Speakers

Dorothée D’Herde, Director of Responsible Business, Kingfisher

Dorothée joined Kingfisher in March to lead the responsible business agenda. She is also a trustee at Earthwatch Europe, an environmental charity with science at its heart. Before Kingfisher, she led the sustainable business team at Vodafone Group, to drive the delivery of Vodafone’s Purpose, its contribution to the SDGs and its ESG leadership roadmap. She moved to London to join McKinsey & Company in 2009, where she spent 10 years, first as head of external relations for the Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice and then as director of sustainability and social impact, overseeing the firm's responsible business practices and its contribution to society. Before that, Dorothée worked in politics, public affairs and communications for the Belgian deputy prime minister, in the European Commission's spokesperson service and at a public affairs agency.

Chris Allen, Sustainability Director, Decathlon

As Director of Sustainability at Decathlon, Chris is building and implementing the retailer’s strategy in the UK to reduce its carbon footprint in line with its Science Based Target. Chris is part of the leadership team of Decathlon UK ensuring its sustainability values are upheld and integrated through all aspects of the business. He is leading the transition of Decathlon’s business model towards a circular economy. 

Amy Whidburn, ESG Director, Pets At Home Group

Christina Downend, Head of Sustainability, Dunelm

Christina has over 15 years’ experience in environmental sustainability across public and private sector. Christina has worked at the Energy Saving Trust, Johnson Matthey, Tesco and most recently at Dunelm as Head of Sustainability. At Tesco, Christina led the retailer becoming the first company to set approved science-based carbon reduction targets aligned to 1.5°C. Christina joined Dunelm in July 2021 and has led the development of their environmental sustainability strategy and net zero and product circularity roadmap. 

Jat Sahi, Industry Adviser for Retail, Fujitsu UK

Fujitsu’s team of 3,000 retail specialists works with more than 500 retailers across the globe, operating more than 80,000 stores. As well as supporting retailers, Fujitsu’s labs are global leaders in AI, machine vision and quantum computing. Two years ago, Fujitsu set a new purpose to use its people and technologies to support the creation of a regenerative society.

Jat is now working with retailers to move towards this goal while meeting their commercial commitments. He is also a regular commentator on the retail industry on television and at industry events.

Victoria Coe, Founder and CEO, KinKind

As Founder of KinKind, with over 25 years commercial and strategic marketing and innovation experience in big FMCG companies, Victoria believes industry leaders have a responsibility to drive sustainable and conscious consumption for planet, people and profit. She is on a mission to use business as a force for good. Victoria knows there is not enough being done to drive bold change in big FMCG businesses and became increasingly frustrated at the amount of single-use plastic used in her own home, so she created KinKind to disrupt the beauty market and help mass consumers eliminate plastic from their bathrooms. 

Clara Eisenberg, Legal and Sustainability Director, Dune London

Clara Eisenberg is Legal and Sustainability Director at the Dune Group. She was a corporate finance lawyer in the City for 10 years before having a change of career, moving into music with Jazz FM. She joined Dune in 2018 as Head of Legal and was appointed to the board in 2021. Her role includes developing and integrating a responsible business agenda across the group covering sourcing, sustainable materials and packaging and ESG reporting. She is a member of Zero Carbon Forum’s advisory board. 

Jakob Bertilsson, Country Customer Fulfilment Manager, Ikea

Jakob Bertilsson is Country Customer Fulfilment Manager for Ikea UK and Ireland and is a senior leader within the organisation. He previously held the role of Central Unit Fulfilment Manager for Peterborough and has many years of experience within the home furnishing retail sector. 

Ben Grace, Founder and CEO, SBTRCT

Formerly MD of Bulldog Skincare and with a legacy of building disruptive brands, Ben’s passion lies in sustainability, innovation and design. Ben founded SBTRCT in 2020. Zero waste and planet-first, with luxury skincare benefits you can see and feel, SBTRCT’s award-winning, expert and concentrated solid-state products use proven ingredients to deliver the very best skincare results, with the lowest environmental impact. 

Emily O'Connor, Founder, Retrospectacle

Emily founded Retrospectacle in 2016 and is a qualified dispensing optician. She had a gut feeling that there was a market for original vintage eyewear and upcycled frames and began the ecommerce journey. She has a passion for style, eyecare and sustainability and combines this knowledge to provide high-quality sustainable eyewear to customers in over 40 countries. 

Tara Chandra, CEO and Co-Founder, Here We Flo

Tara Chandra is CEO and co-founder of Here We Flo alongside Susan Allen. The founders are on a mission to plantify personal care and make people chortle in the process. Tara and Susan knew they needed to educate people about how beneficial it can be for your body and the planet to swap to organic, sustainable period care so together they launched Here We Flo. They are proud to make products that inspire people to feel crazy confident and empowered about their messiest bodily moments. 

George Barratt, Sustainability Manager (Circular Economy), John Lewis Partnership

George has spent his early career working in ethics and sustainability roles for some of the UK's largest retailers. George currently leads the Circular Economy programme at the John Lewis Partnership, delivering new business model propositions, embedding circularity criteria into product development processes and supporting brand campaigns. 

Richard Sager, General Manager, NIO Cocktails

Richard Sager is General Manager for NIO Cocktails UK. Having started his professional life as a Strategy Consultant and then moving into Bacardi-Martini’s corporate Strategy and M&A team, Richard has progressively moved further into the digital world and to smaller companies. In his own words: “NIO Cocktails was the perfect opportunity for me; launching and growing a D2C business that delivers premium ready-to-savour cocktails. What more could I ask for?” 

Rich Ascott, Chief Marketing Officer, Cowboy

Rich Ascott has spent his career building and scaling aspirational consumer brands. Prior to joining Cowboy, Rich held leadership positions at Richemont, Vashi and All Saints. He was also CEO of Just So, the award-winning creative studio, and founder of the womenswear fashion label Rodnik. 

Orla McGreevy, Divisional Sales Director, LoweConex

Orla is a frequent panellist and speaker at technology and retail transformation events across the UK and Ireland. With a career timeline that spans recruitment to retail assets and now software solutions, Orla has over 10 years’ experience working with retailers across the industry spectrum to find streamlined solutions for businesses’ biggest challenges.   

Passionate about the role of innovative technology within responsible business practices and armed with first-hand knowledge of just how complex retail environments can be, Orla offers a unique perspective on the practicality of implementing sustainability strategies at scale and the part prioritisation can play in accelerating positive progress. 

Megan Dunsby, Senior Commercial Content Editor, Retail Week 

Megan Dunsby is Retail Week’s Senior Commercial Content Editor. A former journalist and features editor, she joined Retail Week in January 2019 to help brands leverage content to reach the people that matter in retail. Megan leads Retail Week’s flagship reports, the Retail 100 and Tech List, which recognise the most influential people in the sector, and the businesses they represent. Megan also curated Retail Week’s inaugural Sustainability Summit, which ran in October 2022. In 2018, she was named among The Drum’s 50 Under 30 Top Women in Digital. 

Lisa Byfield-Green, Data and Insights Director, Retail Week

Lisa Byfield-Green is Data and Insights Director at Retail Week, responsible for our data insight, analyst content and advisory research. 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. Lisa regularly provides commentary on the retail industry and presents at briefings, conferences and workshops.

Beth Bloomfield, Senior Analyst, Retail Week

Beth is a Senior Retail Analyst on Prospect, Retail Week’s online business intelligence tool. Before joining the Prospect team, where she provides insight and financial analysis across an extensive range of retailers, Beth spent over 15 years in the retail industry, working within the merchandising and insight functions.

Nicola Harrison, Director of Commercial Content, Retail Week

Nicola leads Retail Week’s growing content marketing business Connect. Her team produces intelligent and timely thought-leadership content for a range of big clients such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft through products including comprehensive reports and live and virtual events.

Nicola has 14 years of experience as a business journalist. She has held positions including news editor and content editor at Retail Week, during which time she led the editorial team to a digital-first approach. Nicola joined the Connect team in 2017.