The Modern Retail Editorial Board is a panel of retail industry experts, who are specialists in their chosen fields. They provide high-quality, impartial and informative content to help retailers grow. You can read more about the Editorial Board members below, connect with them on social media, or click through to read their posts.
Alex Mills is marketing director for warehouse stock management solution ProSKU. With a logistics background and long career at WMS software vendors (and ProSKU parent company) Chess Logistics Technology, Alex has seen momentous changes and developments in both areas. He has worked extensively with companies in the retail, wholesale and logistics sectors, as well as more recently within ecommerce and fulfilment.
Alex is keen to help ecommerce sector companies benefit from some of the experience and practice of stock and warehouse management in other fields. Over the years he has contributed articles, views and opinions to industry trade journals and media on a variety of themes and topics.
Andrew is Head of Marketing at Descartes Systems UK Ltd and has over twenty years’ business-to-business senior marketing management experience with high technology solutions (hardware, software and services) in complex business-to-business markets that includes logistics and transport with organisations such as Intel, Securicor, Unipart Technology Logistics and Orange.
Andy, CEO of Bis Henderson Group, is a graduate in Business Studies and Marketing and has a strong background in operational and supply chain strategy management. Prior to transitioning into recruitment, Andy had an established career in the logistics industry, most noticeably leading and implementing the strategy to integrate the supply chains of BHS and Mothercare. In 2000, Andy founded Bis Henderson Group and continues to lead the strategic development and growth of the business which now incorporates recruitment, consulting, space brokerage and training; all within the supply and logistics industry.
In recent years as Chief Executive of Bis Henderson Group, Andy has a particular focus on the recruitment and development of young talent within the logistics industry across the UK which has led him to innovate and launch, in conjunction with numerous universities, a suite of specialist degrees in Supply Chain Management.
Coveo is a pioneer in the application of AI within the enterprise. The Coveo Relevance Cloud™ platform is a market-leading AI platform that enhances search, recommendations, personalization, and merchandising intelligence in digital experiences across commerce, service, website, and workplace applications.
The new Coveo Relevance Generative Answering™ capability helps to solve many of the key challenges of utilizing generative AI for enterprise customer experience.
Coveo is a Salesforce Summit ISV Partner, an SAP® Endorsed App, and an Adobe Gold Partner.
Catherine Erdly has over 20 years experience working with product businesses of all sizes from high street names (such as Paperchase, Laura Ashley, and Coast), to some of the most exciting new independent businesses. She helps product businesses grow their sales, manage their stock, and build lasting businesses through 1-2-1 mentoring and her membership The Resilient Retail Club.
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a product concept to launch platform for consumer goods. Centric PLM®, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Visual Boards™ offer highly visual, touch-screen experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Planning™ is an innovative, cloud-native, augmented-intelligence solution delivering end-to-end retail planning to maximize retail and wholesale business performance. Centric Pricing™ is an AI-driven market insight platform for data-informed decision-making on pricing and product assortments to maximize revenue and margins.
David is a London-based Visual Merchandiser and a member of Modern Retail’s Editorial Board. With over 30 years’ experience and a background in fashion & homewares where he learnt the art of Visual Merchandising and Styling, through department stores and boutiques, David has a varied background and now freelances in the cafe, food and retail lifestyle sector and the world of fashion and homeware brands.
Visit David’s blog at https://www.davidanthonycreative.com/ for more retail stories, as well as inspiring content on art, design and more…
Debra Wilkins is Regional Director MarCom for Northern Europe at Kardex Remstar, a global developer of automated storage and retrieval solutions. Kardex currently services more than 20,000 installations across the nation, and is helping retailers to optimise their storage and picking through automation. With more than 30 years’ experience and an early member of the UK Women in IT Steering Committee, Debra is a seasoned veteran in understanding and relaying the benefits of technology, with articles in many computing magazines, such as Network Computing. She is also a fully qualified counsellor and as such has spoken at conferences on how automation is not only inevitable, but also is changing the way businesses and society interact with each other.
Francesca Nicasio is Vend’s Content Marketing Manager. She writes about trends, tips, and other cool things that enable retailers to increase sales, serve customers better, and run more profitable stores. She’s also the author of Retail Survival of the Fittest, a free eBook to help retailers future-proof their stores.
With over 25 years of global experience in retail design and visual merchandising for global giants such as Ralph Lauren, Levi’s and Alfred Dunhill, John joined Northbanks in 2017 following a hugely successful 5year stint in Shanghai where he was Visual Merchandising professor at Mod’Art and then Creative Director at Design Overlay, a similar agency to Northbanks.
John is passionate about using his experience to help brands develop and implement or improve their retail brand identity.
John is also on the board of advisors at Save the High Street and a council member at the British Display Society.
Komal is an award-winning Fractional CMO and has over 20 years of experience in email and digital marketing. Previously VP Marketing at Pure360, Komal now spearheads the Go-to-Market, Retention and Brand strategies for many B2B, ecommerce and travel businesses. A passionate email marketer, Komal is also Chair of the DMA Email Council. As a key industry thought leader and events speaker, Komal is a Contributor for Modern Retail and writes for many other publications including Forbes. Komal’s passion to support greater diversity in the workplace is the driving force behind her commitment to mentoring individuals in the industry. She is also the co-founder of Email Mentors and a Mentor at The Girls Network. She has been nominated for many awards and was proud to win Corporate Woman of the Year ’19 at the Business Woman’s Excellence Awards and to be awarded a Top 50 CX Star accolade in 2022.
Komal has worked with some of the world’s leading brands including Screwfix, Carphone Warehouse, Black & Decker, helping them get the best results from their email and digital marketing.
Laura is Head of Business Development at PHL Group. She became a member of the PHL Group team almost ten years ago and came from a customer service and retail background. Since joining PHL Group, she has worked her way up from an Account Manager to join our Executive Team as a key decision-maker and influencer at Board level. Laura has vast experience across both marketing and ecommerce, managing major client accounts such as Whirlpool UK, Del Monte and Urban Eat. Laura’s background gives her considerable insight into the ecommerce industry from both a sales and a logistics perspective, which she is excited to bring to the Modern Retail Editorial Board.
Louise Pasterfield is the founder and managing director of Europe’s largest custom digital learning provider, Sponge. The company, established in 2004, harnesses the very latest technologies to deliver seriously creative learning for employees at global brands including Tesco, Specsavers, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer. The bespoke training addresses key retail challenges such as customer experience, product knowledge, onboarding, compliance and talent development. Sponge’s solutions are based on understanding the needs of both the learner and the business to change behaviours, improve performance and deliver results.
Visit https://wearesponge.com/ for more info.
Martin, CEO & Co-founder at Huboo, has decades of experience in development, tech and entrepreneurship. He began as a computer games programmer, publishing his first game (a chart hit) at age 16. After a career in games development, in 2001, he launched one of the UK’s first online dating sites which he later sold. Eight years on, Martin targeted advertising and co-registration revenues to form a Freemium dating site with B2B revenues. It reached Hitwise’s top five sites before the company sold in 2012 to Europe’s then-largest independent dating company.
Transitioning into B2B led Martin to eclipse Google Consumer Surveys in the founding of the fastest market research platform in the world, before selling the company to a PE-backed market research group, and then co-founded Enthuse.com, a payment and fundraising company currently servicing over 4500 charities. He is also a regular speaker at events including Internet World, White Label Expo and The Institute of Fundraising among others.
Melanie is a partner at law firm, Pannone Corporate, and works as part of the Intellectual Property Dispute Resolution team. She specialises in the resolution of disputes relating to intellectual property, reputation management, advertising, data protection, social media and trade libel.
Her focus is on the enforcement and protection of clients’ intellectual property and reputation, as well as brand strategy and management. She has particular experience in retail, fashion, manufacturing, technology, media and the creative industries.
Melanie is a member of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorney and the Licensing Executives Society.
For more information, visit https://pannonecorporate.com.
Naeem Arif is the founder of NA Consulting Ltd, a Retail Business Consultancy, and the Chair of the Midlands Retail & Hospitality Forum.
Naeem is the author of ‘Customer First’ an Amazon #1 Best Seller.
To find out more, visit: https://www.naconsulting.co.uk/
Paul brings 15 years’ experience working with Telecommunications focused IT Software Organisations, covering a range of applications including Fraud Management and Revenue Assurance, Mobile Device and Expense Management, and Wide Area Network Solutions. Much of this time has been spent working with Retail IT teams to enable Business change and meet the needs of their organisations.
Richard Hammond is CEO of Uncrowd, the customer analytics platform that shows why customers make the choices they make, and what retailers can do to influence that choice. He is the leading global authority on friction and reward in retail, and the author of best-seller Smart Retail: Winning Ideas and Strategies from the Most Successful Retailers in the World, and Friction / Reward: Be Your Customer’s First Choice.
Fergal O’Carroll is the chief revenue officer at delivery management company, Scurri, with responsibility for sales strategy and execution.
His prior roles include EMEA vice-president for commercial sales with Teradata for eight years; prior to that, he was managing director of business intelligence solutions with Avnet Client Solutions for 13 years.
Fergal holds a BA in Business Studies from the University of West London and is a native of Dublin, Ireland.
Stuart Conroy has run Activ8 for 20 years and has operated across multiple channels in Asia, Europe and North America. With an understanding of the latest technology, logistics and outsourcing opportunities, Activ8 provides strategy consulting and hands-on solutions to brands looking to manage risk and scale opportunity in online commerce.
Activ8 utilise their experience of being on the Fast Track 100 on two occasions to help brands navigate the scaling process and operate a risk-averse multichannel strategy.
Having worked in investment banking before starting an ecommerce business as well as creating and working with a number of start-ups, Stuart has a great understanding of the challenges facing businesses of all sizes in the modern, digitally-influenced arenas.
Join the Modern Retail Editorial Board
If you are interested in becoming a member of our Editorial Board, please email our Managing Editor, Rob Gamage – [email protected]