Speaker details

We have a great line up of high quality international and domestic speakers. We are pleased to announce the following speakers in the programme:

Cameron Brewer (NZ)

The conference will be opened by Cameron Brewer, recently elected to the inaugural Auckland Council. As part of his role he is chairman of the Business Advisory Panel and chairman of the District Plan & Urban Design Forum. He is also deputy chairman of the Economic Development Forum. Prior to that he led the Newmarket Business Association.

Jack A. Smith (US)

Jack A. Smith founded The Sports Authority in 1987 where he served as CEO and Chairman until retiring in 1999. He formerly served as Chief Operating Officer of Herman's Sporting Goods, a W.R. Grace Company. Under his leadership and guidance, the company experienced growth in the number of stores, sales and profitability.  Prior to Herman's, he served in executive management positions with other major retailers, including Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery Ward and Jefferson Stores. He was also President and Chief Executive Officer of Diana Shops, a national chain of women's apparel.

Jack has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA), the Board of Directors of Darden Restaurants (a seven billion dollar NYSE public company) and Carrols Inc. a chain of fast food restaurants on the NASD, also serving as the audit committee chairman.

He has received a number of awards including Nova Southeastern University Hall of Fame and was voted #2 among the top 100 Most Influential People in the Sporting Goods Industry by SportStyle Magazine.

Martin Butler (UK)

Retailer, advertiser, marketer, author. Over his career Martin has worked for Gray Advertising, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB to name a few. He also started his own agency in London in the 1980’s which he went on to successfully sell.

He has worked with a wide range of retail clients including Harrods, Burberry, Swarovski, and Habitat.
Sponsored by the World Retail Congress, Martin has just finished his latest book, ‘The art of being chosen’. It benchmarks and celebrates worldwide best practice retail with findings being drawn from every continent. This robust, two year research programme involved interviewing nearly 100 of the world’s leading retail founders & CEOs and from this Martin has identified the ‘six secrets to retail success’

Click here to read the NZRetail article on 'The art of being chosen' with a special readers offer on the book

Annah Stretton (NZ)

Annah Stretton has emerged from a background of wholesaling mainstream garments to become a leading force in New Zealand-based fashion design.
 
Annah passionately creates two designer collections (Annah Stretton and Annah. S) each season under the umbrella of the Stretton Group. Infamous for being both a left and right thinker, she has a creative but sharp eye on her company’s bottom line.
 
In 2009, Annah was invited to serve as an advisory board member for New Zealand Global Women – a network of recognised and accomplished senior female leaders from a wide range of national and international disciplines and industries and was the recipient of the New Zealand Veuve Clicquot Businesswomen of the Year Award.

John Hartmann (US)

John has recently taken up the role of CEO of Mitre 10 New Zealand coming to this role from Home Depot in the US.

John’s profile indicates that he is strategically very strong and we believe he would be an ideal position to consider the sophistication/development/future of the New Zealand market (particularly the DIY market) relative to his US/Home Depot experience.

Tim Edwards (NZ)

Tim is the COO of the Noel Leeming Group. Technological innovation is happening at an alarming rate and consumers are keen to take advantage of those changes in technology. In this highly competitive retail segment, Tim will discuss how Noel Leeming is managing technological change and consumer demand.

Caroline Dewe (NZ)

Caroline from Alphero Limited will help to demonstrate the types of things a customer wants from your retail store in terms of the application of technology and how you as an organisation can enhance that experience for your customer.