. He is passionate about building high-performing teams, has been an Ambassador of the MACH Alliance for the past 3 years, and sat on Liverpool City Region’s Digital & Creative Board for over 6 years.

Kate Chatterton is currently the Senior CRM and Loyalty Manager at BrewDog, she started with the company in 2021 as their Customer Relationship Management Lead. Kate is an experienced CRM professional with over 10 years of proven success in driving customer engagement and retention strategies across diverse industries including fashion, hospitality, FMCG, and education. She desibes herself as a true email nerd, passionate about leveraging CRM to enhance customer experiences.

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.

Caitlin Nimmo is a Customer Marketing Manager with Philip Kingsley, who she joined in March 2021. Philip Kingsley is the world’s leading trichologist (hair and scalp specialist), with clinics in London and New York. Prior to that, she was Marketing Manager at Amanda Harrington in London for two and a half years.

Helen Aye-Maung is Head of eCommerce and Marketing at Beaumont Organic. With over 15 years experience in fashion retail, she has a proven success at growing retail businesses online through creative brand content, multichannel digital marketing, UX optimisation and strategic trading. Before Beaumont Organic, Helen was a eCommerce Merchandiser with ISAWITFIRST.com and Missguided.

Victoria Coffey is Head of eCommerce at Northern Monk, where she leads on all things eCommerce, from strategy to site optimisation, customer journey to email marketing. She has 12+ years eComm experience driving brands to improve their online presence with lean processes while optimising online traffic to conversion.

Adam Aubrey has been the Head of eCommerce at KBF Enterprises since December 2019. He is also a member of Attentive’s Client Advisory Board (CAB), an exclusive forum that brings together top marketing leaders to shape the future of digital marketing and the SMS channel. As a CAB member, we discuss best practices, provide direct product feedback to Attentive’s leadership team, and propose ways Attentive can improve to better suit customers’ needs, having a direct impact on the company’s product roadmap. Prior to working at KBF, Adam was Trading Manager at American Golf, responsible for overall trading, traffic, customer retention and implementation of the marketing plan for Online Golf websites.

Elizabeth Jackson is the Brand & ESG Director with LOFT.uk, whom she joined in April 2021 as their Marketing Director. She was previously Head of eCommerce & Marketing at Cocoa Runners for seven years and before that, Digital Marketing Manager at Twinings in London. Now a board level director responsible for the Marketing, eCommerce, Interior Design, HR and ESG Functions in a proudly independent company, Elizabeth believes that great brands put people first.

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.

Anjuli Parmar is the CRM Manager at Frasers Group. She was until recently the Senior Marketing Leader at Jacuzzi, where she led all aspects of digital, eCommerce, content, brand, social media, CRM, offline marketing, and retail / local marketing to drive commercial growth.

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.

Emily Long is the CEO of performance marketing agency Genie Goals, an eCommerce exclusive agency working with brilliant ambitious brands in PPC, paid social, and affiliate marketing. She has spent over a decade working in brand and digital marketing roles in some of the country’s most iconic brands. Emily is a former Global Head of Digital at Costa, Senior Brand Manager at Jordans Ryvita, Digital Campaign Manager at EE, before coming over to ‘the dark side’ of agency life. She is a consumer-centric marketeer who gets incredibly excited about talking to awesome brands who are looking to do amazing things.

Paul Morris was previously Director of Digital & eCommerce at Marshalls, Head of Marketing at Tesco Bank, Global Digital & eCommerce Director at PZ Cussons (St Tropez, Imperial Leather, Original Source, etc), led digital marketing at the Co-op Group (Food, Electrical, Funeralcare, etc) and has worked agency (McCann, Havas, Bray Leino Yucca & Visualsoft) and client side with brands including Wickes, Laterooms, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Cash Generator, Stagecoach & Silverstone. He is now Senior Director EMEA Performance Marketing & Web eCommerce at RS Group.

Yasmin Topia is CEO and Founder of Sociate AI, a multi award-winning AI startup and creator of the world’s fastest learning fashion AI, instantly combining breaking fashion trends, with customer intent, personalisation data and styling expertise, to give customers the shopping experience of their dreams and to enable any retailer or brand easily and immediately embrace conversational commerce and benefit from over a 100% search to purchase conversion uplift. Yasmin is a serial AI entrepreneur- with past ventures back by Microsoft, JaguarLandrover and Silicon Valley VCs- with a back ground in sales having won and delivered of £40m in new business at Adecco and PwC. Yasmin started her career as a sales assistant in retail.

Natalia Chappell is a digital marketing consultant with over 10 years experience in the luxury, beauty and lifestyle sector. She most recently headed up marketing and eCommerce at THG and has previously worked with RIXO, Cult Beauty, GANNI, Represent, Le Creuset, Coach and Coggles. Stepping away from a corporate world, Natalia founded NC&Co. to help drive retail business forward, with a focus on empowering brands to scale up through innovative digital marketing strategies.

Gianfranco Cuzziol is an engaging individual who has traversed the agency – client-side divide. He is an experienced CRM, data, business transformation expert with a track record of both setting and delivering customer strategy, with customer and business objectives at the centre. Prior to his most recent role as Head of Customer Business Lead at Dr Martens, he was Avon International CRM and Personalisation Lead with Natura & CO for nearly five years, working across four iconic brands – Aesop, Avon, Natura and The Body Shop – setting their CRM and personalisation vision. Prior to that he was Global Head of CRM at Aesop for over two years, responsible for delivering business transformation projects centred on CRM, loyalty and subscription. This included a global remit delivering global and regional capability / technology to support a global CRM programme across 23 markets.

Michael Spataro is the Chief Customer Officer at Legion. He has 30+ years of retail workforce management (WFM), store operations, and technology experience. He spent 16 years leading the Retail and Hospitality Services Practice Group at Kronos. His passion for retail WFM is rooted in the ten years he was Director of Store Technologies at Gap Inc. Previously, Michael led the Kronos Services Group at Axium. After being a customer, vendor, and consultant, he has a unique vantage point, which makes him a trusted partner when showing retailers how they can use Legion WFM to optimize labor efficiencies and empower frontline employees.

Trond Kongrød is a seasoned executive with extensive leadership experience in the commercial sector. Serving as the CEO at Inovretail, he has been at the forefront of steering the company’s strategic direction towards innovation and cutting-edge retail solutions. With a focus on leveraging technology to enhance the retail experience, Trond has played a pivotal role in transforming traditional retail operations towards Q-Commerce. His expertise in omnichannel strategies and customer engagement has been instrumental in developing partnerships and driving the company’s expansion into new markets. With international experience and a nuanced understanding that markets vary yet trends are global, Trond possesses the expertise to leverage technology to fuel retailers’ growth.

 

Georgie Collins is the Head of IP, a member of Irwin Mitchell’s International Team and Head of the US Desk. She is a leading IP lawyer with over 25 years’ experience. Georgie helps individuals and organisations devise IP strategies and secure the IP rights that are pivotal to a successful market entry and international expansion. She has significant experience in relation to the strategic protection and management of brands internationally and has advised many global corporates and household names on their world-wide brand protection matters.