Georgina Atwell Online Director Rough Guides DK

Georgina joined Dorling Kindersley (part of the Penguin Group) in 2001 and ran the Digital Licensing dept before taking over the Online dept in 2005. She oversees both new and existing websites such as the ecommerce site www.DK.com; the award winning Web 2.0 site www.traveldk.com; the schools subscription site www.eyewitness.dk.com and more recently, the travel community site www.roughguides.com.

Georgina led the team which devised, managed and delivered www.traveldk.com in February 2007. Coming late into the crowded online travel marketplace was always going to be a challenge but the success of the site has been down to the unique proposition to create, share and print your own travel guide.

Marko Balabanovic lastminute.com

Marko Balabanovic manages the lastminute.com labs innovation team in London, developing new web and mobile experiences for travel and entertainment as part of the wider Travelocity and Sabre group.  Over time he has worked on technology innovation from different angles - academic research at Stanford University, commercial R&D at Ricoh and Xerox, and product design and engineering at early stage startups such as Betfair/flutter.com and Cellectivity.

Erick Barnes VP of Marketing, Motorcycle USA Motorcycle Superstore

Erick received a Bachelors degree in Marketing from Southern Oregon University in 1999.  He joined Motorcycle Superstore shortly after and has now been onboard for over seven years.   Starting out as a Customer Service Representative, he was eventually promoted to Online Marketing Manager, followed by Director of Marketing, and most recently VP of Marketing.  Erick enjoys street and dirt motorcycle riding in his free time.

Jonathon Brown Director of Multi Channel B&Q

Jonathon joined B&Q as Director of Multi Channel in January 2007. His current accountabilities are to drive the companies Multi Channel strategy. These include the development of our digital offering through DIY.com, the extension of our Home Delivery proposition to ensure customers can get the right products at the right price, when and where they want them. In addition he leads the definition of our online marketing strategy plans and their successful implementation.

Prior to B&Q Jonathon was Head of eChannels for Aviva looking after the online marketing and site development strategies for their portfolio of brands including RAC, Norwich Union and BSM. Jonathon joined Aviva from Coca Cola where he drove the European eBusiness strategy, delivering a portfolio of B2B and B2C online developments. Before this Jonathon was a senior member of the British Airways online team and drove the customer proposition work through BA.com including it’s re-launch in 2000 and the implementation of a number of customer centric capabilities driving improved customer engagement, revenue generation and cost reduction.

Michael Christianen Knowledge & Intelligence Manager bol.com (NLD)

Michael Christianen has been involved in personalization- and marketing intelligence research since the mid-nineties. At bol.com Christianen is responsible for site search, business intelligence, customer intelligence, webanalytics, contextual targeting, behavioural targeting, recommendations and personalization.

Peter Cobb Co-founder and Senior Vice President eBags.com

Peter is Co-founder and Senior Vice President of eBags.com, the leading online retailer of luggage, handbags, backpacks, and business cases. eBags.com, which launched March 1999 and features over 30,000 products from 500 brands, has sold over 7 million bags. During his tenure, Peter has been responsible for marketing, merchandising, and International. Peter was named 2003 Colorado Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association. He received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Tim Curtis Managing Director Lands’ End, UK

After heading up Mothercare Direct for 5 years, Tim joined Lands’ End last August to head up their UK operations.  Prior, he worked as a consultant for Tesco and the RAC, ran a dotcom start-up, enjoyed senior marketing, merchandising and supply chain management roles across the Boots Group and was a strategy consultant with Marakon Associates and LEK Consulting.  He began his professional career in the Royal Engineers setting up the first Airborne Bomb Disposal troop and has found his experience in dealing with unexploded bombs and booby traps invaluable in the world of multi-channel retailing.  He was recently selected as a board member of CataloguesCatalogues.  He has an MBA from INSEAD and an MA in History from Cambridge University.

Simon Daniel CEO and founder MoixaEnergy.com & USBCELL.com

Simon Daniel is founder and CEO of Moixa Energy, which launched USBCELL – a new greener category of rechargeable batteries in Q4 2006. Launched via the web www.usbcell.com provides a case study in leveraging the web and blogosphere to launch a pioneering technology and create a new global battery brand that now has visibility in over 150 countries, international multi-channel distribution and is stocked by leading electronics and high street stores. Moixa Energy is a spinout of Simon’s R&D company Moixa which re-thinks market axioms and develops and patents new technology, including inventing/licensing a 2 million unit folding keyboard for PDAs and now smart-phones. Simon was previously a Senior Manager at Accenture, responsible for Technology and eCommerce start-ups.

Gina Deeble Head of Interactive Content QVC UK

Gina is responsible for controlling and managing the content on all QVC UK’s non-broadcast retailing platforms, including www.qvcuk.com, QVC Active (available on Sky, Virgin and Freeview), and QVC Mobile.  An essential part of this role is ensuring the content is easy to use and provides excellent customer service for all QVC’s customers.

Gina was QVC UK’s first employee in June 1993 and, during her time at QVC; she has worked in programme planning and as a buyer in the jewellery and beauty departments, before moving to the Interactive Content Department in 2000.

She has a BSc in Sociology and Psychology from Bath University.

Francesca Ecsery General Manager UK Cheapflights Ltd. (UK)

Francesca Ecsery joined Cheapflights.co.uk, UK’s leading flight price comparison website, in August 2007 as General Manager (UK). Previously she worked for STA Travel, the world’s largest student travel organisation, as a Managing Director of its international division from November 2001. Up to that time she built and ran ifyoutravel.com, Europe's leading online speciality travel company, for two years. She then sold ifyoutravel.com to OTC in October 2001, now owned by Lastminute.com.

She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in International Political Science from Geneva University. In between two degrees, she gained management consultancy experience over four years at McKinsey & Company, Management Consultants. Three years of which were spent in Lisbon and one year in London.

On leaving Harvard, following a senior marketing role at Pepsico (UK), she moved into the travel industry with Thomas Cook as Head of Thomas Cook Promotions for two years and with Going Places as Commercial & Marketing Director for four years.

Personal interests include Yoga , golf, trekking, skiing, international affairs & opera. She is a certified Yoga teacher.

Zak Edwards Founder Prezzybox (UK)

Zak Edwards - founder of Prezzybox.com - has been working in the online Marketing arena since 1999. With a background in retail sales and trade distribution he launched Prezzybox just as the Internet bubble was about to burst. Great timing!

Since then Prezzybox has gone from strength to strength, becoming one of the largest privately owned retailers in the online gift sector. This organic growth has largely been attributable to mutually beneficial relationships in the affiliate sector, emphasizing Zak's expertise and relationship management skills in this area. Zak's friendly and approachable attitude towards affiliates needs has seen him flourish in Affiliate Marketing.

Jana Eggers CEO Spreadshirt Inc.

Jana joined Spreadshirt in 2006 to grow the US corporation and to assist in managing the global corporation. Since joining, she's focused on defining Spreadshirt's product offerings and the business units to manage those offerings.

From 1 August, 2007, Jana is Spreadshirt's CEO. Her responsibilities are the Executive Team, maintaining time-bound and strategic guidelines and, of course, to fulfill the company's mission.

Jana came to Spreadshirt from Intuit where she founded the corporate Innovation Lab and ran the fastest growing business unit, QuickBase - an online application platform. Prior to Intuit, Jana held executive and technical positions at Sabre (at that time American Airlines), Lycos, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and many start-ups.

Jana's work in innovation and leadership has been recognized with Mass High Tech's Women to Watch award in 2004; Intuit's CEO Excellent Award in 2005; and Hendrix College's Odyssey Award for Professional and Leadership Development in 2007. She's been featured in Business Week and Fortune magazines, and is a frequent invited speaker on technology, business, innovation, and leadership.

Edward P. Foy, Jr. Co-Founder and CEO eFashionSolutions

Edward P. Foy, Jr. is co-founder and CEO of eFashionSolutions, a global eCommerce solution provider to the fashion industry. Ed has spent his entire career in retailing and fashion with licensed and luxury brands, getting his start with Macy's Department Stores and later joining the wholesale business at Calvin Klein Jeanswear. In 2000, he formed eFashionSolutions to offer an online retail solution to help apparel; accessory and lifestyle brands build online stores. An expert on eCommerce and fashion retail, Ed is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been quoted in various trade and national publications. Since inception, eFashionSolutions has experienced exponential growth in revenue and client base and today manages the global eCommerce channels for top fashion brands including DKNY, Baby Phat, Ben Sherman, Playboy, Rocawear and many more.

Ben Freeborn Business Change Manager Interflora

Ben Freeborn is Business Change Manager for Interflora, responsible for developing initiatives to drive customer conversion and loyalty across Interflora's existing and emerging order channels. Ben has previously held positions of Customer Experience Manager with Boots.com and Interflora.co.uk. Prior to this, he has worked agency-side, as Project Manager developing the BMW dealer online network, incorporating the MINI dealer network sites. His origins as a Producer within corporate video and broadcast production have been brought back into life within recent projects undertaken in online video production.

Martin Gross-Albenhausen Editor-in-Chief Der Versandhausberater

Martin Gross-Albenhausen, born 1968, is Editor-in-Chief of „Der Versandhausberater“, the leading German Magazine for the mail-order industry. He is also founder and partner of the German Mail-Order Convention and the German Mail-Order Institute. Since 2008, he is member of the Board of the German Institute for Mail-Order-Innovation. He is member of the Jury of the American Catalog- and Multichannel-Awards.

Martin holds a Master in Modern History and Media Sociology. After a distinguished career in the Newspaper and publishing Business, he joined Rentrop Publishing Group in 1997/1998 as Group Publisher of the Business Information Services.

Geoff Galat Vice President Marketing & Product Strategy TeaLeaf

Geoff is responsible for overseeing marketing and product management at Tealeaf. Geoff has more than eighteen years of experience in technology marketing, most recently as Vice President of Marketing & Product Management at Tumbleweed Communications, evangelizing the use of the Internet as a channel for secure messaging & communications. Prior to Tumbleweed, Geoff was Vice President of Marketing at Luminate Corporation. In that role, he was a key member of the management team that introduced the concept of the Management Service Provider for Web-based application management. Geoff also served six years at Mercury Interactive in a variety of marketing management roles, culminating as Vice President of Corporate Marketing, and was instrumental in Mercury Interactive developing brand awareness and establishing the markets for application testing and application performance management. Geoff also spent seven years with pioneering laptop computer company GRiD Systems Corporation where he served in a range of marketing and marketing management roles.

Ulric Jerome Managing Director Pixmania.com

Ulric is Managing Director of Pixmania.com and Pixmania-pro.com for the UK, France and Scandinavia. Ulric earned a bachelor of business administration in economics in Canada. During his studies Ulric founded the Sunrise Fund, an investment fund specialized in options trading on the NASDAQ and NYSE. In 2000, Ulric launches ConnexionsNET Magazine which brought together students and the most influential CEOs. In May 2002, Ulric joined Pixmania as Managing Director of Northern Europe and launched the operations of Pixmania in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Since 2004 Ulric is also managing the French operations of Pixmania.

Miriam Lahage Chief Executive koodos Ltd

Miriam Lahage serves as Chief Executive of koodos; a self-described cheeky upstart in the online fashion space. koodos is the new name for designer labels at great discounts of up to 80% off original prices, and is quickly becoming the place to net unbelievable designer bargains. Their selection of brands includes Chloé, Prada, Bracher Emden, Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi. koodos has featured in Grazia, the Evening Standard, The Daily Mail, Drapers, and Retail Week. koodos gives brands and distributors a clean channel to move their excess stock, whilst maintaining control of their brand integrity and pricing.

Prior to koodos, Miriam spent 22 years at The TJX Companies, Inc. where she was most recently vice president. Miriam joined The TJX Companies, Inc. in 1984 when it was a 120-store chain and was instrumental in developing the merchandising staff responsible for TJMaxx and Marshalls ladies apparel. Miriam served in various roles in merchandising; as a Buyer, a Merchandise Manager and as General Merchandise Manager, where she was responsible for $1.2 billion in profitable sales in 1300 T.J.Maxx and Marshalls stores.

Alan Lim MD PurelyGadgets (UK)

Alan founded PurelyGadgets in July 2004 and over the last 3 years, the company has grown to over 50 employees with no financing liability. Born in Singapore, Alan seeks to bring the best e-retail experience to his customers across industries and continents through rapid international expansion. He specializes in online advertising, strategic marketing through new media.

Jason Mink President COGNITION

Jason Mink is President and Principal of COGNITION™ a multidisciplinary Brand Marketing + Design firm located in Charlotte, NC. Jason’s formative years were split between living in Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada. He now lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and three children. This diversity of cultural experiences has influenced a naturally eclectic, insightful perspective that Jason brings to each client project.

Jason has always been fascinated with the psychological and anthropologic underpinnings of marketing and design. Majoring in Organizational Communications and Marketing at UNCC, Jason completed his degree while acting as Director of Marketing for Shook, a nationally recognized architecture firm that specializes in branded environments. Prior to his four-year stint as Director of Marketing, Jason held an Account Executive position with Jefferson Pilot.

In founding COGNITION™ Jason pioneered a brand-building process that uses “strategic creativity” to develop comprehensive brand marketing solutions that better resonate and engage customers. Jason has served as principal-in-charge of numerous projects providing clients such as Compass Group, Le Mystere, Dilworth Coffee, Lexington Home Brands, Grubb Properties and Johnson & Wales University with breakthrough brand strategy and creative development.

François Momboisse Président Fevad

François MOMBOISSE is Président of the Fédération du e-commerce et de la Vente à Distance (Fevad) since 2002. The Fevad regroups 375 distance selling Companies operating in France, including 600 online stores. The top 15 online stores as measured by Netratings - Mediamétrie are members of Fevad.

Ages 50, François is graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in 1979, and got a MBA at INSEAD in 1980.

François spent his first 18 years working experience with Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies: Procter & Gamble from 1981 till 1992, then Benckiser from 1992 till 2000, where he has been successively Marketing Director in France, and general Manager first in Belgium, and then in France.

In 2000 he became Managing Director of D Interactive, a B2B service company in direct marketing and internet.

En 2001, he joined the Fnac Group. Fnac is a specialised retailer achieving sales of €4bn, a part of the PPR holding.

Within Fnac, François was first Managing Director of Eveil & Jeux and Fnac Junior, 2 companies selling educative toys and books either via a distance selling model (Eveil & Jeux), or a network of 20 stores (Fnac Junior). François merged these Companies into Fnac Eveil & Jeux, which is today the multi-channel leader of the French educative toys market with sales exceeding €120m. In 2003, François takes the responsibility of the Fnacmusic project, a music download internet store launched in September, 2004. In 2007, François becomes Director of the International Internet Development of Fnac.

Hans Ohlsson SVP Marketing & eCommerce Redcats Nordic (SWE)

Hans Ohlsson, Marketing & eCommerce Director, Redcats Nordic (PPR Group, Sweden)

Marketing & eCommerce Director Redcats Nordic (e.g. Ellos / Josefssons / La Redoute), part of PPR Group (e.g. Gucci / Puma), covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark & Finland

Previously Managing Director for La Redoute in Nordic Countries, eCommerce Development Manager Redcats Nordic and COO Zoovillage.com

Vincent Potier Director of Marketing & Sales Vonage

Vincent is responsible for the marketing and sales strategy at Vonage UK and manages an internal team of 10 plus 150 vendor agents.

He has been at Vonage since its successful launch in the UK in 2005 and has subsequently increased sales by 400% year on year with a cost per acquisition 30% lower than US market.

Amongst the many things for which he has been involved at Vonage, Vincent has created and communicated the company’s unlimited international plans, launched a digital-led, cross-media brand campaign which resulted in and uplift of aided awareness from 1% to 50% in 4 months, and led integrated direct response activity (TV, press, outdoor, online, retail, telesales, PR). 

Vincent has also been responsible for Vonage’s digital strategy, redefining the company’s PPC and SEO campaigns, negotiating straight CPA deals and significantly improving site usability.  He was also behind Vonage’s Rev Emmanuel P Vonage viral campaign which achieved runner up status in Campaign’s “Viral of the Year”.

Previous roles
Prior to working at Vonage, Vincent has had extensive sales and marketing experience.  He was VP, Strategy & Business Development at Universal Mobile (Universal Music Internet Group) and Director of Marketing and Communications at Vodafone Live! (Vizzavi France).  His digital background includes consultancy work as well as a senior Group Marketing Director position at Lycos Europe.

Areas of expertise
Vincent’s areas of expertise extend across all aspects of marketing communications; brand strategy; digital; direct response; as well as creative; advertising; and media planning.  He has worked internationally and has an extensive ‘build from scratch’ start-up track record.

For more information or to request an interview with Vincent, please contact Ambition Communications on 020 8971 3377 or email Vonage@ambition-communications.co.uk

Andrew Robinson Managing Director Lyris UK

Andrew Robinson is Managing Director of Lyris UK, a leading provider of online marketing software and services in the UK.  As the initial presence for Lyris in the UK, Andrew has been instrumental in adding over 30 UK and European retailers to its customer portfolio, including Net-a-Porter.com, Figleaves.com and Hamleys, and provides them with successful e-marketing tools, management and support. 

Markus Schilling Teamleader eCRM-Systems neckermann.de GmbH

Markus heads the eCRM-Systems team of Neckermann.de within the new media department since 2006. He is responsible for eCRM, Business Intelligence, M- and T-Commerce activities.

In this context his intention is to establish an individualized shopping experience on all electronic channels for each customer. Therefore Markus integrated a business intelligence tool to obtain the customer knowledge needed and to derive the most suitable offer for every online-shopper.

Prior to his current position he was responsible for the onsite search engine of Neckermann.de and played a key role in 2004 front end redesign project which was awarded as “Best Online Shop 2004 in Germany”. This prize was awarded by the Federal Association of German Mail Order Traders and the jury emphasized the onsite search process in particular.

Markus began his career at Neckermann.de in 2002 and has a degree in Business Administration. Furthermore he studied at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia to broaden his extensive e-commerce know-how.

Craig W. Stevenson Global Multi-Channel Retail Solutions Leader IBM

Craig Stevenson leads the global strategy, direction and management for IBM solutions in the area of Multi-Channel Retail. In this role, he is responsible for defining the portfolio vision while overseeing the execution of operations related to solution development, strategic partnerships and go-to-market activities. Craig also works with major retailers to develop multi-channel strategies and build the operational and technology capabilities required to deliver a differentiated customer shopping experience.

Craig brings over 15 years of experience in management, marketing and strategy in both the software and services industries. Prior to IBM, he has served in leadership positions at BEA Systems, BroadVision and Siemens.

Xavier Vallee Head of marketing Avis (UK)

Since 1994 when first introduced to the Internet, Xavier has been passionate in investigating how digital technologies open new opportunities for companies to improve customer and brand experience, and ultimately drive their bottom line.
The emergence of social media and networking makes everyone an author. For the first time, word of mouth has a global reach, and can be measured and used to fuel brand development, customer insight, loyalty programmes and product development.
Xavier has 10+ years experience in delivering value to business through digital and marketing strategies, in international settings. I've worked in France, UK, Morocco and Egypt. He started his career in management consulting before moving to online marketing agencies. He's currently Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Avis UK

Mark Wachen CEO/Founder Optimost (an Interwoven company)

Mark Wachen is the Managing Director of Interwoven Optimost. Wachen co-founded Optimost, the company that pioneered multivariable testing and optimization on the internet, in 2001 and served as its CEO up until its acquisition by Interwoven in November 2007. Through his experience at Optimost, Wachen has seen more website optimization experiments than anyone on the planet. Prior to Optimost, Wachen worked for seven years at Sony, overseeing a wide variety of Internet initiatives. Wachen was CEO of Indimi (Internet Direct Marketing Intelligence, Inc.), a company majority-owned by Sony. In this role, he spearheaded the acquisitions of InfoBeat, AdTools, and DailyRating. Under his management, InfoBeat grew from 2 million to 8 million subscribers, and was later sold to Euniverse. Prior to Indimi, Wachen was Vice President of Online Ventures for Sony Music, where he spearheaded many online initiatives, including Sony Music's investments in Spinner (acquired by AOL for $300 million), and the launch of the Sony Music Online Website in 1994. Wachen graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

David Walmsley Head of Web Selling John Lewis Direct

David Walmsley is Head of Web Selling for John Lewis Direct, a division of John Lewis, a leading department store business in the UK.

David is accountable for John Lewis’ online retailing business. The John Lewis web site is visited by millions of customers each month and has grown consistently at above market rates since its inception in 2001.

David has worked in digital roles across publishing, advertising, financial services and retail over 14 years. Prior to this David studied history at Cambridge University.