We help corporates save money and time in delivering results with a curated portfolio of proven solution partners and innovation services unearthed by adults. We deliver fast and relevant propositions curated in the context of your challenges with a trusted and mature approach derived from our experience in running companies, accelerators and enduring business life. We also provide the expertise and experience to unlock the potential of technology.
Phil is a cultural designer and creative leader. Phil Otto is a cultural anthropologist and designer. His work investigates the relationship between design, architecture, art and culture to make meaningful connections between people, communities and the built environment.
After completing his training in cultural anthropology at Stanford, he began working as a creative leader on projects for museums, retailers and developers. Through these interrelated experiences, Phil arrived at his unique approach to culturally informed projects that create emotional connection with people.
Phil has had the privilege to work with some of the premier brands in the world, including Anthropologie, Coca-Cola International, Levi’s, Nike, Undefeated, The North Face, Free People, Urban Outfitters, REI Co-op, and Ingka Centers for IKEA to name a few. He has been a featured speaker for ICSC, AIGA, SEGD and TechCrunch. He also teaches brand concept for undergraduates and design issues for Master’s in Architecture candidates at the Design Art Architecture and Planning program at the University of Cincinnati. Phil is currently Executive Design Director for KTGY as well as a member of the leadership team for the AIA Retail and Entertainment Knowledge Center. Mr. Otto’s approach to placemaking puts the human element first, combining cultural research with a designer’s eye, resulting in exemplary retail destinations.
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Chris is a digital leader with deep experience in global commerce. He has built commercial, product, software engineering, data science, and operations teams across the world. He spent over a decade at Amazon in both Europe and the US, led Tesco’s digital business and advised the world’s largest retailers on digital innovation at Google Cloud. Chris has particular expertise in e-commerce marketplaces, fulfilment, grocery and scaling businesses through the double-digit billions in revenue.
Angus is the founder of Tuffon Hall Consultancy, which helps brands to get the best out of their agencies. He is an expert at understanding agency models and running pitches, having led over 1000 high-impact pitches and agency model design projects – for clients including Diageo, Barclaycard, F1, Samsung, Nationwide, Camelot, Delta Air Lines & Confused.com.
Previously he helped set up and then sell Oystercatchers to Centaur Media in 2018. Angus also has 15 years’ experience agency side (Publicis & Havas) working in Hong Kong, Madrid and London. He speaks French, Spanish and German but is nonetheless a champion for English wine – he has his own award-winning vineyard! Tuffonhall.co.uk
Sandrine is a C-level Marketing, Digital, eCommerce and AI leader with over 25 years’ experience across UK and EMEA. Most notable in her career have been driving the Digital and AI transformation in Marketing, resulting in Samsung European Digital revenue from $2.5bn to $7bn annually. In that role, she created the first Centre of Excellence for Machine learning, including the development of a CRM propensity model to predict which customers are more likely to click, buy or even churn.
Since 2022 she has been leading Meta (Facebook) UK Digital Marketing Sales team turning it around from performing at -18% to now at +14% year-on-year.
Previously she held a number of Marketing and Digital roles for large brands including TESCO, LACOSTE, AXA Insurance, BAA, HILTON, E.ON, BUPA Healthcare, BT and KURT GEIGER.
Pat Scanlon is Managing Director of the Corporate Financial Group Inc., a consortium of financial services marketers. Pat’s role is to identify and challenge CFG colleagues with new marketing insights and trends, and to provide the opportunities to network with other banks and experts globally.
Pat’s career is rich in financial marketing expertise. Prior to CFG, Pat consulted with many prominent companies to raise awareness of their products and image through innovative marketing. Clients included Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, Comerica, Norwest Bank, Wells Fargo, Treasury Strategies, FTI Treasury Consultants (Ireland), and Hallmark.
Pat has been active in networking within financial & women’s communities throughout her career both in the U.S. and Europe. She is active on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/in/patscanlon/) and on Twitter at cfg_pat.
Nick has 25+ years experience in omnichannel marketing strategy, shopper/commerce, marketing integration, and marketing innovation. He is currently immersed in understanding how AI will impact the industry and developing AI best practices.
Nick has held global and regional leadership roles at some of the biggest and best ad agencies in the world: FCB, Leo Burnett/Arc, & VML (Geometry), to name a few. He is now an independent consultant for both agencies and brand clients on got-to-market and business development strategy and execution.
Vino is an accomplished Brand Storyteller and Strategist with over 25 years experience across publishing, creative agencies and brands including Spotify, Polestar, Sony, Sky and Global Radio.
With a background in journalism, Vino has crafted creative comms, branded content, thought leadership, employee engagement, internal comms and more.
Graham is a seasoned global executive, entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and author with 25+ years of experience.
He has successfully founded and regionally expanded businesses in digital, enterprise tech, media, and consulting. He now specialises in strategic transformation and innovation within the Customer, GTM, and Growth space with particular experience in retail, consumer products, and B2B/B2C tech.
Graham is also the co-author of ‘Changing The Game: The Playbook for Leading Business Transformation’, an award-winning comprehensive book on the subject published worldwide by Wiley.
Founder and chairman of performance coaching consultancy There Be Giants, which help organisations to focus on achieving their strategic ambitions in evermore inclusive and innovative ways.
Over the past 13 years, he has led projects which have helped clients such as Talk Talk, Guys & St Thomas’s Foundation, Magenta Living and ITV, and international clients such as the University of Auckland, Banco Galicia in Argentina, Amadeus, and UBS all improve their strategic flow.
He is the author of the TBG methodology and published the “OKR Coaches Handbook” in 2021.
Global Omnichannel Transformation Manager with a focus on Retail business development. Specializes in Omnichannel Strategies, Technology Integration, Logistics, and Operations. Experienced in guiding strategy for Retail, eCommerce, CRM, and Digital sectors, with an emphasis on Customer Experience. Regular presenter at international events, discussing Experience Centricity and Omnichannel strategies. Trusted by IKEA, ECCO, Vodafone, Staples.
Daniel is an accomplished professional with over 20 years of experience leading both global and early-stage consumer-focused organizations. He has held leadership positions in brand, innovation, and commercial roles across North America, Europe, and the South Pacific.
During his 15-year tenure at Colgate-Palmolive, Daniel drove record growth by breathing new life into established brands and building category disruptors. His approach centers on prioritizing human-centered design, harnessing the power of technology and fostering a culture of continuous experimentation.
He is passionate about nurturing brands that simplify everyday life and empower individuals to surpass their limits.
Emmy® Award winning Executive, Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur and Innovator – Shawn Johnson is the Founder and President of SocioPunk & Seichō Syndicate. Over the past 25 years, his products have been enjoyed by millions of people around the world – creating positive, memorable and lasting relationships through evolving consumer and technology ecosystems.
An entrepreneur, and former executive leader for Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Microsoft – Shawn builds effective strategies and high performing cross-functional teams to create Most Lovable Products that thrive at the intersection of design, technology, and imagination of the human spirit.
Leo has over 20 years of experience at the intersection of strategy, technology and consumer business. He currently leads consumer technology globally for Hanesbrands, Inc which owns a dozen apparel brands including Hanes, Champion and Maidenform. Previously he led digital strategy at VF Corp, whose brand portfolio includes Vans, The North Face and Timberland. Leo spent the first decade of his career in strategy consulting then worked in private equity and has run several early-stage companies.
Gwen’s career is devoted to helping companies grow through meaningful customer engagement and activation across formats, platforms and experiences. She analyses the intersection of retail and technology to envision the future of global commerce. Gwen is also passionate about supporting entrepreneurs who seek to launch their innovations in a fast changing environment. She contributes to Endeavor’s worldwide network as a mentor and serves on their International Selection Panels.
Michael is a strategic and commercially minded marketing leader working across media, digital, technology and customer experience. From running online customer acquisition with M&S to launching new digital platforms for Virgin Atlantic and supporting Samsung’s content teams across Europe, Michael is proven innovator with 20+ years experience. Formerly CEO of Digitas in the UK, he now works supporting brands to drive growth and transform their marketing.
Michel Koch is an e-commerce and omnichannel specialist with 25+ years of experience in digital and retail. A digital pioneer at Sony Music Europe in the 90s, he has held several eCommerce management positions in French and international multi-channel B2C and B2B companies (including Bertelsmann, Manutan International, Quelle-3Suisses, Conrad Electronics, Camaïeu).
Michel spent 6 years in the UK, notably with Marks & Spencer and Maplin Electronics to operate their omnichannel strategy and develop their international eCommerce, and led the marketing transformation of media giant TIME Inc. in the UK as CMO.
From 2018 to 2023, he led Diamart Connect (formerly Institut du Commerce Connecté), an international think tank and organizer of events and training courses specializing in e-commerce, innovation and digital transformation in retail, based in Paris and Lille.
Connected to both retail and start-ups ecosystems, Michel is an advisor and interim director to retail organizations in France and the UK, as well as to retail technology start-ups and specialist applications. He is also co-author of best-selling book “Pro en e-Commerce” (Vuibert Publishing, 2022).
Judith brings energy and more than 20 years of international leadership experience with a focus on driving growth and building cross functional value and excellence across a diverse range of consumer products and business to business organisations, which include Avon Beauty and Firmenich.
Judith has held global leadership roles in marketing, innovation, business development and general management within leading luxury goods, fragrance and flavours, and med tech/ life sciences companies.
Judith has spent all of her career working internationally and having lived and worked in Europe is a fluent French and German speaker.
Now running her own consultancy in business strategy and transformation, Judith has recently worked with McCormick on business strategy and also with Xampla, a start up with a focus on deep tech innovation and sustainability.
A keen sportswoman in her spare time, Judith is also active volunteering within charitable organisations.
Craig is co-founder of Decidable, a unique plug and play ecommerce insights platform that uses AI and ML to automatically translate data chaos into data calm, a need borne out of many years of frustration seen across many businesses
Craig has over 25 years of international marketing, brand and ecommerce experience as well as being a lifelong Liverpool FC fanatic. In his previous roles as Global Digital and Ecommerce Director for Ted Baker London then Chief Customer Officer for Radley London, Craig was responsible for the development, commercial growth and deeper understanding of the customer in all its guises. He understands the needs of marketeers and digital brand teams and what it takes to be truly customer centric.
Michelle Greenwald, corporate innovation expert & cross-pollinator, is CEO of Catalyzing Innovation, a global, cross-sector innovation hub. She was Senior Vice President New Business Development at Disney, Vice President & General Manager New Products at Pepsi, Business Director at Nestle, and Account Exec at J. Walter Thompson. The Catalyzing Innovation Hub includes:
Experienced Business Builder at the Intersection of Culture, Content & Commerce.
As a visionary entrepreneur with over 25 years of startup and corporate experience, I have successfully built lifestyle and content platforms in collaboration with renowned brands such as Amazon/Audible, Walmart, P&G, Clorox, Kraft, Sony Music, American Airlines, Disney, Univision, NBC Universal, Telemundo, and Bose Ventures. My expertise lies in creating and implementing growth strategies that drive success through innovative thinking, fostering strong relationships, identifying new opportunities, and building cross-functional collaboration to deliver mutually beneficial results for clients, agencies, and colleagues.
Mark Baum currently serves as Chief Collaboration & Commercial Officer & SVP, Industry Relations for FMI – The Food Industry Association. In this role, Baum engages retailer, manufacturer, supplier, and service provider C-Suite executives to further trading partner collaboration, leading to operational improvements and growth opportunities across all segments of the food retail supply chain.
Additionally, Mark serves on the Board of Directors of KeyImpact Sales & Systems, a national foodservice broker. He is an Industry Venture Partner with Loft Growth Partners, a private-equity firm. To promote diversity initiatives, Baum is a Founding Champion of NextUp, A CPG/Retail industry organization, as well as a Director on the Board of Oswego State University (NY), his alma mater.
Elliott has over 20 years’ experience of payments, transit, retail, acquisitions, and divestments in the UK as well as North America, currently working as an Integration Executive focused on businesses that serve security and ID needs in the Cyber Security space.
Before joining the North American business, he led the Digital Payments team for Mastercard in the UK and prior to that he led the Digital Offers sales team at Barclaycard, launching its Bespoke Offers platform. Elliott has a passion for embracing technology to create great customer experience in scalable, repeatable ways.
Trudy Frection is a B2B marketing leader who earned her ‘grey hair status’ as a global marketing leader at Bank of America, PNC and HSBC. Her B2B and B2C financial services marketing career took her to Hong Kong, London and NYC and her financial product experience ranges from asset management and private wealth to supply chain finance and cash management.
Today, as a fractional CMO and certified executive leadership coach, she makes large corporate growth strategies accessible to small and medium-sized businesses within limited budgets. What she loves about the new gig is the chance to step outside of financial services and share how customer needs, future trends, commercial goals and delivery challenges can fuel strategy and innovative campaigns in any business.
Alain is an innovative, MBA trained senior executive, with proven U.S., international and global experience. He works with creatively driven marketing organisations to help them grow their business, differentiate their brand and stay relevant in the digital first, omni-channel experience economy.
He built his career at leading marketing agencies Accenture, Grey and Leo Burnett, where he turned around failing operations; reengineered organisations to make them more digitally driven and future facing; and partnered with leading global companies such as Procter & Gamble, Best Buy, Citibank, Fedex, Diageo, Nestlé, Walt Disney, Visa and Volvo to name just a few.
Alain’s European, US and Canadian citizenship, upbringing and experience, and fluency in 4 languages, make him an always curious, collaborative, dynamic and effective partner, with a healthy non-conformity with the status quo.
Fiona has over 30 years’ experience as a business strategy leader, FMCG marketer and sustainability consultant. After Board roles at Marcomms agencies and creation of the most effective CSR campaign for Sainsbury’s, she helped launch the UK’s first electric supercar, set up and grew the London office for an International Brand Experience Agency Group with clients including Porsche, Bacardi, Unilever and Google and headed up Ella’s Kitchen marketing and insights team during the run up to their sale. More recently Fiona has supported business leaders of all shapes and sizes with strategic planning and has filled a much-needed gap between sustainability technicians and Corporate decision makers, championing sustainability communications and reporting for established brands and green tech companies.
She will also do anything for a cup of Earl Grey!
Jay is a global leader in financial services and tech across Data, Payments, ecommerce. He focuses on delivering Product Innovation, building long term customer and commercial growth; and developing strong, resourceful, motivated teams that win.
As the Chief Product Officer at Equifax Europe – an FCA approved Senior Manager – he commercialised Products and orchestrated a transformational shift to a “Product-led” culture. At Amazon, he worked on ecommerce checkout experiences and new payment methods.
He has operated at C-Suite and Board, worked at Fortune 100 and Private Equity businesses across UK/Europe, US, Middle East and Asia, advised startups, and is a regular external speaker.
Anthony is a high energy strategic leader with a passion to bring together diverse cross functional teams to accelerate value creation.
With over 25 years experience with consumer products in leading growth organisations including Reckitt, Mars and McCormick, he has worked and led marketing, innovation, general management, strategy and commercial teams.
Anthony has experience of working with European, North American and Asian regions and had lived in France and Malaysia.
Anthony is now a strategic consultant, creating rapid value creation by leveraging the capability of teams and getting the right people in the right places to do the right things.
Rob has over 30 years’ experience working with global businesses – Shell, Colgate, Palmolive, SC Johnson, Michelin and Nestle Purina – in leadership positions with a focus on sales and marketing. Strong strategically with a passion for the customer.
More recently Rob has worked as a consultant in a variety of businesses advising around growth strategies and hiring leadership talent – social care/education/third sector and risk management. In addition, Rob enjoys NED roles.
Outside work Rob is a loyal Manchester City supporter and follows ASM Clermont as a keen ex rugby player
Tassos is the Managing Partner of Hermes Consulting, which delivers Marketing, Innovation and Strategy solutions.
He has been identifying opportunities and solving problems for over 20 years as a consultant and an international business leader in Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Heineken.
He has held strategic roles with global and regional responsibility, as well as hands-on operational roles in multiple countries, honing his expertise in complex structures and multi-stakeholder situations.
Tassos has and MBA from Warwick Business School, UK and a Master’s degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Patras, GR.
Gianfranco has over 20 years experience in Customer Experience, CRM, Marketing Automation and Personalisation.
Most recently he led CRM and Personalisation for the Natura & Co group, comprised of the four iconic brands of Aesop, Avon, Natura and The Body Shop.
Prior to transitioning to a Group role, he was at Aesop where he was responsible for Global CRM. Joining Aesop in 2019 he transformed the brand’s capabilities in how they directly engage with customers across their markets and regions. Those capabilities centred on delivering technology, organisational change, and data strategy to support Aesop’s truly unique vision of understanding the customer.
At Avon he helped set the strategy to transform their personalisation and CRM capabilities.
Prior to his Natura & Co roles, Gianfranco spent most of his career agency side working with brand as diverse as BMW, adidas, BT, Disney and easyjet to name but a few as well as setting up CRM and analytics capabilities in several agencies.
Margaret Safford is a consumer marketing and retail leader. Her experience is within large retail environments in the US including CVS Health and Staples and within global CPGs including Colgate-Palmolive and P&G.
Most recently, she led the marketing strategy for Evolved by Nature, a Boston-based biotech startup, where she launched clean beauty and personal care products on DTC channels and into brick and mortar retailers. She currently advises companies on growth and innovation strategies to drive profitable revenue.
Robyn has over 10 years experience working in Software Sales delivering innovative and market leading solutions for start up and scale up businesses.
Two thirds of her career has been within the Martech space, partnering with organisations to help them accelerate growth by leveraging data and AI technology curated to enhance efficiency across sales channels. Most recently Robyn has led an enterprise commercial role working with organisations to help them understand the benefits Artificial Intelligence provides throughout the value-chain.
Robyn is passionate about innovative technologies that challenge the status quo to deliver world-class results.
Jeremy is an experienced Global General Manager with a depth of Commercial as well as Strategy and Transformation expertise. His early career was marketing with sales secondments and more recently headed up Strategy globally (including Digital, Data and Innovation). He has spent 30+ years in leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, McCormick and SC Johnson. Jeremy has extensive global experience including living and working in USA, France, Sweden and Switzerland for over 12 years. Jeremy has also been an NED for the last 8 years at The Teenage Cancer Trust. Outside of work his passions are family, Golf and Leeds United (preferably in the Premier League).
Jonathan has over 30 years in marketing, with extensive experience across digital, direct, building customer value and the impact of brand. Lover of all things marketing and technology, passionate marketing leader, well-versed in defining marketing strategy, leading digital transformation and when required right through to integration.
Led Aviva UK insurance business through periods of significant brand growth and digital servicing, brought the AA insurance business back online, and was the marketing lead for the launch of MORE THAN. More recently has been in a couple of start-ups and consulting within the B2B, charity, education and financial services sector.
Outside of work, sports and nature-loving dad, heavily into Apple Fitness, passionate around music and regularly playing football and cricket and annual skiing and surfing adventures.
Georg is a pathfinder in Brand, Marketing & Business Development with a diverse large enterprise experience in Germany, US and Mexico at HERE Technologies, LG Electronics, Cadbury Schweppes and Bayer Healthcare. Georg is also active as angel investor in the Berlin startup ecosystem. He consults on Brand, Insights, Value Proposition & Marketing Communication.
Julian is a Retail Trading Director, skilled in leading profitable change and transformation, designing and delivering strategic change and and in driving retail and digital growth. He has a Proven record of delivering exceptional growth from turnarounds, transformations and scale up, in key omni-channel operators, including private label and international product sourcing strategies.
He has worked for some of the worlds largest retailers including Aldi and A S Watson. His expertise covers Grocery, Apparel, General Merchandise and consumer electronics for omni-channel retailers.
Mark is an experienced Non-Executive Director and Advisor who has worked for more than 35 years in consumer industries across the world. Formerly CEO at LLX Global Business Services SA and CTO at JAB Luxury GmbH he has deployed many game-changing technologies that have enabled business to rapidly transform and commercialise results.
Talia is an energising, motivated and commercially astute senior level executive with over 25 years of sales and marketing experience across a wide range of channels, specialising in digital and ecommerce. She spent 15 years agency side providing end-to-end consumer solutions from initial awareness through the conversion funnel to purchase. Whilst agency side Talia worked across a diverse set of consumer brands including Toni&Guy, Orange, Kia, Aptamil & Silverstone where she thrived on delivering measurable success and driving year on year growth.
In 2010 Talia jumped client side and joined Wiltshire Farm Foods to lead their ecommerce operation, delivering double digit growth on a platform where the average consumer age was 83! Most recently Talia was a Sales and Marketing Director at Royal Canin, the premium pet food division of Mars inc where she leveraged her experience across the business divisions to bring a cohesive and agile approach in a traditional retail environment to increase brand awareness and establish a digital first mindset.
Talia is now a strategic consultant working with brands to create meaningful consumer experiences to enhance engagement and deliver sustainable sales growth.
Highly experienced and commercial CFO, Non Executive Chair, entrepreneur and investor. Deep engagement with VC, debt and equity financing and has achieved multiple successful exits.
Prepared FatFace for IPO, CFO at Octopus (group includes VC, Octopus Ventures) including the setup for Octopus Energy, CFO at Yo Sushi, PepsiCo, Kraft Mondelez, Nestle, Selecta, A P Moeller Maersk conglomerate as well as SMEs and scale ups.
Twice a CEO with responsibility for all Group functions including Sales & Marketing, Supply Chain, IT, HR, Finance & Legal. Strong track record of delivery in challenging environments, in turnaround and growth stories, with global experience in emerging & developed markets.
Extensive network built over thirty years with a deep insight into business models and how to monetise.
A purposeful CMO & general manager with over 30 years of experience in FMCG, including pet care, human food, and dairy (ice cream). He holds a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry & is a food tech pioneer. A multicultural leader with operational experience in China, Asia, Europe, and globally. He is a board member and cyclist. Ian founded the marketing consultancy Pecorino-Group and consults for Accenture on marketing strategy & transformation. At Unilever and MARS Inc he crafted iconic brands (M&M’s; Snickers; Dove; Magnum; Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto; Wall’s).
He created innovative marketing campaigns in China where he witnessed the birth of the internet & pioneered digital marketing. Ian is a culture builder, agile expert, and P&L owner, he is fascinated by how Brands embrace technology and leverage digital ecosystems to build B2B2C systems, build equity & drive growth.
Richard has been a Management and Technology Consultant for over 35 years, the last 7 years as a Managing Director at Accenture, preceded by 10 years at Deloitte. He has spent the bulk of his career in Financial Services working across UK, Ireland, Europe and South Africa with a focus in the Life, Pensions and Wealth sectors.
He has extensive commercial, operational and technical expertise having sold, planned and delivered significant business & IT transformations for many clients across their core business operations, including customer and digital solutions.
Richard is now an independent advisor working with scale-up and established organisations.
A veteran consumer products executive, Fin brings expertise amassed over 25 years operating as a senior marketing and digital commerce strategist working globally with some of the world’s best-known consumer brands including LEGO, Disney & Fender.
Supriya is an experienced marketer with over 18 years in the beauty & retail industry.
Her last role at L’Oreal was as a specialist in digital marketing & ecommerce media building the marketing strategy for their e-commerce business.
She built a data-driven marketing foundation for the hair care division which strengthened their e-commerce business by improving customer acquisition, loyalty, engagement and conversion.
Supriya has experience across the various facets of marketing – brand building, launching private label brands, product management, digital marketing and media.
Prior to L’Oreal, Supriya has worked with other beauty brands in marketing roles across Europe & Asia.
Jude has 20+ years’ experience of leading and working with marketing teams – big and small.
Having a wide marketing skillset, developed in both B2C and B2B financial service roles (HSBC, Aviva, Legal & General, Santander, Bank of Scotland, abrdn, Leeds Building Society, M&G/Prudential) she’s faced the full gamut of brand, business and customer challenges, so versatility is probably the thing she should shout about. But she’s most impactful when focused on the specific challenge of helping FS brands develop, understand and act on a strong and consistent brand strategy and narrative, having delivered numerous rebrands, repositionings and large-scale brand building campaigns.
Jude also has an International Coaching Federation Certification.
Matt is a commercial advisor, providing contract based rapid growth solutions for premium considered-purchase retail brands. Offering on-the-ground executional support that has consistently delivered sales growth of +300%. Specialising in both instore and digital customer acquisition, conversion, and sales strategy he has recently helped transform the bottom-line performance of businesses such as Snug Sofa, Harvey Jones Kitchens, Bridgman Furniture, Roundhouse Design,and many others.
With over 20 years’ experience as a board level commercial lead, he has a history of establishing brands as market leaders by providing best-in-class insights, training, and operation support to significantly increase revenues.
Margaret Safford is a consumer marketing and retail leader. Her experience is within large retail environments in the US including CVS Health and Staples and within global CPGs. including Colgate-Palmolive and P&G. Most recently, she led the marketing strategy for Evolved by Nature, a Boston-based biotech startup, where she launched clean beauty and personal care products on DTC channels and into brick and mortar retailers. She currently advises companies on growth and innovation strategies to drive profitable revenue.
Marie-Axelle has years of retail and e-commerce experience. Some years ago, she launched e-commerce for Staples in Germany and in the UK, then launched e-commerce for Sephora in France and in China, when there was barely any e-commerce in China. She also set up Sephora’s stores business in Turkey.
Since 2009, she has been working in Omnichannel Retail Consulting, and then Tech. She was the first Chief Commercial Officer of Ocado Solutions, closing deals with major retailers globally. She is now involved in Video Commerce with Firework, a Live Shopping and Shoppable Video scale-up headquartered in California.
Marketing Specialist with 4+ years experience amplifying brand awareness, driving scaled social media growth, and consistently delivering successful content for websites, media campaigns and blogs.
“I get excited about opportunities where I can combine my passion for growth and innovation with my marketing experience to achieve a mutually beneficial partnership.“
Mark is an executive level marketer and experienced non-executive director across listed, public and charity sectors. In his last exec role at Direct Line Group (DLG), Mark was Managing Director for Marketing & Digital. Prior to DLG Mark worked at HSBC, 118118 and Mars in a range of marketing and commercial roles.
Outside of DLG Mark is NED for the Marketing Society, Independent Advisor to HMRC, Chair of the School of Marketing, INED for Emma3D, and co-host of the “The Places We’ll Go” podcast. He also founded a charity event – the Sprintathon – in 2016 which seeks to #beatcancerfaster and has raised £850k to date for Stand Up To Cancer.
Mark is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and of the Marketing Academy, and was recognised as Marketing Society Leader of the Year in 2018.
I’m an ex old school ad man Over 30 years international experience half spent in Ad agencies such as Ogilvy’s, Saatchi’s, McCann’s and JWT employed in roles such as Creative Group Head, Creative Director, and Business Development Director the other half spent working as an independent consultant and with consulting firms like Capgemini and BCG. I’ve Initiated and launched brands like ASDA, Orange, media channels like mobile advertising and held lead roles in digital transformational strategy and data driven consumer marketing initiatives for brands such as Argos, British Airways, Burberry, Coke, and Vodafone.
Currently Global Idea and Business Development Director within the SAP Intelligent Enterprise Institute.
Miya Knights has over 25 years’ experience as a retail technology analyst, editor, author and consultant. She is the owner and publisher of Retail Technology magazine and has co-authored two best-selling books about Amazon and Omnichannel Retail. She is a GigaOm analyst, serves as a consultant and advisor to a number of technology companies, has judged a number of industry awards and is also a member of the Retail Influencer Network.
Miya has appeared as a retail technology expert on news and current affairs television programmes, and is regularly quoted in the press, as well as speaking at or moderating industry events. She was also recognised as 2021 Arts & Media Senior Leader by the Black British Business Awards and was named one of top retail influencers in 2022 by RETHINK Retail and the Retail Technology Innovation Hub.
Mark has a diverse background that includes senior level positions with Polaroid, Casio, LG and Stanley Black & Decker, as well as board level experience in SME and Not For Profit environments.
A bold, digital-age professional, Mark set up The Ruppell Club Ltd in 2021 as a strategic consultancy on a platform that there is too much sameness in the world today and not enough imagination.
People have been saying for years why businesses should become better storytellers. Greg shows you how. All kinds of brands, of all sizes, across all categories, all over the world. Folks like Adobe, Capgemini, Google, Hyperloop TT, Qantas, Macquarie Group, University Of Melbourne as well as non-for-profits, sole operators and start-ups. Greg has taken the successful formulas movies use to emotionally hook in audiences and translated them for brands. You stop telling the story you want to tell, and start telling the one your audience wants to hear. It’s why his clients are enjoying blockbuster results.
Before Narrativity, Greg was an advertising copywriter and creative director, spent a lifetime at Leo Burnett, started and sold his own agency to WPP, won Cannes Lions, dabbled in entertainment, won a Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, won best new Global TV Format at MIPTV in Cannes, created and sold 12 reality TV formats to Australia, US and the UK. His brand and entertainment worlds have come together at Narrativity and he splits the year between Australia, Lisbon and LA. Yes, he’s a lucky bastard.
Ben is an ecosystem development specialist with 25 years of experience as a fintech founder, investment banker, advisor to government and technology executive. Having built up Europe’s largest fintech and cybersecurity cluster, Level39, he has deep expertise in supporting B2B businesses in shortening their sales cycles and being deliberate in their development of key strategic relationships.
Howard is an experienced business leader with 30 years’ experience in advertising agencies, building teams, managing clients and running international new business operations which delivered client wins worth millions in revenue.
He has completed a Foundation in Coaching Practice accreditation and is currently working with a number of independent advertising and design agencies, where he is coaching leadership and creating bespoke business development strategies.
He has appeared at conferences and across media discussing a range of marketing industry topics.
William has over 40 years’ business experience, with a career that started with marketing and general management roles at Unilever and Grand Met, and has included communications and strategy consultancy, as well as first hand experience of creating and running start-ups.
He currently specialises in ‘business consultancy’, particularly around growth, and combines this with voluntary work and other interests.
Classic training of P&G, Mars and Revlon through the early years with a top up at HBS. 50+ years as a manager of product and people.
My early career culminated in the purchase of the Coty business worldwide. The last thirty years without a proper job; I’ve been an entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, N.E.D. and general nuisance across a broad range of, usually, consumer facing businesses. I’ve lived and worked in the U.K. Portugal, Italy, Hong Kong and Australia so have a pretty world wide knowledge of what works, and best of all doesn’t.
Viv’s strengths are in digital strategy, MarTech, omni-channel personalisation and CX, retail media and AdTech, CPG and retail partnerships and analytics tools. Viv is also a board advisor and consultant for FoodTech and RetailTech startups and scaleups.
Previously, he was MD of grocery comparison site mySupermarket, working with Nestle, Pernod Ricard and Nomad Foods, and SVP of AI dietary software Spoon Guru, working with Tesco, Albert Heijn, Migros and Woolworths Australia.
Jesper is one of the world’s leading experts in shopper and in-store marketing. He was with P&G for 22 years. He was educated at Copenhagen Business School and Northwestern University, Chicago. He led Customer & Channel Marketing globally for P&G, as well as the Shopper Marketing and “First Moment of Truth”-teams for P&G across all markets and retail customers in Western Europe.
Phil has spent almost 30 years as an insights professional and has a proven track record of growing client accounts, offer development, award-winning thought leadership and team management.
For the last 2 years Phil has run his own insight consultancy, triple i, where he consults with clients and agencies on their brand strategy and innovation challenges.
Phil was formerly a board director for Kantar’s Insights businesses in the UK from 2006 until early 2020. His roles at Kantar included MD Thought Leadership and Innovation, MD Offer, MD Consumer Division and Global Account Director.”
Annabel is a Global Marketing Leader with extensive marketing experience, both B2B and B2C, in Blue Chip and FTSE 250 companies in the FMCG, Financial Services, Healthcare and Ecommerce industries.
She is a highly skilled consumer and commercial marketer with over 25 years experience who has delivered stretching business growth, built strong brands and driven marketing effectiveness with a results driven mindset.
She has operated at C Suite and Board level across businesses in UK, Europe, US and Asia and worked with starts ups and established businesses.
Andrea Davies is an experienced business leader and strategic advisor who has spent over 20 years driving transformation at the forefront of consumer publishing. She has held executive board positions at IPC Media, Time Inc. UK, TI Media and Future plc, leading strategy, M&A and running significant business units.
Andrea played a key role in the sale of Time Inc. UK to private equity in 2018. She set the strategic direction for growth, diversification and value creation, playing a hands-on role expanding brands including Marie Claire, Decanter, Wallpaper and Country Life digitally, internationally and into recurring subscription and membership models.
Andrea began her career at Arthur Andersen and gained her ACA qualification before pursuing her passion for media and strategy.
Dr. Amy Zalman is the founder and CEO of Prescient, a foresight consultancy that helps Fortune 500 firms, governments and non-profit organisations to anticipate and prepare for the future. She is a professor of strategic foresight in the Culture, Communications & Technology Program at Georgetown University, and the founder and director of the Foresight Sandbox, an executive education program that provides strategic foresight training to business and government leaders. Huffington Post called her one of the world’s seven top futurists in 2015, and she was cited in Forbes as one of the world’s 50 leading female futurists in 2020.
Dr. Zalman’s previous roles include Chief Executive Officer and President of the World Future Society, and the Chair of Information Integration at the U.S. National War College. She earned her doctorate from the Department of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies at New York University.
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Peter’s experience at Red Bull (where he was head of global partnerships) and other digital media businesses have placed him at the leading edge of brand, media and digital development. His understanding of this space and inspirational leadership is second to none.” Peter is an accomplished leader with more than 20 years of experience growing revenues across media, entertainment, and retail platforms.
A passionate media executive, Jodie Hopperton simplifies complex business environments and develops revenue streams for media and technology companies. Over the last two years in L.A., she has developed a particular passion for AR & VR.
Leveraging her knowledge and skills from running divisions of large news organisations such as the New York Times & Trinity Mirror, and with start-ups in London & California over the last 3 years.
James spent almost 20 years at some of the best and biggest media agencies in Europe, holding senior roles in London, New York, and Hamburg. After two successful agency exits (Unique Digital and Syzygy), he now spends his time working with some of the most dynamic TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom) businesses in the UK. Working with them across all business operations including fundraising, sales, marketing, client success, strategy and team leadership. In addition, he also works with brands and agencies helping them in building and improving their media, digital and marketing operations.
Jo has over 30 years of technology experience across a very wide range of sectors from FMCG, Sport, Financial Services, and Defence. He was digital strategy lead at BAE Systems Futures developing new businesses and Head of Strategy at the £2bn conglomerate, Marshalls of Cambridge. He has chaired the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor and recently won the Accelerated Capability Environment Home Office award. His broad range of knowledge drawn from blue chips and start-ups, allows him to rapidly understand new sectors and accelerate a business’s capability through rapid innovation, helping them thrive in VUCA world.
Nicky has been helping organisations drive innovation and growth through data insights and data led culture for over 20 years. Most recently Nicky was Chief Data Officer at Direct Line Insurance where she delivered a commercially led data strategy, driving change across people, process, technology and culture. Before that Nicky was COO at Dunnhumby, the global leader in customer science solutions. Nicky joined Dunnhumby in the early days and played a key role in developing the global client base as well as its portfolio of products and solutions to optimise and personalise the customer experience for retailers and brands.
Alastair is a former Managing Director at Haymarket and Future PLC running some of the UK’s best known consumer media brands including Autocar, Stuff, FourFourTwo, How It Works and What Hi-Fi? amongst others. His 20 years in media have seen him focus on International Business Development and Partnerships, Content Syndication, Digital Subscriptions, E-Commerce and Affiliate revenues as well as Content, Audience and Commercial Growth.
Alastair established Quested Consulting Ltd in 2020 to help media companies, platforms and start-ups diversify their revenue streams and develop their value propositions to both consumers and partners.
Karina has over 25 years’ experience in digital’ having built up the digital business for Axel Springer in the 90s, remaining #1 until a sale to Stroer Group in 2016. Represented Axel Springer as shareholder in aol.de, sport.de, business tv.
Since 2000 she has been an advisor to leading companies on the development and implementation of new, cross-media business fields and brands, performs marketing services and establishes contact with cooperation partners such as Internet portals, television channels, publishing houses and advertising agencies, etc. Clients include King.com, buyvip.com, match.com, Deutsche Telekom, RTLinteractive, Pro7SAT1, Levelupmedia, Spilgames and the German Football league.
Gordon Glenister joins us from the membership community. He has previously been the director general of the British Promotional Merchandise Association and is now launching a new division for influencers in the Branded Content Marketing Association and is also the business development director for the Institute of Export and International Trade. Gordon is a passionate advocate of membership and subscription models and helps organisations engage better with members and communities. Gordon has previously held senior roles in the drinks industry and has ran his own merchandise and rewards business.
Douglas is a New Business and Client Management specialist who focuses on building infrastructure and hiring teams. He’s built teams in media sales, supplier partnerships in retail, and client services for agencies. He’s operated both in the UK and run large teams across 4 continents. He has spent 20 years in digital and 16 years in Mobile, including Client Services Director at Sponge, Business Development Director at Velti/mGage, Director of Mobile at major agency group Creston plc & Director of International Advertising at MicroWarehouse Inc. Douglas now kick-starts & grows the sales for companies across all digital disciplines.
Having worked in the communications industry for 30 years, Phil brings deep experience in brand, mobile and shopper marketing.
After managing agencies in Indonesia, Australia and the UK, he moved into Strategy and Innovation roles. As Director of Strategy at Sponge, the UK’s leading Mobile agency, he developed their direct-to-brand approach and led successful pitches for adidas, Bacardi and Dyson. He filled the same position at M&C Saatchi Shop, helping leading brands implement new approaches to shopper marketing. Highlights included launching a chatbot for Unilever and augmented reality solutions for Mondelez. Phil specialises in creating best practice playbooks, white papers and other thought leadership pieces writing extensively on Customer Experience, the Shopper Journey, Loyalty and Mobile Commerce.
12 years of mobile experience inc: advertising, digital content & operators. Working with firms to find new ways for emerging technologies to streamline and add value to businesses, with the focus of the business driving the technology rather than the other way round.
Director of a development studio that creates 1st and 3rd party content for clients such as Time Warner though off-shore capabilities in Costa Rica. Previous positions include Global Head of Display Advertising for Vodafone managing 24 countries, Orange, EE and Smartpipe – a real-time big data broker platform.
Walking our talk with her grey hair, Pauline consults with public and privately-held companies, start-ups and individuals. She works on business & brand strategy, marketing capability, and personal development challenges, developing tailored solutions to help clients achieve their maximum growth potential. Pauline’s knack for operating in complex multi-cultural organisations and bringing together divergent interests and teams comes from her European-American background and a long career at P&G, where she worked on local, regional & global brand management, customer & shopper marketing, and training & organisation design.
With 25 years of international business experience, Rupert has successfully developed and driven business strategies for multiple ad-tech companies. As MD Europe for RadiumOne, Rupert was responsible for creating and scaling the European online media operations for Specific Media (now VIANT), and Conversant Media. He has a passion for startup culture and defines his mission as being “to help articulate and demystify digital advertising as information and consumer technologies collide”. Rupert holds a BA in German Language and Management Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Martin is an experienced strategic leader, entrepreneur and adviser. He floated a finance company on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and also founded and sold a digital marketing business in 2011. He has been Global Digital Lead for the FCB Group of marketing agencies and continues to advise companies around the world on how to thrive in a world of fast change including BDO, Santander and Air New Zealand. He is a Digital Trends expert for Google. He regularly appears on TV, speaks at events, delivers workshops and writes articles and reports on matters related to innovation, technology and future thinking.
Sean has over 20 years’ experience in publishing and digital content. He set up Square One Group in 1994, which became one of the fastest growing independent content agencies in the UK before its acquisition in 2007 by Seven Publishing (backed by Guardian Media Group and Caledonia Investment Trust) with Sean running the combined business. Seven was in turn acquired by leading German content agency C3 (part of Hubert Burda Media) in 2016. Sean remained as CEO until 2018.
He is now starting a new career as an advisor to companies in the worlds of advertising/ media/ content/ technology/ blockchain. Sean is also an advisor and NED to Blue Star Capital an AIM-listed investment company focused on new technologies.
Paul has spent the last 20 years working in the Media and Broadcast industry. Most recently, he designed, built and executed NBC Universal’s innovation capability, Media Labs, enabling the global media giant to capitalise on and react to the ever changing technology landscape of the sector.
The jewel in the crown of this role was the creation and delivery of Digifest, a one day internal festival engaging with over 1500 employees to educate them on key technology themes and trends. Digifest has been adopted by NBCU offices around the world, and has become the highlight of the year for many employees.
Paul now consults for companies looking to harness the power of their employees to deliver significant change.
Patrick is a specialist in understanding the modern digital customer, with more than 20 years’ experience of digital product creation as director of the automotive and consumer electronics divisions at Haymarket Media Group. He has deep experience of social platforms and led the acquisition of PistonHeads, which became UK’s biggest independent community for men and number two in the automotive classifieds market. When he’s not chasing the online buyer around the block, he can be found driving his electric car.
Kate is a business founder (of a New York-based marcomm agency working with tech startups and scale-ups), and she’s spent years working on the front lines with entrepreneurs and founding teams of innovative, disruptive, and visionary B2B and B2C tech companies.
She’s helped launch and scale US-based businesses in advertising, marketing, and retail tech, along with those specializing in eCommerce and mobile. She’s also partnered with UK and EU companies to guide them through US launch and expansion. Kate helps define real-world use cases and applications based on common customer pain points and end user needs, refine product and customer experience, and define and deliver relevant value for a non-technical buyer. Her work has led scale-up clients to long-term relationships with global brands including Wal-Mart, Victoria’s Secret, ESPN, Kellogg’s, Hertz, and Pepsi.
Guy is an interactive entertainment serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in interactive media. Guy works with innovative teams in Fortune 500 companies as well as startups in Israel and South California. Guy founded Sidekick Games, working with market leaders such as SquareEnix, Rovio, Disney and Oculus as well as Double Fusion, a leader in the in-game advertising space.
Ellen is co-founder of Collider Amsterdam where she’s been supercharging start-ups and accelerating brands since 2016. She raised investment for and launched three accelerator programs focused on marketing, commerce and adtech, helping start-ups from all over the world to grow faster.
Ellen has 20 years of international marketing and innovation experience, working from Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Budapest and Paris. In her previous role as Global Innovation Manager for HEINEKEN, Ellen was responsible for development and implementation of Open Innovation. She understands the needs of marketeers and what it takes to implement new tech in a corporate environment.
Jeremy has over 30 years’ experience across technology industries in a variety of CxO leadership roles. He was CEO at a VC backed mobile marketing solutions company, licensing software platforms to media owners and service providers, before becoming VP at comScore, a public company delivering big data business analytics. Jeremy has extensive experience of software licensing, marketing of professional services and business strategy definition & execution.
An eCommerce heavyweight for 20 years, Andy was head of eCommerce at Carphone Warehouse, then Director of Multichannel at Ryman. Andy then joined House of Fraser as Chief Customer Officer with responsibility for brand and marketing, digital proposition and multichannel sales. He subsequently joined Mothercare where he was responsible for the customer experience across both retail and e-commerce. Andy is now Chief Digital Officer at Arcadia.
Nick has extensive experience in marketing and advertising technology, and more recently, insights & market research.
Working in both the start-up and corporate world for 15 years, helping clients deliver innovative, global projects using the latest technology, he is passionate about solving problems and enjoys the challenge of making cutting edge technology accessible for everyone.
Nick is Operations Director and Insights Lead at greyhairworks.
Despite his lack of grey hair, Ben has spent 14 years helping brands partner with start-ups, scale-ups, tech businesses, agencies and consultancies to solve business challenges and grow.
Ben has also helped launch a multi-million pound mobile messaging & payments startup, created a content marketing business unit, grown mobile technology businesses & digital agencies, and supported a portfolio of startups within an accelerator focused on the marketing and advertising industry. Ben thrives on helping businesses come together to solve challenges that would be otherwise impossible to solve on their own.
Andy is a startup to scale-up entrepreneur turned startup investor now back to entrepreneur! His passion is to build high value growth for businesses by driving sales income and equity-based fundraising. He’s started new businesses in retail (HMV/EMI) and co-founded others in, video games, virtual reality, mobile technology and startup acceleration.
As a founding member of the pioneering virtual reality business, Superscape, he played a key commercial role in taking the business from start to a full IPO with a FTSE listing in London in just 5 years. Andy was directly involved in pitching and successfully raising over £60m of funding whilst serving on the main plc board. His operational role as head of business development saw him bounce around the planet spending significant time on the West Coast of the USA, Europe and across Asia. This delivered numerous global licensing deals with the likes of Microsoft, ARM, Intel and IBM.
Most recently he co-founded startup accelerator Collider which was listed as one of Europe’s Top Five Seed Accelerators. Andy led all startup and scale up interaction with corporations and agencies. Through this corporate clients such as Unilever, NBC Universal and Diageo have discovered game changing innovation some of which is deployed on a global basis.
Through his work Andy regularly leads bespoke, targeted events bringing the best, most established innovators together with curious and ambitious corporate leaders to share opportunities and tackle challenges.
Alex is a multi-lingual business creator and sales generator who has launched multiple businesses across Europe, Africa and South America.
He sold his first Anglo-French business in his early 20s, and after a 4-year period with 2 large blue chips, Alex helped build and then run a £20m turnover, 12-territory digital business, before its sale. He then co-founded Sponge, the UK’s leading Mobile Marketing agency (twice voted Mobile Agency of the Year). As CEO and then Executive Chairman he developed the mobile strategy and solutions for brands such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Asda, Barclays and Auto Trader. The business was sold in 2006, highlighted by the FT as one of the best agency exits of the year.
Alex was also behind skins4things, a device personalisation business with clients including the BBC, Warner Bros, Moshi Monsters and Toshiba which was subsequently sold in 2014.
During this time Alex served 4 years as Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association in the UK, and was elected to the board of the Institute of Promotional Marketing for 2 years.
Alex is a regular, engaging and accomplished speaker on the international conference circuit and has been regularly called a “leading mobile industry veteran” which he does not appreciate.