Speakers - ReTec Europe %

Jo Fairley

Jo Fairley is one of the UK’s leading female entrepreneurs and co-founder of Green & Black’s Chocolate

After becoming the UK’s youngest-ever magazine editor, at the age of 23, she went on to co-found the pioneering Green & Black’s Chocolate, the world’s first organic chocolate and the UK’s first Fairtrade-marked product, now a $100 million a year brand.

Jo continues to work as a brand consultant for a wide range of start-ups and household names. She also remains a working journalist and contributor to leading newspapers, websites and magazines, and is author over 25 books including Sweet Dreams: The Story of Green & Black’s.

Main Stage Presentation:

Why strong values = good business

Lessons from the story of Green & Black’s

The world’s first organic chocolate, the UK’s first Fairtrade-marked product: Jo Fairley – who sold her pioneering confectionery brand to Cadbury’s in 2005 – shares first-hand insights into how business can change the world. (And why it needs to.)

Andrew Busby (Chair)

Andrew Busby is the Strategy Lead at The Industrious, a CX design agency, and founder of Redline Retail Consulting as well as being a best-selling author

Main Stage Presentation:

Lessons from Covid, how It took a pandemic to shake up retail

Join Andrew to discuss some themes from his new book and why we’ve seen the end of ‘boring retail’

For decades, retail didn’t change, even the birth of the internet didn’t shake it from its slumber, and with that, boring retail flourished. It took a global pandemic for retail to wake up to the harsh reality that it needs to do more than merely sell products. This session looks at some of the themes contained in Andrew’s new book, Breathless: Covid, Two Metres And Me Or How Retail Survived A Global Pandemic.

Redline (formerly Retail Reflections) is a retail consultancy firm that provides strategic advice and insights to the industry community. A well-known retail industry expert, speaker, and writer, Andrew Busby has extensive experience and knowledge, particularly in areas such as retail technology, customer experience, and emerging trends. He is a regular contributor to various media outlets, including Forbes, BBC, and national news media.

Author of the best-selling retail book, ‘Harry Was Right All Along’, Busby is recognised by the industry as a global thought leader and is a member of the exclusive global retail community ReTHINK Retail.

In a retail career spanning 25 years, he held senior positions at Kingfisher and Superdrug before joining a number of leading technology partners to bring innovative solutions to many retail businesses. Andrew is a member of the IORMA Advisory Board, Advisory Board member at Retail Week, Founder of the Retail Advisory Board and is also editor at large for Retail Technology magazine.

Tony D’Onofrio

Tony D’Onofrio is a global retail technology influencer under the TD Insights brand and the President of Sensormatic, the leading retail business unit of Johnson Controls

Main Stage Presentation:

The AI disruptive future of Retail

How Artificial Intelligence is being integrated into key retail functions and technologies to improve operations and optimise consumer engagements

From both perspectives, Tony regularly engages with the world’s largest retailers. Consistently every year, he has been named a top 100 global retail and technology influencer by multiple industry groups.

Tony regularly publishes articles on innovation and leadership in multiple publications including his own personal website tonydonofrio.com and videos on his YouTube channel TD Insights Live. His continuously updated views on the ‘Disruptive Future of Retail’ have been shared on multiple stages across the world.

Personal branding has been a passion for Tony in the last 10 years and you can find the details of his exact successful formula in his new book, Unleash Your Brand, now available on Amazon.

Tony’s extensive career has included leadership roles in both security and information technology companies. Prior to rejoining Sensormatic, he mentored Silicon Valley and was on multiple boards of both startups and industry groups. He is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University (BA) and Cleveland State University (MBA) in the USA.

Corin Dennison

Corin Dennison is Principal Consultant at Insight Retail Risk, creating bespoke risk mitigation solutions and models for retailers

Main Stage Presentation:

Emerging technology for Retail: horizon planning for 2027

Prepare for a win/win/win. How to make a use case for technology involving all channels of the business

At Insight, Corin’s primary goal is to challenge existing thinking around the approach to retail risk, focusing not only on risk mitigation but also on value-adding methodology and solutions.

Corin has spent 30 years working within the security/retail risk sector and has extensive experience of leading Risk/Loss Prevention teams for global retail brands including luxury and sports retail. He is practised in building risk frameworks: from strategy creation to operational models; including systems and technology to mitigate emerging risks.

He is a subject matter expert and global speaker on retail risk subjects, was the Retail Risk LP Director of the Year 2019 and 2020, and serves on the Global Retail Leadership Advisory Council for ReTHINK Retail.

Adam Lowe

Adam is Head of Sustainability at THG Eco, supporting businesses large and small to achieve their sustainability goals

Jason Petrou-Brown

Head of Business Development at THG Eco

Main Stage Presentation:

Sustainability innovations in Retail

How to provide benefits for consumers, suppliers, and operations.

Join Adam and Jason to explore how sustainable practices in the retail sector can support business operations. He will explore the THG journey towards sustainability, highlighting the significance of corporate responsibility and consumer engagement. Discover strategies to support in decarbonising your supply chain, and innovative approaches for self-funded sustainability initiatives.

Adam Lowe
As Head of Sustainability at THG Eco, Adam has operational and strategic responsibility and accountability for the development of the business and driving ESG goals. He leads and supports a department of professionals dedicated to furthering and enhancing corporate environmental initiatives, delivered with solutions such as:

- Carbon Offsetting
- Renewable Energy Certificates (REC / GoO / REGO) Trading
- Carbon Footprints, Hotspot Analyses & Reporting
- Life-Cycle Assessments
- Emission Reduction Strategies.

Adam has a BSc in Geography with first class honours.

Jason Petrou-Brown
With over 34 years’ experience in enterprise and public sector commercial delivery, Jason is a subject matter expert in complex solutions services from finance, funding, business strategy and compliant development of procurement solutions.

With the last 7 years in oil & gas advisory roles and banking solutions for green initiatives, Jason brings perspective and balance to complex sustainability and environmental challenges we all face today and into the future.

Masha Cilliers

Masha Cilliers is Founder & Principal Consultant at Payment Options Ltd and a senior adviser on payments at board level

Main Stage Presentation:

How retailers can benefit from innovation in payments

Understand the latest innovations in payments and how they apply to your business

Masha’s expertise in the payments business stems from her years at companies such as Visa and Microsoft then Worldline, Cybersource and Mastercard where she worked across disciplines and the value chain of Payments and FinTech.

In 2012 Masha became an independent consultant at Payment Options Ltd with the focus of providing strategic and very practical advice to merchants on payment processing, fraud and identity management, compliance and partner selection as well as the latest payment and innovation trends, and competitive positioning,

Leveraging many years of senior management expertise, Masha also acted as a Board Advisor at Limonetik and XanderPay, holds Non-Executive Director position at Trust Payments and is an Advisor at a number of well-known industry associations and forums such as IMRG, Payment Association, MPE and Payments Leaders Summit.

Corin Dennison

Corin Dennison is Principal Consultant at Insight Retail Risk, creating bespoke risk mitigation solutions and models for retailers

Innovation Theatre Session:

Choosing your tech partners: lessons learned

At Insight, Corin’s primary goal is to challenge existing thinking around the approach to retail risk, focusing not only on risk mitigation but also on value-adding methodology and solutions.

Tony D’Onofrio

Tony D’Onofrio is a global retail technology influencer under the TD Insights brand and the President of Sensormatic, the leading retail business unit of Johnson Controls

Innovation Theatre Session:

It is time to unleash your personal brand

Learn Tony’s secret formula: how you can create a personal brand that will take your career and personal life to new heights

Personal branding has been a passion for Tony in the last 10 years and you can find the details of his exact successful formula in his new book, Unleash Your Brand, now available on Amazon.

Alistair Fowler-Marson

Global Vice President, Business Development, Sesami

Main Stage Presentation:

Rethinking cash – a new approach

Let’s rethink the customer journey for cash and how technology can enable better payment choice

Cash is under the spotlight in the UK more than ever before, it’s time to rethink about the customer journey for cash and how technology can enable payment choice in a cost effective and convenient way.

Alistair is the Global Vice President of Business Development for Sesami. In this role, Alistair is on a mission to modernize the vital role cash plays in society by enabling retailers to offer consumers access to cash in a more convenient and cost-effective way.

Alistair has extensive industry knowledge and insights from the world of cash automation, having worked with retailers, banks, and solutions providers on an international level for more than 25 years.

He holds a Master’s degree in business management.

Tim Moore

Managing Director of All-Tag Europe

David Dalton

Sales Director EMEA, All-Tag Europe

Innovation Theatre Session:

An evolutionary technology that detects shop lifting in real time

Using gesture-based analytics to home in on suspicious activity and capture the relevant footage

There is an epidemic of shoplifting in retail stores. From large grocery chains through to independent retailers, all are suffering.Traditional deterrents, such as ‘tagging’ or CCTV, can of course help deter criminals and opportunist thieves.

Tagging systems can tell you when a theft occurs in real time, but at that point the offender is almost out of the door. CCTV might allow you to review camera footage after the event and determine a theft taking place. But what if you have 20 or 30 cameras to review, and want the information in real time?

What if there was something better?

Veesion from All-Tag is a video analytic that will constantly monitor ALL of your camera feeds. If it detects a suspicious incident, using its gesture-based analytic AI engine, it sends an immediate alert with video footage directly to the store. So you now know, in real time, that a potential incident has occurred, and it can then be managed in accordance with set internal processes and controls.

All-Tag are specialists in product protection. They work with many of the world’s leading retailers, delivering innovative and bespoke solutions to protect merchandise from all types of theft; opportunist or serious organised crime. Veesion delivers an additional layer of protection to complement the products and services they already provide.

Debbie Carter

Debbie Carter is Business Development Director at Concept Pro

Innovation Theatre Session:

AI Bridge – powering AI technology for retailers

Join Debbie to learn about Videcon’s cutting-edge technology powered by AI!

With these innovative solutions, retailers can now mitigate loss, enhance operational efficiencies, and deliver top-notch customer experience – all simultaneously. Videcon’s team has worked tirelessly to develop these groundbreaking tools, and they are thrilled to see the positive impact they are making in the retail industry. By leveraging AI technology, Videcon are revolutionizing the way retailers operate and elevating the standards for customer service.

Jacob Hinson

Jacob Hinson is Founder of eLocker

Innovation Theatre Session:

Brand-centric Click & Collect: transforming the In-store and cross-sell experience

It’s time to transform the customer’s retail experience, elevate your brand presence and bring more customers into your stores

Many retailers offer a Click & Collect service, but the pick-up station is often tucked away outside the store or in less visible areas. eLocker helps retailers create a brand-centric Click & Collect experience, allowing them to add their branding to the lockers and custom upsells, elevating their brand presence and bringing more customers into the store. Move away from mundane transactions and create engaging brand interactions with the opportunity to sell more.

Jacob launched eLocker in 2016 to tackle the issues found with traditional locker systems. Leading the charge in the retail space, Jacob and eLocker are focused on helping retailers transform their Click & Collect offering with a white labelled system that allows you to add custom upsells and can sit pride of place in your store.

Charlie Row

Solutions Manager, Awin Global

Main Stage Presentation:

Dynamic solutions across the funnel and beyond

influence the customer journey before, during and after the purchase: showcasing some of the best tech-based solutions

As the affiliate channel has developed over the last 5-10 years, there has been an explosion of innovative solutions available within it. No longer are brands talking about last click, but rather looking at how they can influence the customer journey before, during and after the purchase. Charlie will showcase some of the most successful technology-based solutions available that can solve a myriad of challenges that an advertiser might have. These powerful solutions can be implemented easily, quickly and in a cost-effective way via Awin, allowing you to get closer to your next customer.

Charlie has been working with Awin for over six years in a combination of both client service and commercial roles. In his current position as Solutions Manager, his role at Awin is to help advertisers understand what innovative solutions they can work with to achieve their goals, and solve their problems.

Neville Cotton

Retail Industry Consultant

Michael Chambers

Head of Insurance & Risk for Great Britain and Ireland, Siemens Healthineers.

David Hill

Director of Profit Protection & Security, EMEA & APAC, Fossil Group

Main Stage Panel Discussion:

We need to talk about AI….

What does it mean to be a responsible retailer in the world of Artificial Intelligence? Join the discussion!

AI is set to empower the Retail experience, and timely adoption of the technology is key to success. However, there is more than one way to leverage technology for growth: so this session will take a wider view of how AI can be used to build a better Retail future.

The darker side – deepfakes, learning-based cyber attacks etc – how can it be managed?
How can you grow your business and make Retail a great place to work?
The social impacts of AI and what they mean for Retail.

The audience are invited to contribute to the discussion and start a conversation about how AI can be used to build a better Retail future.

Neville Cotton
Neville has over 25 years’ experience helping firms to manage complex risk and compliance challenges in today’s regulated environment whilst capitalising on opportunities for enhanced performance. He has worked across the banking, investment, consumer credit and Retail sectors, specialising in loss prevention, risk management, governance and regulatory change. Within the Retail sector he has supported a number of key players including Very, N Brown, Freemans and Next.

Michael Chambers
Michael was Head of Risk, H&S and Insurance at Matalan before moving to All Saints in 2017 where he led their Global Risk function from 2020-2023. He joined Ascential in a senior Risk role in 2023 before moving to his current position at Siemens Healthineers heading up Insurance & Risk for Great Britain and Ireland.

David Hill
David is a highly experienced and successful leader with 20+ years’ experience in the areas of Profit Protection, Security, Operations, Risk Management, Investigations and Compliance. He has extensive knowledge and experience in multiple organisational areas including Corporate, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Online and Retail.

He currently leads all Security, Risk and Profit Protection objectives at Fossil Group, with a responsibility for Retail Sites, Corporate Facilities, Manufacturing and Distribution locations across Europe, Middle East, South Africa & Asia Pacific.