The Retail Conference

Below are further details of the speakers who have confirmed their involvement with The Retail Conference 2010. Please click the links to find out more. Many more fantastic speakers will be announced in the coming months!

One of the unique features of The Retail Conference is that we only allow experienced retail practitioners to deliver seminars in the main auditorium - meaning we keep our promise to be "The Retail Conference - Delivered by Retailers, For Retailers."

Catie Callendar, Global Chief Operating Officer, Crabtree & Evelyn

Alison Jordan, Commercial and Marketing Director, Fortnum & Mason

Ian Woosey, Group IT Director, Carpetright

Catie Callender is Global Chief Operating Office for Crabtree & Evelyn.

Catie started her career in her native country of Australia with Procter and Gamble in sales and marketing. Following an MBA at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, she joined Nike. Roles at Nike included European Marketing for the Footlocker business, which represents 20% of Nike's global sales. Catie moved to the UK with Nike to lead the development of their women's business and subsequently took on Business Leader roles for the Running category and Brand Events.

In 2001 Catie joined Clear Channel Entertainment and was Managing Director for UK Theatres which included 28 live theatres and 2000 employees. During this time she also had several non-executive roles including the NSPCC, Theatrical Management Association, and board member for Creative and Cultural Skills.

Catie was Managing Director for Neal's Yard Remedies before joining Crabtree and Evelyn.

Catie has 2 children and enjoys travelling with her family, running, skiing, theatre and reading.

Crabtree & Evelyn is a unique brand with its roots firmly in the natural world. The company's eclectic mix of beauty remedies and home comforts is inspired by an English passion for all things quirky and unusual.

A pioneer in botanical formulations for over 30 years, Crabtree & Evelyn blends the very best of nature and science, tradition and innovation, to create benefit-rich bath, body, and home care. This heritage is reflected in its name: Crabtree, from the crabapple tree, the original species from which all cultivated apple trees have derived, and Evelyn from John Evelyn, the 17th century renaissance Englishman, who wrote one of the first important works on conservation.

Crabtree & Evelyn's creative partner is model, author and designer India Hicks, who launched her collection India Hicks Island Living in 2007. In 2009 this best-selling collection was joined by a new range India Hick Island Night in the UK.

2008 saw the launch of Aromatherapy Distillations, a ground-breaking collection created in a unique collaboration with an aromatherapist and international perfumers.

Crabtree & Evelyn is available online and in more than 40 countries, with over 6,000 locations and 350 concept stores worldwide.

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Alison Jordan, Commercial and Marketing Director, Fortum & Mason

Alison has been Commercial & Marketing Director at Fortnum & Mason since December 2005, one of the new board team recruited to transform this 300 year old institution, from the store itself to the range, staffing, product offer and communications strategy.

Alison is responsible for all aspects of marketing at Fortnum's, from brand design to PR and advertising. She is also responsible for all non-Piccadilly revenues into the business - home shopping, the web site, corporate sales, airports and the growing international business.

Prior to joining Fortnum's, Alison was Marketing Director at Molton Brown as the business grew from a handful of stores to a UK wide presence of over 60 stores, and international expansion grew apace. Before that, she was Marketing Director at Warner Bros Consumer Products, during the consumer frenzy that was Harry Potter.

Alison is proud Scot, educated at Edinburgh, who sadly has spent all of her working life south of the border - her ambition is ultimately to return to Scotland, to the consternation of her English husband.

Fortnum & Mason was founded in 1707 by a former footman in the court of Queen Anne, and the business has both traded on the same site and enjoyed royal patronage since that time.

Fortnum's began as a grocery store but quickly gained a reputation as the place to get exotic products from around the world - spices, fruits, confectionery and of course tea.

Fortnum's virtually invented the concept of mail order shopping with the creation of the famous hamper. Other novelties created by the store include the Scotch egg, created as a handy pocket-sized snack to enjoy whilst hunting or travelling, and the 'spork' a combined spoon and fork to use to enjoy the delicacies contained in your hamper.

More recently, Fortnum's has given its Piccadilly store a £30m facelift and invigorated and re-focused the product offer for the twenty first century. The business continues to grow internationally and the web store is growing exponentially, as the Fortnum's gift of providing just what the consumer wants and can find no where else continues to resonate with locals and visitors alike.

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Ian Woosey, Group IT Director, Carpetright

As the Group IT Director, Ian is responsible for IT, Central Operations and Multi Channel Development at Carpetright, Europe's largest floor coverings retailer, operating from over 700 stores and two new online businesses.

Over the last 7 years Ian has delivered a complete systems replacement programme across the company, including award winning SAP Head Office and Microsoft Nav store system implementations.

He has also managed the outsourcing/off-shoring of selected IT functions, several acquisitions in the UK and Europe and successfully relocated the Group HQ and warehousing operations to a brand new site in Essex. Most recently, Ian has overseen the creation of two brand new online businesses for the Carpetright group.

Before joining Carpetright, Ian spent several years as a Management Consultant and Programme Manager working with companies such as Homebase, Goldsmiths, Threshers, Whitbread, BT and Argos, specialising in managing and implementing complex business transformation, supply chain and logistics change programmes from both a business and IT perspective.

Earlier in his career, Ian gained extensive general operational management experience at Sainsbury's in a variety of store, area and central management roles.

Carpetright is the largest floor-coverings retailer in Europe, operating from approximately 590 stores in the UK and 120 stores in Europe. Every week Carpetright sells enough carpet to cover the entire length of the M25 - more than 120 miles.

In December 2008 the company completed the acquisition of Sleepright, adding a further 100+ bed stores to the group across the UK.

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