Speakers

Rae Stanton-Smithson, Earthcare Retail Partner, Lush

At Lush, the aim is to ‘leave the world lusher than we found it’. Rae’s focus as a Lush Earthcare Strategy Partner is developing engagement throughout the company’s retail business, turning environmental best practice policy into meaningful action on the part of staff and the wider community. 

Based in the UK, Rae is part of a widening scope of Earthcare across many different Lush markets and regularly works alongside colleagues in Europe, Asia and North and South America to strategise staff engagement. Rae can also often be found representing Lush’s brand values approach at external events.  

Peter Wood, Chief Executive, AllSaints, John Varvatos and Buscemi

Peter joined AllSaints as Chief Financial Officer in 2010, stepping up to the Chief Executive role in 2018 and in his first full year, AllSaints delivered the best financial results in its history. In 2020, he became Chief Executive of John Varvatos, the US-based alternative luxury menswear brand, leading a successful acquisition and turnaround of the business notwithstanding the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. The combined AllSaints/John Varvatos group has global revenues of more than £400m with a team of 2,500 operating throughout the UK, Americas, Europe and Asia.  

Peter qualified as a chartered accountant in 1997, specialising in corporate finance with Arthur Andersen in Scotland and London. Before joining AllSaints, he developed considerable experience working with leading UK entrepreneurs and private equity firms helping them to deliver their growth ambitions, always within consumer-focused businesses. He took up his first board position back in 2000 as Chief Financial Officer of multi-brand casualwear retailer USC, which at the time was Diesel's largest wholesale customer in Europe. 

In 2022, Peter was appointed to the board of the British Retail Consortium as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the BRC's Audit and Risk Committee.

Moses Rashid, Founder and CEO, The Edit LDN 

Moses Rashid is the Founder and CEO of The Edit LDN, a global omnichannel retailer for limited sneakers, streetwear and collectibles. 

Having successfully founded and established companies in digital advertising and hospitality, Moses turned his passion for ‘hype’ sneakers from a hobby starting in his bedroom in January 2020, into a multimillion-dollar global online business, with four retail concessions spaces in Harrods (London), Galleries Lafayette (Doha) and Harvey Nichols (Riyadh and Amsterdam) in just two years.  

Along with a global partnership with Chicago Bulls, it has garnered celebrity investment from the likes of PJ Tucker, La La Anthony, Ollie Watkins, Jesse Lingard and Xavier McKinney, and is regularly featured in the global press. 

Chidi Onwudike, Director of Strategy and Operations, Depop

Chidi is Director of Strategy and Operations at Depop, the social marketplace for buying and selling secondhand fashion.

She is responsible for shaping strategic priorities and driving the successful delivery of them. This included playing a key role in navigating Depop's acquisition by Etsy in 2021, plus the subsequent integration efforts. 

Prior to this, Chidi was a retail strategy consultant advising predominantly on ecommerce-related challenges, with clients spanning from luxury fashion houses in Milan, to low-cost players on the UK high street. 

Paddy Earnshaw, Customer and Digital Director, B&Q

Paddy Earnshaw joined the B&Q board in the newly created position of Customer and Digital Director in April 2019. Having worked in private equity and venture capital-backed technology businesses, Paddy brings a fresh perspective to changing customer habits and putting customer needs first. Prior to joining B&Q, Paddy was Chief Marketing Officer at House of Fraser and spent four years as Chief Customer Officer at Doddle Parcels, where the leadership team grew a retail & logistics business from scratch to having a 10% market share while partnering with the likes of Asos, Amazon and eBay.

Chris Aidan, Global VP of Emerging Technology and Innovation, Estée Lauder Companies

Chris Aidan is an accomplished and forward-thinking entrepreneurial leader with a proven track record of building and scaling high-performance teams, fostering an engaging and inclusive culture, enabling businesses to achieve their full potential, and driving cutting-edge innovation. With nearly 25 years of experience in various industries, Chris has cultivated a reputation for championing diverse perspectives, implementing strategic initiatives, and delivering exceptional results. 

Kyle Frank, Founder, Frank’s Remedies  

Over 10 years, Kyle Frank formulated the products for Frank’s Remedies through his own acne experience, testing and trialling ingredients on his stressed skin state to craft remedies that were also hydrating and nourishing to support skin with sensitive needs.  

Since launching in 2020, Frank’s Remedies has featured on the BBC One Show The Customer Is Always Right, showcasing Britain’s top entrepreneurs, exhibited at the US Embassy and been commended by the King at Buckingham Palace. The skincare treatments are vegan, responsibly sourced and gender-neutral, with formulas that specialise in stressed skin concerns for all ages. The brand has social impact at its heart, with profits from business helping to support Frank’s in-school wellness project, helping 11- to 15-year-olds struggling with body image concerns.

Paul Gilhooly, Head of Retail, Artefact

Paul is highly experienced in the retail sector with past industry roles at M&S, Tesco and Asda in retail operations, operations development, business continuity and business development. He now uses this extensive experience as a management consultant leading data transformations, turnaround programmes, operational performance improvement and operating model design engagements. He leads Artefact's UK Retail team. 

Chris Conway, Ecommerce Director, Co-op

Chris Conway is Ecommerce Director for Co-op. He joined in 2018 and led the design and build of Co-op’s on-demand ecommerce business for its food stores.

With a model focusing on ‘quick-convenience’ and utilising the strategic advantage of its store footprint at the heart of local communities UK wide, Co-op’s online model expanded at pace through its own online shop, and with partners including Amazon, Deliveroo, Just Eat, Uber Eats and robot deliveries with Starship Technologies.

Prior to joining Co-op, Chris previously led ecommerce teams at Morrisons and Asda. 

Asif Aziz, Retail Director, EE

Asif Aziz OBE has over a decade of experience in developing and implementing business and retail strategies. Since joining EE as Retail Director at the beginning of 2023, he has been a key figurehead in establishing the brand’s new retail strategy, including the opening of the flagship EE Studio in Westfield London, White City, along with the rollout of regional EE Experience stores across the UK.

Previously, Asif spent 27 years at Boots where he began his career as a Pharmacy Manager, later becoming Director of Stores and Director of Healthcare. During his time at Boots, he played a key role in the development of the company’s omnichannel strategy to transform and grow the healthcare business. He also led the rollout of the Covid-19 testing and vaccinations programmes on behalf of the government and NHS during the pandemic, receiving an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours. 

Paul Hornby, Digital Customer Experience Director, The Very Group

Paul rejoined The Very Group in January 2021 as Digital Customer Experience Director and prior to that led the online business at Matalan for three years as its Director of Ecommerce.

In his current role he is responsible for driving the digital customer experience across all of The Very Group’s brands and touchpoints, leading a collection of squads that focus on making data-informed decisions to improve the journey and drive forward the technology landscape. 

Sophie Trueman, Country Director, Too Good To Go

Sophie oversees Too Good To Go across its UK and Irish markets and is committed to furthering its food waste fighting mission.  She first joined in 2019 as Head of Key Accounts, where she was responsible for growing more than 80 new partnerships with some of the UK’s most notable food brands, before being promoted to Head of Business Development for the UK and Ireland in 2021. 

Sophie has more than 10 years of experience in the FMCG sector, having previously held account management roles at L'Oréal and Amadeus. She is a passionate advocate for the importance of using business for good and paving the way for a greener, more sustainable future. With her extensive industry experience, strong commercial acumen and proven track record for driving growth, Sophie has the inside track on how to build positive change within scalable organisations and the importance of balancing purpose and profit in business.   

Will Chapman, Co-founder, ROARSOME

Will is the co-founder of ROARSOME, an award-winning British outdoor family adventure brand he launched with co-founder Ed Lewis-Pratt in 2018. As Director of Design & Creative, Will is the brand’s creative driving force. Overseeing creative design, imagery and copywriting across all channels, Will is a passionate innovator who ensures every aspect of the brand reflects the playful ROARSOME world that he and Ed have imagined. 

Will has over eight years experience of working in branding and design. He founded the London-based digital design studio Duck Duck Goose and the award-winning sports content agency WMB Media. He also created the event discovery tool WhosGoing, which later became a joint venture with Asos. 

Matt Pollington, Chief Marketing Officer, The Cotswold Company

Matt is Chief Marketing Officer at The Cotswold Company, a homewares retailer that designs and makes timeless products that last a lifetime. Matt, a passionate customer and marketing expert and advocate for ecommerce, has 17 years of experience delivering customer growth across retail and fashion and serves as an advisory partner to multiple brands in the D2C space. Prior to joining The Cotswold Company board, Matt held several marketing leadership roles at brands including Made.com, Net-A-Porter and Sainsbury's Argos. In addition to his role, he advises businesses including IMRG, ISBA and RTS. 

Peter Butler, Chief Executive & Co-founder, Dishpatch

Peter Butler is Co-Founder and CEO of Dishpatch.  Dishpatch brings the UK’s best chefs to tables nationwide with seasonal, restaurant-quality meals to finish at home. 

Vikram Singla, Digital Transformation Director, Oracle

Vikram is Digital Transformation Director and a sustainability ambassador at Oracle. He helps business leaders leverage technology and data to deliver meaningful outcomes for their organisations. He also serves on the board of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and is an advisory board member at Cranfield University’s supply chain management research centre. 

He is responsible for defining and executing the go-to-market strategy for supply chain cloud solutions across all industries and manufacturing/asset-intensive sectors across all cloud applications, in the UK. He has over 25 years of experience in the technology sector, including deploying business transformation programmes for Fortune 500 firms. 

Adam Gardiner, Sustainability Manager, Rapha

With a background in supply chain, Adam now leads Rapha's sustainability program, managing the environmental and social impact of Rapha and the impact the company has throughout the supply chain. 

Rapha is a cycling brand based in London. Supplying premium apparel for nearly 20 years, Rapha aims to inspire the world to live life by bike. Over the last few years, Rapha has set out to reduce its environmental impact. Guided by several impact commitments, Rapha is leading decarbonisation projects through the supply network, which contributes to its journey to reduce its impact in line with recently verified science-based targets. 

Joe Sanghani, Head of IT applications, De Beers Diamond Jewellery

Drew Smith, Co-Founder and CEO, Upp 

Drew Smith is a technology entrepreneur with exceptional insights into retail data, ecommerce performance and innovation. Prior to co-founding Upp with established trailblazer Ben White, Drew’s career really took flight at Volo Commerce where he began as an ecommerce consultant in 2014. Drew’s analytical mindset and first principle thinking accelerated his career - with fast advancement to Director of Product Strategy by 2017, before pitching the idea of Upp in 2019.

Drew has accomplished the building of the worlds first retail decision intelligence that makes fast, smart advertising decisions in real-time and drives unparalleled profitability and performance on Google Shopping. Automating marketing decisions, helping retailers sell more effectively, and providing control and certainty of outcomes.

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

Lisa is responsible for Retail Week’s 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 Retail 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 more than 15 years in the retail industry, working within the merchandising and insight functions.

Hanna Hua, Data Analyst, Retail Week 

Hanna is a Data Analyst at Retail Week, working as part of our data and insights team. Before joining the company, she gained more than five years’ experience supporting retail businesses creating deep-dive sales analyses, data visualisations and presentations.

In her current role, Hanna is focused on building Retail Week's financial and data analysis content and providing data insight into the strategy of a wide range of retailers.

Rebecca Taylor, Commercial Content Manager, Retail Week

Rebecca Taylor is Retail Week Connect’s commercial content manager, and is responsible for helping to grow and deliver Retail Week’s bespoke sponsored reports and events, across themes from stores and the consumer to supply chains and tech.

With more than seven years' experience in content-focused roles, Rebecca specialises in across-the-board brand interactions and storytelling; engaging audiences at all stages of their brand lifecycle through authentic, vibrant and quality content.

James Knowles, Head of Content Innovation, Retail Week

James Knowles is Head of Content Innovation for the Retail Week commercial projects team.

He has spent 10 years as a journalist, working across both consumer celebrity and lifestyle magazines and business trade titles, including Retail Jeweller and Drapers, before joining Retail Week in July 2017.

Nic Harrison, Commercial Content Director, Retail Week

Nic 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.

Nic 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. Nic joined the Connect team in 2017.

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. 

Megan Robinson, Reporter, Retail Week

Megan Robinson is a reporter at Retail Week. She joined in 2023 and currently covers tech, value, marketplaces and electricals.

She was previously a junior reporter at trade publication Mobile News and has written for music, beauty and sustainability publications.

She has a BA Hons in Journalism from Kingston University where she also worked as the arts and entertainment editor for the student newspaper.

Jade O'Donoghue, Event Director, Retail Week Live

Jade is Event director – Retail Week Live and leads on the content and direction of Retail Week's flagship annual conference. She has an MA and an NCTJ diploma, both in journalism, and previously worked as a writer and editor covering the education sector.