New shopper, new rules

SPEAKERS

Caroline Laurie, Director of Responsible Business, Kingfisher

A CIMA-qualified accountant, Caroline Laurie joined Kingfisher 10 years ago as a buyer before being promoted to category manager. In this role, she was instrumental in the decision to remove all gas patio heaters from B&Q UK. In 2012 she was asked to join the company’s new energy-saving proposition as a business development manager – designed to help customers reduce their home’s energy use through intelligent product developments and installed solutions. It was then a natural step for Laurie to move into her current role as director of responsible business at Kingfisher.

Aron Gelbard, Chief Executive and Co-Founder, Bloom & Wild

Aron Gelbard is co-founder and CEO at Bloom & Wild. Bloom & Wild’s mission is to make flowers and gifts the joy that they should be and, in doing so, to build the world’s leading and most-loved flower and gifting platform. Bloom & Wild, Europe’s largest online flower company, is on track for more than £200m of sales in 2021 and recently raised a $100m Series D financing round. Prior to Bloom & Wild, Aron worked at Bain & Company in London and Silicon Valley. Outside of Bloom & Wild, Aron is an advisor to Eka Ventures and Pasta Evangelists, an angel investor in Urban Jungle, Motley London, THIS and Tiny VC, and a pledger to Founders Pledge. Aron has a masters degree from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Finn Lagun, co-founder and CMO at Pasta Evangelists

Finn Lagun is co-founder and CMO at Pasta Evangelists, the fresh pasta company. Leading the Pasta Evangelists marketing, brand and ecommerce teams, Finn has overseen expansion in sales at the company from £69,000 in 2017, when the company started trading, to almost £11m in 2020, with ambitious targets and potential international expansion expected in 2021 and beyond. He previously worked at Amazon and Zipjet, an on-demand laundry venture by Rocket Internet, the Berlin-based startup incubator.

Will Trump, Head of the Behavioural Insights Group at iptiQ by Swiss Re

Everything Will Trump does revolves around customer behaviour. With a background in predictive analytics, Will pioneered the application of behavioural science within Swiss Re 10 years ago. By using rigorous experimentation methods, he has helped insurers around the world optimise their products and customer journeys, achieving significant uplifts in sales and customer retention. He now works in Swiss Re’s primary insurance division, iptiQ, where he leads the Behavioural Insights Group with responsibility for consumer insight, CX strategy and the application of behavioural science.

Roger De’Ath, Head of Ecommerce, TrueLayer

Roger currently leads the ecommerce team at TrueLayer, bringing open banking to any online payment. Roger has decades of experience in the payments and ecommerce space, previously leading enterprise sales at payments company GoCardless, Google and IBM.

Simon Brennan, Retail Industry Specialist, Engage Hub

Simon has more than 13 years’ experience of working with retail organisations, ranging from large supermarkets to small independent stores, helping them to provide exceptional customer experience and improved operational efficiencies, through the use of market-leading digital technologies.

Chris Sanderson, Co-Founder, The Future Laboratory

Chris is co-founder of strategic foresight consultancy The Future Laboratory, where he is responsible for delivering the company‘s extensive global roster of conferences, media events and Trend Briefings, which he presents in London, New York, Sydney, Melbourne and around the world. Clients who have booked one of his inspirational keynotes include luxury group Kering, the European Travel Commission, Selfridges, Marks & Spencer, Chanel, Harrods, Aldo, H&M, General Motors, BBDO, Design Hotels, Condé Nast Media and Omnicom. Chris presented Channel 4’s five-part series Home of the Future and is a SuperBoard member of The British Fashion Council’s Fashion Trust.

Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer, Boots

Pete Markey is chief marketing officer for Boots, where he is responsible for brand and marketing for the UK and ROI. Pete has held senior leadership roles at TSB, Aviva, Post Office, RSA and More Than, with his early career spent at OneTel, AA and British Gas. He is an experienced director, having worked across a range of disciplines including marketing, sales, e-business, customer experience, operations and strategy.

Pete has been awarded four prestigious Marketer of the Year awards and is a fellow of The Marketing Society and The Chartered Institute of Marketing. In 2019, Pete was awarded the Diversity Ally award at the European Diversity Awards for his work as executive sponsor for the TSB LGBT network. Pete is a mentor for The Marketing Academy, OUTstanding and Solent University.

Dan Burdett, Chief Consumer and Growth Officer, Pret a Manger

Dan Burdett is chief consumer and growth officer at Pret a Manger, a role he’s held since January 2021, helping to strengthen Pret’s omnichannel approach. Dan is responsible for setting the global direction across functions including food, coffee and packaging, brand and insight, sustainability, technical and quality, and commercial growth. As a member of the executive team Dan is focused on supporting Pret's digital transformation and expansion into new consumer channels through initiatives like its coffee subscription and click and collect.

James Newman, Head of Retail EMEA, GreyOrange

James has served the retail industry in many roles throughout his career, helping retail leaders deploy technology to add value to their customers and growth. James has particular expertise in advising retail leaders on how to assimilate new technologies into their strategies. His experience extends across stores, channels and distribution functions, and most recently he has helped retail businesses take advantage of artificial intelligence and automation.

Hayley Ward, Head of CX, Digital and Data, Marks & Spencer

Strategic digital leader with over 15 years' experience in insight and customer experience – currently working at M&S focused on understanding how consumers shop and translating that insight into action to help create better products, services and experiences for customers to drive loyalty and business growth.

Helen Murray, Chief Customer Solutions Officer, Webhelp

Helen is responsible for leading Webhelp’s business development function and the delivery of client differentiation through enhanced customer experience. Her extensive experience leading in-house and client-side customer service operations has led to a passionate belief that truly listening to clients is the key to success. Before joining Webhelp in 2012, Helen worked with Verint Systems for five years as Director of Consulting and prior to this was Director of Customer Service and Director of Outsourced Contact Centres for BT Global Services.

Simon Breckon, Global Brand Director for ellesse and Kickers, Pentland Brands

Simon has a stellar track record of developing breakthrough business visions and creating consumer strategy that delivers disruptive brand positioning in the market, strong consumer affinity and results in dynamic sales, growth and profit across multichannel commerce (digital, retail, wholesale). He has been successful working across lifestyle sectors (primarily sportswear and beverages), diverse cultures and ownership structures. A leader who has an ability to inject ambition, build creative cultures and establish common purpose, accountability, agility and pace within teams. Known for his personal passion and conviction, he inspires teams and individuals while unlocking the potential of brands globally.

Eileen Willett, Co-founder, Cucumber Clothing

Born in Vancouver to Japanese parents, Eileen trained in fashion in Paris and San Francisco before settling in London and working at Nicole Farhi. She launched Cucumber Clothing with her co-founder Nancy Zeffman in 2017, making "luxurious clothing for every day", using ultra-soft technical fabrics. Cucumber Clothing is an inclusive sustainable fashion brand making nightwear and leisurewear for women who experience body temperature shifts, including those going through menopause. The antithesis of fast fashion, its revolutionary intelligent fabrics are 100% human made and last up to six times longer than cotton. Launched in 2017 by Willett and former advertising executive Nancy Zeffman, Cucumber Clothing now sells to consumers globally, has featured on Dragons' Den and is regularly featured in major publications. Shortlisted for the 2020 Asian Woman of Achievement Awards, Eileen is a speaker on female entrepreneurship and slow fashion. 

Sabeha Mohamed, Head of UK Marketing, Eventbrite

Sabeha Mohamed heads up marketing in the UK & Ireland at Eventbrite. She’s helping event creators grow their event business and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. An ex-event organiser herself, she’s passionate about the customer journey, B2B and growth marketing.

Jos Harrison, Global Head of Brand Experience and Design, Reckitt

Jos Harrison is Global Head of Brand Experience and Design at Reckitt where he champions the role of human-centric design and creative business leadership, providing strategic tools and creative direction as well as connecting design to other vital functions within the company. At Reckitt, Jos curates global brands including Airwick, Vanish and Harpic. Jos has extensive experience in both directing and implementing branding and design, working both agency and client side. Before joining Reckitt, he worked at Cadbury leading teams of designers across a variety of disciplines

Aditya Kishore, Insight Director, WARC

Aditya Kishore is the Insight Director at WARC, part of the Ascential Group. His role focuses on researching and analysing marketing initiatives worldwide to help identify the most effective strategies for marketers. Prior to WARC, Adi held various insight roles at Informa and United Business Media, part of a 20-year career spanning research, market analysis and strategy.

Paul Jackson, Solution Director, Rackspace

 Specialising in cloud, service management and solving problems Paul brings 25 years’ experience gained across a variety of business sectors and organisation sizes, Paul enjoys working closely with clients defining, planning and creating innovation trajectories that will define and drive change, at all levels across your organisation enabling the adoption, integration and operation of new technology solutions that deliver the desired business and IT benefits.

Grace Bowden, Head of Content, Retail Week

Luke Tugby, Editor, Retail Week

Rosie Shepard, Reporter, Retail Week