SubscriptionX 2024 Speakers

Timo Boldt is the CEO and Founder of Gousto, the data-driven recipe box company with a vision to become the UK’s most-loved way to eat dinner. Since exchanging life in finance at the age of 26, to follow his passion for food, Timo’s determination has taken Gousto on an incredible journey to becoming a tech Unicorn and certified B Corporation™ in just 10 years. Timo was named EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 for his approach to developing technology, prioritising sustainability and building a people-first culture.

Founder of the award-winning MPowder, a co-created wholefood-led supplement range and community developed with medical doctors, naturopaths and expert practitioners. I trained as a creative planner and have scaled a number of creative agencies prior to this purpose-driven venture. I’m happiest bringing together good people, bringing to light great insights and delivering solutions that work.

Charlie Bowes-Lyon is a seasoned entrepreneur with a track record of founding and successfully exiting startups, including Climate Cups Ltd and Bowes Media Ltd. As a former Director at Hatch Group (now Nest Performance), he provided strategic consultancy to leadership teams of renowned London startups. Currently serving as the Co-Founder and CMO of Wild, Charlie is driving the company’s mission to eliminate single-use plastic from bathrooms with natural, refillable alternatives, earning recognition as the fastest growing UK startup over the last 3 years (according to the Times) and achieving significant sales and global impact.

Lise-Ann Brennan is the Director of Technology for the Telegraph’s subscriptions technology team. Since 2018, she has led strategic projects to enhance the subscription proposition, ensuring access to a platform that promotes freedom of speech. Lise-Ann drives innovation to deliver industry leading customer experiences. Exploring opportunities in the digital landscape her team continues to shape the future of subscription management, solidifying the Telegraph’s pioneering position.

Passionate and energetic with substantial experience in growing subscriptions businesses, from developing activation and sales strategies, to driving sustainable growth with best-in-class retention and engagement experiences. Currently heading up early life subscriber engagement in the marketing team at The Economist.

Margarida has over 9 years’ experience creating and executing marketing strategies for consumer-facing brands.

She started her career in Manchester, at an integrated digital agency managing in-house brands and driving the strategy for CRM channels, moving to London for a 360-marketing role within a cashback app brand.

With a background in Digital Marketing and Comms, she is now working for Nespresso as Subscription Marketing Manager focusing on acquiring and retaining new subscribers to Nespresso Plus, the brand’s subscription product.

An experienced commercial leader with expertise built up in the fitness industry. I am currently the Business Development Director at Peloton, where I lead the Strategic Partnership function for the UK Business. This centres around the challenge of expanding our product distribution through identifying new channels for member and revenue growth while maintaining efficient yield and margin.

Nikki is the CXO and Co-Founder of KatKin, the UK’s first fresh cat food brand. For uncompromising cat parents who want the best, KatKin goes hardcore for cat health: cutting the fluff, thinking fresh and channelling hardcore love into industry-wide change. One of Nikki’s many remits is leading KatKin’s local and offshore customer experience teams. Where she’s fostered a company-wide dedication to putting the customer and cat at the heart of everything KatKin does. 

Fraser is the co-founder and CEO of Beer52; the world’s largest craft beer club and Wine52, the UK’s fastest-growing wine club.  Named by the Sunday Times as one of the UK’s fastest-growing startup companies, with over 2.5m customers to date and 100+ employees, the company also produces the world’s No. 1 craft beer magazine, Ferment. Importing beer from a new country each month, their members have enjoyed discovering the best craft beers and wines from South Africa, California, South America and all over Europe.  Fraser will share the lessons learned from this amazing adventure of taking their community on a journey of taste discovery around the world.

A strategic and results-driven individual with over 14 years of diverse experience across digital strategy & execution, trading, P&L and budget management, digital & lifecycle marketing, eCommerce operations & customer service, platform migration and product management (UX/UI, CRO). Currently leading eCommerce/DTC at a PE backed subscription-led consumer goods brand in the health & wellness space. Previously led and developed a multi-site commercial digital function for a major brand and leading UK cultural institution, delivering commercial growth and brand engagement. Interested in supporting and developing SMEs through digital, margin and process optimisation. Experience with Shopify, JIRA, Asana, Hootsuite, Teradata, Mailchimp, Omniture, Tessitura, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Optimise, Adwords, Lyris HQ & Figma.

Gemma Mills, Founder of JOMO Club, the UK’s alcohol-free spirit subscription and gift box has created an exclusive club dedicated to delivering the best tasting, highest quality alternatives to alcohol, right to the doors of those looking to cut back or abstain from alcohol. Following eight years in the corporate world, Gemma turned to the ritual of a G&T to divide the working day and evening during lockdown. Discovering there were over 500 non-alcoholic spirits available on the market, mostly undiscovered, she set out in 2021 to embrace a new challenge launching JOMO Club – cocktails, without the booze.

Kris has been working in Technology and Business Change for 25 years. In the 8 years since joining Specsavers he has been the Technology lead in the journey to transform Specsavers subscription service, used by our 1.1 million subscribers, from a 30 year old bespoke, in-house legacy platform to a modern cloud based SaaS solution.

Away from work Kris and his family live on the south coast where he spends time with his young son, follows the (mis)fortunes of Southampton FC and drinks the occasional craft beer.

Gyve Safavi is the Co-Founder and CEO of SURI (tyrsuri.com) short for ‘Sustainable Rituals’, the brand is on a mission to create oral care products that help people live more sustainably; without compromising on quality, performance, or design. Its Sustainable Sonic Toothbrush launched in 2022 and has since won several consumer and industry accolades; being voted as The Independent’s BestBuy toothbrush, Fast Company’s Most Innovative FMCG brand of the year, Red Dot’s 2023 Design Award Winner, and also featured in publications such as Dazed, Monocle, FT, Wired, Wallpaper and more.

With 13 years in FMCG and 6 years in ecommerce and DTC subscriptions, Toby oversees Growth at Bower Collective, an award-winning B Corp certified brand with a mission to eliminate plastic waste.  Since launch, the business has seen 230% YoY growth, with Toby leading on the optimization of their acquisition, retention, and lifetime value strategies. To date, Bower has prevented over 90,000 kgs of plastic waste from ending up in landfills and the natural environment—that’s the weight of 3 humpback whales!

With over 10 years experience in the Ecom and D2C space, Tom has worked for and with a range of the UK’s top marketing agencies and D2C brands, helping to grow and scale brands’ customer database sizes and Ecom revenue through performance marketing channels. Tom is currently the Head of Acquisition at Craft Gin Club – the UK’s biggest gin subscription club.

I’m a marketing expert with more than 10 years experience creating and delivering omni-channel marketing strategies for complex products and services in fast-paced, dynamic environments. My background is in CRM and I’ve expanded my remit into a range of channels across retention, acquisition and conversion. I’m an expert project manager with extensive experience developing and driving efficiencies through processes. My mission is to bring teams together within the business to solve problems and drive commercial impact. I’m passionate about creating high-performing teams and developing aspiring leaders.

Vineeta specialises in developing holistic customer experience across online and offline channels by bringing together insight, marketing strategy and commercial data. She’s a self-confessed foodie with over 17 years experience working for global Food and Drink brands. Vineeta started her career in marketing in Australia – with The Coffee Club, a global hospitality brand. In her time there she helped grow the business from a national franchise with 300 sites to a global franchise spanning across 6 countries with over 600 sites. Vineeta moved to London in 2014 and has worked in senior marketing roles for Costa Coffee, Odeon Cinemas and is now The Head of Customer for Mindful Chef – the UK’s highest rated recipe box brand who’ve delivered over 30 million meals.

Tom heads up customer acquisition in the UK for Naked Wines, the world’s largest D2C online wine retailer. His team deploy investment across more than 15 channels crossing upper, middle and lower funnel, to recruit as many new customers to Naked as possible – and thereby transform more and more of the wine industry for the better.

Amy is Co-founder and CEO of Hunter & Gather Foods, as well as a Forbes 30 under 30 alumni and lifelong coeliac. Hunter & Gather was set up with her partner to provide real food products that support a healthier lifestyle. The brand creates products, food and supplements which are always free from refined sugar, grains and seed oils. The brand takes inspiration from ancestral lifestyles and educates its tribe on ways to live better in the modern world. The brand is well known for its collagen products but also its range of better-for-you condiments.

Tom Joined Clarasys in November 2014 following two years at Detica. Tom is one of our most experienced CX and agile digital product specialists. Since joining Clarasys, Tom has delivered numerous CX discovery and digital transformation projects across a range of industries from healthcare to financial services. This enables Tom to advise on best-practice customer experiences and delivering in an agile and user-centric manner across the end-to-end lifecycle. Tom’s background in business architecture ensures design and definition of solutions that put the users and customers at the heart. This, coupled with broad technical expertise, ensures a solution can be defined that truly solves the client’s needs. In his spare time, Tom is an avid Formula One and cycling fan

Lauren Duncan is an energetic leader in e-commerce, currently spearheading digital strategies and growth as the Head of Ecommerce at Philip Kingsley. With a background in digital marketing and customer behaviour, Lauren leverages over a decade of experience to drive transformative initiatives that elevate online presence whilst hitting commercial objectives. Her commitment to delivering exceptional online experiences aligns with Philip Kingsley’s dedication to empowering individuals through personalised hair care solutions.

Hannah Jordaan has more than 16 years with IAG Loyalty’s leading airline frequent flyer program and currency, Avios, leading and creating strategic partnerships within the retail and travel sectors. More recently Hann was one of the incubator members to develop IAG Loyalty Retails first D2C brand The Wine Flyer. Responsible for all selling channels, marketing, ecommerce and servicing channel operations and now focused on developing the growth aspirations for The Wine Flyers new subscription experience.

Mike creates and protects customer value. For the last 15 years Mike has worked with businesses across sectors to ensure their customers buy more, stay longer and cost less to acquire. His recent clients include Gorillas UK, Nautilus Magazine (USA) and Fenway Resourcing.

As a consultant and fractional CMO, he’s helped B2B and B2C business in publishing, SaaS, media, banking, FMCG, retail and non-profits increase their customer value efficiently through innovative strategy.  His guiding belief is that businesses exist to deliver value to consumers and this must be done with empathy while maintaining profitability. Notably, Mike is recognized for pioneering the implementation of machine learning in CRM, enabling a more personalised and relevant experience for consumers and higher profits for businesses. You can find out more at www.customervalueguy.com.

Samantha Sussman is the Group Lead Product Manager at Ordergroove, spearheading integration and enablement teams with new innovative subscription and membership advancements. She champions the development of essential functionalities for seamless merchant subscriptions, such as onboarding and migrations, along with Ordergroove’s robust e-commerce platform and third-party technology integrations. Before Ordergroove, Samantha honed her expertise at Google, focusing on Google Maps, Docs Suite, and cutting-edge AR/VR technologies in collaboration with eCommerce and retail brands. Samantha resides in Philadelphia (US) with her husband and son, enjoying city walks, exploring ice cream shops, and nurturing her indoor plant collection.

Daphne started out as the 1st employee for RockBoost, a growth hacking agency. After consulting various startups and corporations for over five years (and helping RockBoost grow to 25 employees), she wrote a book about Growing Happy Clients. Then she moved to the brand side, where she helped Braincare startup Heights, scaling it from £28K to £343K MMR in 18 months. Now Daphne helps the best eco-friendly & wellness D2C startups grow faster.

Katie Searles is Editor of InternetRetailing and DeliveryX and a B2B journalist who has covered topics including the last-mile, urban logistics, zero-emission trends and technology, as well as robotic innovations. Katie also worked as a broadcast journalist for radio stations covering the east coast of Scotland and BBC London. Additionally, she has chaired both in-person and virtual conferences.

Fractional Head of Growth, Contract

Rosie is a Fractional Head of Growth for early stage startups specialising in product-led growth and monetisation, as well as a mentor and advisor for TechScaler and Barclays Eagle Labs. She’s spent 7 years across consulting and early stage startups funded by Index Ventures, EQT Capital, Alumni Ventures and Intel Capital.Last year, she won App Leader 2023, Top Testing Influencers 2023 and Top Writers in UX on Medium.

With over two decades of leadership experience in the Microsoft ERP space with focus on
retail, distribution, professional services and finance, Bjorn Kuijt is a distinguished specialist
in the Subscription Economy, driving the operational and financial transformation of recurring
revenue businesses in Retail, Media & Publishing, SaaS and IT Services. His proven track
record in aligning technology with customer needs no matter the size or scope has solidified
his reputation as a respected industry figure in the subscription space. As the VP of Product
at Bluefort, Bjorn has excelled in strategically advancing Bluefort’s best of breed subscription
management product, LISA Enterprise, to empower recurring-revenue based enterprises to
scale with ease, boost revenue, cut costs, and transform their customer journeys.

As Butternut has expanded, I’ve had the privilege of exploring various facets of the business, ranging from sales to pricing strategies. Over the past few years, my primary focus has been steering Butternut toward sustainable profitability. This transition has been challenging, particularly as we moved away from a “growth at all costs” mentality. Despite these challenges, we have achieved significant progress, particularly in the areas of customer retention and our unit economics. These strides have enhanced our business model and positioned us well for future success, reflecting a deep commitment to our customers and our long-term vision.

Ryan Forster is a seasoned subscription e-commerce expert with over 4 years of experience at Recharge and 15+ years in sales and partnerships. He currently leads the EMEA region for Recharge as Senior Partner Manager where he leverages his in-depth knowledge of the market to develop and execute go-to-market strategies with partners across the region and has helped launch hundreds of merchants on to the Recharge platform.

James was among the top 50 influencers in e-commerce and shipping, recently published by Scurri. James is a former founder of a parcel delivery business called Parcel Station, exiting that role in 2018 to support and drive growth and improvement at Whistl.

As Director of Business Development at Whistl Fulfilment, a leading provider of e-commerce, fulfilment and supply chain solutions, James understands eCommerce logistics and technology. James has extensive experience in supply chain solutions and product concepts for commercial and technical audiences.

Because product delivery is often the first time your customers see your product, it is worthwhile that the experience is positive! James has a particular interest in improving customer experience with final-mile delivery.

You’ll often hear James on podcasts and webinars or in person at events speaking passionately about how you can scale using fulfilment and delivery as a method of business growth.

Guy Marion is Chief Marketing Officer at Chargebee and has over 20 years of experience in strategic marketing, product development, growth, and sales and has a track record of driving multi-million-dollar revenues for enterprises across different sectors. Guy previously served as GM of Chargebee Retention following the acquisition of Brightback in January 2022, where he was the Founder and CEO. Prior, he was CMO at Autopilot, a marketing automation platform where he helped grow revenues into the millions and exponentially increased user acquisition, and Head of Online Sales at Zendesk.

Matt is one of Avalara’s top cross-border tax experts, with in-depth VAT, GST, and U.S. sales tax knowledge. He brings a unique perspective on the impact tax changes have on businesses when they scale their subscription model into international markets. Matt puts businesses’ minds at ease by answering the many complex questions and helping to automate manual processes, saving them time and money.

Dal Bamford joined Bento in February 2022, having worked in the technology sector for over two decades. Her previous roles as Chief Customer Officer (In Salesforce UKI and Tenth Revolution Group) saw the Oxford graduate work with senior leaders across the business spectrum to help them transform their companies. Now, in Bento, she is helping subscription first, e-commerce businesses unbox success with Gousto’s tech.

Tim heads up Rokt’s strategic partnerships and business development in Europe, working with leading e-commerce partners to maximise user engagement and profit. Prior to Rokt, he was scaling VC-backed, high-growth tech companies and sales teams in European and APAC markets, as well as working on a number of strategy consulting projects around market entry, growth strategy, and profitability.