IORMA Board

“IORMA has a strong, experienced and forward looking Executive Board, Management Board and Advisory Board”

Executive Board

John Andrews
Founder, Chair and CEO

John has a long career history as Chairman, CEO and Director within the Retail Distance Selling Industry including major Enterprises such as the UK’s Royal Mail, Great Universal Stores plc (incorporating Burberrys, Experian, Yodel Home Delivery and the UK’s leading catalogue and online operation (now known as Very) along with advisory roles with the UK Government and the European Commission.
John is also an experienced International Speaker on Innovation within the Global Retailing and Global eCommerce Sectors and has won several Awards relating to developments and Innovation within these sectors.

Fred Bassnett
Vice Chair | Business Networks

Over 30 years of experience in the Retail &Consumer Goods Sector both in the UK and International Markets covering Retail , Manufacturing and Distribution in various roles at Director and Senior Executive level across Marketing, Operations and Sourcing having worked in the Retail Sector With Debenhams , Allders, House of Fraser and Furniture Village and in International Markets for Allders International ( Duty Tax Free ) where he was Director of Buying and Merchandising worldwide and as Sales & Marketing Director at Ronson Plc with distibution in over 40 countries.
In addition did project work for Raylian London Ltd which included work for clients, Bid Up. TV, Gunwharf Quays Outlet and Retail and Catering facilities at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
During 1999 was seconded from Industry to UK Trade and Investment the UK Government Organisation responsible for International Trade and has continued to work with UKTI originally as Export Promoter North America and then as a Specialist North America Business Advisor for over 12 years. From 2011 to March 2018 was a Retail Sector Specialist in the Strategic Trade Group at DIT (UKTI) Headquarters in London.
Has broad based knowledge of International Trade across all Industry Sectors, with specific knowledge of the North American Market,and other Key Markets such the Middle East and China.
Specialties: Experienced in all aspects of Retail and Distribution of Consumer Goods,and as a Specialist/ International Trade Advisor to UK Governments Department of International Trade with over 18 years, specialist knowledge and contacts across a broad range of Industry Sectors including Retail &Consumer Goods, Food & Drink, ICT. Healthcare, Life Sciences, Renewables and other new and emerging Technology Sectors. Has over thirty years of experience in International Markets including North America, Europe the Middle East and Asia.

John Rainford
Vice Chair | Transformational Thinking

John Rainford is a distinguished speaker and trailblazer in the realms of Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Physics, Systems Leadership, and Business Intelligence. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he enriches minds through MBA programs on Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Birmingham. John’s mentorship prowess shines through, having guided the Winner of Ernst and Young Global Entrepreneur of the Year.
As Chief Imagination Officer at Learn With Leaders, he has evaluated groundbreaking innovations from over 20,000 schools across 90 countries. His mission at the Human Health Education and Research Foundation (hherf.org) as Chief Innovation Officer is to uplift underprivileged children, advancing entrepreneurship, health, and education to empower communities and combat poverty and hunger.
John’s passion for driving change has left an indelible mark on global giants like Shell, ABB, and Rolls Royce. He is the visionary CEO of strawberryfields.com and systemicinnovators.org, promoting systemic innovation across science, business, health, and education with a compassionate touch to create a better world.
Through confidence courses with the Young Foundation, Mind, and the Samaritans, John empowers young people and women entrepreneurs, building their self-esteem and entrepreneurial spirit. His expertise in collective intelligence fosters effective teamwork and innovative solutions, which are shared globally at prestigious universities and institutions, including Singapore, the Middle East, Finland, Ireland, China, the United States, Canada. and India. He has also represented the UK government on Innovation at the esteemed COMDEX conference in Las Vegas.
John Rainford is a sought-after keynote speaker on Creative Entrepreneurship, captivating audiences across Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. He firmly believes in the transformative power of artificial intelligence and creative collaboration to propel enterprises into uncharted territories. Creator of the Innovation Matrix, John continues to inspire leaders to embrace creativity and systems thinking, pioneering a future of limitless possibilities.
John is currently the architect of entrepreneurial ‘future’s thinking’ > changing the way governments think to augment their health, education and well-being policies that will empower their people to create sustainable wealth and attainable wisdom. across borders and cultural divides. We have done this effectively within large organizations with over 100,000 employees – why not whole communities?

Management Board

Martin Oxley
Chief Strategy Officer

Martin is a business strategist and development professional who has spent the last 30 years growing international business.
In the early part of his career Martin pioneered the growth of GSK and Bristol Myers Squibb in the high potential, emerging markets of Central & Eastern Europe. He was the main strategy lead and has held key Board positions on three of the top CEE based, private equity backed, healthcare companies.
For the last 10 years Martin has championed British Polish international trade and investment.  He was CEO of the award winning British Polish Chamber of Commerce (BPCC), which under his leadership was recognized as the Best British Chamber of Commerce in Europe for four consecutive years.
Martin was Director General of UK Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Warsaw where he led on the delivery of the British government’s GREAT campaign in CEE.  During his watch bilateral trade grew over 5 times.  Martin has worked with most of the leading UK based international corporations as they have developed in the region. He was recognized for outstanding services to British trade and investment in Central Europe in HM The Queen’s 2014 Birthday Honours list.
He is passionate about digital innovation and marketing creativity. He now leads his own business development laboratory, Strategic IMPACT, which supports innovative startups in the digital communications and healthcare spaces go global through building partnerships. His business partners call him a volcano of creative ideas & development ambition.
Martin is a Board Director of Poland’s leading provider of IT outsourcing services to the retail sector in Central Europe; he is a Board member of Gdansk Life Sciences Cluster, an innovative health-tech platform affiliated to the Universities of Gdansk and has recently started a hub for disruptive, online media companies.

Jane Calvert-Lee
External Relations Director

Jane comes from a line of entrepreneurs, so the importance of successful businesses to the national economy has driven the direction of her career. She has founded and invested in start-ups and recognises the tenacity required to overcome the obstacles they face. She joined the Northampton Chamber of Commerce and Industry where she formed partnerships with local authorities and agencies to promote the county as a centre for the growing microelectronic industries alongside its traditional manufacturing.
Moving to the CBI where she was to spend most of her career, Jane joined the West Midlands team supporting the heart of British manufacturing, going through the painful process of automation. Moving through the ranks of the CBI, she spent ten years as the London Director, the powerhouse of global financial services.
Recognizing that London, thriving and growing, needed more homes and workspace, she saw the need of developing London eastwards, supporting the regeneration of Docklands. She joined the Board of the University of East London, which attracts students who are frequently the first of their family to achieve a degree.
Other positions she has held include being a central London magistrate, a Board member of the Aga Khan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Eastman Foundation for Oral Research and Training and Tomorrow’s People. Most recently Jane was elected to the Board of Dignity in Dying helping to change the legislation to allow the terminally ill to seek assistance and decide when they may die.

Roger Willison-Gray
Corporate Affairs Director

Roger Willison-Gray has spent his career in strategy and leadership roles in global technology organisations, up to and including VP level. Roger has held senior roles with IBM, Steria, Logica and Computer Science Corporation. Latterly Roger has developed his own business consulting services in Business Transformation, holding many interim management roles in both business and technology leadership positions. He has a wide knowledge of many sectors including Financial services, Transport and Logistics, IT Services, and Oil and Gas. His extensive knowledge of digital technologies has resulted in his continued involvement in developing and bringing to market new Tech businesses. Roger is passionate about the benefits that new and emerging technologies can bring to business and wider society. Roger is a Chartered Engineer and Project Management Professional and is also Corporate Affairs Director for IORMA. His passions are mounted military (Cavalry) re-enactments and cooking for friends.

Richard Emmott
Consulting Director

Richard gained his degree in Business Administration at Bath University.
Richard has a career background transforming businesses with a digital innovative bias in technology, retail and consumer markets.
One could say I have now done too many years in senior roles transforming businesses with a digital innovative bias.  I am fortunate that the rapid change in technology, retail and consumer markets in which I have focused, has kept me agile and able to adapt.
My most recent role was to help author and then execute the strategy for a Retail and CP practice of a PE backed global digital solutions company with 3,500 employees. This then needed to have a whole new chapter to consider how one should work in the present covid-19 period…  the story for all us continues.
Retail and technology have usually been good at adapting to change. Today, more than ever, we need to collaborate and share ideas so that we all adapt for the better. Humanity and ethics cannot be an after- thought in a world of rapid change and challenge.
A passion outside work is sport where I feature as a part time triathlete. Once a high ranked swimmer I only train infrequently but still love the ‘break’ it gives me away from a busy world.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change … Charles Darwin

Ross Edwards
Technology Director and IORMA iLab Director

Throughout my career I have had first-hand experience of how new technology can disrupt industries and businesses. Starting out in photography, mainly for the film industry, the effects going digital on the industry, after a few false starts had many repercussions, not many would have thought phones would bring down camera companies.
After running a number of photographic studios, then at the time when film editing went digital I became involved in corporate films, with companies such as Honda and Porsche and working on feature films.
Then with another technological advance started moving into CGI,VFX special effects, such as Green screen, background replacement and set extensions, along with my colleagues who have worked on projects such as , Lord of the Rings, Dark Knight trilogy and Marvel films and some with years’ experience of Architecture Pr-visualization sector. I’m passionate about education and different ways of learning so I enjoy going into schools teaching green-screen film making and also looking to bring the latest tech such as AR/VR into these projects.
Being able to make high quality digital environments puts us in an excellent place for projects in VR/AR, Virtual and Augmented Realities, working on projects for the medical, architecture and commercial sectors, as well as looking to develop cutting edge products/solutions around multi-sensory environments.
The future of immersive technologies along with the power of machine learning and AI is massive and it feels like we are only at the equivalent stages of Morse code compared to smart phones, as is the nature of these things there will be false dawns but the potential of these technologies and how they are and will be used and become invisible parts of our daily lives is really exciting.

David Wortley
Health Technology Director
and
Virtual Conferences Director

See the David Wortley Interview here
David Wortley is Vice President of the International Society of Digital Medicine and the Founder and CEO of 360in360 Immersive Experiences – providing a range of services that use technology to deliver rich interactive environments that engage, educate, inspire and influence. These services include virtual conferences, webinars and interactive virtual tours based on 360 degree panoramic images and videos.
Throughout his career in converging and emerging technologies, David has been a pioneer and thought leader in the application of these technologies for the development of business and society. He was appointed as the Founding Director of the Serious Games Institute (SGI) at Coventry University in 2006 and he successfully established the SGI as a global brand and thought leader within 4 years.
He is a serial early adopter and user of innovative and disruptive technologies which enables him to deliver solutions based on practical experience.
His pioneering work has helped businesses, communities and individuals leverage the power of these technologies for competitive advantage and business/personal development. This work has been recognised through his Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce (FRSA) and his appointment as an expert adviser on Serious Games and Augmented Reality for the EU’s Vision 2020 strategic document prepared by the ICT Directorate. David is a registered business mentor under the European Union Small Horizon 2020 Business instrument. He is a respected and sought-after international conference speaker and writer for global publications on Learning Technologies, Defence and Health applications. He has written numerous papers on technology and society and is a regular conference presenter.

David Smith
Futures Director

David is one of the world’s leading futurologists and strategic thinkers, having founded GFF (Global Futures & Foresight) in 2006.  Before founding GFF, David held numerous strategic roles including strategic marketing director for Unisys’ $2 billion global financial services business. Whilst at Unisys he co-created their Global Futures Forum. He is widely sought after as a professional futurist, author and speaker, having addressed over 450 conferences and events in 42 countries across 5 continents in the past ten years.

Graeme Leach
Economics Director

Director, CEO Foresight. Graeme is one of Britain’s leading economists and a former Chief Economist and Director of Policy at the Institute of Directors (IoD), where he was also a member of the Board. Graeme represented the IoD in economic discussions with the Chancellor and 10 Downing Street. Graeme founded macronomics in 2016, which is a macroeconomic, geopolitical and future megatrends research consultancy. He is a visiting professor of economic policy and a senior fellow of the Legatum Institute in London. He is also a member of the IEA Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (SMPC). He has spent a lifetime in economics, futures and foresight, having started his career at The Henley Centre for Forecasting.

Pandora Mather-Lees
Director
IORMA Luxury and Creative Centre

Pandora is also a director of Pandora Art Services and ArtOnSuperyachts.com a consultancy managing risk with fine art objects on board superyachts. This includes a 13-module diploma course in art appreciation, art history and art management for stewardesses, captains and the superyacht industry to understand the requirements for conserving the integrity and value these pieces travelling through international waters.
She has overseen joint ventures between business and academia in the e-commerce and digital arena which has resulted in the world’s greatest art treasures being brought into schools and universities for study, both in the UK and world wide.
As Vice President of the online arts platform artnet, she has enabled galleries and auction houses to showcase their works online while promoting luxury brands to collectors. Prior to this, as Managing Director of The Bridgeman Art Library for over 15 years, she established a network of global agents, leading product strategy and licensing digital content for TV, film, publishing, advertising, and all digital media. Her role involved directing Government funded projects in culture and education, lobbying Government and launching web based products for the provision of online content.
Pandora began her career in the creative industries in advertising, PR and marketing with Publicis, and Biss Lancaster. Still in the media, she is an editor with Family Office Magazine.

iO
Disruptive Technologies Strategy Director

To reflect the need for Boards of organisations to incorporate forward thinking strategy concerning new disruptive technologies such as AI, Robotics, Blockchain and 3D Printing,  IORMA’s own gender-neutral AI Robot called “iO” will embed such new approaches into the Digital DNA and activities of the IORMA Futures Centre.
iO may be one of the World’s First AI Robots to become a Director of an organisation’s board.
iO, unlike the famous classic statue by Rodin of ‘The Thinker‘ which is looking downward, iO is clearly looking ahead and forward; compare …

IORMA Advisory Board

Allyson Stewart Allen – IORMA Advisory Board
Allyson Stewart-Allen is a renowned advisor, author, speaker, educator and Non-Executive Director whose expertise in brand internationalisation is sought by global businesses.
A Californian based in Europe for over 30 years, Allyson applies her extensive international consulting experience, MBA education with Dr. Peter Drucker and languages (French, German) to the company she founded, International Marketing Partners.
She has advised more than 260 businesses across 27 countries including Aegis, BAE Systems, Burberry, Cadbury, Chanel, Electronic Arts, HSBC, Lufthansa, NBC Universal, Ricoh, SAB Miller and Shell.
Allyson is author of both editions of best-selling book Working with Americans, the first business manual exclusively about the US business culture, which helps professionals improve their relationships with, and profits from, American business partners, bosses and colleagues.  She is also the creator of the LinkedIn Learning course Leading International Growth.
An experienced and frequent commentator, Allyson lends her insights to broadcast, print and digital media across the globe.  Besides her 4-year slot for Sky News as The Muse of Marketing, she has appeared on several television shows, including five seasons of BBC’s The Apprentice and CNBC’s The Business Class.  Other outlets regularly applying her insights include BBC, CNN, Deutsche Welle, France 24, FT, ITV, Sky News and The Wall Street Journal.
A frequent keynote speaker at international conferences, Allyson has most appeared on the platforms of the FT Investing in America Summit, Elite Business Live, the Global Female Leaders’ Summit, Global Peter Drucker Forum, The Conference Board and Financial Times Board Directors Programme among many others.
Allyson currently serves as a Member of the Advisory Board of IORMA, the Advisory Board of the British Business Excellence Awards and recently served as a Non-Executive Director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards.  She is one of the original mentors for the Mayor of London’s International Business Programme.

Andy Pardoe – IORMA Advisory Board
An executive professional having 30+ years of IT, business and
management experience across multiple industries, including
Financial Services, Retail and Products, Media, Telecoms &
Technology and Health & Public Services.
Consulting with CEOs and their boards on AI strategy, delivery,
governance, operating model, responsible AI, ethics, innovation,
change and scaling AI.
A strong academic and commercial background in Artificial
Intelligence as well as global external exposure as an influencer,
thought leader, international keynote speaker, author and
community leader on AI having an extensive network within the AI
community globally.

Miya Knights – IORMA Advisory Board
Miya has over 25 years’ experience as a retail technology analyst, editor, author and consultant.
She is the owner and publisher of Retail Technology magazine and has co-authored two best-selling books about Amazon and Omnichannel Retail.
Miya serves as a consultant and advisor to a number of technology companies, judges a number of industry awards, and is also a member of the Retail Influencer Network, Customer Strategy Network and the KPMG Retail Think Tank.
Miya regularly appears as a retail technology expert on news and current affairs television programmes, and is quoted in the press, as well as moderating or speaking at industry events.
She was also recognised as 2021 Arts & Media Senior Leader by the Black British Business Awards, and has been named one of top retail influencers in 2024 by RETHINK Retail and the Retail Technology Innovation Hub.

Steve Allen – IORMA Advisory Board
With over 30 years’ experience within IT, Steve has lived and worked in Italy, Dubai, Johannesburg, the US and UK during his career, enabling solutions across multiple continents, and working within companies including Emirates Airlines, ETISALAT, Bahrain Telecom, 1st Gulf Bank and PWC (USA).
Recently, he has been managing sales at Metapack, working with major brands including Unipart Logistics, White Stuff, FarFetch, Wickes and Three Mobile to enable them to better serve their customers and achieve superior delivery and post-purchase experiences. Metapack, the world’s leading Carrier Management Platform, offers his clients a complete solution including Delivery Options, Tracking and Returns, ensuring a seamless post-ship environment layered onto its Delivery Manager product.
Holding a number of senior positions working across Retail, Telecoms, and Airline industries, Steve is not only perfectly positioned to advise his retail clients about how they can improve their customer journey, he is also widely considered a subject matter expert in both Process Management and eCommerce.

Andrew Grant Super – IORMA Advisory Board
Advisor, investor, Commercialisation for novel projects From SMEs to corp’s @c/suite level. Leading investment, strategic development & deploying tactics for fast-track growth and acceleration into markets. Focus on areas of commercialisation include WEB3.0, NFTs, Metaverse, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence/ Machine learning/ Data Science, Immersive technologies.

Entrepreneur/ founder with numerous exits. Investing, represent Family offices in advising in SME & pre series A investment, lead investment strategy & representation . 

Extensive experience in fundraising, M&A, investing , commercialisation, NPD/Research, strategic partnerships . Areas of projects include North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific.

Extensive Sector experience in: Maritime, Luxury, FMCG, Retail, Fintech, Retail banking, Travel, Renewable Energy, tech sector, automotive, Entertainment sectors, Aviation, Financial Services, Consumer Tech, Publishing, fashion & Beauty.

Julie Wall – IORMA Advisory Board
Julie Wall is a Professor of AI and Advanced Computing at the University of West London. She has expertise in designing intelligent systems, focusing on speech and language applications for both academic and industrial environments. Her research has focused on advanced natural language processing technologies and biologically inspired audio systems, resulting in over 50 scholarly publications, patents in the UK and US, and substantial research funding achievements. A committed member of the British Standards Institution (BSI) and several professional societies, Julie actively contributes to setting standards in AI, demonstrating a profound commitment to advancing the field and its applications.

Neil Wynn-Jones MBE – IORMA Advisory Board
Neil Wynn-Jones is the Luxury and Retail sector specialist adviser to the Consumer Trade Group at the British government Department for International Trade in Whitehall, in addition to his role as CEO of Trethias Consulting Ltd.
Trethias is a management consultancy specialised in international supply chain and overseas expansion for consumer goods and retail brands
Originally from the textile and clothing trades, and latterly the food and beverage industries, Neil has a private sector background with 30 years international sales and senior management across Latin American, US, GCC, ASEAN and European markets.
Working with both Multinationals and MSB’s both directly and as a senior management consultant in Hong Kong, USA, Colombia and Brazil, Neil has broad experience of the issues Retailers and Brands can expect in setting up or expanding their business overseas.
Deputy Chairman of the British Colombian Chamber of Commerce, Neil was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to International Trade.
After leaving school in London, Neil moved to New York to study International Business and developed his skills in global trade with a major US textile industry conglomerate.
Returning to the UK in the seventies to work in the family textile business, Neil built a multi million dollar Latin American trading business in the textile and garment industries with high quality products sourced in Colombia, Peru and Brazil.
In 1983 Neil extended his interests to Hong Kong, as more and more of the British clothing industry off-shored production out to the Far East, setting up a trading company supplying high quality fashion clothing to British brands and to the European retail industry.
Selling this business in the late 80’s Neil moved back into Europe, working in management consultancy which included, amongst others, setting up European licensing, production and distribution for a major US Surfwear brand, and eventually diversified by investing into one of his clients in Food manufacturing and Agro Industrial products in Latin America.
By the turn of the millennium Neil joined UK Trade and Investment, and for the last 16 years has been using his multinational experience and trading skills to help British businesses succeed overseas and overseas business invest in the vibrant British economy.

Brian Kilcourse – IORMA Advisory Board 
Brian Kilcourse is recognized as a thought leader in retail technology. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Retail Systems Research LLC (RSR, 2007-present), a company focused on delivering research, strategies, and knowledge for the extended retail industry. Kilcourse and RSR have enjoyed advisory relationships with many of the world’s most well-known technology companies, including Cisco Systems, SAP, IBM, Toshiba, SAS, Manhattan, and JDA, among others.
At RSR, Kilcourse has authored research reports on Omni-Channel Retailing, Supply Chain, Customer Data Security, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Mobility, IT Governance, Workforce Management, Services Oriented Architectures (SOA) & Software as a Service (SaaS), among other topics. He is a frequent public speaker and panel moderator on subjects ranging from emerging mobile technologies to IT governance and best practices. Kilcourse also has led training seminars on the subject of “selling technology value to retailers”, and is a frequent presenter at corporate events such as annual sales kickoff meetings. Additionally with RSR, Kilcourse advises retail client companies on IT/Business alignment strategies.
Before co-founding RSR in 2007, Kilcourse was CEO of Retail Systems Alert Group (RSAG), a Boston-based research and events company (2005-2007). Prior to his engagement at RSAG, Brian advised technology companies regarding their go-to-market strategies and product roadmaps. Clients included Cisco Systems, Centerboard, Intelleflex, Euclid, Evant, Borland, and GoldenGate. His advisory focus areas included RFID, mobile technologies, IT governance, and application development methodologies.
Kilcourse served as SVP & CIO at Longs Drug Stores for 10 years (1993 – 2002) and Applications Director for 10 years (1983-2002). During his tenure as CIO, Longs was selected by InformationWeek as the #1 retail IT shop (#9 overall in the InformationWeek 500 survey, 2001). He was also named a ComputerWorld “Top 100” IT leader (2001). At Longs, Brian was the executive sponsor for then-innovative solutions in e-Commerce, supply chain automation and large-scale warehouse robotics, price optimization, business intelligence technologies, and retail pharmacy workflow automation. As a prominent CIO of a tier-1 U.S. retailer, he was a strong advocate for then-emerging technology standards for retail, including POS device interface, data model, and application interface standards developed by the Association for Retail Standards (ARTS, a division of the National Retail Federation).
A long time San Francisco Bay Area resident, Brian holds a BA degree in Management from St. Mary’s College of Moraga, CA.

Steve Rowen – IORMA Advisory Board
Steve Rowen is a Managing Partner at Retail Systems Research, an industry market intelligence firm that helps retailers make more strategic decisions about the role of information technology in their enterprise. He focuses on areas of emerging impact on retail and is widely regarded as one of the most informed and objective voices in the industry today.
Steve began his career in retail, entering the tech space as a project manager at a software development company in New York City during the dot com era. After a number of years working as a retail specific journalist, he made the transition to retail industry analyst in 2006. He co-founded RSR in 2007.

Vicus Bouwer
Regional Director – IORMA Africa

Vicus left the accounting profession in 2002 and joined Topics, clothing retailer,  working in their real estate division. After the Edcon buy out Vicus joined Mr Price Group as a property manager.
He joined Broll in 2013 with a focus on new retail developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. His scope of work involved sourcing of tenants and providing strategic input with regard to the right sizing of the Mall, location, tenant mix, rental levels etc. Vicus has also been instrumental in identifying new retail opportunities and helping retailers expand into these markets. He currently works closely with International and South African retailers looking to expand into various Sub-Saharan African countries.
Vicus has been involved in the various retail developments across Sub Sahara Africa, including Angola, Namibia, Ghana, Mozambique, DRC and Zambia.

Beverley Nielsen – IORMA Advisory Board
Associate Professor Councillor Beverley Nielsen is Director at the Institute for Design & Economic Acceleration (IDEA), a ‘think and do’ tank at Birmingham City University where she has worked for the past 12 years.
Beverley has helped over 45 start-ups through early stages of growth providing support with business planning and access to customers, funding and market sector expertise. She has personally started two businesses in the past five years – Boundless Outdoors, which she chairs providing outdoor activities for all ages with a focus on outdoor activities provision for schools. She worked with staff to save this service from closure when threatened by council cuts and since then the community business has quadrupled in size.  Beverley also Chairs Ultra Light Rail Partners which promotes clean, green, ultra low cost, high quality tram-train solutions, designed and made in the West Midlands. Beverley founded Birmingham Made Me promoting design-led brands across the West Midlands and linking emerging talent with established businesses to help drive innovative design and development. Prior to that she was MD at Fired Earth and Director of AGA Rangemaster plc for a decade and Director for the CBI West Midlands. As a Councillor she was elected to Malvern Hills District Council in May 2019 where she holds the Economic Development Portfolio. 

Seetal Fatania – IORMA Advisory Board
A Brand & Marketing professional, has over fifteen years experience spanning across a variety of sectors, including financial services, insurance, telecommunications and technology industries. Working with companies such as Direct Line, RBS, O2 and Quotemehappy.com, Seetal has accumulated a wealth of experience in launching brands and products as well as running multi-million pound through the line marketing campaigns and leading teams and agencies to drive performance driven results.
Collaborating with some of the finest creative minds in the industry has resulted in Seetal delivering award winning campaigns. She is a big believer in dissecting data to drive real insight led strategies and creative solutions with consumer centric approach.
Seetal is a keen advocate of technology that can help solve life’s pain points and has launched innovative products such as contactless hair straightening machines for women on the go, in Stanstead airport, gyms and clubs across the UK and France. She has also successfully launched luxury Bluetooth necklace earphones online and across high end retailers, such as Harrods and Selfridges. Most recently Seetal launched Fifth & Blue, an online marketplace fusing fashion and tech innovations, such as contactless payment rings and biometric handbags. This resulted in her being interviewed by BBC World News and she was a finalist in Best Business for Digital, Data & Tech and Women in Business Awards.
Seetal has been a keynote speaker and panellist at various marketing and tech events and was invited to be on the judging panel for the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. She continues to consult for various FTSE companies and start-ups.
Her mantra in life is ‘’you’ve got this, now own it’’.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seetalfatania/

Michael Phillips – IORMA Advisory Board
Michael Phillips. BA (Hons) Industrial Design (engineering), Central St Martins.
Design Development Director at Renfrew Group International (RGI) since 2005.
Product Development Director at SGMA advanced materials ltd.
Michael has been part of award winning industrial design and engineering teams for more than 30 years.
RGI design, engineer and pilot manufacture a wide variety of technologies for a broad range of organisations. Innovating at the interface of design and science, commercialising world leading technologies across sectors including medical and consumer devices, automotive, aerospace and consumer products.
Awards in problem solving and system design assignments for private and public sector organisations including the Department of Health, NHS National Innovation Centre and NHS nationally, leading on innovation in medical technologies programmes including, HCAI technologies, surgical instruments with Barts, QMC & Royal Free and Chair4Life, a radically new, powered wheelchair for the NHS, recognised by the All Parliamentary Design Interest Group and Design Museum Designs of the Year 2014.
Clients: GSK, ThermoFisher, Oxford Medical Diagnostics, Gama, Airbus, Raleigh, Honda, Aprilia, Suzuki, Xerox, Shell, Iveco, NHS and UK Sport- Olympics equipment design.
Projects and invited speaking in USA, EU, LATAM, India, China and SE Asia.

John Scott – IORMA Advisory Board
John is Leader of Liminal Retail an independent consumer consultancy practice formed in response to the current unique global and industry conditions, with a recognition that a flexible and agile approach is required to move retail forward.
John is an accomplished international retail senior executive who has been responsible for leading the entry, development and operations of owned, franchise and wholesale businesses in more than 35 complex and competitive markets across the globe.
Initially establishing himself in UK retail within merchandising, John’s first foray into international markets was working for MH Alshaya, the largest global retail franchise operator, in the Middle East. Subsequently he became an integral part of the growth of Debenhams, as it established itself as the first global, hands on, franchise department store – taking it from 3 to 70 stores in 25 markets. During this time John built up a very significant and unique network of contacts in the retail, franchise, digital and real estate communities across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
John has subsequently gone on to focus on brand development, within the PE sector, redeveloping the TM Lewin global footprint and operating model. He has delivered significant growth in both the owned and partnership businesses and has taken Lewin into many new countries, both through stores, wholesale and Marketplaces.
John specialises in developing and implementing the international strategic direction for retail businesses – establishing and executing market entry strategies, and the evaluation and transformation of operating models to support global growth.  He also takes an active interest in the development of the wider industry, moderating and speaking at global conferences and advising major retail bodies.  He was on the Advisory Board of the European ICSC, co-chairing the Retail and Leasing Group, for 5 years, and continues to sit on the Mapic retail real estate advisory committee, and was a judge in the Mapic Retail Awards 2017-2019. He also sits on the organising committee for Retail Trust and is a member of the Twenty Club.

Kirsten Pottinger – IORMA Advisory Board
With a background spanning 20+ years in high street solid retail operations starting from part-time Sales Assistant to Head of Retail across the fashion, footwear and beauty sectors, Kirsten has been on the journey many brands have made in the last few decades to shift to a more digital space, bringing customers along the way.
More recently her 10 year tenure at casual lifestyle retailer FatFace led her to take the brand internationally through wholesale trading agreements, 3^rd party platforms, pop-ups and marketplace partnerships as Head of Global Partnerships.
She has recently taken a new post as Director of Communications for Vidiia, who are due to launch an innovative AI app based Covid-19 testing kit.

Harry Singh – IORMA Advisory Board
30+ years’ experience in global sales working closely with leading manufacturers and household name brands to successfully introduce new brands and products into European markets.
The maturity of his experience also yields a tremendous asset in the form of extensive and well-developed commercial relationships with leading retailers and distributors worldwide, governmental agencies and NGOs.
He has worked extensively with the Department of International Trade (DIT) in UK, USA, India, UAE, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Andorra, Switzerland, Netherlands and Denmark to secure exports.
He has already developed contacts within the UN, WHO and numerous aid organisations including UNICEF & Red Cross. High level contacts within CSR departments and at board level within large corporations.
Manages the global sales team at nkd Life utilising his network to achieve sales projections and support the sustainability programs including the nkd Life Movement and the nkd Humanitarian SOS Carbon Credits Offset project.

Bill McKimm – IORMA Advisory Board
Bill provides consulting services to identify continuous improvement opportunities using his extensive industry experience and where applicable using lean and agile practices and principles. He has been an entrepreneur, employee, and consultant.
Bill also recently spent 4 years working with ThoughtWorks – driving the agenda on Digital Transformation, Lean Enterprise and Scaling Agile within large organisations.
With over 25 years working with leading retail and travel brands such as; easyJet, Tesco.com, B&Q, and eBay, his focus shifted towards the enterprise where he has explored the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organisation design and culture.

Martin Francis  – IORMA Advisory Board
Martin is a highly experienced Strategic Digital Director with 25 years in Retail and 20 years multi-channel experience. He was most recently appointed Global Digital GM, for Fitflop Ltd – the fashionable comfort footwear brand. Martin has held senior Director positions at Karen Millen/Coast, the women’s clothing brand, Watchshop.com, part of Watches of Switzerland Group, Woolovers Ltd,the natural knitwear company, House of Fraser, UK department store group, & Dorothy Perkins, womenswear Brand at Arcadia Group PLC.
Martin has a proven capability of increasing online turnover through trading, Marketing and Brand Development. He has a track record of delivering efficiency solutions within scope, budget & deadlines to drive commercial performance globally. An influential Executive with the ability to negotiate and develop relationships with stakeholders, working in partnership with leading brands worldwide to realise the true value of customer data and the benefits of customer centric marketing. He possesses strong leadership skills with a track record of building best in class teams, through mentoring and coaching senior teams to achieve and exceed business objectives.

David Blakeney – IORMA Advisory Board
Former Director of Store Development -House of Fraser
David was until recently Director Of Store Development at House of Fraser and has over 30 years’ experience in the Retail sector & his skill base covers Retail, Merchandising and Store Development.
He started off at House Of Fraser in various Retail roles, before moving to Allders Duty Free where he was a Store Manager before being promoted to Merchandise Controller for all Airport & Cruise Ship Shops.
He then joined Arcadia to run Concessions for Principles before re-joining House Of Fraser in various Store Development roles and was appointed Director of Store Development 10 years ago with responsibility for Store Facilities, Design & Development.
He is a judge for Retail Week Awards, Cofounder of the House Of Fraser Charity Day which has raised to date £2.3m, is an Honorary Officer of the Twenty Club and has spoken at many conferences over the years.
He is now currently a Consultant.

Stephen Robertson – IORMA Advisory Board
Stephen Robertson is Chair of Bristol Energy, a national gas and electricity company that provides customers across the country fairly-priced energy. Owned by Bristol City Council, Bristol Energy was established in 2015. He is also Chair of Retail Economics, an independent economics research consultancy that provides in-depth retail insight, unique data and delivers bespoke projects to help you understand the underlying drivers of demand and consumer trends within the UK retail sector.
Stephen’s career started in marketing roles in fast moving consumer goods businesses – Unilever, Alberto Culver, Mars Inc, Mattel – before he joined the boards of major UK retailers. Stephen was for 7 years marketing director at B&Q before leading the acquisition of Screwfix Direct, which he then chaired through a period of strong growth.  He went on to become director of communications at Kingfisher plc and took the helm of the Ellen MacArthur sponsorship programme.  Subsequently, he served on the boards of WH Smith and Woolworths.
Stephen was Director General of British Retail Consortium for five years to the end of 2012.  The BRC represents UK retail, large and small, lobbying governments and near-government organisations, as well as producing key retail data.  In this role Stephen appeared frequently on TV, radio and press to discuss business issues.
Stephen currently serves as chairman Business West (not for profit business services organisation), non-executive director of the fast growing Timpson Group (a privately held services retailer) and non-executive director at Hargreaves Lansdown plc (FTSE 100 consumer financial services). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the trade newspaper Retail Week.
Previously he was a non-executive board member at National Portrait Gallery Company and Fresca Group (fresh produce supplier).
He is a fellow, and former chairman, of the Marketing Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Chartered Management Institute.

Ian McGarrigle – IORMA Advisory Board
See the Ian McGarrigle Interview here
Ian has over 25 years’ experience working within the UK and international retail sector as a journalist, editor, publisher and as founder and director of the World Retail Congress.  He helped launch leading UK trade publication Retail Week, and developed a range of initiatives that have become key industry events, including the Retail Week Conference and the Retail Week Awards.  In 2007 he launched the World Retail Congress to serve the international retail market.
Ian joined the retail team at Bell Pottinger Pelham in early 2012 and uses his extensive industry knowledge and contacts to provide counsel and strategic direction for key retail clients in the agency including Karen Millen, Mountain Warehouse, EAT, Brockton Capital and i2i Events’ retail portfolio. He is also Chairman of the World Retail Congress and a Non-Executive Director of Saudi Arabia’s largest food retailer, Azizia Panda.

Peter Williams – IORMA Advisory Board
Peter Williams became Chairman of Superdry after stepping down from a similar role at Boohoo. Peter is or has been Chairman or a non-executive director of a number of consumer facing businesses both public and privately owned, including ASOS plc, Dominoes Eurasia, Cineworld Group plc, one of the UK’s leading chains of cinemas, Rightmove, the UK’s largest online real estate portal and website and Senior Independent Director at Sportech plc, one of the world’s leading operators and suppliers of pools and tote gaming.
Peter Williams has spent over 30 years in a variety of both executive and non-executive positions in consumer-facing businesses spanning retail, leisure, media and consumer products. In the retail sector he has worked in department stores, ecommerce, duty-free, sportswear and fashion multiples, and mail order.
For 13 years up to 2004, Peter was on the board of Selfridges, initially as Chief Financial Officer and then as Chief Executive, during its radical transformation from ‘Grace Brothers’ to one of the world’s leading department stores. Following Selfridges, he was the Chief Executive of Alpha Airports Group plc, which operated duty free retailing and airline catering businesses in 15 countries across the globe.
Peter has had significant experience in the past of turnaround and corporate restructuring from his roles as Chairman of Blacks Leisure Group plc, and as an executive director at both JJB Sports plc and the EMI group.
He has also served on the boards of Erno Laszlo, Capital Radio plc and GCap Media plc and Silverstone Holdings.

Eddie Bentley – IORMA Advisory Board
See the Eddie Bentley Interview here
Eddie worked as a buyer in the Littlewoods Organisation during the early 1970’s, where he gained extensive sourcing experience in both the Far East, and other emerging markets. In 1975 this was followed by over a quarter of a century working for Great Universal Stores, where he initially became a Merchandise Director in the Home Shopping Division, using his overseas experience to good use, and amalgamating the Buying function of the British Mail Order Corporation and Kays of Worcester. This was followed by several years as Merchandise Operations Director, responsible for the overall Supply Chain, and in 1991 became M.D. of White Arrow Express, now part of Yodel, which then delivered over 100 million parcels to homes, on behalf of a variety of retailers.
During his time at GUS he was also a Director of Argos (Home Retail Group) from 1991 to 2002, joint M.D of TNT /White Arrow Express from 1991 to 2001, and was involved in the logistical reorganisation of Burberry.
In 2003 Eddie founded his own consultancy company, EGB Associates Ltd, which advises both retailers and logistics companies, and their potential suppliers, on business opportunities.
In addition, from 2010 to 2014 Eddie was non-Executive Chairman of Mdev, a mobile technology specialist, and non-Executive Director of HR GO plc, a recruitment company, in 2013/14.
Eddie was a Trustee of Retail Trust Charity (previously Cottage Homes) for almost 30 years, and is now an Ambassador.
Eddie was awarded the “Legend of Retail” status by the Retail Trust in 2016.

Paul Martin – IORMA Advisory Board member.
Paul is UK Head of Retail at KPMG and is an established thought leader in the global retail and consumer sector having worked with many of the world’s largest retail and consumer goods companies in over 60 markets.
Paul previously led KPMG Boxwood Insights, the research and global analytics unit of KPMG Boxwood. Prior to Boxwood he held the position of Global Managing Director of Planet Retail, the world’s leading retail intelligence analyst firm.
Paul is an experienced conference speaker and has presented at many events such as the NRF Big Show and the World Retail Congress.

Chris Russell –IORMA Advisory Board member.
Chris is Joint Managing Director of FullerRussell having stepped down from CEO and co-founder of eDigitalResearch in 2016. Chris steers the ship with Joint CEO Michelle Fuller – and is responsible for all things business development, account management and financial operations. He’s also a Visiting Professor at University College London, where he runs a course on digital consumer behaviour. When he’s not spreading the digital word, Chris is a keen sailor, competing in both inshore and offshore racing.Chris Russell – IORMA Advisory Board Joint CEO and co-founder of eDigitalResearch, Chris steers the ship with Joint CEO Michelle Fuller – and is responsible for all things business development, account management and financial operations. He’s also a Visiting Professor at University College London, where he runs a course on digital consumer behaviour. When he’s not spreading the digital word, Chris is a keen sailor, competing in both inshore and offshore racing.

Christine de Largy – IORMA Advisory Board member.
Christine de Largy is Performance Coach and Executive Coach at Impact performance where until 2019 she was Managing Director of Impact Executives and Head of the specialist Retail/Consumer and Private Equity Practices.
A renowned industry expert, Christine has over 20 years board level experience working with major high street brands, private equity firms, and retail start-ups. She began her career with the John Lewis Partnership, progressing as a director through the Burton Group, Sears, and Managing Director of Italian fashion retailer Stefanel. After she became general manager at Kingfisher, the team expanded Superdrug’s in-store pharmacies from 60 to 192, introducing new store design to drive sales from £54m to £98m in three years.
Christine joined Impact Executives – one of the first specialist Interim Management providers in the UK – in 2000, when it was owned by PA Consulting. The practice was acquired by global professional services business Harvey Nash plc. Delete – Christine now leads the team .
Christine’s work with private equity portfolio directors in manufacturing, technology, retail and hospitality sectors, has resulted in significant business growth for companies in the UK and internationally.
Working with leading global consumer businesses, Christine has provided interim solutions to drive transformational change programmes for M&A, integration, turnaround programmes and business growth. Her functional expertise spans buying and merchandising, and supply chain – with Omni-channel initiatives providing the biggest challenges right now.
‘The rise of the Martini consumer – any time, any place, anywhere – is making life ever more difficult for consumer facing businesses.’

Graham Thomas – IORMA Advisory Board
See the Graham Thomas Interview here
Graham is a much called upon speaker and panellist known for his invigorating presentation style that lifts the audience and takes them on a journey. His background in the world’s most entrepreneurial, creative and innovative environments means he introduces new thinking in a highly original way. However, he is also a firm believer that audiences want ideas and content that they can take away and use immediately.
Having been Vice Chairman at Saatchi & Saatchi and founder of Radical and other digital start-ups, Graham has an outstanding reputation for building some of the best-known and loved brands globally – a reputation that has been rightly and widely recognised with awards including Ad Age International Agency of the Year, Procter & Gamble’s Robert V Goldstein Award for global advertising excellence, and a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts.
His first experience of digital marketing occurred in 1996, when he set-up Saatchi iD – a pioneering integrated agency.
In the 2000s he helped Tesco develop new ways of using digital experiences to market to shoppers. He also set up the world’s first digital platform designed to allow brands to mount the complete range of incentive-based promotional campaigns across all devices.
He went on to found Radical as a hot-bed of digital innovation; it now creates digital products and experiences for a wide range of businesses as well as being a mentor and seeder of start-ups. Since being launched only three short years ago Radical has grown to be one of the UK’s top digital agencies reflecting its ability to deliver new thinking and true innovation. Its clients include Barclays Bank. Barclaycard, Thomson Reuters, Nobel Biocare, Mothercare, EYC, UEFA, Standard Life, and Zurich, organisations who often have complex data and processes that they want their users to be able to use in a faster and in a smarter way.
Recent work has been on leading-edge projects such as new highly secure transactional capability for social media; finding ways to allow the physically disadvantaged to undertake complex tasks on digital platforms; creating a virtual store on the High Street; as well as finding faster ways to surface complex data.
Recently, Radical has been engaged by four major businesses in the UAE.
Alongside Radical, Graham has launched a digital disruption in the financial services sector: Join SAM, an online brand that allows children and their families to save money easily, to earn money to add to those savings and to learn about financial literacy. Even though this has only been launched in 2013, it is already making a significant impact in the market.
Where Graham has spoken. Graham talks predominantly about how organisations can create digital innovation fast and efficiently using lean and agile thinking and methodologies. Indeed his ethos is that this is now essential otherwise organisations will fall behind. TEDx, Liverpool: Red Queen Theory and Faster Digital Innovation/ Digital Shoreditch:Join SAM, a new disruptive digital banking idea for kids and their families/ President’s Lecture, Cass Business School, London: Agile Digital Innovation/ArabNet Digital Summit, Dubai: The Future of Digital Banking and what Banks need to do to stay ahead/Chartered Institute of Management, UK: Transforming business management practices through the use of digital innovation.

Aad Weening – IORMA International Consumer Trends Director
See the Aad Weening Interviewhere
Visit Aad Weening’s blog here
Aad Weening has been involved in retail, distance selling and in later years e-business practically all his working life. From 1966 until 1979 he worked at a professional secretariat agency offering legal and economic advice as well as lobbying services to ten trade sectors.
In 1979 he was appointed to manage the Dutch Mail Order Association. In this capacity he was in charge of the lobbying contacts with the Ministries of Economic Affairs, Justice, and Finance and the negotiations with the Dutch Post.
During his career he has developed a huge network of contacts in the European and global postal business community.
Since 1993 he was secretary general of the Brussels based European Mail Order and Distance Selling Trade Association (EMOTA). In this capacity he represented the distance selling sector to European and international institutions on issues such as legal, consumer protection, consumer credit, international contract law, and postal services.
Through his numerous contacts in European Union countries and his international activities Aad has set up an unrivalled network of contacts for assisting companies to access these developing markets.
Following the evolution of the industry from traditional mail order via distance selling to the multichannel and online business of today, Aad has developed great insight in global retail and e-business.
In 2007 Aad established his own consultancy. Through this he leverages his extensive knowledge of many trade sectors and the functioning of the European institutions, countries and other International bodies.
Aad’s nationality is Dutch and he currently lives in Belgium. He is fluent in English, French, German and Dutch, both spoken and written and has a passive knowledge of other languages such as Italian and Spanish.
Aad is the author of a number of in-depth reports with respect to global and regional e-commerce, containing in-depth research of global trends and identifying markets in e-commerce.

Philip Treleaven – IORMA Advisory Board 
Philip Treleaven is Professor of Computer Science at UCL and Director of the UK Centre for Financial Computing which has over 70 PhD students. He is a European authority on Electronic Commerce (e.g. Business on the Internet, Interactive TV and Electronic Kiosks), on so-called Computational Finance (e.g. Algorithmic Trading, Risk) and on Virtual Environments & Graphics (e.g. 3D body scanning). He has started 8 companies, including Bodymetrics, and Sizemic the fashion technology companies, Banking Science in financial technology, and ShapeDynamics in Healthcare. His research group  developed much of the early technology underlying financial fraud detection, including developing the first insider dealing detection system for the London Stock Exchange,  and he was Director of the UK National Sizing Survey (SizeUK), jointly funded by the UK government and 14 of the largest UK retailers.

Neil Tunbridge – IORMA Advisory Board
Neil Tunbridge is an industry leader with over 15 years of retail management experience. Currently Co-Founder and Director at Pivot International, helping clients to open international markets for wholesale, brand and retail clients through the use of eCommerce and digital sales channels.
Neil was previously Sales Director at Tejuri.com, the leading online retail platform in the Middle East, which offers a risk-averse e-com solution to the retailers of the Middle East within a multi-tenancy, multi-category ‘e-Mall’ environment and before that he was Head of Retail at GRMC Advisory Services in Dubai, a custom research & advisory consulting practice; where typical projects included Retail Brand Roll-Out Strategy, Market Entry Strategy, Consumer Benchmark Analysis, Development Feasibility & Brand Management Strategy.
Prior to establishing the retail function of GRMC, held the position of Head of Merchandising & Wholesale at Emma Bridgewater, a privately owned multi-channel retailer in London, before which Neil was Senior Merchandiser for Menswear at Selfridges & Co. Neil writes extensively on the retail sector & is a regular podium speaker at industry events and conferences. Neil is also a faculty member of the ICSC (John T. Riordan) School of Professional Development (teaching industry professionals), is a member of the Executive Committee and Advisory Board for MECSC, as well as being the Treasurer.

Gary Corbett – IORMA Advisory Board member
Gary is Chairman of Tola Mobile which aggregates connectivity to the Mobile Network’s in Africa – mobile wallets across the continent – enabling merchants to offer e-commerce propositions.
An investor in innovative mobile technology businesses he is involved in over 30 businesses.
He has been involved in running and managing global communications businesses for over 25 years including Business Planning Manager for BT and part of management team that sold an Internet access business that became the core of Tiscali’s network.
He is currently working with retailers to help them shape mobile media strategies and evolve their businesses into a digital environment.

David Emerson – IORMA Advisory Board 
David has over 25 years experience in global freight and logistics. After learning the freight forwarding and customs brokerage ropes straight from school at JE Bernard and Co at Heathrow he joined Expeditors International of Washington Inc in 1989 in a UK commercial role. In 1993 he was transferred to Singapore and Hong Kong firstly as Regional Cargo Management Director and then Regional Sales Director. He then returned to the UK in 1998 as Vice President of Sales for the EMEA region.
In 2000 he joined EGL, Eagle Global Logistics another US listed company, as Vice President Sales and Marketing for Europe, Middle East and India regions where he was responsible for all sales and marketing activity in the region as well as the integration of Circle International, an $800 million logistics company headquartered in San Francisco that had recently been acquired by EGL.
In 2003 he was persuaded by partners Mark White and Keith O`Brien to join their new start up SEKO Logistics as a partner with responsibility for sales and marketing. SEKO at that time were a $150 million business in the US but with no offices outside of the States. The new venture using the UK as a base had the role of creating the global footprint for SEKO. Moving on 10 years the company is over $550 million in sales with 120 offices in 40 countries including 6 key multi-channel multi user logistics centres in the US, Asia and Europe and provides integrated fulfilment and logistics services for companies as diverse as Wal-Mart, Sams Club, Reiss, Cath Kidston and Net Jets.
David has two grown up children, both of whom work in the fashion and logistics business and he lives in Ascot with his partner. He enjoys playing Veterans soccer in his spare time.

John Bednall – IORMA Advisory Board member
John is the CEO of Quinic Events Ltd, which runs the EUROPEAN COFFEE, TEA & SOFT DRINK EXPO at London’s Olympia. It is a trade-only exhibition for the soft beverage sector from coffee shops and cafes to restaurants, hotels pubs and the big corporate catering companies. It covers coffee, tea and soft drinks for the entire F&B industry.
John was previously CEO of Legend Exhibitions Ltd an exhibition, events and publishing company responsible for Retail Business Technology Expo (RBTE), Essential Retail and Retail Design Expo.

Mike Hancox – IORMA Advisory Board member
Mike has held senior positions in a number of large retail businesses. He is currently Chief Executive of Yodel (Yodel Delivery Network Ltd) and Chairman of Fruugo, a platform which provides retailers with quick access to 30+ countries and languages and helps present products to as many potential customers as possible.
He was previously CEO at Ideal Shopping Direct – the U.K.’s second largest TV shopping business. Prior to this Mike worked at the Otto group where he headed operations in the U.K., Ireland and Spain . He started his retail career with Great Universal Stores as Finance Director for the Home shopping division before becoming Chief Executive of Shop Direct in 2003 and merging the business with Littlewoods. From 2007-2013 Mike served as a non executive director with The Manchester airport group and he is also the current Chairman of Character world limited – a private equity backed character licensing and sourcing business. Mike is also a European board member of the Electronic Retail Association.

Mick Yates – IORMA Advisory Board
See the Mick Yates Interview here
Mick has lived on 3 continents and worked across 6 at Board level, with hands on expertise in marketing, retailing, negotiation and the practical application of Big Data. He founded leader-values.com in 1997, a very popular site with a vast range of leadership resources. It features the 4E’s Leadership Framework, researched at Oxford and HEC, and which underpins Mick’s work as a leadership strategist in the Big Data arena.
As visiting Professor at University of Leeds Business School, Mick focuses on the human, ethical and leadership challenges arising from the impact of Big Data and Social Media.
For 7 years he led the team creating dunnhumby’s partnerships with Clients across the world. dunnhumby is the Global Leader in helping Clients take customer focused and data based business decisions. Mick was Director on JV Boards on 3 continents.
Mick’s career as senior Exec spanned almost 30 years leading businesses in Europe, the USA, Asia and Australasia. He was Company Group Chairman (Regional CEO) of Johnson and Johnson Consumer in Asia-Pacific, notably China and India. Prior to this, he spent 22 years at Procter and Gamble, latterly as Regional Vice President and President of Max Factor Japan.
He was Chairman for Living Cell Technologies’ successful IPO, an Australia/New Zealand based biotechnology company, from 2004 until 2006.
In the non-profit arena, Mick was on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children (USA) from 2001 – 2007, the Board of Save the Children Korea, and Chief Advisor to the International Alliance. In 1999, the Yates family started a Cambodian school development program, in a remote ex-Khmer Rouge area, which is going strong today and serves almost 100,000 children annually. They were awarded Medals of National Reconstruction by the Royal Cambodian Government (2002) and P&G Alumni’s Humanitarian of the Year award (2011).
Mick is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts – and he and wife Ingrid have 6 children born in 5 countries on 3 continents.

Linda Laderman – IORMA Advisory Board member
A former journalist, Linda was the first female editor of weekly business publication Men’s Wear and a former deputy editor of Drapers (Record). She established her eponymous PR and marketing company more than 25 years ago to combine her industry knowledge and journalistic skills to help companies with products and services aimed at the retail sector more creatively communicate with the media and their customers.
Linda runs the Textile Forum, London’s leading luxury fashion fabric show for designers, brands, retailers, manufacturers, tailors, fabric retailers, theatre, opera, ballet and entertainment companies etc The exhibition is staged twice year.
Linda’s understanding of retailing was identified by Microsoft, which appointed her agency the first vertical specialist to assist with building its profile in the sector, initially in the UK and then in EMEA. She has since worked for a number of Microsoft’s solutions partners and other technology companies.
Other clients have included McArthur Glen, Samsung, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, EMAP, for which she worked on its technology and store design exhibitions, and the UK Fashion & Textile Association, for whom she helped develop its export awards.

Dan Wagner – IORMA Advisory Board 
See the Dan Wagner Interview here
Dan Wagner, CEO, Powa Technologies.
Dan Wagner is arguably the most successful tech entrepreneur in the UK.  He has the entrepreneurial fleetness of foot, which translated his far-sighted vision into one globally leading business after another, over ten years.
Dan consistently anticipated game-changing technological shifts, and created the first online information service, M.A.I.D., prior to the internet.  As a ‘cloud’ entrepreneur he offered ‘software as a service’ through his first e-commerce business Venda, as well as dynamic user profiling to personalise the online user experience with Attraqt.  With BuyaPowa, Dan has created a platform for ‘social commerce’.  Dan’s latest activities centre around addressing the needs of mobile commerce or, as Dan puts it ‘mobile engagement’, through Powa and more recently Rezolve.

Rohit Talwar – IORMA Advisory Board
Rohit is a global futurist, strategist and award winning speaker noted for his humour, inspirational style and provocative content. He advises global firms, industries and governments on how to survive, thrive, spot and manage emerging risks and develop innovative growth strategies in the decade ahead. Profiled by the Independent Newspaper as a top ten global future thinker, his interests include the evolving role of technology in business and society, emerging markets, the future of education, sustainability and embedding foresight in organisations. Rohit helps clients understand how mega trends, emerging ideas, new business models, and disruptive developments in science and technology could impact individuals, society, business, industries and government. He currently leads studies on transformative drivers of change for the next decade, science and technology developments over the next forty years, impacts of emerging technologies on the legal sector, human enhancement and the Shadow Economy.
Rohit delivers keynote speeches for leaders at business, government and association events – working in 60+ countries on six continents around the world. Regular topics include future industries, the future of nations and cities, sustainability, jobs, opportunities and risks, new business models, disruptive technologies, change drivers, economic futures, innovation, developing economies, professional services, complexity and winning in a downturn. He authored Designing Your Future – Key Trends, Challenges and Choices, edited Achieving Transformation and Renewal in Financial Services, and contributes regularly on futures topics to books and journals.
Rohit leads Fast Future Research – conducting studies on topics such as Airport 2025, the Science and Technology Timeline, Environmental Impacts and Sustainability. Future of HR, Hotels 2020, Mega Trends, The Shape of Jobs to Come, Future of Cities, Travel and Tourism and Convention 2020. He has led scenario projects on 2015 / 2020, Asia, Migration, the Family, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Health Innovation, the Narcotics Landscape and Demographic Trends.
Clients: twofour54, 3M, Amadeus, Amex, Astra Zeneca, Axa, BBC, BT, BAe Systems, Ball Corp., Bayer, Berwin Leighton, Cable & Wireless, Center Parcs, Chartis, Citibank, CIO Connect, Crowe Horwath, Deloitte, DeutscheBank, De Beers, DHL, E&Y, EADS, Electrolux, Etisalat, FCm Travel, GE, Hoover, Hyland Software, Hyundai, IBM, ING, Imex, Intel, IHG, KPMG, Kennedys, Laing O’Rourke, Linklaters, M&S, Microsoft, Moore Stephens, Morgan Stanley, Nakheel, Nokia, Nomura, Norton Rose, Novartis, Orange/ EE, O2, Panasonic, Pepsi, Pfizer, Playtex, Preferred Hotels, PwC, Qatar Airways, RIM (Blackberry), Samsung, SAP, Santander, Sara Lee, Shell, Siemens, Simmons and Simmons, T-Mobile, Tata, Travelport, Vodafone, Whirlpool, Wragge and Co and Yell. He has also worked with 50+ associations, the OECD and government agencies in the US, UK, Finland, Dubai, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. Airports –Christchurch, Edmonton, Mumbai, Paris, Schiphol, Vancouver and Wellington. Convention Centres – Adelaide, Melbourne, QEII, Qatar and Vancouver. Convention Bureaus – Abu Dhabi, Athens, Durban, London, San Francisco, Seoul, Sydney and Toronto.

Chris Robinson – IORMA Advisory Board 
Chris has been at the forefront of omnichannel communications for the last two decades. During this time, he has been instrumental in developing solutions that blend the very best in contact centre processes, unified communications and cloud computing technologies into a powerful outsourced business offering utilised by many clients, across a variety of sectors including retail.
As Director and Executive Chairman of Awaken Intelligence Chris has helped clients to transform their customer experience by connecting their entire CX with analytics. Chris’ passion for embracing the very best in technology means that many retail businesses are able to utilise a broad spectrum of tools to create a seamless customer experience while driving greater operational efficiencies.
Awaken’s cloud-based software encapsulates Chris’ vision to deliver actionable intelligence that supports retailers handling high volumes of consumer enquiries via voice and digital channels across their help desks and sales teams. Awaken’s outcome-based voice analytics platform provides retailers with the behavioural and emotional insight to truly understand what their customers are really thinking and feeling of the service provided.
Chris has a reputation for successfully building highly profitable businesses. He started his career in the communications industry as Co-Founder and Operations Director of Message Plus Ltd. His guidance pioneered the use of CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) within the outsourced contact centre environment paving the way for many call centres to operate in this manner. His vision and direction grew the company to support 1800 UK businesses before its sale in 2000.
Chris went on to join internet start-up Names.co.uk as Chief Operating Director to prepare the company for flotation and he was instrumental in the reverse takeover of a cash shell, securing broker sponsorship and nominated advisors.
In 2001 Chris started  his second  contact centre, and built that business organically until 2016 when he embarked on a M&A strategy and purchased 4 of his competitors, merged them together and drove efficiencies and profits from an average of 7% to 23%.  He then successfully sold his business, Yonder Digital Group to Woven, who are backed by US based private equity firm Acquiline. He achieved these remarkable results by using the tools from his current venture Awaken Intelligence.
Chris is a keen Helicopter Pilot and self-confessed ‘petrol head’ and ‘entrepreneur’.

Cathy Barnes – IORMA Advisory Board
See the Cathy Barnes Interview here
Professor Cathy Barnes is Professor of Retail Innovation at Leeds Metropolitan University. She also is the Director of Centre for Retail Excellence, the UK’s only academic research centre that leads the consumer experience of the future across retailing, food and packaging. Alongside leading innovative research, she works with suppliers, brand owners and retailers to help support their future product, packaging and retail needs.
What really fascinates Cathy is the world of the retail consumer and, she spends her time investigating why consumers buy certain products and why they shop in particular ways. This means she needs to understand how we, as people, interact with the world and what this means to improved products and retail experiences. Her research work has taken her on a journey from affective design to innovation techniques such as biomimetics (using nature to innovate) to new retail technologies. She is particularly interested in the impact of emotional and sensory cues on our purchase decisions.
Originally training as a draughtsperson, Cathy started her diverse career in engineering, working on nuclear submarines. After a first degree in Mechanical Engineering, she started her love affair with retail spending 6 years in industry making everything from cosmetics to crisp packets. Prior to joining Leeds Metropolitan University she spent 12 years at University of Leeds and has led many commercial projects, research grants and published widely in both academic journals and the trade press.

Hosein Moghaddas – IORMA Advisory Board
Hosein Moghaddas has been involved with Commerce for over 14 years, before joining IBM as Director, Smarter Commerce, Europe in 2013.
He was a member of the executive team of Mobile Money Network Ltd (now Monitise) a Mobile Commerce, Payments and Marketing company chaired by Sir Stuart Rose, former CEO of Marks & Spencer.
Moghaddas was previously with eCommerce business outsource specialist GSI Commerce, an eBay Inc company, where he was Managing Director of its international division encompassing Europe and Asia. During his four year stint he grew revenues via dealsworked with retailers including Polo Ralph Lauren, Toys R US, Helly Hansen and, Peak Performance and Tous to name a few.
Prior to GSI Commerce, Moghaddas also held roles with ATG (now Oracle) in a career encompassing more than 30 years in sales and general management of business and technology solutions.

Deena M. Amato-McCoy – IORMA Advisory Board
With almost 20 years as a business journalist covering retail and retail technology, Deena will cover industry news, keeping IORMA Associates abreast of industry, economic and technology trends and key business issues.
Prior to joining IORMA, Deena was a research analyst for the retail and consumer markets practice at Aberdeen Group. She joined Aberdeen Group in 2011, and became the market research firm’s editorial director in 2013. In both roles, she focused on the use and adoption of technologies, including both back-end and customer-facing applications, optimizing brick-and-mortar store experience, customer intelligence functions, emerging technologies including social media, and related process management and technology value chain areas.
Prior to joining the Aberdeen Group, Amato-McCoy spent 19 years as a journalist, 18 of them as a senior editor covering the retail industry and retail technology for publications including Grocery Headquarters, STORES, Chain Store Age, Apparel Magazine, and others.
Deena brings a unique, first-hand perspective and insights acquired directly from her interactions with leading retailers, technology providers and analysts in the marketplace. She is an avid blogger on industry trends and events, and has been quoted in retail industry publications, including Retail Touchpoints and Digital Signage Today.

Charles Prescott – IORMA Advisory Board
Charles A. Prescott is an international lawyer specializing in privacy, postal and marketing law. He is the founder of the non-profit Global Address Data Association and formulated its mission to promote address systems development and commercial access to address data. In that capacity he serves on several working groups at the Universal Postal Union in Bern, Switzerland. He is also the founder and Editor of The Prescott Report, a monthly newsletter promoting a borderless economy. He is a frequent speaker and author on direct/interactive marketing developments, privacy and data protection issues around the world, and emerging postal and legal issues in an increasingly globalized economy. He is past Chair of the Consultative Committee of the Universal Postal Union and currently serves on the Board of the US Direct Marketing Association where he chairs the Governance Committee. He also serves on the private sector advisory committees to the US State Department and the Department of Commerce and is counsel to the International Hybrid Mail Coalition based in Milan, Italy and the Global Envelope Association based in Washington, DC. During his legal career Mr. Prescott worked at Hamada & Matsumoto, Tokyo, Cleary Gottlieb Stein and Hamilton, NYC, Continental Grain Company, Reader’s Digest and the US Direct Marketing Association. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School (1974) and was Phi Beta Kappa at Hamilton College (1969-Philosophy).

Nick Pendleton – IORMA Advisory Board
Nick pursues a wide range of activities that complement & inform his roles with IORMA. He is an active angel investor, sits on a number of Boards & he offers tailored strategy & innovation support & advice through selected consultancies & his own advisory firm, Forge Strategy & Growth Associates. He also regularly presents & writes on related topics & lectures at Oxford Said Business School.
Nick is also a judge for the KATERVA global sustainability awards, sits on a number of working groups & mentors start ups through the Launch 22, Oxygen & Startupbootcamp accelerator programmes. He also belongs to global expert networks that offer due diligence & sector advice to institutional investors & advisors.
Nick previously built a 26 year track record of consistently delivering growth in a range of high pressure & uncertain situations, working for Royal Mail, BT, EY, Cap Gemini, Santander & Aviva.
His last role as Director of Strategy & Innovation for Royal Mail Group, which he held for 6 years until July 2015, saw the delivery of a significant financial turnaround, a £25bn modernisation programme, a change of regulatory regime, award winning innovation, CSR & development programmes and, against the odds, a successful IPO. Over this time the company’s valuation increased from £0 to £3.3bn.
Nick’s analytical & professional grounding comes from studies at Oxford, Cambridge, LBS, Henley, Cranfield & Nottingham Universities. He holds an MBA, Masters in Strategic Marketing, BSc in Economics & additional postgraduate qualifications in Finance & Marketing. Nick is also a Chartered Marketer & Fellow of the Strategic Planning Society.
He also learnt the practical realities of business from an early age, working in his family’s group of companies – which included the Marquee Club in Soho & the Reading Festival. Nick still retains a long term owner’s mindset as Chair of Entec Sound & Light, which celebrates 50 years in the business in 2017 & this year has worked on tours for Blur, Florence & the Machine & Ellie Goulding.

Alastair Tempest – Regional Director, IORMA Africa
See the Alastair Tempest Interview here
Alastair started his career in 1975 at the Confederation of British Industry, London, and subsequently at Independent Television, before moving to Brussels, Belgium, where he worked for the European Advertising Agencies Association. He set up the European Advertising Tripartite which represented the advertising & marketing sector at the European level. In 1992 he joined Reader’s Digest as Director, European Affairs, and set up the Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDIM), which became the Federation of European Direct & Interactive Marketing (FEDMA). He represented the interactive and direct marketing sector at the European level for 18 years, and took early retirement at the end of 2010.
In 2011 he moved to South Africa as President of the Institute of Interactive and Direct Marketing, and became the COO of the Direct Marketing Association of Southern Africa in 2012. He retired full-time from the DMASA at the end of 2014 to concentrate on consultancy.
In December 2014 he was appointed Regional Director Africa of the International Omni Retail Markets Association (IORMA).He also consults on privacy issues & marketing education.
Alastair has written & spoken extensively on marketing issues. He has given expert evidence at the European Commission, the European Parliament, Council of Europe, OECD, US Federal Trade Commission, and to many national governments on privacy issues, e-commence, alternative dispute resolution, trustmarks, self-regulatory codes, postal services & the economics of marketing. He gave evidence to the South African Parliament’s Portfolio Committee during the preparation of the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act.
He was elected to the Universal Postal Union’s Consultative Committee & sat on the UPU’s Direct Marketing Advisory Board.
He has a BA (hons) from the University of York, UK, and his Masters from the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium. He also studied for a doctorate at the University of Ghent, Belgium.
He is married to a South African & lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Jeffrey Cole – IORMA Advisory Board
Jeffrey Cole has been at the forefront of media and communication technology issues both in the United States and internationally for the past 25 years. An expert in the field of technology and emerging media, Cole serves as an adviser to governments and leading companies around the world as they craft digital strategies.
In July 2004 Dr. Cole joined the USC Annenberg School for Communication as Director of the newly formed Center for the Digital Future and as a Research Professor. The Center is a research and policy institute committed to work that has a real and beneficial effect on people’s lives, while seeking to maximize the positive potential of the mass media and our rapidly evolving communication technologies.
Prior to joining USC, Dr. Cole was a longtime member of the UCLA faculty and served as Director of the UCLACenter for Communication Policy, based in the Anderson Graduate School of Management. At UCLA and now at USC Annenberg, Cole founded and directs the World Internet Project, a long-term longitudinal look at the effects of computer and Internet technology, which is conducted in over 25 countries. At the announcement of the project in June 1999, Vice President Al Gore praised Cole as a “true visionary providing the public with information on how to understand the impact of media.”  Ten years into the project, the World Internet Project, through its unique data on Internet users around the world, is the leading international project examining the ways in which our social, economic and media lives are changing. Cole regularly presents trends and insights of the project to the White House, FCC, Congress, Department of Defense and to governments around the world. On the corporate side, Cole advises Microsoft, WPP (Group M), Ericsson, Sony, Time-Warner, AT&T, AARP and others in their traditional and digital media strategies.
In the 1990s, Cole worked closely with the four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) under an anti-trust waiver that allowed the networks to work together for the first time dealing with television programming issues. Meeting regularly with the CEOs, general counsels, heads of programming and others at the networks, he issued annual reports to the television industry, Congress and the nation. Upon the release of the 1996 report, Cole held a joint press conference with President Bill Clinton, who referred to the Center for Communication Policy as “the premier educational institution setting trends in entertainment.” Nationwide there was unanimous praise for the quality of the reports and their contribution to the television content debate.
Cole has testified before Congress on television issues and has spoken as a keynote and panel member at more than 500 conferences on media and technology. He has worked with both the Clinton and George W. Bush White House on media and telecommunications issues, including detailed briefings on the Center’s work. He regularly makes presentations across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
In 1994 the Center co-sponsored “The Superhighway Summit” in UCLA’s Royce Hall with the leaders of most of the nation’s major media companies. For the annual Family Reunion Conferences in Nashville, Tennessee, Cole has worked with Vice President Gore to produce films opening the 1995 through 2002 conferences. The annual films were screened before an audience of 1,400 including the Vice President and President Clinton.
Cole was a member of the Executive Committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) from 1997 to 2001 and was the founding governor of the ATAS Interactive Media Peer Group.
At UCLA, Cole taught over 35,000 students. In 1987 he received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Steve Barnes – IORMA Advisory Board
Steve Barnes is Commercial and Membership Director at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF)  and is responsible for income at FDF through membership subscriptions and commercial activities (conferences, training courses and customised work). Steve has always worked in the grocery industry and before joining FDF, Steve worked at Safeway, CACI and IGD where he ran the trading company for over ten years responsible for funding the charitable activities of the organisation.

Andrew Jones – IORMA Advisory Board
Andrew has over 25 years experience of working in IT, having spent time in the technical, project management and sales environments.  Andrew has held senior positions in a number of organisations providing technology related solutions to the Retail sector.
Andrew has worked on projects with some of the world’s leading retailers, travelling extensively around the world to meet with clients, understand their requirements and acting as a trusted advisor driving the required processes needed to deliver true business benefits.
Andrew currently works for SAP with responsibility for their South EMEA cluster, providing insight and business value assistance to the local teams engaged in large deals. He is an SAP Design Thinking practitioner and utilises these skills to help SAP customers focus on the core aspects of their decision making process. As an SAP Social Ambassador and Industry Thought Leader, he delivers opinions on how technology can address the many barriers that prevent retail businesses from achieving their potential in this constantly evolving environment.

Carl Uminski – IORMA Advisory Board
Carl is an internet industry pioneer with over 16 years of experience creating new products and executing business growth strategies for large scale marketing technologies and enterprise platforms across the globe. He was recently named the most influential man in mobile in The Drum’s Mobile Top 50.
As COO, Carl takes hands-on leadership for the delivery of all Somo’s products and services, splitting his time between our international offices.
Carl was co-founder at Overture Europe, the company to pioneer the multi-billion dollar pay-per-click advertising industry into Europe. As CTO, he was integral in leading the business to success in 15 European countries, and its eventual sale to Yahoo! for $1.63 billion in 2003.  A leader in search and social networking, he was headhunted to the Silicon Valley, where he created the Yahoo! One Search mobile platform, working with some of the world’s largest mobile brands.  Previously, Carl was responsible for running real-time systems such as aircraft parking, flight information and security at seven British airports including London’s Heathrow Airport.
He has a unique knowledge of the mobile industry ranging from technical challenges to the commercial opportunities for brands to succeed in mobile. He has advised and executed for over 60 international brands on their mobile strategy, working with CEOs of companies including Audi, Burberry, BP and DeBeers.
Somo was announced as High Growth Team of the Year at the UK Business Angels Association Investment Awards on 1st July. The co-founders were also honoured as EY Entrepreneurs Of The Year 2014 London & South finalists.

Denise Harris-Williams – IORMA Advisory Board
Recently returned to the UK from the USA following a six-year appointment as HM Consul and Regional Director of UK Trade & Investment, based in Houston, Texas, and Washington, DC, responsible for bilateral trade and inward investment activities across the South East & North East, including Washington DC, the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia and Texas.
Denise has spent the past eighteen years in senior management positions in international business development for the UK Government, covering a number of sectors, including Energy, Infrastructure (Rail, Airports and Ports & Logistics) and Homeland Security and latterly Retail and E-commerce.
Prior to joining UK Trade and Investment, Denise held senior policy positions within UK Government, including the privatization of British Telecom, and was also instrumental in developing the UK Government’s International Technology Transfer Strategy, which focused on international partnering/joint ventures within the Science and Technology field.
Since returning from the USA, Denise has assumed several roles as Deputy Director, UK Trade & Investment, working across industry, developing strategic international business programmes to support the Government’s Growth Agenda, including the High Value Opportunities (HVO) Programme, the Prime Minister’s high level Global Business Summits held daily throughout the London 2012 Olympics, and developing and overseeing the successful launch of UKTI’s E-exporting Programme under the Prime Minister’s ‘GREAT’ initiative.
Denise has developed a reputable role within industry, leading in the development of new e-commerce business, supporting UK companies in finding new routes to market through online channels, and co-ordinating with leading global e-marketplaces to revolutionise global buying patterns, resulting in UK companies (in particular SMEs) increasing market share.

Andrew Busby – IORMA Advisory Board
In a retail career spanning nearly 20 years, Andrew is familiar with both the client and the vendor side of the business, having been responsible for IT Operations at Superdrug, then working with retailers including Arcadia, Debenhams, John Lewis and Argos to deliver transformational IT software and services solutions.
Now a retail writer & analyst, Andrew is one of the most influential figures in UK retail and is the founder of Retail Reflections, a retail analyst and consultancy practice.
He is a columnist and an Advisory Board member for Retail Week and a contributor to Retail Technology magazine. In addition to writing his own retail blog, he also produces digital retail marketing content for IBM as part of the IBM UK Futurist programme.
In 2016 he was named by Retail Week as the 25th most influential UK retail twitter account.
Andrew is also the founder of The Retail Advisory Board, an invitation only Board level retail forum whose members meet on a regular basis to discuss the retail issues of the day in a relaxed, informal & above all, confidential environment.

Will Roebuck – IORMA Advisory Board

Co Founder / Director – The Pennine Kids Company
Director – E RADAR

Will’s role is governance and risk, forming collaborative partnerships and troubleshooting through our strategic networks. His 30-year career in business, law and technology includes negotiating and enabling legal and regulatory environment for e-business in Westminster and the EU.
Will works with top global companies, law firms, public authorities and SMEs on consumer-driven issues, including GDPR and protecting and safeguarding children. He is a member of the Leeds Enterprise Partnership responsible for bringing investment, innovation and growth to Yorkshire. He is also a new board member of The IORMA Consumer Commerce Centre. Both roles add strength to our commercial model around localism and global business. 

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willroebuck/

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