Natasha Bennett
Director, Strategic Talent Initiatives
Starbucks Canada
coming soon
Tim Dumas
Chief Operating Officer
JAK’s Beer Wine & Spirits
Tim’s energetic style of speaking will leave your team inspired and equipped with the tools to ‘Dream Audaciously – Serve Generously – and Grow Purposefully.'
Tim is a Certified Coach, Speaker & Trainer with the John Maxwell Team, a Certified Facilitator and Trainer with the Extreme Leadership Institute, a Partner and Consultant with Virtuous Leadership LLC, a Forum Chair with MacKay CEO Forums and a Partner & COO in JAK’s Beer Wine & Spirits.
When Tim is not coaching in the board room, he can be found coaching soccer and football with South Delta United and the South Delta Rams; respectively. Tim and his wife, Stephanie, reside in Tsawwassen, BC; just outside of Vancouver with their six children.
Ashley Freeborn
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Smash + Tess
Ashley graduated from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC with a BA in English, a BEd, and an MEd. She taught school for a decade before co-founding Smash + Tess with her mother in 2016.
The idea for Smash + Tess rose out of Ashley’s recognition of an unfilled niche in fashion—a void in the loungewear market. Deciding to fill that void with affordable, stylish, comfortable loungewear, she attended the summer fashion program at Conde Nast in London, UK. Bootstrapping her idea to life, S+T has grown from two employees into a team of 65+ in five years. In the most recent fiscal year, S+T is tracking to make $30 million in revenue, which would be YoY growth of 80%.
As CEO, Ashley oversees everything from designing to financial planning to dreaming up fun and creative marketing campaigns. Under her direction, S+T has grown exponentially in revenue and transnationally in market share and public notoriety. Passionate about creating clothing that celebrates femininity, strength, style, and comfort in women of all shapes and
sizes, Ashley is also committed to giving back. S+T has spearheaded several charitable endeavors, raising tens of thousands for dollars for COVID-19 related relief, BC Women’s Hospital, and the Alliance of Moms.
In 2020, Ashley was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, which recognizes the most outstanding leaders in the country. She also led Smash + Tess through their biggest growth year and landed the #8 spot on The Globe + Mail’s Top Growth Companies in 2020 – being the #1 woman-led company on the list! Ashley is a published author and her children’s book Frankie and the Magical Romper can be purchased at Chapters Indigo. She is also a celebrated presenter, touring North America to speak on topics including building a successful brand, e-commerce and D2C sales, authentic collaborations, and social media strategy.
Eleanor Lynch
Chief Operating Officer
Kiaro
Eleanor is a skilled retail executive with twenty years of experience across multiple leadership roles. Working with large national retailers, Eleanor has a track record in growing brands across Canada with both significant brick and mortar presence and experience in executing omni channel excellence. She focuses on building world class retail teams who deliver premium experiences and is excited to work with her team to bring this to the cannabis retail space.
Jeff Starnaman
VP of HR and Supply Chain
London Drugs
Jeff was appointed to the London Drugs Executive Committee in early 2018. Through his passion for inspiring and engaging people, and his results-oriented approach, he is building the capacity and expertise of London Drugs' industry-leading teams. In 2020 Jeff was promoted to Vice President, Human Resources and Supply Chain Operations. With this promotion, Jeff has the additional responsibility of overseeing our supply chain operations and the task of bringing efficiencies to optimize this important part of our business.
Prior to joining London Drugs in 2014, Jeff held senior leadership roles in both Retail Operations and multi-province regional Human Resources teams. His career has led him across western Canada, giving him an informed perspective of London Drugs' market areas.
Jason Allsopp
Vice President
Leger
Jason started at Leger in 2020 and brings more than two decades of innovative research experience to the Vancouver Leger team. He is one of North America’s best-known experts in Lottery and Gaming research. He is a regular speaker at industry events and conferences. Clients from across Canada and the US look to his expertise to guide their strategic and tactical decision making.
An expert in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies he brings his passion to every project and every client. As an early adopter of research technologies through his Master of Business (Research) and Bachelor of International Marketing degrees from the University of South Australia he has worked with online communities, advanced analytics, sophisticated qualitative approaches and virtually every methodology in use today.
His previous research experience in telecommunications, hospitality, travel and tourism, financial and retail sectors has given Jason a well rounded and expert eye on client challenges and how to use and adapt research to solve them.
When he is not working, his passion extends to pushing his daughter on the swings, fixing his average golf game, and watching the mighty Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League.
Diane J. Brisebois
President & CEO
Retail Council of Canada
Diane J. Brisebois, CAE, oversees the largest retail association in Canada serving over 45,000 retail establishments including independent merchants, chain stores, mass merchants, big box and online retailers. RCC’s membership covers all segments of the retail market including general merchandise, grocery and pharmacy. Diane joined RCC as its President and CEO in January 1995. Diane has held CEO positions in the not-for-profit sector representing various industries for the past 35 years.
Avery Bruenjes
Senior Manager, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs
Retail Council of Canada
Contact Avery, Senior Manager, Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, at abruenjes@retailcouncil.org or 1-800-663-5135.
Steve Buors
CEO and Co-Founder
Reshift Media
Steve Buors is a leading authority on digital marketing for multi-location businesses. He works with national and international brands to develop inventive strategies using existing and emerging technologies to find new customers, increase sales, and combine the best of national brand strength with local relevance. Steve is CEO and co-founder of Reshift Media, a full-service digital agency that specializes in developing and implementing industry-leading social media, search and website/mobile strategies to enable brands to achieve tangible business results. Reshift Media often collaborates with other advertising agencies to develop, implement and manage digital strategies that amplify existing media campaigns. As a senior executive, entrepreneur and thought leader in the digital marketing industry, Steve has spoken at a variety of events, hosted many webinars and actively contributes to a number of blogs.
Charlie Chase
Executive Industry Consultant
SAS Global Retail / CPG Practice
Charles Chase is the author of Next Generation Demand Management: People, Process, Analytics and Technology, author of Demand-Driven Forecasting: A Structured Approach to Forecasting, and co-author of Bricks Matter: The Role of Supply Chains in Building Market-Driven Differentiation, as well as over 50 articles in several business journals on demand forecasting and planning, supply chain management, and market response modeling. He is the executive industry consultant and trusted advisor for the SAS Retail/CPG global practice, and writes a quarterly column entitled, “Innovations in Business Forecasting” in the Journal of Business Forecasting. His latest book is Consumption-Based Forecasting and Planning: Predicting Changing Demand Patterns in the New Digital Economy. To learn more, please see his Author page.
Link to his blog: Charlie Chase, Author at SAS Blogs
Rodrigo Eng Castillo
Business Development Manager, Audio
Axis Communications, Inc.
Rodrigo A. Eng Castillo is the Business Development Manager, Audio at Axis Communications Canada. Rodrigo joined Axis in 2019 to educate and position Axis network audio in the security and audio industries. His expertise has been established in the IT and security industries. He has worked in the higher education sector, as a technology and business consultant and with security manufacturers providing technology solutions for small, medium and large organizations in the Americas.
Mr. Eng has two master’s degrees from the University of Waterloo, Canada. A Master’s in Management Sciences with a specialty in Management of Technology and a Master’s in Business Entrepreneurship and Technology. Moreover, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Systems Engineer from ITESM, Mexico.
Mr. Eng has been involved with the ASIS Toronto Chapter as the Communications Committee Chair, promoting chapter events and sharing insights and knowledge in the security industry.
Lynn Ferrari
Director, Advisory, People & Change GVA Leader
KPMG Canada Management Consulting
In her role as KPMG’s People & Change Practice Leader GVA, Lynn Ferrari is known as an organizational growth catalyst fostering cultures of innovation, achievement and engagement. As Director, Human Resource Transformation she delivers business solutions required for clients to compete in the digital future, attract, retain and reskill critical talent, achieve inclusion and diversity as a responsible corporate citizen and business differentiator, and foster authentic connections and new ways of collaborating. Lynn is recognized as a people centric, data-driven problem solver, building values-based cultures in technology, financial services, retail, government, manufacturing and digitally transforming organizations. Lynn’s corporate and management consulting expertise includes maximization and growth of revenue and profitability by integrating talent, operations, total rewards, leadership transformation, datafication and technology. Lynn has 30 years’ experience resolving complex business challenges by clearly understanding core issues and easily unpacking ways to approach them that are accessible to all levels of the organization through HR delivery of: Talent Acquisition, Recruiting & Workforce Planning, Talent & Performance Management, Learning & Development, HR Operations/PMO, Organizational Development & Effectiveness, Behavioral Change Management, Employee Relations/Labor Relations, Total Rewards/Compensation, Inclusion & Diversity, and Merger & Acquisition planning.
David Ian Gray
Principal and Retail Strategist
DIG360
David Ian Gray is a recognized expert on retail and shopper trends, consistently producing high-impact knowledge for over 29 years. With his team of experts at DIG360, David provides fresh counsel across Canada to Founders, CEOs and other executives on defining customer-relevance, rethinking customer-experience and tailoring roadmaps for evolving their retail concepts. He presents on emerging retail trends, the role of retail in a sustainable future, the need for strategic adaptation and management of innovation, and other drivers of transformation. David has taught senior executives globally for the prestigious London Business School, currently teaches emerging Marketers at the Schulich School of Business and BCIT, and is widely sought for insight by business media. Most recently, he is the co-founder and co-host of The Business of Retail podcast, a long form discussion digging beneath the surface of the stories in the news.
Michael E. LeBlanc, MBA
Founder & President
M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc.
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Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide. Michael was recently added to ReThink Retail’s prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers list for 2021.
Michael is also the President of the Maven Media Network, a network of leading podcasts and online content, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis based in Dallas, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks based in San Francisco and Canada's top food, grocery and restaurant industry podcast, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax. Most recently, Michael launched Conversations with CommerceNext, a podcast based in New York focusing on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers - all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and all major podcast platforms and YouTube. In his spare time, Michael has launched a YouTube cooking show, Last Request Barbeque, thereby justifying to his wife Paula spending thousands of dollars on multiple barbecues to pursue fun, profit (and yes) dinner.
Dan Mitchell
Director, SAS Global Retail & CPG Practice
SAS Institute, Inc.
Dan Mitchell has 20+ years of experience helping retailers use business applications, analytics and technology, Including: Omnichannel Analytics, Retail IoT, Connected Customer, Smart Store, Customer insights, Marketing Optimization, Social Media & Text Analytics, Merchandise Planning, Allocation, Price Optimization, Demand Forecasting, Assortment Optimization, Store Localization and Segmentation, Planogramming & Inventory optimization.
Gary Newbury
Senior Exec on Call – Retail Supply Chains & The Last Mile
RetailAID.ca
Gary has developed an international reputation for designing and executing supply chain Agility, Innovation and Digitisation within the “make move sell” flow of Manufacturing, Third Party Logistics, Wholesaling, Retail and The Last Mile.
When it comes to tackling mission critical issues, armed with multiple operational turnarounds and strategic transformations under his belt, Gary helps business leaders conquer disruption by re-aligning Processes, Systems, Architecture, Culture and Metrics for enduring competitive advantage through RetailAID.ca
Gary is a prominent thought leader, speaker, podcaster and trainer in “Retail Supply Chains & The Last Mile” by many professional bodies. He recently was awarded with Supply Chain Canada’s “Top 40 Immigrants impacting on Supply Chains”, recognised for his creative thinking via CITT’s “2020 Innovator Award”, he was also recently awarded “Retail Rethink’s Top 100 Retail Influencers 2021”.
Gary has an MBA and an MSc (SCM&L) from Cranfield University, and is recently CCLP, CSCMP, PMP, Retail Management (Ryerson University) and LSSBB certified.
Spencer Saunders
President
Art + Science
Coming Soon.
Rick Snook
Business Development Manager
Axis Communications, Inc.
Rick Snook is the Business Development Manager for Axis Communications. In this role he provides support and education and assists with providing comprehensive and sustainable solutions to the Canadian Retail and Financial market segments in Canada.
Mr. Snook joined Axis in 2015 as a Key Account Manager for end users support for the Central Canada Market. He has over 37 years of sales, marketing, technical and design experience in the integrated systems industry.
Mr. Snook holds a Physical Security Professional (PSP) certification from ASIS International, Loss Prevention Qualified (LPQ) from the Loss Prevention Foundation, CPTED Level 2 as well as an Axis Certified Professional (ACP) designation from Axis Communications.
Greg Wilson
Director, Government Relations (BC)
Retail Council of Canada
Greg Wilson, RCC’s Director of Government Relations (B.C.) advocates on behalf of RCC’s retail members on files related to British Columbia. Based on years of work in public affairs, Greg provides strategic advice on public policy to our members. Greg is a member of the board of directors of two extended producer responsibility agencies providing recycling services to British Columbians: Encorp Pacific, with annual revenues of $95 million, which recovered over 1 billion beverage containers in B.C. in 2018; and, the Major Appliance Recycling Roundtable.