Recognised as “the man who fixes businesses” Kevin Gaskell has an impressive track record in building and leading successful companies. As CEO of Porsche, Lamborghini, and BMW, Gaskell led hugely successful turnarounds that are pointed to as examples of how to successfully transform companies and position them for long-term success. His energy and leadership have helped companies to achieve world-class levels of customer service and financial performance, and he speaks with electricity about using inspired leadership to achieve incredible results.

Kate Ancketill is the brains and driving force behind GDR Creative Intelligence, a globally recognised consultancy focused on innovation and emerging trends in retail, leisure and hospitality around the world. World-renowned, dynamic and commercially successful, Ancketill won the Jennifer d’Abo Memorial Scholarship for female entrepreneurs in 2007 and was selected as one of the UK’s top 100 in the Courvoisier Future 500 in 2009.

Steven Van Belleghem is a thought leader on the transformation of customer relations and the future of marketing. In 2012, Steven founded the inspiration company B-Conversational. He gives strategic advice to companies around the globe, helping them better understand the world of conversations, social media and digital marketing. In addition, he also helps clients set up long-term inspirational programs to change the mindset and enrich the knowledge of their teams. Steven started his professional career in 2000 as a research assistant at the Vlerick Business School, where he remains a guest marketing professor to this day. He is an expert in guiding companies through the smart usage of technology in the customer relationship, without forgetting the human side of business. In 2001, Steven became one of the first employees to join InSites Consulting, an innovative start-up in the online research industry. Over the next eleven years, he worked his way up to become one of the company’s managing partners and shareholders. During this period, the company grew from just 8 staff to 130 with branches in 5 countries. Steven is a best-selling author of business books. His latest, titled “When Digital becomes Human” (2014), describes the need to digitise the customer relationship without forgetting the human aspect. He believes that today’s world not only needs a digital transformation; the human side of business is also in need of a makeover. His two previous books, “The Conversation Manager” (2010) and “The Conversation Company” (2012), are award-winning best-sellers with more than 50,000 copies sold.

Having had over thirty years of experience in board level business, Alan O'Neill shares powerful insights in all aspects of industry, including Financial Services, Hospitality, IT, Retail, Travel. It is this unrivalled business acumen that has seen Alan facilitate conferences in several countries and conduct master-classes with C-level executives.

Lord Stuart Rose is the former chairman and chief executive of Marks & Spencer, Argos, Arcadia Group, and Booker Plc. Stuart, one of the preeminent executives in retail and one of the best-known British business leaders, is credited with giving Marks & Spencer renewed energy and cachet among younger, more fashion-savvy customers. During his time, he successfully defended the company from several takeover attempts, helped to rejuvenate the brand and was named the 2006 Business Leader of the Year by the World Leadership Forum.

Grant Leboff’ is a thought leader on business strategy, best-selling author and successful businessman. Through his portal, stickymarketing.com he produces a wealth of resources and information on effective Sales and Marketing for business in an ever changing business environment. His main focus is to address the massive changes that are taking place in a world that is constantly being introduced to new technologies and an evolving world wide web. He provides businesses with new sales and marketing strategies to achieve success in this new environment. Grant is able to guarantee that your audience will not have heard his material before and answers the question: "What should I be thinking about in two years and what should I ignore?" He is also a successful businessperson in his own right, so his talks are based on experience, not theory. Indeed , he is so much at the forefront of digital marketing technology that he is frequently engaged by Silicon Valley firms to test their technology prior to launch.

Dr. Pippa Malmgren is a trend spotter who advises investors and governments about economic policy and investment strategy. She anticipated the Financial Crisis in 2007, the slowdown in China, Brexit, Trump and the return of inflation. She is also an economist who manufactures, having co-founded), H Robotics which makes commercial-use aerial platforms (drones). She was named one of the Top 20 Most Influential Economists by Richtopia and one of the Top 5 Women in Finance by Rise in 2017.

Julian is a sound and communication expert. He travels the world training people to listen better and create healthier sound. He is author of the books How to be Heard and Sound Business. Julian’s five TED talks have been watched more than 40 million times. His latest, How to speak so that people want to listen, is in the top 10 TED talks of all time. Julian is regularly featured in the world’s media, including TIME Magazine, The Times, The Economist and the BBC. Julian is also founder of The Sound Agency. The audio-branding company asks and answers the question “How does your brand sound?”. The Sound Agency work with some of the world’s biggest brands to improve their sound. Their award-winning work has made headlines internationally. Julian’s love of sound stems from his early experience as a musician. He was a drummer for British brand The Transmitters, amongst many others, and played on their second Peel Session in 1981. Before The Sound Agency, Julian spent 30 years working in advertising and publishing. He founded, grew and sold contract magazine publishing agency TPD. Nowadays, Julian splits his time between London and Orkney, where he lives with his fiancee and youngest daughter

Bill has served as CEO at Wickes, Focus and Iceland. He has now produced The Grimsey Review, looking at what can be done to reinvigorate the high street. He argues that town centres should be reinvented as community hubs, with housing and public services at the centre. Bill talks about changing customer habits and the growth of ‘mall culture.’ These out-of-town arenas will become the showrooms of the future, in which we choose what to order online.

Alex is a technology expert, specialising in the practical application of the latest innovations and tech trends to solve retail’s biggest challenges, from machine learning to post-channel retail. Prior to GDR, he spent seven years at technology firm Red Ant, designing and delivering award-winning applications, innovation and strategy from boardroom to stockroom for some of the UK's largest and most forward-thinking retailers. In his spare time, he enjoys running and an ongoing quest to connect everything in his house to the internet.

Martin McCourt has spent over 40 years working at the heart of British-based manufacturing, design and marketing for quality brands such as Dyson, Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan. Martin was the CEO of Dyson for 15 years, the ideas to market-leading consumer products maker. As CEO, he devised and implemented a strategy that transformed the company from a single product, single market producer into one where 80% of the business came from over 60 markets around the world. In that time he increased UK skilled jobs, grew profits to over £300m and enabled James Dyson to keep on inventing. In 2011 Dyson hit £1 bn revenue for the first time. Martin was directly responsible for the establishment of Dyson subsidiaries in the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In total he took Dyson into over 60 markets, achieving market leadership in the majority including the USA.