Expect to hear from a stellar speaker line-up of retailers and industry experts across the two days of virtual events for Accelerating Ecommerce Week. 

Confirmed speakers include:

Shira Feuer, Trinny London chief marketing officer

Shira Feuer is chief marketing officer at Trinny London, the global beauty company focused on helping women be their best by building confidence, delivering impactful entertainment and fostering genuine community.

She is responsible for worldwide revenue growth, new customer acquisition, long-term retention, product marketing, brand and creative, performance marketing and paid advertising, owned editorial and social content across both Trinny London and Trinny Woodall channels, PR and influencer marketing, and the growth and engagement of the brand community.

Feuer's previous experience spans renowned global brands such as The Walt Disney Company and Burberry, international media agencies and high-growth, venture-backed start-ups. She sits on various client advisory boards and digital leadership councils and consults for diverse global brands and non-profits, from Skyscanner to Founders4Schools. 

Duncan Painter, Ascential CEO

Duncan Painter joined Ascential in October 2011 as chief executive officer. Following four years of turnaround of the business and growth, Top Right Group (previously known as Emap) was rebranded Ascential and successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 2016.

Before joining the group, Painter was an executive at Sky, where he supported their growth objectives to 10 million customers. Prior to that, he was global product leader at Experian, founder and CEO of consumer intelligence company ClarityBlue, which was acquired by Experian in 2006, and European systems integration director for Hitachi Data Systems. Painter is a non-executive director of ITV.

Martin Bysh, Huboo CEO

Martin Bysh is an experienced entrepreneur and technologist. He began his career as a computer games programmer for 20 years, launching his first game at the age of 16. He followed this hit with many more before turning his attention to the nascent worldwide web, launching one of the UK’s first online dating sites in 2001 and negotiating a significant exit with a sale in 2009.

Moving to the B2B space, he spotted a problem with market research. In 2012, he founded the fastest agile market research platforms in the world, beating Google Consumer Surveys to market and eclipsing it on speed. Bysh is a frequent public speaker at events and brings more than 20 years in development, 30 years in technology and 20 years in B2B sales and entrepreneurship to Huboo.

Ruth Hoy, DLA Piper partner, global co-chair retail and fashion

Ruth Hoy leads DLA Piper’s UK retail sector. She has been a lawyer for more than 20 years and several of her clients are from the retail sector.

Her practice is intellectual property litigation and advisory work. Her particular specialism is litigation involving trademarks and passing off, copyright (including piracy) and related rights, design rights, database rights, breach of confidence and internet domain name and Company Names Tribunal disputes. She also advises clients in contentious matters before the trademark registries. During her career, she has been involved in some groundbreaking litigation in the UK and Europe.

Lisa Byfield-Green, Retail Week head of insight

Lisa Byfield-Green is head of insight at Retail Week, responsible for retailer data insight and advisory projects.

Previously, she worked as a senior retail analyst for online and digital, leading research at IGD and Planet Retail (now Edge by Ascential) in the UK, and more recently LZ Retailytics in Germany.

Andrea Polonioli, Coveo product manager

Andrea Polonioli is a product manager at personalisation and relevance platform Coveo.

He is an expert on ecommerce, customer experience, trends in the online shopping space and technological developments that affect the online commerce industry.

Christina Rapsomanikis, Coty vice-president, ecommerce and digital, North America

Christina Rapsomanikis is a seasoned digital and ecommerce leader, having worked across various FMCG and luxury businesses, including Unilever, Nespresso and Coty, and latterly founding fashion DTC start-up Formula.

Rapsomanikis returned to Coty to lead its US and global account for digital and ecommerce business.

Mandeep Singh, Trouva co-founder and Thrift+ non-executive director

Mandeep Singh is the founder of Trouva, the online platform for inspiring homewares and lifestyle products from the best independent stores in Europe. Trouva launched in 2015, is one of Europe’s 50 fastest-growing companies (FT 1000 2020) and won Emerging Retailer of the Year in the 2019 Retail Week Awards.

Trouva connects its network of almost 1,000 independent curators with a wider global customer base they wouldn’t otherwise have access to, powered by its proprietary technology platform for bricks-and-mortar shops. It has raised more than $40m from the venture-capital investors behind successes such as Farfetch, Etsy and Dropbox, and has been featured everywhere from BBC One to Vogue.

Singh was previously a private equity investor and strategy consultant and set up his first web business from his bedroom in Lancashire, aged 15. He is also an active angel investor and a non-executive director at Thrift+.

Sophie Sharkey, EGO Shoes marketing manager

Sophie Sharkey is marketing manager at EGO Shoes, with more than six years’ experience within the fashion marketing industry. 

She is responsible for the marketing team at EGO, setting targets, and is always working to drive company growth through creative and innovative marketing strategies, which have, in the previous year, seen EGO collaborate with celebrities and go live with TV advertising.  

Albert Larter, Wakuda co-founder

Albert Larter is co-founder of Wakuda, the online marketplace championing small independent Black businesses. Wakuda was set up in August 2020 to give Black-owned businesses a platform to be seen by a wider audience.

Larter is responsible for the marketing at Wakuda, from brand awareness to driving new customer acquisitions and engaging with its social media audience.

Larter’s experience comes from working in affiliate marketing for almost 10 years. He has helped large and small brands with their affiliate marketing strategies to acquire new customers at scale. Away from work, he also has a strong interest in investing in stocks and property.

Adam Sopher, Joe & Seph’s co-founder and director

Officially the best-tasting popcorn around, with more than 40 Gold Great Taste Awards, Joe & Seph’s is revolutionising the UK  popcorn market with its air-popped corn in a range of innovative flavours.  

Now stocked in 3,000 outlets in 19 countries, Joe & Seph’s is proud to work with customers including  Waitrose, Selfridges, Ocado, British Airways, Cineworld, Claridges and many more.  

Joe & Seph’s has been fortunate to win a number of awards, including The Grocer Gold Award for Exporter of the Year in 2015, Food & Drink Federation Exporter of the Year in 2016, The Grocer New Product Award and the Sweets & Snacks Middle East Best New Product Award. 

Adam Sopher plans to continue growing the business alongside his parents, with an aim to have at least tripled it in size over the next five years, secure major retailers across the globe, continue to push boundaries and create unique and delicious flavours.

Phil Booker, Fruugo head of partnerships

Phil Booker has been working with Fruugo since the UK management buyout in 2012, initially in a consultancy capacity and then from 2017 as their head of partnerships.

He manages a partnership portfolio of hundreds of retailers generating circa 50% of Fruugo’s total annual gross transaction value, as well as being responsible for developing new partnerships in many of Fruugo’s 46 global territories, most recently China and Turkey. 

With 85% of all sales on Fruugo being cross-border, Booker is well placed to offer insights on selling internationally and how that can be best supported.

David Kohn, Heal’s customer and ecommerce director

David Kohn is a multichannel veteran with a wealth of online and offline retail experience. He is currently driving the digital growth of Heal’s, the world-famous furniture and interiors store.

Kohn has previously held leadership positions in major high street names including WHSmith, Waterstones, Borders and Snow+Rock Group.

As a self-appointed champion of the SME, Kohn is a keen proponent of practical solutions that deliver indisputable performance. 

Shimona Mehta, Shopify managing director of EMEA

As an experienced and skilled sales leader and marketer, whose expertise spans the retail, technology, food and beverage sectors, Shimona Mehta is focused on shaping the future of commerce by overseeing Shopify’s innovative commerce platform. The platform enables more than7,000 modern, high-growth and high-volume brands, such as Gymshark, Emma Bridgewater, Allbirds and Heinz.

Before Shopify, Mehta held senior roles at various software, FMCG and consumer research companies in Canada and Europe.

Alex Chisholm, Pret a Manger global digital trade director

Having started his career in Silicon Valley at the dawn of the multimedia revolution, Alex Chisholm has, over the past 30 years, created, developed and produced innovative and proven digital media experiences to engage customers and audiences.

His experience spans ecommerce, loyalty, content marketing, brand building, training, learning and entertainment at MIT, LeapFrog, NBCUniversal, Boston Children’s Hospital, Katz Media and Pret a Manger.

Will Charnley, Seasalt omnichannel director

Will Charnley is responsible for overseeing the brand’s sales online, in stores, through digital marketplaces and via wholesale partners. He is also accountable for channel strategy and alignment of the brand across customer touchpoints.

Charnley joined Seasalt in June 2018 as customer experience, strategy and innovation director and was promoted to his current role in 2019. He has overseen the launch of a new international website, will relaunch the UK site this year and has launched Seasalt with key marketplaces and partners.

Prior to joining Seasalt, Charnley headed up strategy at Greene King, the UK’s largest pub company. Before that, his career had been spent at John Lewis in a variety of operational, strategic and transformation roles.

Davies Roberts, Flare Audio founder

Since launching in 2010, Flare Audio has developed a revolutionary new type of loudspeaker and earphone technology for professional and consumer use, providing a previously unheard level of audio clarity. 

The company has sold more than 250,000 of its Isolate ear protectors, ships to over 180 countries, has raised more than £2m via crowdfunding and has grown its workforce from three employees to 20 in five years. 

Most recently, Flare launched a new stress-reducing in-ear device, Calmer, and has sold more than 225,000 pairs since June 2020. The Cinema at Selfridges features Flare’s cutting-edge innovative range of loudspeakers installed across three screens in a Dolby Atmos set up.

Rosie Shepard, Retail Week reporter

Rosie Shepard is Retail Week's newest reporter, joining the content team in July 2019.

She covers fashion, home and DIY, electricals and entertainment, and also has a keen interest in sustainability and ethical practices.

Ms Dora Guo, Dada Group general manager of product operations

Ms Guo joined Dada in 2014 and serves as general manager of product operations at Dada Now. She is responsible for Dada’s logistics products team, delivery operation, middle platform and logistics business operations. Ms Guo is an industry expert with extensive experience in the ecommerce, logistics and internet sectors in China.

Dada Group (NASDAQ: DADA) is a leading platform for local on-demand retail and delivery in China. The company operates Dada Now, the largest open on-demand delivery platform in China by number of orders. As of September 30, 2020, Dada Now’s last-mile delivery service covered more than 2,600 cities and counties in China. The strong on-demand delivery infrastructure enables Dada Now to serve as the backbone to the company’s partners, including Walmart.

Prior to joining Dada, Ms Guo worked as product manager at Anjuke.com, AdChina and Ebay, where she worked on digital platforms and data products.

Robert Kulawik, Everything5pounds.com chief operations officer

Robert Kulawik is a hands-on, results-oriented and decisive leader with multifaceted experience.

Whether a business owner or a manager, Kulawik looks to build a future-proof and scalable proposition, drawing on his broad curiosity-driven experience.

At Everything5pounds.com as a chief operating officer, his cost-effective approach towards any business process enables the brand to hold up its USP for the 10th year running. The role involves overseeing the daily operations of this pureplay ecommerce fast-fashion retailer across all departments.

The business attracts 5 million monthly visitors, fulfils 1.5 million orders of up to 8 million items a year, all in a strictly cost-conscious environment, with all vital business functions – from goods handling and order fulfilment through to media and content creation, marketing, customer service and admin – integrated under one roof, allowing efficiency, synergy and agility in running a value-driven business.