Meet The 2024 Speakers

Appointed to American Golf in 2023, Nigel Oddy has overseen a ‘re-set’ of the business, focussing on core retail and leveraging American Golf’s strengths, the result of which has swung the business back into profit. He believes that ‘retail really is detail’ – and that customer data contains all the detail you need. This has reinforced American Golf’s position as the UK and Europe’s number one golf retailer. Nigel is one of the biggest names in retail, with more than 45 years of extensive experience, and leading some of the UK’s most renowned retailers, including House of Fraser, New Look, Matalan, and The Range. His career started straight from school, running the children’s sock counter at Marks and Spencer in Warrington. With a desire to succeed, he progressed from shop assistant to executive, and has subsequently undertaken five CEO roles at House of Fraser, New Look, Matalan, The Range, and most recently American Golf. During his executive roles, Nigel has successfully driven refinance programs, business transformations and crisis management strategies.

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.

Tracey Powers is the Sales Director for Avon UK. She joined the business in 2019 and in recent years has helped to oversee one of the UK business’ biggest transformations to date, navigating it from a single-channel, direct selling business to an omni-channel organisation which offers product via retail, social selling, marketplace, DTC and franchise – alongside its traditional and much-loved brochure. Throughout the transition, Tracey has ensured that high-touch beauty remains at the brand’s core and the strategic shift still fully supports and empowers female entrepreneurs to achieve success. Tracey started her career in management consultancy before taking Board positions in the recruitment sector. After having her children, she built a successful direct selling business of her own with US jewellery and accessories brand Stella&Dot. This has given her first-hand insight into and experience of the opportunities and challenges the sector can bring.

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).

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.

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.

Appointed to American Golf in 2023 as Retail, Operations & People Director, Elaine Wrigley’s people-focussed approach was part of the ‘re-set’ that turned the business around. She has also established a ‘people’ department within the business with key focuses on reward & recognition, talent mapping, and succession programmes. Her experience in retail has seen the development of a ‘model store’ roll-out, taking into account how different golfer profiles prefer to shop, and a number of store upgrades and relocations – with more to come. Elaine has more than 38 years of experience in retail management and has worked at the likes of Marks and Spencer, B&Q, New Look, Outdoor and Cycle Concepts Ltd. Beyond UK retail, Elaine has worked in other territories such as Greece and, more recently, Australia. She is an active mentor for the Northern Power Women, and Power Collective and won the Specsavers Everywoman in Retail Award for Leadership, which was in recognition of the work she has done to inspire and lead diverse teams. At New Look, Elaine developed and led New Look’s first Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity strategy, ‘Our Kind of Inclusive’.

As Managing Director at Laine Pub Co, Russ Danks believes in cultivating an inclusive and motivational workplace environment that provides every team members with a safe space. He was previously the Marketing & Strategy Director of Punch Pubs & Co, before taking over as the new MD of its Laine Pub Company division in April 2023.

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.

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.

Trevor Gordon is Chief Digital & Technology Officer at Save the Children UK. He was previously Global Director – Customer Capability at Diageo and befire that, 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.

Emily Kraftman joined Who Gives a Crap in January 2022 as Managing Director, UK & Europe, responsible for spearheading the international expansion of the eco-friendly toilet paper. She now oversees all profitable growth and global retail as Chief Commercial Officer. Previously, Emily led marketing for the UK, and eventually all global markets, at Deliveroo, scaling a commercially oriented and strategic team. She led these teams through a massive period of the company’s growth into becoming one of Europe’s biggest unicorn success stories, from early 2016 until its IPO in 2021. She began her career in organisations renowned for their strengths in brand-building for consumers, including Nestle and ABInBev.

Rowland Gee is CEO of The Shoklite Company, a revolutionary new urban cycling/scootering apparel and Director of AromaChimie, a company who supply nutrition for the farming, poultry and livestock industry. He was until recently 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

Nicole Compen is the Founder & Director of raye the store. After a decade of experience in brand and marketing management, Nicole founded travelling retail concept raye the store in June 2021. More than simply a place to shop, raye is cultivating an ecosystem that aligns brands, consumers and industry figures who are motivated by the same ethics of wellbeing and building challenger brands to diversify the marketplace of the future.

As Chief Development Officer (CDO) at itsu, Vishal Talreja leads all aspects of their property – including new store openings/acquisitions, design, construction, maintenance and legals – whilst reporting into the CEO/Founder. He also strategically ensures that the development of the brand excels with partnerships to key agents and Landlords for itsu’s prime locations including London, national cities and key major transport hubs.

Shetal Bhatt has been the Head of CRM & Marketing Operations at SSE Energy Solutions since December 2023. Prior to SSE, 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’.

Lauren Duncan is an energetic leader in e-commerce, currently spearheading digital strategies and growth as the Head of Ecommerce at Philip Kingsley. With a background in digital marketing and customer behaviour, Lauren leverages over a decade of experience to drive transformative initiatives that elevate online presence whilst hitting commercial objectives. Her commitment to delivering exceptional online experiences aligns with Philip Kingsley’s dedication to empowering individuals through personalised hair care solutions.

Camilla Kater is Advisor to the CEO and SVP of Care and Rider at Deliveroo, and is a member of Deliveroo’s Executive Committee. Over the course of her 8+ years at Deliveroo, she has held senior leadership positions in Operations, Marketing and Commercial – working alongside Will Shu to grow Deliveroo from a start-up to a listed company operating in 10 markets, with 4000 employees. Camilla works with Will, the CFO and Board to define Deliveroo’s strategy and drive key company priorities, as well as leading Deliveroo’s end-to-end delivery organisation. Her role sits at the centre of the three sides of Deliveroo’s marketplace, juggling the needs of all sides to drive growth for the business.

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.

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 current 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.

After graduating from the University of Strathclyde with BA (Hons) Marketing in 2008, Rebecca Pagan started at Pagazzi as Marketing Assistant, progressing to her current position as Commercial Director.  With a great interest in product, she moved into the buying department in 2013 and became Buying and Merchandising Director in 2017.  During the pandemic she became much more involved in the high level running of the business, becoming Commercial Director in 2021.  Now Rebecca’s focus include product selection, managing marketing and the digital marketing investment, and being a champion for all things process improvement.  After re-platforming the website from Magento to Shopify in March 2024, she has recently implemented AI tools and other functionality to help improve the Pagazzi customer journey online.

Becci Edmondson is the Chief Product Officer at MPB, a global leader in the Circular Economy. MPB is the world’s largest online platform for buying, selling, and trading used photography and videography equipment, transforming how people engage with pre-owned kit. Becci oversees both the Product and Customer teams at MPB, with a focus on delivering human-centred solutions that drive business value. With over seven years at MPB, Becci has played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s product strategy, leading the successful launch of its upgraded platform and building a data-driven, highly impactful product function. Prior to MPB, she co-founded a tech startup and began her career in textbook publishing, where she developed digital learning resources for higher education. Becci is passionate about solving complex customer problems and empowering her teams to deliver innovative, customer-first experiences. She is particularly focused on scaling MPB’s platform while ensuring a seamless experience for both buyers and sellers.

Nick Jefferson runs Wylde, the online farmers’ market. A recovering lawyer and adman, he founded Wylde as a response to being deeply underwhelmed by what was on offer in UK supermarkets on his return to London, after spending six years living in Spain. He read law at Oxford and can talk about food endlessly.

Ken Daly was the CEO of innovative consumer product company JML for 30 years. He joined JML in 1994 when he was in shorts and the business was run from the basement of a house in Camden Town. Today, despite his involvement, JML has grown to be a major brand with 7 out of 10 UK homes having purchased a JML product. Internationally, they have distributors in over 50 global markets, with products online, on TV and in major retailers. Ken is now an Non-Executive Director and shareholder at JML,

Isabelle Gormezano Marks is the Marketing Director at East London Liquor Co. With 10 years of experience across consumer insights, advertising and drinks innovation under her belt, Isabelle’s expertise lies in emerging brands that challenge established assumptions of the marketplace. Having previously led the marketing at Small Beer before joining East London Liquor Co. her focus in No & Low and New World Whisky brings tried and tested knowledge of building brands that command new market share on limited budgets. Isabelle also runs STILTS, a power-up network designed for challenger brand teams that swivels the spotlight off founders and puts it onto the people who are building their brand with them in what are often unstructured and high pressured environments.

Brad Capon is Vice President UK & Northern Europe at YOOBIC, one of the fastest growing technologies companies in Europe, whose mission is to empower frontline employees and leaders with frictionless communication, microlearning, and task management – right in the flow of work. Brad has worked with retailers for the past 19 years of his career, spending 9 years in supply chain and more recently in software, helping businesses rethink the way they work through digitisation and technology. Brad has significantly grown YOOBIC’s European footprint and worked to build enduring partnerships with global retailers including Rituals, Boots, Pret, Home Bargains, and PureGym.

Jackson Versitano is currently Regional Manager, UK & RoEMEA with Lightspeed Commerce. Previously known as Vend by Lightspeed, he was their Sales Manager, EMEA for nearly four years, where Jackson’s role was to ensure their Account Executives and Sales Development Representatives were engaged and high performing, and to promote Vend in EMEA, by ensuring customer acquisition is in line with strategic initiatives.

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.

Ellie Starr is currently Head of Partnerships at Just Eat UK, leading the team responsible for the acquisition of new retailers, grocers and branded restaurant groups onto the Just Eat platform. Over the last five years at Just Eat, Ellie has worked with hundreds of brands looking to move into Ecommerce by helping them define their omnichannel strategy and influence new ways of working. Prior to working at Just Eat, Ellie held various positions at Wowcher, including as National Sales Team Leader.

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.

 

Peter Grainger is Co-Founder of CafePod, pioneers of the Nespresso® compatible pod. His first significant professional role was with South Africa’s first digital bank in Cape Town, where he was part of the launch team. Later, he moved to Dublin, where he worked in the hospitality industry as a barman before transitioning to the financial sector, where he secured a position with Investec & then Citigroup. In 2010, Peter began his venture with two colleagues into the coffee industry, with thwier own coffee business, CafePod. The trio set out to offer high-quality coffee pods which led CafePod to become the first Coffee brand in the UK offering Nespresso-compatible pods. Over the years, the company mission has expanded into empowering people to make great coffee at home however they brew, and today CafePod is available across Nespresso compatible pods, ground coffee, and whole bean.

Jonathan Gabay is a creative strategist, educator and writer. His career spans three decades, during which time he has held several major advertising and marketing roles, including that of Group Creative Head at Saatchi and Saatchi Direct. He has worked with some of the most respected names in the world of creative advertising, marketing, PR, the media and education. Jonathan’s books are featured throughout academia and his business insights are regularly sought by news media including CNN, ABC, BBC and Bloomberg.

Morgan Maaka is currently the Manager of the Direct Sales team for the UK & RoEMEA retail market at Lightspeed Commerce. He leads a team of New Business Account Executives and Sales Development Representatives, driving success and growth across SMB and Enterprise markets through data-driven insights and strategic development.

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.

 

Vikram Saxena, founder and CEO of BetterCommerce, is a seasoned technologist with over 26 years of experience in delivering multi-million-dollar projects worldwide. As a self-taught programmer who has been leading a successful IT service company since 2007, Vikram established BetterCommerce in 2016. He identified a significant gap in the market—existing eCommerce platforms were too costly and inflexible for mid-market retailers. In response, he crafted customisable, API-first eCommerce solutions tailored specifically for this segment. Drawing on his extensive coding experience and core values, Vikram continues to drive BetterCommerce towards simplifying eCommerce for mid-market retailers and brands, demonstrating a better way to build and run their businesses.

Hugo Fernandes Lopes, the Co-Founder and CTO at Inovretail, stands at the forefront of technology innovation in the retail industry with over 19 years of technical and functional expertise. He has international experience in the UK Market as well as South America, Italy, Spain, and Germany. Hugo has been instrumental in driving Inovretail’s technology vision and execution, delivering products that seamlessly blend innovation with user-centric design. A deep technologist with a fervent passion for bringing new products to market, Hugo excels in leading teams to develop cutting-edge solutions that address tomorrow’s needs today. Hugo is recognized by colleagues for his flexibility, deep knowledge of Oracle Retail Products, and Oracle database, paving the way for him as a precise and friendly partner in technology ventures.

 

Rebecca Saunders is a Director within the Consumer & Retail Group at Alvarez & Marsal Corporate Transformation Services in London. She has more than 20 years of experience spanning commercial, strategic and leadership roles with leading UK & Global retailers, including John Lewis, Argos, notonthehighstreet, J.Crew and Tiffany covering categories from beauty to consumer electronics. Rebecca is a retail thought leader, a regular columnist for The Retail Bulletin and was featured in Bill Grimsey’s 2021 High Street Review. Rebecca started her career at Rothschild in London where she worked on consumer PE and restructuring deals. She holds an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA in Marketing from Columbia Business School.