Speakers' Profiles
Brent Hoberman, Co-founder lastminute.com, Exec Chair Mydeco
Brent Hoberman, founder of lastminute.com, recently launched his new digital venture Mydeco.com which aims to help people decorate their homes. Mydeco is one of Europe's largest technology start-ups, marrying web 2.0 technologies with DIY home decorating projects. The site has a large social networking element and also creates e-retailing opportunities for furniture, houseware and DIY suppliers.
Alison Lancaster, Marketing Director, Charles Tyrwhitt
Alison joined Charles Tyrwhitt LLP in August 2007, and is responsible for the international multi channel sales and marketing of this £50m+ specialist shirts brand. The business trades in the UK, USA, Germany and the rest of the world via 4 transactional multi lingual and multi currency websites, 9 shops and 20 million mail order catalogues printed last year. The website www.ctshirts.co.uk is now its largest trading channel and Alison has developed the site to include the latest functionality including dynamic search, navigation and merchandising, rich imaging, site analytics and customer reviews. Alison worked on her first website in 1996 at Innovations Mail order, followed in 1998 by the launch of www.debenhams.com. In 2000, as Head of Marketing & Catalogue at John Lewis Direct, she was instrumental in developing the strategy - including the acquisition of Buy.com - followed by the launch, sales development & marketing of www.johnlewis.com. During its first 5 years, John Lewis Direct significantly exceeded the Partnership's original sales and profit targets, and grew to become the second largest 'branch', just behind the Oxford Street, London flagship store. She is a passionate, experienced and innovative multi channel marketer and pioneer. Alison is a Director of The Catalogue Exchange.
Chris Poad, Head of E-commerce, Otto UK
After trying his hand at being a children's TV presenter, and abandoning hope of ever becoming an astronaut, Chris began his career as a management consultant. He specialised in corporate and marketing strategy in the broadcast media and Internet sectors. He then worked for the search engine Ask Jeeves in Corporate Development and was appointed Brand Manager for UK & Ireland. In 2003 Chris joined Otto UK, part of the world's largest multi-channel retail organisation. He has responsibility for Otto's online businesses which represent about 35% of Otto UK's sales.
Steve Wind-Mozley, Head of Online, GAME Group plc
Game Group is a specialist European retailer of PC and video games, video consoles and related accessories. With a turnover of £800m+ GAME operates online and from over 800 stores, concessions and franchises in the UK, Eire, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Portugal, France and Australia. Prior to Game, Steve was General Manager at analytics provider Nedstat UK. He joined Nedstat from Lloyds TSB where he was Senior Manager (Online Marketing). Prior to that Steve was Ecommerce Channel Development Manager for Marks and Spencer, who he joined in 1997.
Steph Ridley, Head of E-Commerce, The Cotswold Company
Steph joined The Cotswold Company in 2002 and is responsible for their online business, including all areas of online marketing. With over 10 years of e-commerce experience, Steph has been instrumental in developing Cotswold's online channel, which now accounts for over 50% of business. Prior to Cotswold Steph was Online Manager for Red House Books, and prior to this was with GUS Home Shopping Group.
Roberto Hortal, Head of eBusiness, MORE TH>N
Roberto started his eBusiness career with Nokia in Helsinki in early 1997 where he developed a keen interest in Marketing and Usability. Roberto was head of Nokia's Global Web organisation from 1999. Roberto returned to the UK in 2004 to join easyJet as easyJet.com Product Manager. There he led easyJet.com's redesign into its current form - successfully matching usability principles, SEO practice and the ways and frantic pace of low-cost organisations. After 2 years at easyJet, Roberto joined MORE TH>N as Head of eBusiness in September 2006, with the ambition to help make MORE TH>N the UK's preferred online provider of insurance and related services.
Chris Ketley, Senior Digital Consultant, HSBC Commercial Banking
Chris has extensive experience and a strong track record in both off and online marketing and leading teams in pioneering change programmes. He is a Director of his own company, Beechgate Consulting currently providing digital and integrated marketing consultancy for HSBC Commercial Banking and has worked on both the client and agency side particularly in Financial Services for Aviva, the AA, LloydsTSB, HBOS and C&G. Previously he was Head of eChannels for Aviva where he was responsible for overseeing digital marketing, web development services, online customer experience and ecommerce solutions guiding Norwich Union General Insurance, RAC and BSM through a progressive ebusiness transition programme. Previously he built from scratch Zenith Interactive Solutions, the initial digital business for Zenith Optimedia (now ZED), transforming it into a top UK agency and helping establish its International network presence. He also helped scale customer growth for Amazon.com as its first UK Marketing Director and led the development of the AA's hugely successful 4th Emergency Service membership repositioning campaign over six years from its inception.
Richard Nunn, Head of Online Strategy, Legal & General
Richard has over 20 years of experience in the financial services market. He was a Senior Manager at LloydsTSB for more than three years before moving to Simplyhealth as Head of E-Strategy where he created and implemented an online strategy for the Simplyhealth Group. This included the purchase, implementation and utilisation of software (Mediasurface's CMS, ATG's dynamic personalisation and Omniture's web analytics) and hardware (Oracle) to create compelling integrated customer experiences. In 2008 he moved to his current position heading up the online strategy for Legal & General.
Paul Wishman, Group eCommerce Director, LV
Paul has worked in the insurance industry for more than twelve years, with the first six years as an Underwriter.
In early 2000 Paul joined and became a co-founder of start-up company insurE-com, which within three years of launching became listed within the Fast Track 100 and established itself as a formidable competitor in the insurance software house market. In 2003 Paul moved across to esure Services, where he helped launch and evolve online brands including esure, Sainsbury Bank, Halifax Car, First Alternative and more recently Sheilas' Wheels. Since March '07 Paul has been Head of eCommerce at the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, who are looking to become a top five insurance Co. within the next 5 years, recently rebranding to LV= (LV.com).
Simon Waldman, Director of Digital Strategy and Development, Guardian Media Group
Simon Waldman joined Guardian newspapers in 1996 to work on some of the company's earliest forays onto the internet. He was launch editor of Guardian Unlimited in 1999 before moving into general management and becoming the company's first director of digital publishing in 2001. Guardian Unlimited has been named best daily newspaper on the net for the last five years in the UK newspaper awards, and recently won the newspaper category in the international Webby Awards. Recently appointed as Group Director of Digital Strategy and Development at Guardian Media Group, Simon will work to create a coherent digital strategy across all the group's media divisions. In September 2006, Simon was appointed Chairman of the UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP).
Jeremy Tapp, Founder and COO, Magicalia
Jeremy founded Magicalia in 1999 with Adam Laird to run community-based websites. In July 2006, it was bought by Exponent Private Equity providing them with an acquisition fund from Exponent in the region of £100m. In August that year, it moved into magazines, buying up Encanta Media. Magicalia is a 'cross-media publisher' and runs over 45 websites - some for other publishers - covering topics such as mountain biking, golf, surfing, gardening and parenthood.
Ien Cheng, Former Publisher and Managing Editor, FT.com and soon-to-be Director of Product Management (Europe), Google
Ien Cheng took up the new role of Publisher and Managing Editor of FT.com in August 2006. He has overall responsibility for FT.com, sits on the FT's management board and reports to John Ridding, CEO of the FT. Previously, Ien was the founding Publisher of FTChinese.com, the FT's Chinese-language website, which he designed and built into the leading international business website in China, with staff in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and London. Cheng began his Pearson career at Pearson Broadband before moving to the FT's editorial team, reporting for the newspaper and leading editorial product development projects in New York and Hong Kong. His reporting has been nominated for a British Press Award and a Foreign Press Award.
Tom Bureau, Founder Silicon.com and former MD CNET Networks UK
In 2000 Tom was a founder and CEO of Silicon.com which he subsequently sold to CNET Networks and became MD of CNET Networks UK. CNET Networks UK focuses on the business technology, personal technology and entertainment categories through six UK-focused websites: ZDNet.co.uk, silicon.com, Builder UK, CNET.co.uk, atlarge.com, and GameSpot UK. CNET Networks UK also delivers one-to-one services through its direct marketing arm CNET Direct. Tom recently left CNET and is now an independent consultant and advisor to a number of organizations in the media sector. Tom is also a Board Member of trade body The Association of Online Publishers (AOP).
Russell Gould, Director of Ecommerce, Thomas Cook
Russell is director of ecommerce in the UK & Ireland for the merged Thomas Cook and MyTravel businesses, responsible for creating a super-site for the pair and putting other digital platforms into place. Russell's role includes creating a multi-channel strategy to take on the combined might of 17,000 hours of on-demand TV-quality videos and editorial content from Thomas Cook Publishing-produced travel guide, as well as Thomas Cook TV and the Travel Clubs division. Prior to the merger Russell was Director of Digital Marketing at MyTravel. Previously he was Head of E-commerce for Bradford & Bingley Group, including the market leading www.Charcolonline.co.uk, www.themarketplace.co.uk and www.bbg.com. Prior to joining Bradford & Bingley, Russell was Sales Development Manager - Mortgages & Equity Release - for Norwich Union, which he joined in September 1999.
Alun Williams, Head of E-commerce, First Choice
As Head of E-commerce at First Choice, Alun heads up a team of 30, responsible for driving the commercial success of one of the UK's leading travel websites. Alun is responsible for defining and implementing online strategy and managing the online channel as a core part of the businesses distribution portfolio. He also sets strategy for online marketing (PPC, SEO, e-mail, analytics etc) and aligning it with offline activity. Alun has been at First Choice for over 8 years in a number of roles. Prior to First Choice Alun was Product Manager at 2wentys Holidays.
Nishma Robb, Group Distribution Director, Travelzest Plc
Nishma, 35, has extensive online travel distribution experience and has previously held senior commercial roles within the media industry. As Group Distribution Director she is responsible for developing the Group's online capability, marketing and use of digital channels. She joined Travelzest from Teletext Holidays, a subsidiary of Associated Newspapers (a division of Daily Mail & General Trust plc) of which she was a Board Director.
As Managing Director of Teletext Holidays, Nishma had strategic and P£L responsibility for the advertising revenues generated from the services on TV and online. Nishma has received numerous accolades including Asian Women of Achievement's Asian Business Woman of 2004, Travolution's Most Powerful Online People (2007), Media Week's Top 30 Executives under 30 (2000) , and Trade Travel Gazette's Top 50 women in travel.
Kevin Milnes, Head of E-commerce National Express
Kevin Milnes is Head of E-commerce for the UK's number one coach company National Express, running both their digital marketing and web development teams. With more than six years of pure e-commerce and digital marketing experience, Kevin has been instrumental in driving forward National Express' digital channel, making it their single biggest channel of trade and the UK's third largest public transport website (source: Hitwise UK 2007).
Ian Jindal, Editor in Chief, Internet Retailing, and Consultant
Ian Jindal is a consultant, publisher and advisor, working in Ecommerce for over a decade - in integrated retail, publishing and broadcast. He recently launched InternetRetailing, the magazine, portal and conference for the UK's etailers and multichannel retailers. Previously he was Group E-commerce Director for Littlewoods Shop Direct Group where he grew online revenues to £400m per annum.
Before that Ian was Head of Online Operations at the BBC, establishing the team that built over 400 BBC websites. Ian was also Business Development Director for Thomson Science & Professional, is a non- executive Director of Business Link for London, and founder of the European eCommerce Forum. When not tending his olive tree Ian can be found at
www.innoparticularorder.com.
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