2025 Speakers

Over the past decade, Ryan has provided advice to various organisations on utilising data, analytics, and AI. With experience as a software engineer, data scientist, Chief Data Officer, Chief E-commerce Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer, he understands the process of value creation comprehensively. Ryan’s combined technical and commercial leadership experience enables him to design, develop, and implement new digital capabilities with measurable outcomes. Before joining Currys in March 2025, Ryan worked as a consultant to private equity.

Rudolf Schneider is a seasoned retail media and digital marketing executive with nearly three decades of industry experience, currently leading EU-wide retail media sales teams at Amazon Ads. With a proven track record in driving digital transformation and data-driven strategies, he empowers brands to achieve their marketing objectives across Amazon’s advertising ecosystem. Prior to joining Amazon Ads in 2016, Rudolf held key leadership positions at prominent technology and telecommunications companies. As General Manager at 11880 solutions, he spearheaded the digital transformation of Germany’s second-largest Directory Assistance Service, successfully establishing a new business division focused on online advertising solutions for SMBs. His extensive experience also includes strategic roles at Next ID and Deutsche Telekom.

Alex leads on Retail Media at Halfords where he is responsible for setting the overall strategy, expanding the proposition, and delivering increased revenue across the Retail Media division.

Alex has helped launch, develop and scale Retail Media Networks across a number of different verticals and geographies. He has wide-ranging experience in the UK market, having worked with major grocery retailers such as Asda and Ocado, and has also delivered impactful projects internationally for businesses such as Aldi, Esprit, Spinneys, and Naivas. 

He is passionate about building advertising businesses that create real value for customers, brands, and retailers alike through the intelligent use of data. Alex keeps a keen eye on emerging trends and innovations and is committed to unlocking Retail Media’s full potential and to pushing the boundaries of modern advertising.

Kristina Raptovaia is a seasoned expert in retail media and e-commerce monetization, with over six years of experience at Rakuten France, one of French leading marketplaces, where she is in charge of Partnerships & Advertising division. She drives the company’s retail media strategy by managing a high-performing media sales team, building strategic adtech partnerships, and innovating new ways to monetize marketplace data and inventory. Passionate about shaping the future of commerce, Kristina is deeply involved in developing high-impact campaigns and scalable advertising solutions tailored to the evolving e-commerce ecosystem.

Guy Keeling is the Vice President Global Digital Commerce at Barilla, based at the Barilla Acceleration Team (BAT) in London.  Barilla Group are a leading food company with brands in pasta, pasta sauces and many bakery categories in over 100 countries. Prior to taking up his role at Barilla in 2013, Guy worked in leadership roles at Tesco dunnhumby, Procter & Gamble and in the British Army.  While at dunnhumby, Guy was on the UK Operating Board when dunnhumby pioneered Retail Media with Tesco.   For the past 12 years, Guy has led Barilla’s Digital Commerce business which makes up over 10% of Barilla Group sales in many leading markets including USA, UK, France and China and has an increasingly important role to play in influencing the shopper wherever they do their shopping.  Barilla has won recent awards and plaudits for its Digital Commerce excellence in USA, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.  In 2020 Guy helped to design, set-up, recruit and launch the global centre of expertise for Digital Commerce, AI, Data & Analytics which is a beacon of the transformational change that Barilla are aiming to create globally. He is now a Board Director of the BAT. Guy reports to both the CMO and the CCO.  Guy lives near Brighton in UK with his wife and three children.

Michele is Shopper Marketing Director at pladis, one of the fastest growing snacking companies and home to iconic brands such as McVitie’s,  Jacobs  and Jaffa alongside many more!  Having worked in FMCG for over 20 years in a variety of roles Michele now leads out the Shopper Marketing & Display function at pladis.  She is passionate about shopper marketing and is excited about how retail media can drive impactful campaigns to enhance the shopping experience.

Multi-faceted marketing leader, with a comprehensive set of digital and brand expertise, who is genuinely passionate about creativity, innovation and culture. Proven record of building brands, producing best-in-class strategy, developing and leading high performing teams, managing award-winning campaigns and delivering strong commercial results across multiple industries. I thrive off solving brand challenges – whatever the medium. I’ve been lucky enough to build brands across a range of industries such as FMCG, Telco, Tourism, Finance, Consumer Electronics in multiple countries and cultures such as Lithuania, Japan, USA, Australia, UK and Ireland. I’m just as comfortable with an integrated comms plan vs a digital only plan. Being more digitally focused over the past few years I have sharpened my performance marketing skills as well as blending in my traditional brand planning skills to ensure Superdrug is at the fore of the online Health & Beauty .com race. My teams describe me as a driver who gets things done. At the moment you’ll find me leading 3 high performing teams at Superdrug, part of the AS Watson, Group (the world’s largest Health & Beauty Retailer) delivering everything from day-to-day trade performance to longer term big bets such as Retail Media and Data Acceleration.

Rob Yule is the Director of Operations for Nectar360, which owns and operates Nectar, the UK’s largest coalition loyalty programme. Rob is responsible for the strategic direction and evolution of the Nectar360 business, ensuring the successful execution of key initiatives, and driving operational excellence across the organisation. He has a broad remit, covering Media Planning, Campaign Delivery, Data & Insights and Nectar360’s B2B Marketing. 

Before joining Nectar360, Rob held a number of commercial leadership roles at Sainsbury’s. Most recently, he was responsible for the Soft Drinks & Savoury Snacking categories. He has extensive experience dealing with many of the biggest FMCG brands, building collaborative trade plans, negotiating terms and overseeing category growth.

Prior to Sainsbury’s, Rob worked in both in-house strategy roles for major brands such as Argos and Samsung, and as a Management Consultant in various consumer verticals. He holds an MBA with Distinction from London Business School.

Tom Priestman is Nectar 360’s Director of Client Services, overseeing all FMCG Retail Media partnerships. With a passion for Marketing, Media, and Data Driven Strategies, Tom is working with brands to accelerate their Retail Media journey and drive measurable business impact.

Prior to joining Nectar 360, Tom most recently led the FMCG team at Meta after spending 6 years managing some of the largest Global and UK FMCG partnerships through the evolution of Social, Mobile, and AI.

Prior to Meta, Tom worked client side spending 6 years with Colgate-Palmolive, predominantly in the US, driving digital marketing evolution for their North America Division, notably across search, content, and eCommerce.

Jemma has over 15 years experience in Retail and Media and has held Commercial, Product, Proposition and Consulting roles at dunnhumby (working for Tesco and other retailers around the world). She is currently at the John Lewis Partnership, helping to lead Retail Media transformation initiatives and Proposition strategy across their John Lewis and Waitrose retail brands.

Jay joined ITV 4 years ago to drive the rollout of Planet V, ITV’s own programmatic platform, and more recently, drive all aspects of digital revenue growth and NPD under AdLabs, ITV’s home of innovation. Notable recent innovations include Retail Match, ITV’s partnership with Tesco and Boots, alongside a host soon to be announced commerce innovations. Prior to ITV, Jay held numerous ad-tech roles, most notably at Videology, where he led Brand Solutions, after starting his career with an 18-year stint at MediaCom. Jay also sits on the leadership committee of Media For All. Now with more than 1000 members, MEFA was established to help recruit, retain, and develop Black, Asian, and ethnic minority talent in the UK media industry. 

Global Ecommerce Team Lead with 10+ years of experience in performance marketing, commercial strategy, and consumer experience, primarily in the OTC industry. Expertise in developing operating models that drive growth, enhance cross-department collaboration, and build high-performing teams. Currently leading the in-housing of retail media capabilities through a centralized global ecommerce hub at Opella.

Simon is a leader in media, digital, and eCommerce strategy, with a track record of driving transformation across FMCG, blue-chip companies, and start-ups. Simon has spearheaded organisational change at the UK Met Office and leading FMCG healthcare firms, establishing Centres of Excellence for media and digital. Notable achievements include implementing the retail media strategy for Karo Healthcare from getting organisational buy-in an building a retail media framework across Karo’s key global markets. Passionate about digital and media excellence, Simon serves on Econsultancy’s digital advisory board

Jessica has spent 15 years in a range of commercial sales and marketing roles across magazines, consumer goods and retail. She started her career as an analyst at the Walt Disney Company before moving into consumer goods, setting up the shopper marketing function for Perrigo consumer healthcare, followed by 18 months as a national account manager. After her time with Perrigo, Jess moved to Tesco Media (dunnhumby), which enabled her to work across the wide spectrum of categories, including Fresh, Grocery, Nestle, and business development. She spent 7 great years building and innovating retail media solutions for her clients. This experience, and her MBA from UCL School of Management, enabled her to springboard into her new role as Director of Media & Loyalty at Stonegate Group (Slug & Lettuce, Be at One, Walkabout, and 4000 community pubs). Her responsibilities include building a retail-style media and loyalty network through the newly launched MiXR app and media platform. On top of the ‘day job’ in marketing strategy, Jess is passionate about advancing gender equality and DEI initiatives to ensure she creates a more inclusive culture anywhere she goes. 

After years leading EMEA expansion efforts for established and up-and-coming American digital companies spanning AdTech, MarTech, mobile apps and gaming, including Microsoft, Tapjoy or TUNE / Branch, Jean-Vincent joined mediarithmics in London in 2022 to lead international sales. With a focus on EMEA-based retailers / marketplaces as well as media / broadcasters like Adevinta, Channel 4, or Decathlon adapt to the ever-changing privacy and technology landscape, whilst future-proofing their business with data (first party and more)

A dynamic marketing leader with over 15 years of experience spanning B2B and B2C markets, Dean has previously held roles in advertising, loyalty, CRM, trade planning, media planning and customer strategy.

Dean’s career started in advertising, working at McCann Erickson across their global B2B client portfolio. Now at Co-op, Dean has spent more than a decade driving the performance of Co-op’s grocery and life services businesses in a variety of customer & commercial functions.

As Head of Co-op Media Network, Dean is responsible for growing Co-op’s convenience-focused media business.

(7) Dean Harris | LinkedIn

In her 14 years with dunnhumby, Cat has worked in a variety of key roles giving her broad
experience across all areas of campaign planning, strategy and delivery. Beginning in the Tesco UK media business, she gained hands-on experience of campaign execution before moving into a role in propositions, building out personalisation offerings for both Tesco and other leading UK retailers. Cat then moved to dunnhumby’s South African business, building out the personalisation approach for the country’s premier grocery retailer, Shoprite. Returning to the UK, Cat’s next role saw her design retail media consulting packages which help retailers identify the opportunity for media. This approach has been used by her and the team to design, evolve and scale retail media programmes for a range of international retailers such as John Lewis, Coop Denmark, Meijer, SEG, Sonae and Esselunga. Here the focus was on the establishment of connected, multi-channel, data-led retail media campaigns– many of which were completely new to retail media – and scaling overall campaign efficiency in retail media delivery. Her current role sees Cat overseeing teams delivering retail media projects on behalf of leading retail clients. Through her UK and global experience, Cat is an expert on retail media channels, targeting, measurement, strategy and campaign design, as well as personalisation.

Luis Clark is Go To Market Manager, EMEA at monday.com, driving strategic growth across the region. With a background in media and commercial strategy, he has a proven track record of guiding creative and content teams to innovate, optimise workflows, and maximise impact. Luis specialises in helping businesses work smarter – where collaboration fuels both creativity and efficiency, turning complexity into opportunity in fast-evolving industries like Retail Media

Claire is the founder and CEO of The Illuminate Alchemy, a consultancy working with brands and companies in supporting them to unlock their next stage of growth, including channel, business model and international expansion.

Previously to launching The Illuminate Alchemy, Claire was at Unilever for 7.5 years, where she served as the Chief Customer Officer of the Beauty and Wellbeing Business Group and the Digital Commerce Officer across the total group. There she was responsible the channel and retailer strategy across Beauty and Wellbeing, including the beauty capabilities development, digital and commercial transformation. She also led the Digital Commerce strategy, execution & capability across Unilever globally.

Before joining Unilever, Claire led the marketing team, as well as the business change programme ‘Single View of Customer’ at Selfridges. Responsible for all acquisition, retention and social media activity and defining a new programme of investment (capability and technology) for the CRM strategy for the business.

Before joining Selfridges, she was Head of Marketing & Content, for a Virgin Atlantic start-up, vtravelled.com. She has also held various consultant roles at beauty and fashion start-ups and was Head of Marketing, for Hearst Digital, the online division of The National Magazine Company.

Beyond work, Claire is a mum, wife, daughter, sister and a friend. Originally from London, she has a deep passion for Pilates, recently qualifying as a teacher and teaching children at her son’s school. She is a keen skier and runner and usually can be found listening to a podcast while walking her dog, Betsy, while making plans for her next travel adventure with friends and family.

Andy Stephen is Director of Monetisation UK at Criteo – his team provide retail media ad-tech and services to some of the UK’s largest retailers including Asda, Boots & Currys. With over 12 years industry experience, including at marketplace SaaS solution Mirakl, Andy is passionate about technology that enables enterprise businesses to launch & scale new business models. 

I’m the commerce media lead at Dentsu in the Total commerce COE and bring our expertise to every client relationship. My role is centred around supporting our clients in maximising their leverage of the retail ecosystem to perform against business objectives. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ash-white-83501827/

• 10+ years of experience in digital marketing with a strong background in sales, marketing, education, and entrepreneurship
• Account manager turned CEO, instrumental in transforming the company from a start-up to a well-organized and thriving business
• A well-established leader in the technology industry, committed to keeping the company ahead of the curve in the fast-paced tech environment

Colin is our Retail Media expert. He works directly with some of the worlds biggest brands on their digital commerce and retail media capabilities, as well as helping retailers set up their retail media networks with clients in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. Colin is the author of numerous best practice reports on Retail Media and Digital Commerce, as well as being a Marketing Week Magazine.

Ian began his digital career as a software engineer for the Metropolitan Police, and subsequently worked for multiple start-ups, where he architected, built, developed and sold solutions at the forefront of cloud solutions across multiple industries. He joined Google in 2016, heading up partner solutions for Google’s top agencies and working in close partnership with UK’s leading agencies and brands to drive growth. Ian is passionate about harnessing data, tech and AI as strategic growth levers for advertisers globally. His extensive experience in cloud-based solutions will be pivotal to PM Dragonfly’s growth plans in harnessing the power of cloud-based solutions for digital transformation

Chloe Aldridge is Head of Data Monetisation with over 12 years of experience in the AdTech industry, spanning leading media agencies and data providers. With a deep understanding of audience strategy, data activation, and commercialisation, Chloe has helped organisations turn complex data ecosystems into scalable, revenue-generating solutions. Known for bridging the gap between technical teams and business outcomes, she brings a strategic perspective on the evolving value of data in a privacy-first digital landscape.

Marie-Clare is the Industry Development & Insights Director for IAB Europe. Marie-Clare has spent 10+ years in the digital advertising and marketing industry leading collaborative projects, research and events. She is tasked with driving IAB Europe’s industry initiatives including standardisation in Retail Media as well as owning the association’s industry research and insights outputs and roadmap.

Kına Demirel began her career at Migros after graduating from the University of Leeds, driven by a strong passion for retail. She played a key role in numerous projects within the Migros R&D department before taking the helm of Money Club, Turkey’s largest loyalty program. Under her leadership, Money Club expanded to over 16 million active members, becoming one of the most significant loyalty initiatives in Europe.

She went on to lead Migros’ marketing, media operations, and loyalty strategies, helping
shape the company’s customer-centric approach. In June 2021, after overseeing the foundational stages of Mimeda—Migros’ wholly owned subsidiary and a trailblazer in Turkey’s retail media landscape—Kına Demirel was appointed General Manager.

Her pioneering work at Mimeda has earned her notable recognition, including the Women
Making a Difference in Turkey award and the Innovator–Women of Excellence award in
Chicago. An international speaker, she frequently shares insights on big data, loyalty
programs, personal branding, and the emerging field of retail media.

 As a strategic leader with 15+ years of experience, Renee played a pivotal role in operationalizing Walmart’s retail media business and developing Firework’s inaugural retail media network sales strategy. Recognized with the Retail Media Award (2023), her customer-centric approach and innovative mindset have made her a standout in agency, retail media, and startups.

Troy Townsend, a seasoned entrepreneur, is renowned for his visionary leadership and innovation in the retail media landscape. His journey began with the founding of Tiger Pistol, a pioneering social ads platform that achieved a successful sale of its US arm. Building on this success, Troy co-founded Zitcha and established the world’s first Unified Retail Media Platform and is reshaping retail advertising. 

Under Troy’s guidance, Zitcha has experienced rapid growth, attracting a diverse portfolio of notable clients, including Coles Liquor Group, Coles Grocery, Endeavour Group, The Warehouse Group, Village Cinemas, Adore Beauty, and global brands like Leroy Merlin, Ocado Retail and Axonet. Troy’s strong relationship-building skills have fostered partnerships with industry leaders such as Meta, Google, The Trade Desk, and Broadsign. 

Zitcha’s innovative approach has garnered significant attention, securing substantial funding with OIF Ventures and VMG partners as investors. 
Troy’s success is deeply rooted in Zitcha’s transformative impact on the retail media industry, as the company continues to redefine the landscape under his leadership. 

With over 15 years of experience across SaaS, Marketing Technologies, Digital Marketing, and Data Governance, Mo Ali is a recognized expert in driving data-led transformation for global enterprises—particularly within the telecommunications sector.

Having worked on both agency and vendor sides, Mo brings a unique blend of technical expertise and commercial acumen. Over the past four years at Zeotap, he has been instrumental in supporting some of the world’s largest telcos in harnessing their vast customer data assets—transforming them into powerful engines for growth through Telco Media solutions.

Mo has played a pivotal role in helping telcos evolve beyond connectivity, enabling them to become major players in the Retail Media landscape. By leading complex Martech deployments, crafting scalable data strategies, and commercialising high-impact use cases, he empowers telcos to monetise their data responsibly—delivering value for both advertisers and end consumers.

With deep experience in Telco Media initiatives, including collaborations with leading operators like VMO2, Mo specialises in bridging the gap between telecom data, identity resolution, and targeted media activation. His focus is on unlocking new revenue streams for telcos while offering brands unparalleled precision in audience engagement.

Ben Foulkes leads digital business growth across the UK and Europe, driving five years of success in digital CRM within Retail, Ecommerce, Travel, and Entertainment sectors. He launched the only unified retail media platform with Citrus Ad and helped establish Epsilon as an IDC leader in Clean Room and DSP capabilities. His expertise includes Customer Identity, 1st Party Data Collection, Personalisation, CRM segmentation, Loyalty, and Digital Experience, working with top brands like Deliveroo, Decathlon, Dominos, and Currys.

A retail and data expert with a background in creating customer centric data and advertising solutions with some of the largest players in the FMCG industry.  Currently leading the Ocado Ads Retail Media Network, overseeing all aspects of its operation and strategy. Jack has had extensive experience in retail media, data monetisation, and customer insights, gained through a variety of roles at Circana, Ocado and Dunnhumby. Jack has a passion for building high-performing teams, fostering strong stakeholder relationships, and navigating complex business challenges, as well as leveraging data and technology to help transform the retail landscape and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Raj is a retail media consultant and strategist with over 20+ years immersed in digital media, specialising in the high-growth Retail Media Network (RMN) space. He offers strategic counsel drawn from direct experience across the ecosystem, including a key role in setting up a foundational UK supermarket RMN (Nectar 360), shaping a pure play retailer’s RMN strategy, advising a global pet nutrition brand on their strategic approach to retail media, and guiding the strategic development of a leading German discounter’s global RMN. Known for his sharp strategic insights, Raj translates the complexities of retail media into actionable strategies that build successful and sustainable revenue for his clients.

Elton leads ASOS’s retail media business and is responsible for global strategy and operations. 

ASOS Media Group helps brands win with ASOS across sportswear, fashion, and face & body categories to create striking content that enhances ASOS customers’ experience and drives results. 

Before ASOS Elton has built and led successful multimedia businesses for other leading international retailers Tesco (dunnhumby) and Amazon, as well as for digital publishers Tiscali and Sky in the UK, and across radio, TV and digital channels in South Africa for leading media sales house Mediamark (which was a Kagiso Media and Lagardere joint venture).

He is passionate about working with brands to produce and deliver relevant, effective advertising anchored in technology and data.

Chris Riegel is the CEO and Founder of STRATACACHE, a global group of complementary technology companies that provide advanced digital signage, marketing technology and consumer insight solutions to the world’s leading firms. Based in Dayton, OH, Chris is an often-quoted speaker on technology and business, and a subject matter expert on topics ranging from the future of the customer experience to emerging artificial intelligence and next generation computing and digital display technology. Chris believes in a strong company ethos that attracts, motivates, and retains the best and brightest with a culture that is more than a 9 to 5, supporting multiple charitable causes.