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Retail Bulletin Conferences Calendar of Events 2007 Home

Speakers

Sir Brian Pitman, Former Chairman, Lloyds TSB Group and currently a director of Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways and The Carphone Warehouse Group Plc as well as Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley and Governor of Ashridge Management College

Sir Brian PitmanBorn in Cheltenham, Sir Brian was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School.

He joined Lloyds Bank in 1952 and subsequently held a number of managerial appointments in the group, including spells in continental Europe and the USA.   He became Chief Executive of Lloyds Bank in 1983 and Group Chief Executive of the new Lloyds TSB Group in 1995, when Lloyds Bank merged with TSB.   He was appointed Chairman of the Lloyds TSB Group in February 1997 and retired in April 2001.

He was also Chairman of NEXT plc from 1998-2002. 

He is currently a director of Singapore Airlines Ltd; a director of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd; a director of The Carphone Warehouse Group Plc; a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley; and a Governor of Ashridge Management College.  He was director of ITV from 1998 to 2008.

Sir Brian was President of the British Bankers Association from January 1996 to May 1997 and President of The Chartered Institute of Bankers from May 1997 to October 1998.  He was Master of the Guild of International Bankers from September 2002 to September 2003.

In 1993, he was voted Financial World European Banking CEO of the Year; 1996 Times Businessman of the Year; 1998 KPMG Business Leader of the Year and was the winner of the 1999 Gold Medal of the Institute of Management.

Sir Brian was knighted for his services to banking in 1994 and he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from The City University, London in 1996 and from the University of Science & Technology, Manchester in 2000.

He is a member of the MCC, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Yorkshire County Cricket Club and St. George’s Hill Golf Club.

He is married with two sons and one daughter.

Richard Smith, Managing Director, Lloyds Pharmacy

Richard SmithRichard Smith was appointed Managing Director, Lloydspharmacy May 2008.

In addition to his role as Managing  Director of Lloydspharmacy, Richard is also a Member of the Group Executive Committee Celesio, and Regional Director Celesio Pharmacies.  Richard joined the business in March 2005 as Chief Operating Officer, and over this period Lloydspharmacy has achieved outstanding growth in its core markets.

Richard has particular expertise in delivering cultural and business process change and is a strong advocate for the consumer.  His aspiration is to make Lloydspharmacy a great healthcare brand that champions people’s health.

Already the company leads the market in pharmacy services (Medicines Use Reviews, diabetes tests and heart health checks) and is the largest community pharmacy chain in the country with around 1800 pharmacies.

Prior to joining the company Richard gained a wealth of experience in the food retail industry holding senior management positions at Somerfield PLC.

Colin Temple, Managing Director, Schuh

Colin TempleMiddlesbrough-born Colin Temple joined the footwear retailer Schuh as a merchandiser in 1986. A decade later, Temple was appointed merchandise director before taking the helm as managing director in 2002. Temple’s retail career began at Woolworths in 1984 as a retail management trainee rising to merchandise planning controller. Temple graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic with a Retail distribution and marketing degree in 1981, just as Schuh was opening its first doors in Edinburgh. Schuh now has 50 stores and a highly successful online business. Temple describes his proudest moment as the day he was appointed managing director of Schuh: “It was particularly potent because it was a vote of confidence from my fellow directors.”

Gillian Berkmen, Group Brand & Commercial Director- Mothercare plc, Mothercare plc

Gillian BerkmenSince joining Mothercare in 2003, Brand & Commercial Director Gillian Berkmen has played a pivotal role in transforming the retailer’s fortunes.

Her executive responsibilities include strategic management and realisation of a full lifestyle product offer for mums-to-be, babies and children up to the age of eight. Her areas of focus comprise sourcing, technology, supply chain, buying, merchandising and marketing.

During her time at Mothercare, Berkmen has orchestrated a major transformation of the retailer’s offer, helped to drive an unprecedented financial recovery, and played a key role in the acquisition and integration of the Early Learning Centre business.

Her focus on customer needs and aspirations for their children embraces all Mothercare’s channels, including its thriving international, online and catalogue businesses. Her understanding of this seamless conversation with the customer is central to Mothercare’s growth strategy.

Prior to joining Mothercare, she was Group Buying Director at Watches of Switzerland and Mappin & Webb, where she helped steer the business following an MBO from Asprey Group.

Berkmen spent the first 19 years of her career in fashion retail management, holding various buying and merchandising positions at a number of well-known high street names, including Miss Selfridge, Bhs and River Island.

Judith Levy, CEO, High and Mighty Group

Judith LevyJudith has led the High and Mighty group for over 10 years initially as Managing Director with responsibility for operational matters and since 2001 as Chief Executive Officer, focussing on strategic direction and corporate development.

Under her leadership, High and Mighty has established its position as the European market leader in Big and Tall menswear offering high quality fashion that fits with an ethos of exceptional customer service, in a growing number of outlets throughout the U.K. and Benelux, together with a growing franchise network that spreads from Reykjavik to Riyadh.  She is currently leading a variety of company initiatives, including overseeing the building of new work teams and partnership development internationally.

She recently completed her Masters degree at Bath Spa University and continues a number of research interests, including issues of ethical business practice and ecological impact.

Judith is a trustee of national children’s charity Kidsout, which provides leisure opportunities for disadvantaged children, young people and their families.  She is trained in Gestalt Psychotherapy and NLP and works with women to develop their leadership potential and personal effectiveness.  In her free time, she practises astanga yoga and enjoys cycling around her home town of Oxford.

Meg Lustman, Chief Strategy Officer, Mosaic Fashions

Meg LustmanA practical strategist with a high-performance track record in retail, both in the UK and internationally, Meg has been successful in leading major strategic innovation and developing business at all levels. She has been a key member of the small senior team that has transformed the company from a UK-based single brand, listed company in London to a multi-brand Group with over 20% of its sales from non-UK markets and the first UK company to list in Iceland.  Meg plays a significant role in influencing corporate strategy and investor and shareholder decisions.  Her specific skills are in the areas of business growth and development:  understanding markets, identifying opportunities, setting strategy, accessing and developing resources, managing change and establishing appropriate infrastructures to support and measure the achievement of business goals.

Dr Patrick Allen BA (Hons) MBA, Ph.D., MCIM, M.IoD Executive Director of Marketing, Co-operative Group

Dr Patrick AllenPatrick is Executive Director of Marketing for the Co-operative Group, with responsibility for brand, membership, CSR, customer strategy and commercial marketing. In 2004 Patrick joined United Co-operatives, as Head of Marketing. The two societies amalgamated in 2007.

He is also an honorary visiting fellow at the University of Bradford Management Centre, a faculty member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and a Board member of the British Retail Consortium.

Patrick started his career with one of Manchester's leading advertising agencies. After gaining an MBA at Bradford Management Centre in 1987, he joined Pannel Kerr Forster - chartered accountants- trained as an accountant and worked in their corporate advisory service. His role there was to under-take a strategic review of companies wishing to raise loan/share capital for both organic and acquisitive growth strategies.

In 1989, he moved to London to Join Electronic Data Systems (EDS) as an international financial analyst, reporting directly to the International Managing Director on the business viability of new leads brought before the management review board.

In order to further his research interests, Patrick returned to Bradford Management Centre in October 1993 as a lecturer in Marketing and Strategic Management. His doctoral research focused on the impact that trading relationships or networks have on the new product development processes within the FMCG arena. This work covers areas of efficient consumer response (ECR), category management and vendor managed inventory (VMI). This work provides a model of best practice in relationship building between suppliers and retailers that will allow retail networks to be benchmarked. This work has been published in a book entitled “Innovation Process Management “Ed, M. Zairi (1999). His research has also been published in several conference proceedings including the European Marketing Academy and the Marketing Education Group.

From 1993 Patrick ran his own training and consulting business working with clients such as; IBM (Europe, USA & Asia Pacific), Campbell's Soup, Avis Fleet and Lease Management, Allied Domecq, SABIC, Emirates Airlines, Sainsbury’s, Kelloggs, Centrica, Reed Publishing, Dixons Store Group, PC World, Curry’s, The Link, IPC Media, BBC, Cisco, Hitachi, Yorkshire Co-operatives, other blue chip companies and a number of SME's.

Katherine Symonds, Sustainability Manager, Tesco

Katherine SymondsFormerly Tesco’s Climate Change Manager, Katherine now works on embedding sustainability into the heart of the business.

She joined Tesco in 2006, working on the launch of their Community Plan, an ambitious programme to change the role of Tesco in local and global communities.

Since then, she has worked on a wide range of initiatives, including reducing UK carrier bag use by 3 billion, being the first UK retailer to put carbon labels on products, establishing the £25m Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester and launching a low-carbon blueprint for all new stores.

Before she joined Tesco, Katherine was Head of Client Services at the consumer think-tank, The Future Foundation.

Dave Vallance, Director of HR Operations, Boots UK

Dave VallanceDave has worked for Boots for over 10 years – currently leading significant changes across the specialist HR areas of Reward, Policy, Planning and Insights, plus in the operational areas of Recruitment and shared services (manager advice, HR processes, Pensions, Occupational Health and Employee Assistance services).  The step-changes made by HR have contributed to driving increased business performance and enabling the transformation of Boots UK, as we strive to ensure our customers receive an unrivalled customer experience when they shop in our stores.

Dave is extending his remit to explore the opportunities to provide HR services across Alliance Boots Group. He has also worked in Organisation Development and business strategy roles for Boots.

Previously, Dave has worked for the Audit Commission, carrying out projects to improve the value for money of NHS and other public services, and as a Sales Manager for Reed International. He has a degree in Organisational Behaviour and an MBA.

Jonathon Brown, Director of Multi Channel, B & Q

Jonathon BrownJonathon joined B&Q as Director of Multi Channel in January 2007. His current accountabilities are to drive the companies Multi Channel strategy. These include the development of our digital offering through DIY.com, the extension of our Home Delivery proposition to ensure customers can get the right products at the right price, when and where they want them. In addition he leads the definition of our online marketing strategy plans and their successful implementation.

Prior to B&Q Jonathon was Head of eChannels for Aviva looking after the online marketing and site development strategies for their portfolio of brands including RAC, Norwich Union and BSM. Jonathon joined Aviva from Coca Cola where he drove the European eBusiness strategy, delivering a portfolio of B2B and B2C online developments. Before this Jonathon was a senior member of the British Airways online team and drove the customer proposition work through BA.com including it’s re-launch in 2000 and the implementation of a number of customer centric capabilities driving improved customer engagement, revenue generation and cost reduction.

Helen Mountney,  UK Managing Partner, Kurt Salmon Associates

Helen MountneyHelen Mountney, UK Managing Partner of consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates, has over 17 years experience in the retail and consumer products industries.  Specialising in sourcing and supply chain management, Helen advises a number of high profile clients, in the UK and across Europe.
A graduate of Nottingham University, Helen has worked in a variety of roles within the Kingfisher Group, Storehouse and Coca-Cola. 

Claire Balmforth, Group HR Director, Carpetright PLC

Claire BalmforthClaire started her retail career in Selfridges Oxford Street as an “A” level trainee on their retail supervisory scheme and progressed to join their graduate scheme ending up as the Assistant buyer in Stationary then Drugs and Toiletries before moving to Tesco in 1990.

At Tesco she moved through several roles and restructures from New Store Training Instructor to various regional HR roles before moving to the Hertford store as General Manager.

From Tesco she moved to Boots joining at a time of significant change of the personnel function to HR. She was Regional Personnel manager and transitioned the region from store based personnel managers to Area HR business partners. During her time at Boots Claire started a 2 year part time MBA at Ashridge Management College.

Claire’s next move was out of the retail sector and into a Sales Director role at Lex Vehicle Leasing part of the RAC group and after 2 ½ years she moved across to the group to be the HR and Operations Director at Hyundai Motors UK.

After RAC’s acquisition by Norwich Union and the transfer of the Hyundai business back to Korean ownership Claire sought a new challenge and took the opportunity at Carpetright to start an HR function and develop the people agenda over the last 2 ½ years.

Catriona Marshall, Commercial Director, Pets at Home

Catriona MarshallCatriona  joined Pets at Home in January 2003. As Commercial Director, she is responsible for developing the customer proposition in stores, building the Pets at Home brand and achieving profitable growth. Catriona studied Scottish and European law before starting a career in F.M.C.G., first with Mars Confectionery and then with Kraft Foods. In 1996 Catriona joined Asda, where she worked for 7 years before joining the pet industry. Catriona lives in Cheshire with her husband and a large family of pets. Her favourite pastime is running and setting off for a day to explore the hills!

Andy Moat, Director of Organisation Development, B & Q

Andy MoatAfter a ten year career in finance, covering strategy & development and commercial finance roles, I moved into the HR team at B&Q motivated by the belief that the senior leadership team had become part of the problem not the solution and I wasn’t going to help to correct that by working in finance! After two years as Reward & Performance Manager during which time we re-designed all our bonus schemes, moved our store management population onto a new reward framework and re-wrote the performance review system, I moved into a business partner role working with the commercial and supply teams. After a further 18 months the opportunity came up to lead the Organisation Development team at B&Q with responsibility for Organisation Development, Talent, Leadership, Engagement, Reward, Shared Services, Corporate Communication and Customer Services.

Brian Farrelly, Director of Broadcasting, QVC 

Brian FarrellyAs Director of Broadcasting, Brian is responsible for the production of QVC UK’s on air content, including presenters, production and ensuring compliance with ASA and other regulations.  QVC produces 17 hours of live television everyday.  Brian heads a team of over 200 people and has been with QVC since 2000.

With over twenty years’ experience in television production, Brian was previously Head of Production at Carlton Television.  Prior to that he was a member of the Retail Projects team at Boots the Chemists which launched in store opticians and photo processing.  He has an MBA from Warwick University.

Married with two children, Brian is a big sports fan and a passionate Derby County supporter. In 2008 he ran the London Marathon and hopes to do it again as well as New York and Amsterdam.

Richard Lowe, Corporate Director, Retail and Wholesale Sector, Barclays Commercial Bank

Richard LoweRichard has more than 25 years of banking experience and has spent the last 10 years providing specialist banking services to the Retail & Wholesale Sectors.  He now leads the London based Retail & Wholesale Team, looking after the banks larger customers.  The team includes 9 specialist directors and over 300 customers from food wholesalers to department stores.

Richard has had a range of roles in Barclays including managing a number of the banks larger customers in the Retail and Wholesale Sector.
Outside of work, Richard is an avid reader and believes you never stop learning something new from a good book.   He enjoys motorsport and holds a racing licence.

Richard has 2 children and lives in Hertfordshire.

Francesca Ecsery, General Manager UK, Cheapflights

Francesca EcseryFrancesca has in-depth knowledge and experience of the travel industry gained over fourteen years. She Joined Cheapflights in 2007 as General Manager of Cheapflights UK operations.  An experienced travel executive, pior to Cheapflights, she was Managing Director, International Division, of STA Travel, the student and under-26 travel company whose business extends over 76 countries, 32 of which were secured under her leadership.  She also built STA's presence in the Chinese market place into a contributor to group profits and, in addition, led STA's travel ventures in Africa.

Before  STA, she was Group Managing Director of IfYouTravel.com, Europe's leading online speciality travel company, which she built and ran for two years before selling to an AIM quoted company in October 2001, now owned by Lastminute.com.

She previously held senior management and marketing roles at AirTours (MyTravel), Going Places and also Thomas Cook.   Francesca has also worked at McKinsey & Co followed by Pepsico where she held positions in marketing and promotions.

A graduate of Geneva University in Political Science and International Relations, Francesca is also a Graduate of the Harvard Business School.  She is an accomplished linguist, speaking English, French, Portuguese, Hungarian, Spanish and Italian.

Dr Paul Pritchard, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Royal and SunAlliance

Dr Paul PritchardDr Paul Pritchard heads corporate responsibility in the strategy function of RSA UK. This involves accountability for environment, community and workplace issues including reporting and product development. He initially worked at DTI followed by a range of roles in environmental consultancy before joining RSA as an environmental specialist in 1997. Following a period working in the Group Corporate Centre on issues ranging from reporting to capital modelling he joined the UK business in 2006 to oversee carbon neutrality issues. He is an environmental risk specialist who is a registered Principal Environmental Auditor, Chartered Environmentalist and a Chartered Chemist. His principal publications are:
Environmental Risk Management (2000) and Managing Environmental Risks and Liabilities, (1994)

Adri Kraa, Head of Shop Online!, IKEA

Adri KraaSelected as Head of Shop Online! in January 2005, Adri drives the multi-channel strategy for IKEA UK. He designed the complete e-operating model and successfully launched the online channel ahead of schedule in 2006. Being responsible for the UK’s e-marketing, sales and fulfilment operations he is also instrumental in establishing the global multi-channel concept.

Adri joined IKEA in 2002 to drive the strategy & business planning of the Wholesaler in West Europe, amongst others developing the logistic services to enable e-fulfilment.

Previously, Adri worked for six years as a senior management consultant in the Netherlands. He advised large companies on their service delivery strategies and spearheaded the commercial and competence development of LogicaCMG’s Consulting service. Prior to that, he worked as systems engineer in the European space industry following his Masters in Aerospace Engineering.

Adri also holds an executive MBA from Henley Management College and lives in Cambridge with his family. He regularly speaks at (r)etail conferences on developments in multi-channel retailing.  

Sonia Sharples, Head of Human Resources, Poundland Ltd

Sonia SharplesSonia Sharples joined Poundland as Head of Human Resources in November 2006 where she is responsible for the HR, Training, Healthy & Safety and Payroll functions.

Sonia has 12 years of HR experience, having previously worked for companies including Inbev and Tesco as well as having experience in Recruitment Consultancy.


Sonia also has a Masters Degree in ‘Occupational Psychology – The Psychology of Work’ which she obtained through distance learning and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD.

Xavier Vallee, Head of Direct Marketing EMEA, Avis Europe plc

Xavier ValleeSince 1994 when first introduced to the Internet, Xavier has been passionate in investigating how digital technologies open new opportunities for companies to improve customer and brand experience, and ultimately drive their bottom line.

Xavier has 10+ years experience in delivering market beating growths to businesses through digital and marketing strategies, in international settings. He started his career in management consulting working in France, Egypt and Morocco. After a few exciting years working for online marketing agencies, he moved to Avis where he has held several positions. He's currently Head of Direct Marketing EMEA for Avis Europe, where he’s responsible for the direct sales to Avis’ individual customers.”

David Oliver, Head of Marketing Programmes, Hertz Europe

David OliverDavid joined Hertz Europe as Head of Marketing Programmes in late 2007, managing loyalty tiers including #1 Club Gold, together with channel and external programme marketing support.

Before Hertz David spent nine years at Centrica plc starting with launching a home insurance business, then managing brands and advertising with Centrica’s Goldfish credit card.

In his next role he planned counter competitor strategy for Centrica’s British Gas, then his remit extended to retaining and growing value amongst 12m energy customers.  David led initiatives defending market share which halved churn amongst selected customer segments.
Before Centrica David fought as a marketing mercenary armed with a Diploma in Direct Marketing in several different sectors:

  1. marketing consultancy with motor and telecoms companies
  2. managing direct marketing at Volkswagen Group, and in the emerging cable TV and telephone sector at Nynex CableComms
  3. driving sales through database marketing in mobile communications with DMC/AirCall

A French and Economics graduate, David has presented at various conferences and has been a regular speaker on the Institute of Direct Marketing and The Institute of Sales Promotion Diploma courses.  Outside work David has a busy home-life in St Albans as Dad to four children ranging in age from 4 to 14.

Gillian Lipton, Corporate Responsibility Manager, Monsoon Accessorize

Gillian LiptonGillian has spent the past 15 years in the retail sector.  She has worked on numerous and varied projects with a number of retailers including Aquascutum, Wallis, and Habitat before becoming a brand manager at Etam.  During her spare time she volunteered for CSV (Community Service Volunteers) and this experience proved invaluable when becoming Marketing and Project Manager for Shelter Trading in 2002.  As well as managing the redesign and roll-out of a new shop concept, Gillian was also responsible for many third-party CSR initiatives.

As a result of these activities, Gillian developed her knowledge of Corporate Responsibility and she has taken this interest back into the commercial arena in her current role as Corporate Responsibility and Charity Manager for Monsoon Accessorize.  Gillian is involved in all areas of CR including ethical trading, reducing the company’s carbon footprint, encouraging staff to ‘think green,’ ‘eco products’ and the Monsoon Accessorize Trust.

Ged Keogh-Peters, Head of UK Strategy Team, Kurt Salmon Associates

Ged Keogh-PetersGed Keogh-Peters is a senior manager at Kurt Salmon Associates, the leading global management consultancy specialising in retail and consumer products.   He heads up the Strategy team in the UK and has recently assisted a number of clients with developing growth strategies both in their home and overseas markets, including the development of multi-channel offers.
 
Ged qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG and was a Director within its Transaction Services team where he focused on deal advisory work for a wide range of high street retailers, covering strategy, synergy assessment and commercial and operational due diligence assignments. 

Gary Copping, Fashion Sector Manager, K3

Profile coming soon.

Gary Hockey-Morley, Marketing Director, Post Office Ltd.

Gary Hockey-MorleyGary is an accomplished director with over 10 years experience in financial services in a variety of MD and marketing leadership roles all with P&L accountability, encompassing a range of products and distribution channels. Gary has a track record for transforming business performance by devising sound strategies, negotiating complex agreements and leading motivated well organised cross functional teams.

Gary began his career at Unilever plc engaged in solving marketing problems and accelerating business development. He followed this with 4 years at London Electricity devising and driving their new business ventures strategy.

Gary joined the then Abbey National in 1993 initially focused on acquisitions and then leading key parts of the integration of N&P building society into Abbey during 1995. Gary then held a variety of senior marketing roles before progressing to overall Marketing Director in 1999 where he conceived and implemented new retail formats and the sale of Abbey’s credit card business to MBNA. Gary then moved into managing director roles beginning by leading Abbey business which spearheaded Abbey’s attack on the business banking market and then culminating with leading Abbey’s £85 billion mortgage business generating over £800m in revenues. In the mortgage role Gary grew revenues, reversing 4 years of decline whilst growing market share.

Gary joined the Board of the Post Office in October 2006 as Marketing Director responsible for driving revenue growth and reshaping the group’s customer and product propositions.

Gary attended Henley Management College completing an MBA by distance learning and he obtained an BSc in Economics from Bristol University. Gary is divorced with two daughters, he lives in London and his interests include cycling and swimming for fitness.

Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski, Enterprise Product Manager, Torex

Charlotte Kula-PrzezwanskiWith more than 15 years experience in retail merchandising and solutions implementation, Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski brings real world experience to her role of Product Manager for the Torex Enterprise solutions. Her demonstrated knowledge of products and processes, as well as her understanding and insight in to customer needs, places her in a unique position to influence the company’s future supply chain portfolio.

Charlotte joined Torex in 2000 as a Solution Consultant for the Torex Merchandise Planning product. Her outstanding performance with this product led her to successive roles with the company including Solution Consultant Team Leader, Head of Professional Services and General Manager.

Charlotte worked in retail for eight years from her graduation in 1990. She began in Merchandising at Adams Childrenswear. She later joined Next as a Merchandise Manager.

Charlotte earned a Bachelor Degree in Politics and Economics with Honors from the University of East Anglia.

Hilary Jones, Director of Ethics, Lush Cosmetics

Hilary JonesDuring Hilary’s 13 years with Lush Cosmetics she has helped lay the foundations of the companies sound ethical policies. While a passionate environmental and animal protection campaigner in her spare time, Hilary’s full-time work at Lush involves her heading up initiatives to green Lush’s manufacturing base, ban animal testing from the cosmetics industry, and coordinating Lush’s in-house campaigns team.

Henry Elliss, Head of Social Media, Tamar

Hilary JonesHenry heads up Tamar's Social Media division. He is a member of the IAB social media council and a regular voice for the industry in both trade press and at events.

At Tamar, Henry provides consultancy on social media strategy and management for a diverse range of blue-chip clients. When he is not advising on social media opportunities, Henry advises Tamar’s search team on advanced search engine optimisation techniques.

Prior to the birth of social media marketing, Henry earned his salt as a search campaign manager at Tamar for 3 years, working on SEO strategies and implementation for key clients including: B&Q, Endsleigh, Lloyds TSB and Saga.