Hear from the Leaders Shaping the Future of FMCG in the UK.

Alister is currently the leader for Digital Commerce & Omnichannel Insights & Analytics at Mondelēz. His remit is focused on expanding eCommerce data provision and progressing digital capabilities to accelerate growth, driving understanding of true shopper behaviour online and the evolving ‘omnichannel path to purchase’. Alister has over 20years experience across retail, global agency networks and major CPGs driving growth on iconic brands such as Oreo, Cadbury, Dove, Listerine, Red Bull and Budweiser.

Founder of Aperture - the expert in helping omni-commerce marketing leaders achieve more profitable and sustainable growth. We work with senior marketers to address growth pressures with flat or declining marketing budgets. Once you’ve exhausted efficiency & eliminated costs, you still need to do more with less. That’s where we come in.

30 years of strategic hands-on global commercial experience in omni-channel Category, Customer, Consumer & Shopper marketing with some of the most iconic organizations in the world, including The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, Shell, and Mondelez International, I’ve had the privilege of partnering with many of the brightest minds and biggest brands on the planet.

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Leading the Grocery Buying team across Iceland Foods, full end to end commercial responsibility across Iceland Foods / Food Warehouse and Iceland.co.uk. Driving strategic growth plans within an Omnichannel environment.

Adam Smith is the Head of Retail Media at Iceland Foods, where he leads the supermarket’s first in-house retail media team. Formerly a Category Trading Manager, Adam was promoted to spearhead Iceland’s strategic expansion into digital advertising and in-store media. Adam's role involves overseeing both physical and online advertising initiatives, ensuring that Iceland delivers a best-in-class service to its clients. His team is central to Iceland’s efforts to modernize its retail experience and compete with other major UK supermarkets in the rapidly growing retail media space.

Jodie joined Tesco UK Retail Media in 2011, bringing deep expertise in retail media, client leadership, and data-driven strategy. Her career spans impactful roles at Magners and Red Bull, driving category growth and customer experience. Now leading Tesco Media’s Growth and Emerging Brands team, she manages relationships with 500+ clients, aligning brand goals with Tesco’s strategy. With over 20 years in people management, Jodie is a results-driven leader known for building high-performing sales teams in the Retail Media space.

Holly Rich is Media Planning Manager at Tesco Media, where she partners with leading CPGs and brands to craft full-funnel media strategies that drive awareness and conversion. With five years of experience delivering insight-led solutions across categories, she helps clients solve complex business challenges. Passionate about connected commerce, Holly leverages data, creativity, and retail media to fuel brand growth and shopper engagement. Her work bridges the gap between brand storytelling and purchase intent, creating seamless, impactful media experiences.

With over 15 years of FMCG experience across global markets, including leadership roles at Nestlé and Colgate, Eve drives commercial growth through shopper-centric strategies, strategic brand-building, and end-to-end category development. Passionate about aligning marketing and sales, she focuses on delivering impact at the shelf through insight-led planning and customer collaboration.

Anita is UK Head of eComm at Arla. She has led the creation and integration of the eComm function, shaping digital transformation across UK and global markets. Known for her vision and ability to engage the business at every level, she inspires teams and stakeholders to embrace new commercial models and ways of working. Passionate about people and performance, she combines ambition with agility to keep Arla at the forefront of retail and media evolution.

With over 20 years’ experience in the FMCG industry, Jo Hollins is the Marketing & Category Management Director for UNIDACH (North West Europe) at BIC. An accomplished marketeer and insights specialist, Jo has a strong track record of leading cross-functional teams to design and deliver shopper, consumer, and customer-led strategies that consistently drive market share growth.  Having worked across multiple channels, international markets, and diverse brand portfolios, Jo combines deep commercial acumen with insight-driven thinking to secure stakeholder buy-in and build strategies that achieve sustainable growth.

I am a seasoned marketing leader, spanning sales and shopper marketing over a 20-year career. Since 2020, as Trade Marketing Director at Asahi UK, leading a team of talented and diverse individuals we have driven brand growth across grocery, on-trade, digital and experiential marketing as well as standout activations at BST Hyde Park, Royal Ascot, and major festivals. In previous roles I was leading shopper initiatives, delivering brand launches with Schweppes NPD. Beyond my professional work I am a keen runner and cold-water plunger!

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.

Natalie James is a seasoned Head of eCommerce for Europe with over 15 years of experience driving digital transformation and revenue growth across diverse European markets. With a track record at leading companies including Brown-Forman, Kraft Heinz, and Nestlé, she brings deep expertise in crafting and executing eCommerce strategies across both B2B and B2C channels.

Natalie is a hands-on leader known for building organizational capabilities, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and leveraging data to elevate brand performance online. Her solution-oriented mindset and strategic approach consistently deliver impactful results, even within the complexities of Europe’s retail landscape.

With over 20 years’ experience in the FMCG industry, Jo Hollins is the Marketing & Category Management Director for UNIDACH (North West Europe) at BIC. An accomplished marketeer and insights specialist, Jo has a strong track record of leading cross-functional teams to design and deliver shopper, consumer, and customer-led strategies that consistently drive market share growth.  Having worked across multiple channels, international markets, and diverse brand portfolios, Jo combines deep commercial acumen with insight-driven thinking to secure stakeholder buy-in and build strategies that achieve sustainable growth.

Over 30 years’ experience in creating & delivering Shopper Marketing campaigns for the FMCG brands across a wide range of categories.

Founded a long term partnership with Durham University Business School to create a set of behavioural science tools that identify the unconscious cues we all use to inform our purchase decisions.

We call it Sales Trigger Insight and it delivers a unique understanding of the unconscious cues that will drive consumers to buy one brand over another. We turn these insights into Shopper Marketing activity that Resonates.

Rob is a seasoned Loyalty Consultant with over 20 years of experience in global corporate loyalty and reward programs, performance marketing, and digital engagement solutions. His expertise spans multiple industries, including fintech, martech, SaaS, PaaS, e-gifting, and digital couponing. Throughout his career, Rob has worked across multiple international markets, including the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa. He has held key positions and worked on loyalty programs for Vodafone, Santander, Utility Warehouse, vouchercloud, Airtime, Capillary Tech, Snipp Interactive, and many other market-leading platforms.

With a deep understanding of consumer behavior, digital transformation, and emerging loyalty trends, Rob continues to help businesses across industry verticals enhance their customer engagement strategies and maximize ROI.

Julia Kennedy is a Go-To-Market (GTM), EU Director, where she leads global Customer Success for two core platforms. With over 15 years in SaaS and e-commerce, she drives customer retention, growth, and scalable GTM strategies across markets. Passionate about cross-functional collaboration and innovation, Julia ensures teams deliver measurable value and exceptional customer experiences worldwide.

Omar Hamad is Director of Retail Media at Stackline, leading programmatic strategy across Europe and APAC. With over a decade of experience in advertising, he specialises in Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud, helping brands simplify complex retail media ecosystems and unlock growth through data, automation, and AI-driven solutions.

James has spent almost 20 years in the retail and FMCG industry, leading teams across buying, sourcing, and category strategy. Throughout his career, he has helped drive commercial growth through data-led decision making and strategic transformation. In his current role, James is focused on harnessing customer and market insights to unlock new opportunities for Asda’s brands and partners, including initiatives such as Asda Xpert.

Founder of Aperture - the expert in helping omni-commerce marketing leaders achieve more profitable and sustainable growth. We work with senior marketers to address growth pressures with flat or declining marketing budgets. Once you’ve exhausted efficiency & eliminated costs, you still need to do more with less. That’s where we come in.

30 years of strategic hands-on global commercial experience in omni-channel Category, Customer, Consumer & Shopper marketing with some of the most iconic organizations in the world, including The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, Shell, and Mondelez International, I’ve had the privilege of partnering with many of the brightest minds and biggest brands on the planet.

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Experienced digital leader with a background in ecommerce, retail media, strategy, digital content, and category management. I recently joined Sainsbury's as the Head of Digital Trading (Fresh) after spending 14 years supplier side at Unilever. During my time at Unilever, I held various digital roles, gaining a deep understanding of the end-to-end customer journey in different ecommerce models and leading teams within both local and European ecommerce structures.

Stephanie Jones - eCommerce Optimisation Lead at Waitrose & Partners. I've dedicated almost five years to optimising our digital landscape. My role involves leading teams to find efficiencies, experiment at pace, and ensure data-driven customer focus across the entire Waitrose journey. I'm passionate about delivering measurable business impact and fostering continuous learning. I'm excited to share how our innovative Strategic Supplier Program leverages collaborative experimentation to drive mutual growth in digital grocery, where thinking big is key!

Craig, Optimisation Manager at Waitrose & Partners. Driving digital optimisation at Waitrose online through research and experimentation. With a background in CRO, with years spent combining quantitative and qualitative data-sets to uncover valuable insights and form hypotheses for A/B/n testing and personalisation. Passionate about the end-to-end digital experimentation process and ensuring high-quality, impactful tests.

Alister is currently the leader for Digital Commerce & Omnichannel Insights & Analytics at Mondelēz. His remit is focused on expanding eCommerce data provision and progressing digital capabilities to accelerate growth, driving understanding of true shopper behaviour online and the evolving ‘omnichannel path to purchase’. Alister has over 20years experience across retail, global agency networks and major CPGs driving growth on iconic brands such as Oreo, Cadbury, Dove, Listerine, Red Bull and Budweiser.

Experienced eCommerce and Digital professional with extensive background in both building best in class capabilities and hand on operational management across FMCG and Amazon. Currently leading digital commerce acceleration strategy for Barilla across our key customers spanning Omnichannel, PurePlay & eFoodservice, working with 35 countries and over 150 individuals who work with or support eCommerce in their role.

As the Global Director of Perfect Store Online at Mars, I lead the strategy, partner ecosystem, and execution to win on the digital shelf. We aim to increase consumer penetration, engagement, and e-commerce conversion rates.

Joe Moore is a Digital Commerce Channel Manager at Unilever.

Joe has spent the last 18 years working for some of the largest global FMCG companies, all with portfolios of world-famous brands, such as William Grant & Sons, Heinz, Nestlé, and Lindt & Sprüngli.

Having performed in several roles across sales & marketing, more recently Joe has had the opportunity to work in the accelerating Digital Commerce channel, which has enabled him to support the delivery of new revenue streams and special projects such as the proof of concept delivery of AsdaXpert.

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An MSc in Marketing Communications and a CIM certified marketing practitioner. Extensive career spanning start-up and CPG organisations that has delivered successful marketing and brand building strategies in the competitive telecommunications, publishing and retail markets.

Started in FMCG, spirits, and the LVMH group in commercially driven roles. Now focused on strategy, digital and omnichannel growth at Karo Healthcare, with a strong emphasis on marketplaces and cross-country collaboration. Brings strategic clarity, communication strength, and a hands-on mindset to drive change and connect teams.

With over 15 years at L’Oréal, Jack has built a standout career at the forefront of digital commerce and brand innovation. Currently leading the UK TikTok Shop team, he drives the strategy behind one of L’Oréal’s most ambitious and complex e-commerce ventures - blending with social content & media with commercial & supply chain to unlock growth on the platform.

Jason has over 25 years' experience of working within foodservice, wholesale, convenience, and retail sectors both in the UK and Ireland. As E-Commerce Lead, he is responsible for the development and growth of their online business with all their retailers, wholesalers and .com partners, as well as leading a 'Future Digital' business unit looking at the impact of digital technology on all aspects of the business including commercial, marketing and supply. He also works on a global project team to enhance and develop e-commerce capability across the whole Lactalis organisation.

At the helm of JDE Peet’s global DTC e-commerce strategy and with over 15 years of experience and in the past few being a leader in the e-commerce and digital industry. Boasting a robust background with global giants like L'Oreal, Mondelez, British American Tobacco and JDE Peets. Experienced in consumer goods to groundbreaking online platforms. Currently as the global DTC leader for the Tassimo coffee brand across 7 countries in Europe.

Alan Fawbert is the Digital Commerce Director at Carlsberg Britvic, where he leads the company’s digital strategy across online grocery, wholesale and delivery channels. With a career spanning leadership roles at Tesco and PepsiCo, Alan brings deep expertise in digital strategy, retail media, social commerce, and digital transformation. Passionate about driving innovation and commercial growth through digital, he plays a key role in shaping how consumers engage with brands in an evolving commerce landscape.

Zara is the UK and Ireland Commercial Director for Grocery at Deliveroo, joining the business after a long history in the Grocery and FMCG world.  She started her career on the Tesco graduate scheme in buying, followed by a number of commercial roles at Sainsbury's and then moved into the FMCG world in multiple Sales Director roles across On Trade, Off Trade and Travel Retail with Sipsmith and Pip & Nut.

Gael has over 20 years of experience in global retail-based data and analytics at NielsenIQ, Circana and Pernod Ricard, and 8 years in global e-commerce at Flywheel and Shalion. As VP Product Strategy at Shalion, he focuses on understanding the future trends of connected commerce, including new forms of visibility and distribution such as Food Service Aggregators and the impact of generative engines on the shopper journey. His work centers on establishing a clear vision to help brands navigate these shifts and translate them into actionable strategies.

Francis has worked for Brand Owners focussing on Digital and eCommerce, including driving Online growth at P&G and Nomad Foods. He has extensive experience which spans all aspects of Digital Commerce - Bricks & Clicks and Pure Play Retailers, creating a comprehensive Omnichannel approach, design and delivery of multiple DTC solutions including services, Marketplaces and Digital Marketing.  More recently at eStoreBrands Francis has co-created the eStoreRetail proposition, with the launch of ASDA Xpert.

Ian Rickerby is an experienced sales leader with over 15 years in FMCG and eCommerce. He began his career in media with WPP before joining Dunnhumby, where he advanced retail media and data-led insights for Tesco.com. A move client side to Kerry Foods, where he strengthened eCommerce capability and built supplier relationships, supporting digital growth. Today, as Head of UK Sales at CheckoutSmart, Ian leads commercial strategy and customer growth, helping FMCG brands unlock measurable value through digital shopper engagement.

Ankit Sharma is a Principal Consultant at eClerx, helping global retailers harness AI and automation to win on the digital shelf. Over 15 years, he’s led analytics transformations across commerce, pricing, and customer experience — translating complex data into simple, actionable strategies. Ankit is passionate about using intelligent automation and data-driven storytelling to help brands scale faster and smarter

Jamyn Edis  is a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business and Columbia University, where he teaches courses in technology, artificial intelligence, data analytics, marketing and digital transformation. He also serves as an Operating Partner to private equity firms, focused on turnaround, strategy and product development. Previously, he founded Dash Labs, a VC-backed connected-car platform, and held senior leadership roles at Accenture, HBO, Take-Two Interactive, and Pearson, leading teams across strategy, innovation, and machine learning.

Suraj Narayanan Sasikumar is the CTO and co-founder of Socialtrait, where he leads the development of AI-driven consumer insights and predictive market research technologies. His expertise lies in deep reinforcement learning, generative modeling, and AI-powered simulations, which he has applied to transform how businesses understand their audiences and predict content success before publishing.

At Socialtrait, Suraj is pioneering the use of AI-based audience simulations, enabling brands to test narratives, measure impact, and optimize engagement strategies in a way never before possible. Backed by Berkeley SkyDeck and Silicon Valley investors, the platform is the first-of-its-kind AI solution that foresees, measures, and amplifies content performance before it goes live, empowering businesses to make more data-driven and future-proof marketing decisions.

Beyond Socialtrait, Suraj is an AI Research Scientist at the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, where he applies AI to emergency medicine and neurology, driving innovation in critical healthcare solutions. He has also held research positions at Hessian AI Labs, focusing on advancements in reinforcement learning, and has worked as a strategic consultant for AI-driven R&D projects, helping organizations identify and implement cutting-edge AI applications.

As a thought leader in AI-driven market research, Suraj has been a speaker at international industry events, including ESOMAR in Greece, where he shared insights on the future of AI in consumer research and predictive analytics.

He holds a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence from The Australian National University and continues to shape the evolution of AI in consumer insights.