Speakers

Jo is a recipient of multiple awards over her 15+ year marketing and strategy career with a consistent record of achieving breakthrough results. Core to her approach is her deep appreciation of the customer, her courage to ask difficult questions in order to understand, and her drive to innovate. Her diverse experience in the travel, loyalty, mobile and technology fields enables her to bring a fresh perspective to solving the toughest challenges. Prior roles include Associate VP of Marketing at FGL Sports, Regional VP of Marketing at IHG, and Director of Loyalty Optimization and Design at Aimia. Jo began her marketing career with tier 1 technology and telecommunications brands; Samsung, HP and Koodo Mobile.

As Chief Customer Officer at omNovos, Andrew is responsible for the success of its customers. It sounds like a “made-up” title but the reality is that it is one that was basically created by, and for, Andrew. For much of the past 25 years, Andrew has been successful in a multitude of interdisciplinary business roles by doing one thing – and one thing alone – helping his customers be successful with their customers. Truth be told, he’ll be the first to admit that he got lucky at first, but soon realized that he was having fun working closely with his customers to brainstorm and solve problems. His truly unique perspectives and consultative approach have helped organizations around the world build, develop, and grow world-class offerings and programs. Now Andrew gets to spend his days working with world-class retailers building omnichannel customer engagement solutions and offerings (true personalization and not simple segmentation, and real customer Loyalty (with a capital L – not just dollars and points), and his nights trying to solve teenage problems for his two daughters. (You can imagine how much they appreciate that!)

Shawn Bloom has over 20 years of progressive experience in loyalty marketing, CRM and loyalty management across multiple verticals including financial services, retail, entertainment and grocery. He is currently the Vice President CRM & Loyalty at Sobeys. In this role he is responsible for overseeing loyalty strategy and planning, direct to customer communications, financial services and gift card. Prior to Sobeys, Shawn was Vice President at SCENE, the loyalty program for Cineplex and Scotiabank. While at SCENE he was accountable for the day-to-day operations of the SCENE program for its nine million members, for leading the programs’ digital strategy and for leading and developing strategic partnerships. Prior to SCENE, Shawn was Director of the Hbc Rewards program and Hbc Gift Card, at the Hudson’s Bay Company. At Hbc, he was responsible for program development, P&L management, marketing and strategy. Before moving to the Hudson’s Bay Company Shawn worked at American Express leading communications and partnerships for the Membership Rewards program. Shawn holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Sonny Brar comes with over 16 years of Corporate Retail, Human Resources, Health, Safety, Energy and Environmental experience. He is currently the Vice President of Member Relations and Education at the Retail Council of Canada and is an honors graduate of Criminology, Justice and Public Safety from Manitoba. Along with other functions, Sonny leads and supports RCC’s Membership, Education, Benefit Partner Programs, Human Resources, Health, Safety, Accessibility, Energy initiatives and is the Chair for RCC’s Loss Prevention and Human Resources Advisory Councils. Sonny has also had great successes in his tenure and has been a recipient of 3 Presidential Excellence awards with Maple Leaf Foods and Toys“R”Us along with several successes and recognition with his tenure at Sobeys and Ikea.

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.

Jonathan Cavaliere is a menswear influencer and entrepreneur from Toronto, Ontario. He began his career in the fashion retail industry at the age of 16 and hasn’t looked back since. Although life pulled him in different directions—like travelling to Brazil to pursue a semi-professional soccer career —he always returned to the industry that inspired him most. While studying Fashion Business at Humber College, he started a personal style blog that still bears his name: Mr. Cavaliere. He put his education to good use by serving as the Fashion Director for a high-end menswear boutique, working as an editorial stylist for a variety of brands, and starting his own personal shopping and consulting business. It was after earning the title of Canada’s Sharpest Man from Sharp Magazine and Hudson’s Bay that he was able to devote himself full-time to Mr. Cavaliere, transforming it into a men’s fashion and lifestyle platform with thousands of monthly readers. His brand has attracted partnerships with Salvatore Ferragamo, Michael Kors, Adidas, Perry Ellis, and many more.

Paula Courtney is a retail strategist, trusted by retail leaders around the world to help them refine and create a superior customer experience. She is the product owner and chief collaborator at WisePlum, a SaaS-based research tool designed to measure specific customer insights. WisePlum is a collaboration between LoyaltyOne, a global leader in customer analytics and loyalty program design, and the Verde Group, a customer insights consultancy specialized in identifying, measuring, analyzing and resolving the financial impact of customer dissatisfaction. As CEO and Founder of the Verde Group, Paula has pioneered methodologies that have transformed retailers’ understanding of their customers. Paula is a sought-after industry keynote speaker and a frequent lecturer at the Wharton School of Business. She is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

James Elenakis was also an early entrant into the digital payments market with his first business Trustmarque Ltd. The company was later acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland, and is now known as Worldpay, a leading global payment processing company. Though technology affords automation and scale, James still believes customer service and personalization is at the core of any good business. He believes in the importance of adding a personal touch to your interactions with customers - especially in a digital environment. He is now applying this level of personalization to his latest venture Raange Inc., a mobile and business intelligence company based out of Montreal, helping retailers CRUSH THEIR SALES TARGETS.

Senior Vice President, Customer Experience

A customer-focused, technology-savvy professional who has been instrumental in developing strategic growth opportunities and has a successful track-record of exceeding revenue, operational and NPS targets. He has built innovative digital products, implemented and optimized digital sales and service experiences, with a specialty on the application of big data and marketing innovation. He has experience in digital product development, digital marketing, customer experience, loyalty, big data, marketing automation, and innovation. Equally comfortable in corporate, agency and startup environments, he has demonstrated the ability to add value in different scenarios and offers diverse industry experience in financial services, automotive, telecommunications, retail, and utilities. Recognized for strong leadership and relationship skills, he has effectively managed teams from 2 to 130, along with complex internal and external relationships. He has scaled high performance cross functional teams and as a strategic leader, coached and mentored them by cultivating a spirit of collaboration. He is an ENTP He likes funky socks He has 2 kids He will challenge rules to drive innovation He plays the drums He works hard and has fun doing it

Coming soon

For over 20 years, Richard has been leading the advertising and marketing of some of Canada’s best-known brands on both the client and agency side running large omni-channel marketing departments. Richard’s intimate understanding of retail marketing began during his experience on the retail floor where he spent eight years with Woolco/ Walmart and helped open Canada’s first and second Walmart stores. As Vice President at Havas/Saffer, Richard led the marketing for Home Hardware Stores Ltd, helping build one of Canada’s most respected brands and increasing sales for Dealers for over 10 years. He created Home Hardware’s social media department, and developed the strategies and tactics taking their social media presence from zero to being named #1 Best Brand on Facebook in 2015 by Canadian Business Magazine, #10 Best Brand on Twitter, and one of Canada’s Top 10 Social Brands by Marketing Magazine in 2014. In addition to building sales and segment leading advertising recall, Richard is proud of helping Home Hardware win some major awards including being named one of Canada’s Most Valued Brands for four straight years (2012 – 2016), and Top 25 Brands in Canada for the years 2014, 2015, and 2016 as rated by Canadian Business. Richard has demonstrated proven marketing and advertising leadership abilities on several brands such as Honda, Acura, Taco Bell, General Motors, Nokia, Rogers, 3M, Canon, Four Seasons, and Ford. Richard is currently the Director of Marketing at Ace Canada. Ace Canada is proud to be part of Lowe’s Canadian businesses, which together operate or service over 600 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores across Canada in a number of complementary formats under different banners. For more than 90 years, Ace Hardware has been known as the helpful place in thousands of neighbourhoods globally, providing customers with a more personal kind of helpful. With more than 5,000 hardware stores locally owned and operated around the globe, Ace is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world.

I’m Shannae Ingleton Smith, but you can call me TorontoShay. I’m an astrology-obsessed, reality TV-addicted, shopping habit-having wife, mama and media professional. I am friendly, zealous and a little bit cray but I also think that my quirks and craziness help me genuinely relate to and connect with others ❤️ As a new mom and newlywed I have so much to share about the feelings, experiences (and outfits!) that come with this new world. So… here you’ll find my life, my style, and my confessions, all told from my beautifully scattered perspective as I navigate life with my favorite people by my side … in the city I love more than anywhere else.

Michael has 20+ years of brand/retail/marketing leadership experience and is considered by many as a pioneer in the Canadian omni-channel and e-Commerce retail space. As an award-winning insight driven strategic marketer with a passion for holistic retail brand/customer experience, Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career with brands such as Black & Decker, Levi Strauss & Co, Hudson’s Bay, CanWest Media, The Shopping Channel and Herbal Magic. After spending almost three years advocating and lobbying for the Canadian retail industry at Retail Council of Canada (RCC), Michael formed M. E. LeBlanc & Company to leverage this knowledge and experience back onto the front lines and regularly is invited to share his insights on the current and future retail industry in Canada and around the world.

Frederick has joined Golf Town and Sporting Life as their Chief Marketing Officer, to lead these brands by elevating their digital footprint and creating an interconnected retail landscape that allows eCommerce to successfully coexist with brick and mortar. From designing and implementing a cutting-edge omni-channel plan to enhancing digital presence, Frederick applies an innovative approach to building emotional connections with customers. Before engaging in the journey to establish Golf Town and Sporting Life, Frederick led the Sport Chek digital marketing and eCommerce transformation as SVP of Marketing. He also brought forward ground-breaking digital change with the launch of Canada’s first digital flyer program and rollout of several eCommerce sites for the FGL and Marks banners (Sport Chek, Sports Experts, Atmosphere, Marks). For over 15 years, Frederick has influenced top organizations in roles such as Vice President for Global Brand Marketing & Digital Strategy at LG Electronics Corp in Seoul, Marketing Director for Microsoft Europe, and Marketing Director at Nokia. Prior to revolutionizing brands as a digital disruptor, Frederick’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to take part in two successful start-ups projects in Europe — one in eCommerce and another in media.

Lauren MacDonald is the Chief Marketing Officer for IKEA Canada. She oversees Marketing Communication, Media, Consumer Insights, and Loyalty and CRM and sits on the Canadian senior leadership team. Previous to joining IKEA, Lauren was with PepsiCo for ten years. Lauren has a rich international background and has both studied and worked abroad. She has lived in five different countries spanning North America, Europe, UK, and the Middle East. She is a classically trained marketer who has worked on blue chip brands like Pepsi, Gatorade, and Walkers Crisps. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from Queen’s University. Lauren is a steadfast Toronto Blue Jays fan, baseball trivia enthusiast and avid yogi.

As the Vice President of AIR MILES Marketing, Rachel is responsible for overseeing the strategy, social programs and marketing communications designed to increase the engagement and profitability of the 10 million plus Collectors in the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada’s premier coalition loyalty program. With over 20 years of national and global marketing experience in B2B and B2C environments, Rachel has a proven record of executing programs and strategies centered around customer segmentation, direct marketing, brand management, loyalty program design and public relations, to increase customer engagement while driving sustainable business results. Since joining LoyaltyOne, operator of the AIR MILES Reward Program, in 2004, Rachel has assumed several roles integral to the organization’s brand development, including leadership positions within LoyaltyOne’s International division, Corporate Marketing and Communications, and the Knowledge Office. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Acadia University. Rachel’s previous speaking experience includes the NBA Partner Summit, Shell Leadership Conference, and she has been the invited speaker at several York University Marketing classes, various internal MAB, and internal AIR MILES Reward Program Town Hall events.

Mike leads the marketing efforts for Adobe in Canada with a focus on delivering experiences that help compel Canada’s top brands and organizations to want to do business with Adobe. We creatively utilize technology and initiatives to effectively deliver value and the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Mike continues to work enthusiastically to develop an excellent understanding of marketing and is fortunate to have received invaluable training from his 25 years of Canadian tech sector experience as well as formal training at UofT, Wharton and corporate programs. He enjoys giving back by sharing these insights with MBA classes, various industry conferences and on LinkedIn.

Jesse is a proven leader with over 15 years experience in business development, consumer packaged goods (CPG), marketing, corporate strategy, and brand partnerships. Currently, Jesse is the Managing Director of North America for Stocard, a mobile wallet company based in Germany, operating in 7 countries with more than 30 million active users worldwide. Launching the North American office in Toronto in September 2018, Jesse oversees operations, go-to-market strategy, P&L, agency partnerships, and client consulting on loyalty best practices. Prior to joining Stocard, Jesse was Sr. Sales Director at Flipp, where he built and lead partnerships with retailers in the U.S. and Western Canada. Jesse also spent time at ConAgra Foods, where he hit aggressive sales targets and forged partnerships with consumer brands such Walmart, Loblaw’s, Metro, and Sobeys. Jesse graduated with a BA from Brock University and an AD at Conestoga College.

Jeremy Miller is a Brand Strategist and the bestselling author of Sticky Branding. He helps ambitious teams grow their businesses and brands to the next level. Jeremy comes by his expertise honestly. After watching his family’s business nearly hit rock bottom, he was forced to take a hard look at the way the company was run and at their industry as a whole. Jeremy realized it wasn’t his company's sales people or marketing processes that were failing, it was the brand. This insight caused him to regroup, revamp, and rebrand the business. Within a year, the company turned the corner and rocketed into growth mode. And in 2013 he sold the business. It was this experience that compelled Jeremy to embark on a decade-long study of how companies grow recognizable, memorable brands — what he calls Sticky Brands. One of Jeremy’s key discoveries from the research is everyone is creative, provided they’re given structure. Jeremy shows organizations of all sizes how to unlock the creative genius of teams to solve complex sales and marketing challenges. As an inspirational keynote speaker, his blend of humor, stories, and actionable ideas will inspire you to innovate and grow your business and brand from the inside out.

Lisa Owen’s sales career began when she was just seven years old – selling chocolate covered almonds in an effort to raise funds for her bowling team. After completing her B.A. in English at Carleton University, the young and ambitious professional worked for over two decades at some of the world’s largest corporations including Coca-Cola and Xerox. For three years, Lisa served as President at the Art Institute of Toronto (AiTO), recognized in the industry for its prestigious Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing, and Merchandising programs. She also spent four years as Vice President at AiTO’s parent company, Education Management Corporation. Through her vast experience, Lisa gained the insights and experience to lead marketing, sales, and P&L responsibilities at one of Canada’s most promising new e-commerce businesses, Rent frock Repeat. Lisa relishes this opportunity to turn the retail model on its head and lead the sharing economy while ensuring women across Canada of any age, race, or economic status have the opportunity to enjoy luxury while reducing their fashion carbon-footprint.

Matt has seventeen years of multifaceted experience in media and marketing, having held various agency, ad tech consulting, and client-side roles, notably, leading the Connections team at AB InBev in Canada. A dynamic leader, he applies his relentless drive to improve marketing effectiveness by connecting brands with audiences in more targeted and measurable ways. As Managing Director of Reprise Canada, Matt leads a team of over ninety specialists with unparalleled expertise in all facets of digital performance and marketing services. Under his leadership, Matt guides Reprise as they implement leading-edge digital campaigns that integrate search, social, mobile, content and eCommerce capabilities to drive results across leading brands and retailers. With technology outpacing traditional marketing practices, Matt’s time is focused on providing strategic counsel around how to make digital experiences work together to drive business forward for clients. He also provides on-going thought leadership and leads agency partnership strategy with Google, Facebook, Amazon and other major partners in the Canadian market.

Chris Renton is the Chief Growth Officer at SnapPay, the leading Alipay and WeChat Pay Gateway, providing marketing and payment acceptance solutions for North American Merchants. Chris is an expert at launching and scaling major new customer facing financial and customer experience technologies, and has held senior leadership roles at TruRating – Head of Sales, MasterCard – VP & Head of Merchant Relationships and Visa – Director Sales. Chris was instrumental in the successful launch of TruRating, MasterPass, Visa Debit and the Visa Contactless product lines. He is passionate about emerging technologies in the marketing, customer experience and payments space, and is an industry driver for creating better consumer experiences and fostering retail sales growth.

Over the past 20+ years, Rob has been leading iconic Canadian brands along the journey to being customer-centric. After completing his MBA at Queen’s, he began his career with Loyalty One, he was a member of the business development team building out the highly successful Air Miles program in Canada. During that time he decided to focus his energies on the customer, specifically the data-yielding customer. Rob was then recruited to start the Customer Practice at Braxton, the strategy group of Deloitte. Braxton Toronto became the global lead for customer insight, strategy, and deployment. Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) realized it needed to be more customer-centric and recruited Rob into a new role leading its banners to focus on the customer. HBC quickly became know as a global leader in retail for its strategy, marketing, data management and governance, and organizational alignment around the customer. As part of the HBC journey, Rob led the idea of partnering with non-competing business to broaden its appeal to customers. Working in partnership with Air Canada during its reorganization, Aeroplan was to IPO and needed a commercial lead for its marketing, partnerships and membership. Rob joined Aeroplan pre-IPO and led the program to new heights until Canadian Tire asked that he join the executive team and lead their journey toward customer-centricity. At Canadian Tire, Rob re-energized the organization with a new brand position, customer master data, data governance, digital and e-commerce, and shareholder value optimization. Rob then founded Pinpoint Solution Group serving mid-to-large sized businesses, bringing expertise together as a sharply focused team to deliver its customer-centric experience and know-how. When combined with its proprietary technology built to leverage experience and cost efficiencies, its clients move well ahead along the journey to being customer-centric. Rob seamlessly bridges the IT, Marketing and Strategy areas bringing together thorough process, strong governance and unique innovation. Today, as Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Paymi, Rob leads the market development of Canada’s newest and most innovative card-linked program. Paymi is the most innovative, valued and simple program of its kind. Paymi’s data-driven platform seamlessly integrate our member's desire to earn cash back rewards with our merchant's business objectives to drive value creation through incremental share of wallet. Within minutes members earn cash back and merchants grow margin - risk free. In his spare time he is active coaching his kids in hockey and soccer, and playing hockey, tennis, squash and golf.

Shawn joined Canadian Tire in 2014 to lead the launch of the digital loyalty program and has since led the launch of the recent Triangle Rewards Program. He also leads customer research, insights and is accountable for building and integrating Canadian Tire’s #1 Retail Brand NPS program. Prior to Canadian Tire he led Retail and Customer Analytics for the Air Miles loyalty program and during his consulting career with Accenture and McKinsey he worked with over 30+ retailers on marketing, merchandising, loyalty and analytics programs. Earlier in his career he was a statistician specializing in econometrics.

Neil Sweeney founded and serves as CEO of Freckle IoT, a global data company specializing in media measurement and identity. Freckle is the company’s media measurement product which determines the effectiveness of advertising to drive customers to a physical location. Killi, their newest product, is a consent management solution for solving privacy challenges facing consumers and companies. Killi allows consumers to control their identity and sell it for cash to companies looking for compliant first-party data. He previously founded JUICE Mobile, a mobile technology and advertising firm, that he led. He has also owned StreamTheWorld – a venture he helped transform into the world’s first, and largest, in-stream programmatic audio platform prior to its sale in June 2010. Technologies Neil created are used by Fortune 50 brands like Coca-Cola, Lowe’s, Walmart, General Motors, Unilever and Mondelez. They are also the core component of the top media demand side platforms, including Adelphic, The Trade Desk, AppNexus, MediaMath; RocketFuel and TubeMogul. Neil has received numerous academic and business awards. He was awarded a gold medal at the 2007 Media Innovation awards for his integration of mobile technology into the Grammys – an initiative that has since been taken worldwide – and many others. Neil has also been named among Deloitte’s Fast 50 three years in a row and is a two-time Finalist for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Neil is a Mentor at Next36, a large startup accelerator organization as well as an adviser to more than 12 individual entrepreneurs and startups. He has been featured in Bloomberg, MSNBC, Ad Age, Adweek, AdExchanger, VentureBeat, MediaPost, and others. Neil is a frequent industry speaker, having been on stage at IAB, M1, and StreetFight summits as well as Mobile World Congress and investment panels, including Progress Partners.

Andrew’s career spans over 22 years in the retail and consumer-goods industries. He currently manages health & wellness and industry relations for Retail Council of Canada. In his role, Andrew leads stakeholder engagement for member retailers for the portfolios of: health & wellness, responsible sourcing and animal welfare, among others. Andrew previously led the sustainability efforts for Walmart’s Canadian market, and was a member of the Walmart global sustainability leaders team. Prior to Walmart, he held a range of sales and category management positions with General Mills Canada and The Nielsen Company of Canada. Andrew is a sought-after speaker on the topic of retail sustainability, and was involved in mentorship programs at various MBA schools across Ontario for many years. He holds a degree from the University of British Columbia.

Trinh Tham is a seasoned business leader with experience developing top talent, P&L management and growing some of Canada’s favourite brands including Sobeys, Tim Hortons, CTV, HBO, Loblaws and President’s Choice. Trinh is currently the VP, Integrated Marketing at Sobeys with oversight of all banner and private label brand strategy, marketing services, media, digital and social media, creative studio, sponsorships, and PR. Prior to Sobeys, Trinh also held roles as VP of Integrated Marketing at Tim Hortons and Head of Marketing for Entertainment TV Brands at Bell Media. She also spent close to 8 years of her career at Loblaws where she held various roles including Senior Director of Merchandising, Senior Director of Private Label Marketing and Senior Director of Ethnic Marketing. Trinh obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in Marketing and a Minor in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

Peter van Stolk is the CEO of Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery or SPUD.caTM, the largest pure play online grocer in Canada. SPUD.ca is focused on creating meaningful relationships with Canadians around the benefits of local, organic food. SPUD.ca operates in 4 markets and utilizes proprietary technology. This allows the company to provide free delivery throughout the 4 Western Canadian cities it services. With 700 employees, SPUD.ca is building community among its customers both online and off with a unique omni-channel strategy of hyper-local small markets through its retail brands, Be Fresh Local Market, Blush Lane Organics and Organic Acres Market. van Stolk believes: “Food will have the greatest impact on our generation. How we think about food, how we buy food, and how we consume food will change, and we are excited to be a part of this transformation”. As founder of Jones Soda Company in 1987, van Stolk served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2007. Jones Soda was one of the first consumer branded companies that recognized the potential of Social Media in creating emotional connections with its consumers. van Stolk has been recognized for his business savvy and innovative branding strategies in various publications such as The New York Times®, CNN®, Wall Street Journal®, Fast CompanyTM, Inc.MagazineTM and People Magazine®. Peter has received numerous business awards including Price, Waterhouse, Coopers’ 40 under 40, Brand Week’s Top 100 Marketer, and was chosen as one of Canada’s Top One Hundred Canadians by MacLean’s Magazine®.

Leveraging 25 years of working with executives from many of the world’s best known retail brands, agencies, and technology companies, Sam’s expertise in connecting insights, corporate analysis and consumer behaviour is unparalleled. He is thrilled to be able to share his experience and insights at RCC's Retail Marketing Conference. Sam is both a Board member and President of Unefi, the parent company for RMS - an enterprise retail management software and marketing automation platform that is leading the shift to technology as a critical element of unifying commerce. As President of RMS, Sam’s focus is on overseeing the leadership team, global sales and support teams. Prior to launching RMS, Sam was focused on retail marketing as a Partner at CV Studio, where he was responsible for developing and driving strategy for global retail executions, marketing services, and data. Viewed as an innovative force in driving retail of the future, Sam has been – and continues to be – an active adviser and board member at various adtech and martech companies.

Breadth of international experience in the Americas and EMEA includes: Leading teams across multiple markets, strategic planning, brand management, 360 marketing (traditional & digital), communications, organizational development, budget management, product/portfolio development, quantitative/financial analysis, contract negotiation, vendor and agency management and leading cross-functional project teams. Currently leading Strategy & Innovation for the Canadian Branded Solutions team with a focus on exploring the white space and creating solutions to accelerate our growth. Prior to this role, I lead partner communications (internal communications) for Canada working closely with the leadership team on internal communication strategy to lead and engage our partner base (employees) of over 13,000. Previously, Director of Marketing EMEA at Starbucks responsible for: leading a team across multiple markets supporting a diverse region of 34 countries; launching new brands, marketing channels & innovative products; creating strategic 360 marketing promotions to develop the brand and drive the business; creating, implementing, executing and reviewing trading plans across all markets with a variety of ownership models (company owned, Franchising & Licensing); opening new markets; channel marketing; analyzing business needs and organizational development.