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Ian Cheshire, CEO and Chairman, Kingfisher, British Retail Consortium
Ian Cheshire was
appointed Group Chief Executive of Kingfisher plc in January 2008. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of
B&Q from June 2005. His previous
roles at Kingfisher include Chief Executive of International and Development,
Chief Executive of e-Kingfisher and Group Director of Strategy and Development.
Before joining Kingfisher in 1998 he
worked for a number of retail businesses including Sears plc where he was Group
Commercial Director.
Ian is Chairman
of the British Retail Consortium. He is a Non-Executive Director of Whitbread
plc and lead non-executive member on the Department for Work and Pensions
Board. He is also a member of the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group on
Climate Change and a Member of the Business Disability Forum President’s Group (formerly
Employers’ Forum on Disability).
In addition, Ian chairs the Ecosystem Markets Task Force, an independent
business-led initiative aimed at helping UK business to find new opportunities
to drive green economic growth and profit from
valuing and protecting nature.
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Steven Cohen, CEO, Blue Inc
Steven has been involved in the retail industry since 1996 and, before Blue Inc, was CEO of First Sports Group.
Blue Inc is the leading privately owned men's fashion retailer in the UK and has grown significantly over the past six years from 30 to 205 stores across the UK. The company was founded in 1912 and acquired by Marlow Retail in 2006, an acquisition vehicle founded by Steven.
Over the past six years, Blue Inc has recruited over 2,000 employees and now has a workforce numbering over 2,500, with over 85% aged in the 16-29 year old youth "high unemployment" bracket. In addition, the company has set up a Retail Training Academy in Harrow and has also launched internationally, with new Blue Inc stores opening this year in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.
Investors including Sir Stuart Rose and The Reuben Brothers have backed the company over the past two years to support its ongoing growth.
Steven graduated from Jesus College Cambridge, is an MBA and was previously a banker with Hambros Corporate Finance.
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Andrew Darrow, Executive Vice President, KidZania
Andrew Darrow has served as KidZania's Executive Vice President since 2007 leading its growth strategy and global expansion making KidZania the world's most successful experiential edutainment brand. During his tenure, Mr. Darrow has overseen the establishment of 24 international KidZania locations in 20 countries on 5 continents in the world's most prestigious retail and leisure destinations.
Mr. Darrow has been a strategist and dealmaker for entertainment properties, brands, content and programming for more than 25 years. Previously, he served as a senior executive at Interpublic Group's Octagon Worldwide and at U.S. television network NBC where he oversaw the commercialization of its television content. Mr. Darrow has held executive positions at MCA/Universal Records and at Overland Management where he guided the careers of major international music artists such as Talking Heads, Eurythmics, the B-52s and the Ramones. Mr. Darrow is also an accomplished and published entertainment attorney. He began his career as a talent agent at International Creative Management.
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Maninder Gill, Secretary, Global Retail Forum
The Global Retail Forum is an international retail network for senior retailers. The ethos of the GRF is to connect retail professionals and to facilitate their exchanging knowledge, ideas and details of possible opportunities within a supportive peer network to assist with international growth and success. Maninder is a solicitor and is the Head of the Retail, Fashion and Franchising Group at Simons Muirhead & Burton, a law firm based in Soho, London. He was previously the Legal and Human Resources Director at Harvey Nichols and is recognised for his experience and expertise gained while working within the retail industry. He is recommended by the main legal directories as an expert on retail and franchising law.
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Hamdi Kulahcioglu, Managing Director, Demsa Luxury
Mr Kulahcioglu has been in the global fashion industry 20 years.
After receiving his BA in Business from Bosporus University of Istanbul, and an MBA from Pace University in New York, and a quick stint on Wall Street, Hamdi entered the fashion business. He has worked in New York fashion industry as an executive/founder of several companies managing designer brands sold in top stores such as Barney’s New York, Saks 5th Avenue, Fred Segal, Lane Crawford, Amercan Rag, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom. He has built an extensive network in US and Global fashion industry.
In 2005 Hamdi returned to his native Turkey to work as an executive director of Unitim Group in Istanbul, one of the leading retail groups in Turkey and the region. During his 4 years in Unitim, Hamd, has functioned as a brand GM for G-Star, Aldo, Camper, GAS brands, and then as Buying Director for Harvey Nichols Istanbul overseeing more than 300 luxury fashion and cosmetics brands, and finally as General Manager of the luxury division of the group overseeing Harvey Nichols Istanbul, Ralph Lauren, Bally, Naked multibrand stores, managing a turnover of 70 million USD and a team of 500 people. He has successfully closed exclusive deals with brands such as Ralph Lauren (opening the first exclusive flagship store of 600m2 in Istanbul’s Istinye Park mall), Versace, Tom Ford, Salvatore Ferragamo, and managing high level relationships with a wide range of brands from Balenciaga, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and many others. During the four years in Unitim, Hamdi has been personally involved in development and opening more than 30 stores including 8000 m2 of Harvey Nichols Istanbul, in malls, high street and several cities including Bucharest, Moscow and all over Turkey. Working closely with luxury brands in developing retail franchise deals with them, he has built very strong relationships with key decision makers of luxury brands as well as in-depth understanding of the decision making process of such brands.
After leaving Unitim in 2009, Mr Kulahcioglu has started his own consultancy and worked with clients from Italy, France, Canada, USA and Turkey such as GAS Jeans, Galeries Lafayette and Aldo as a solution partner utilizing his extensive global network in the fashion industry, his experience and know-how.
In 2010 he founded beyazkutu.com, the first premium e-commerce fashion site selling full price and in-season merchandise from international fashion brands. In 2012 Demsa Group of Turkey bought out Beyazkutu.com, and brought in Hamdi to be the GM of Demsa Luxury overseeing a portfolio of businesses including 2 Harvey Nichols, 10 Brandroom multibrand luxury boutiques, and monobrand operations including Salvatore Ferragamo, Michael Kors, DVF, Tom Ford, Lanvin, and all e-commerce operations. Mr Kulahcioglu is based in Istanbul, holds dual citizenships from Turkey and the USA.
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Iain MacRitchie, Chairman, Hobbs
Iain is Chairman of Hobbs where he is helping drive the domestic and international expansion plans for this longstanding British fashion brand. Hobbs has 140 outlets in the UK and is now delivering to 50 countries from its website as the initial stage of a store based expansion. The company designs and develops a complete range of contemporary womenswear, footwear and accessories in the UK and has its own Italian shoe factory.
After setting up MCR Holdings in 1996, Iain has become a serial Chairman in private equity backed situations that require rapid change, growth or development. His marketing expertise has led him into multiple brand development and international expansion roles. His last brand development project was in leading the £75m acquisition of Maxinutrition, a leading sports & performance nutrition brand. In 3 years he helped double sales and profits, resulting in the sale of the company to GlaxoSmithKline for £162m in 2011.
Iain draws on his internationalisation experiences in the retail and consumer industry and from other sectors in electronics, software, pharmaceutical and engineering. He is also Chairman in a portfolio of performance improvement situations in the UK and US including laboratory testing and shipping. Iain has been recognised with the UK’s Turnaround Professional of the Year award and Private Company Transformation of the Year for a US driven business. He is Chairman of the IFT the professional body, has sat as a member of the 3i plc.’s Chairman’s Board and advises a number of international financial investors. Leisure time is taken up by his Charitable Foundation, which is focused on multiple education and mentoring projects to help realise the individual potential of over 100 children under social work care.
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Tim Maule, Deputy CEO, Mamas & Papas
Mamas & Papas offer a range of innovatively designed, high quality and award winning nursery products. These are sold through their own branded stores, other retailer partners and franchisees around the world. Since joining the company in 1991, Tim Maule has been instrumental in helping the founding family to expand the business using partners. Tim, as Deputy Chief Executive, today manages a business that trades in 49 countries, has a turnover exceeding £150m and employs 1,700 people. This year Tim announced plans to open a hundred new stores across China. |
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John Scott, Head of International Business Development, Debenhams
John Scott is Head of International Business Development for Debenhams, a leading international, multi-channel department store retailer. Initially coming from a merchandising background in the UK, John has over 15 years’ experience in international retail. In the late 1990s he worked in the fledgling Middle East retail market, helping to develop both Next’s and Debenhams’ franchisee store network across the Arabian peninsula with MH Alshaya. In recent years John has worked to develop Debenhams' business outside of the UK, both with existing franchisees and by developing new partnerships. Currently Debenhams has 72 franchise stores in 26 countries, with 17 partners, across markets in Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe. In the past 12 months Debenhams has entered Russia, Georgia and Bulgaria and this year will see openings in the Baltics and Libya. John is working as part of the team that will double the international business over the next 5 years: through working with our franchise partners to expand their businesses; by finding new partners in emerging markets around the world and by developing the international multi-channel model still further, as well as exploring other avenues for growth. Debenhams expansion strategy was recognised in November when it won the Global Expansion Retailer of the year award at Mapic in Cannes. |
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Tarek Sherazee, Strategy Director, Costa Coffee
Tarek Sherazee is the Strategy Director for Costa, responsible for defining the future growth platforms for the organisation. Costa has system sales of £1bn and has been a very successful organisation growing consistently over the last 48 quarters, with yearly like for like growth of 7% and now operating in over 30 different countries across the globe with a mix of Owned and operated stores, concessions, franchise and Joint Ventures.
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Simon Taylor, Senior Business Development Manager-Global Partnerships, New Look
Simon has recently taken charge of all international franchise projects for New Look and he is now supporting in the development and growth of Central & Eastern European markets including Russia and Poland.
Simon Taylor has spent the last 13 years in international positions for both franchisee and franchisor, having spent a large part of his career based in the Middle East working for both the AL-Hokair and ALSHAYA retail groups.
On the completion of some key business start-ups in the Middle East with Spanish, British & US fashion brands he decided to return to the UK in 2008. Working briefly for Mamas & Papas in 2008 and for the last four years developing the newlook business in the MENA & SE.ASIA regions.
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Angus Thirlwell, CEO & Co-founder, Hotel Chocolat
“I count myself as one of the luckiest people around – to work every day in a business that lives by my obsessions for chocolate, true creativity and honest ingredients, and which also has a link back to my childhood in the West Indies through our cocoa estate in Saint Lucia”.
To say that Angus Thirlwell is passionate about chocolate would be an understatement because, as he willingly admits, it’s more of an obsession. Together with his business partner, Peter Harris, he founded Hotel Chocolat in 2004 with two specific aims – to make chocolate that really excites the senses and to make that chocolate widely available.
Angus religiously eats chocolate every day, tastes and approves every single recipe, and is as much at home in the development kitchen as he is in the boardroom or amongst the cocoa trees. It was a bold move to become a cocoa grower, a point underlined by the fact that Hotel Chocolat is one of very few to do it, but it was the natural progression of Angus’ passion for chocolate.
Fittingly, he was inspired to guide the company towards growing its own cocoa by one of his own customers, who sent him a book she had found while tidying her husband’s study. It was a 1920 edition of Cocoa & Chocolate, Their History from Plantation to Consumer. The history it told was of cocoa growing in the West Indies and it was particularly inspirational to Angus, having spent much of his childhood there. After an intensive search that took in several islands, Angus and Peter found The Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia, which they bought almost immediately in April 2006.
There, he has led the rejuvenation of the island’s oldest cocoa plantation, kick-starting a ‘cocoa renaissance’ on the island in the process, through the innovative Engaged Ethics Cocoa Programme. The rare Trinitario strains grown on Rabot Estate and by the Island Grower partners have already won several awards. The stunning setting of the plantation also inspired the opening of the boutique Boucan hotel and restaurant on the Estate, which fully opened in February 2012.
2012 was a big year for Hotel Chocolat, also marking a move into Europe with the opening of two stores in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the launch of beauty range Cocoa Juvenate and the opening of Roast + Conch in London, an entirely new cocoa concept.
From growing fine cocoa in Saint Lucia, to the exciting chocolate and beauty products available in UK and European stores, nine years on it’s clear that Angus’ passion is as strong as ever and that he’s on a mission to let the world know that British chocolate is once again a force to be reckoned with.
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Chris Webster, Director, EU Cross Border Trade, eBay
Chris joined eBay in 2011 to lead their European Cross Border business where he is responsible for eBay Europe’s international trade business and developing their end to end buyer and seller proposition.
Before eBay, Chris spent time as a management consultant for McKinsey and Co before joining John Lewis in 2002 where he held a variety of commercial, operational and marketing roles. Initially joining as Commercial Manager, he quickly moved into Store Operations, before becoming Head of New Business Development where he was responsible for developing the John Lewis Services Strategy and transforming Greenbee into John Lewis Insurance.
Chris has a track record of leading and developing teams to deliver profitable growth and loves to get inside the minds of customers, to enable his team to develop great propositions to meet their needs.
In his spare time Chris loves nothing more than cooking up new culinary delights, exploring new parts of the world; playing any number of sports and most recently cabinet making.
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