Our distinguished speakers

Portrait of Tommy Hilfiger, Founder of the Tommy Hilfiger brand.

Tommy Hilfiger

Founder, Tommy Hilfiger

Portrait of Trey Laird, Chairman & CEO of Laird + Partners.

Trey Laird

Chairman & CEO, Laird + Partners

Portrait of Kenneth Himmel, President & CEO of Related Urban.

Kenneth Himmel

President & CEO, Related Urban

Portrait of Jill Granoff, CEO of Eurazeo Brands.

Jill Granoff

CEO, Eurazeo Brands

Portrait of Armand de Villoutreys, President of Firmenich, wearing a gray suit and tie, smiling against a blue background.

Armand de Villoutreys

President, Firmenich

Portrait of Stephen I. Sadove, Industry Consultant, wearing a dark suit and white shirt, smiling against a blue background.

Stephen I. Sadove

Industry Consultant

Portrait of David R. Jaffe, Chairman & CEO of Ascena Retail Group, wearing glasses, a light blue shirt, and dark jacket, smiling against a blue background.

David R. Jaffe

Chairman & CEO, Ascena Retail Group

Portrait of Marigay McKee, Co-founder and General Partner of Fernbrook Capital Management LLC, wearing a white sweater, smiling against a blue background.

Marigay McKee

Co-founder and General Partner, Fernbrook Capital Management LLC

  • Achim Daub

  • Tony King

  • Gilbert Harrison

  • Alina Cho

  • Richard Jaffe

  • William Susman

  • Alasdair Lennox

  • Graziano de Boni

  • Steve Mormoris

  • Lisa Gavales

  • Jon Bird

  • Camille McDonald

  • Marcus Freeman

  • Gwen Morrison

  • Lauren Santo Domingo

  • Jennie Baik

  • Ana Pelucarte

  • Robin Lewis

  • Leslie J. Ghize

  • Cynthia Kounaris

  • Steffen Schenk

  • Bernardine Wu

  • Jonathan H. Owsley

Highlights

Revisiting the ideas, voices, and connections that shaped the conversation—and the future—at the event.

Highlights

Revisiting the ideas, voices, and connections that shaped the conversation—and the future—at the event.

Agenda

It’s no secret that the retail landscape has changed. Clearly, what has worked 1n the past 1s no longer relevant and industry leaders must transform 1n order to not only survive, but thrive. David Jaffe, Chairman and CEO of the Ascena Retail Group discusses an industry in transformation: causes, implications and go forward strategies.

David R. Jaffe, Chairman and CEO, Ascena Retail Group Inc.

Kenneth Himmel, President and CEO, Related Urban

Marigay McKee, CEO and Founder, MM Luxe Consulting

On-demand pop-up retail presents an opportunity for brands to delight customers, generate buzz and gain insights by incorporating smart, connected retail technologies. But integrating this technology is hard. In this session we discuss the concept of plug-and-play pop-up store kits to help agencies reduce design and devel- opment time, and deliver the unique digital experiences customers expect and deliver real-time analytics to measure performance.

Ana Pelucarte, Co-Founder, Head of Strategy, Business Development, Pop-Up Mob

Steffen Schenk, Business Unit Director, Barrows Retail Marketing

Jon Bird, Managing Director, Global Retail & Shopper Marketing, VML

Gwen Morrison, CEO, The Americas, The Store - WPP

Tommy Hilfiger is one of the world’s leading designer lifestyle brands with a presence in over 100 countries across the globe. For over 30 years, Tommy Hilfiger has led the industry with groundbreaking collaborations, immersive fashion shows and cutting-edge innovation. In a discussion with Marigay McKee, Founder and Princi- pal Designer Tommy Hilfiger shares how disruption, embracing technology and driving innovation have kept his brand at the forefront of the industry.

Tommy Hilfiger, Founder and Principal Designer, Tommy Hilfiger

Marigay McKee, CEO and Co-Founder, MM Luxe Consulting

Either survive and thrive through the biggest and most profound transformation 1n the history of retailing, by embracing the forces of change and adopting new strategies and therefore new business models, or risk being wiped out. And businesses will do so either pro-actively by design or reactively by default, or they will be gone.

This enormous disruption is being driven by the combined dynamics of an imbalance of supply and demand, the technology empowered new consumer cohort “weaponizing” the smart phone to gain unlimited and instan- taneous access to whatever their heart desires wherever they are and whenever they want it --- the consumer

is the new POS. And, they are emerging as an entirely new culture with entirely new expectations. What is the industry to do?

Stephen I. Sadove, Retired Chairman & CEO, Saks Fifth Avenue & Industry Consultant

Leslie J. Ghize, Executive Vice President, Tobe, Senior Vice President, Doneger

Robin Lewis, CEO, The Robin Report

Gilbert Harrison, Chairman, Financo

Drilling deeper in the existing consumer and retail environment this session will focus on investments in luxury from both a financial, strategic, and global markets perspective. By bringing four industry leaders together this panel will discuss opportunities and challenges in investing in luxury, and what investors look for in companies they fund around the globe.

Richard Jaffe, Industry Analyst

Graziano de Boni, Former President and CEO, Americas, Philipp Plein Group

Jill Granoff, CEO, Eurazeo Brands

Jonathan H. Owsley, Managing Partner, Growth Fund, L Catterton

William Susman, CEO, Threadstone Advisors

As digital media and technology are now ingrained in consumers lifestyle, the essence of luxury is changing from an emphasis on the physical to a focus on the experiential. This session will explore how online luxury-fo- cused players are disrupting the industry by taking smart approaches to delivering better products and experi- ences for the digitally-savvy and ever-more demanding consumer, and how the platform’s curatorial approach to e-commerce can help reshape the way people buy luxury online.

Trey Laird, Chief Executive and Chief Creative Officer, Laird and Partners

Lauren Santo Domingo, Co-Founder, Moda Operandi

Jennie Baik, Co-Founder and CEO, Orchard Mile

Tony King, CEO and Creative Director, King and Partners

Alina Cho, Editor at Large, Ballantine Bantam Dell

Balancing hard-earned investment dollars across all retail initiatives (merchandise, marketing, ecommerce, mobile, technology, operations, people, etc.) is hard enough. With innovation happening faster and CIOs, CMOs and Digital executives having to keep up with the rapid pace of change, it’s important to embrace innovation

- but at what rate and at what investment level? When should we chase the aspirational? When should we say “No” (or “Not yet”)? How do we balance our business plans or budgets with innovation vs. foundational invest- ment? In this session, FitForCommerce and a key retailer will discuss challenges and experiences in keeping up with innovation while not losing focus on today’s business. After, we will break out into smaller workshops, led by FitForCommerce consultants, to dig deeper on these challenges and approaches, then wrap up the session with read outs and lessons learned.

Bernardine Wu, CEO, FitForCommerce

Lisa Gavales, Former CEO, Things Remembered

Cynthia Kounaris, Chief Strategy Officer, FitForCommerce

Emotions differentiate humans from other living things. They make us unpredictable, impulsive and endlessly interesting. When tapped in to, our emotions allow brands to connect in a more relevant way. It is a known fact that consumers are more likely to purchase when they connect emotionally to a brand Brands & retailers need to translate this understanding of people into an enhanced brand experience which stirs emotions. Alasdair Lennox will discuss how to connect with consumers through distinctive experiences, and how these memora- ble moments build value for brands. He will also share a preview of Group XP’s 2017 Experience Index, which measures the value of brand experience.

Alasdair Lennox, Executive Creative Director, FITCH

Fragrances has historically been a key category in the beauty industry but now faces cataclysmic challenges in terms of: changing olfactory tastes among millennials, the rise of social media affecting brand choices, shifting distribution channels including the rise of e-commerce, and the emergence of personalization and artisan fra- grances in the marketplace. The fragrance category faces key challenges to stay relevant to consumers, appeal to consumers beyond the need for seduction and find a way for generating trail in an electronic, non-brick-and- mortar environment. We will explore in this panel the current state of the category and future opportunities in terms of marketing, distribution, product development and consumer insights that reveals a path toward the future.

Achim Daub, President, Symrise

Camille McDonald, Former President, Bath & Body Works

Armand de Villoutreys, President, Firmenich

Marcus Freeman, Group CFO, Chalhoub Group

Steve Mormoris, Former CMO, Coty & Industry Consultant

Portrait of a professionally dressed man beside large quotation marks, used to accompany a testimonial.
Large, dark blue, double quotation mark symbol.

With retail in a state of revolution, it has never been more important for the industry’s leaders to gain access to privileged insights, intelligence and innovations in order to be able to respond to change.

Panos Linardos

Chairman, RLC Global Forum

Testimonial graphic featuring a man in a suit next to large quote marks and text about the retail industry’s revolution. The quote is attributed to Panos Linardos, as shown in the image.