Activities and Clients
I do three things that could be called “work”:
- direct consulting for retail and publishing clients
working at Board level on strategy and leadership development, with occasional interim, executive roles to support step-change and growth - developing sector skills and innovation
via training programmes, network and peering activities and qualifications. - publishing
as founder and now Editor in Chief of InternetRetailing (magazine, portal and conference) I run an influential trade title that’s been profitable since its first issue.
I build sustain long-term, senior relationships with clients in retail, publishing and communication businesses.
Current Clients include
- CoutureLab (since 2006)
- House of Fraser and House of Fraser Wedding List (since 2007)
- The British Council (since 2007, and in 2009 establishing for them the Global Steering Board for the Online Transformation Programme)
- Westfield Shopping Centres (UK). (since 2008)
- e-consultancy (since 2006)
Recent clients have included Austin Reed (2007-2009), Reiss (2008), Otto UK – Grattan, Freeman, Oli (2006 – 2008), IPC Media (2007-2008), Euromoney (2008)
Publishing
InternetRetailing
I co-founded Internet Retailing in 2006 as magazine and portal for the UK’s senior multichannel retailers, building from the first InternetRetailing conference.
The magazine has been profitable since the outset and has grown in scope and reputation to be the sector-defining title.
We now reach nearly 20,000 professionals a month and have expanded with 6~8 supplements a year, additional short-form conferences, the JumpStart rapid procurement series and an active Roundtable programme. In 2009 we opened our German activities and 2010 sees us launching in France as well as creating a new title – M-Retailing.com – to focus on the exploding interest in the role of mobile within multichannel retail.
Training and sector development
- I authored the UK’s first Masters in Internet Retailing, in conjunction with e-consultancy
- I co-founded the European eCommerce Forum, with Joris Beckers of FredHopper.com
Non-executive Roles:
- Bazaarvoice, Advisory Board Member (2010) – invited to contribute insights on developments in the Social Commerce space and development of the sector
- Business Link for London. Non-executive Director, member of the Audit Committee, then R&A committee (2003-2009). Europe’s largest business support organisation, with a budget of over £40m. Operations were transferred to Serco in 2007
- Engage, the National Association of Gallery Educators. Founding Treasurer, and served on the Board for 7 years of growth – from £30k grant to over £1m in turnover and 1,000 professional members.
- e-mint, the Association of Online Community Professionals. Initially a mailing list I helped formalise the group and served on the inaugural committee
- Past Board member of The Netimperative Ltd., EUBusiness Ltd. and eModeration Ltd.
Previous employments
See my LinkedIn Profile for fuller information
GROUP ECOMMERCE DIRECTOR, LITTLEWOODS, SHOPDIRECT (2004-2006)
Littlewoods and ShopDirectGroup combined were rated by Marketing as the UK’s largest privately-owned retailer with £3.3bn in sales. Here you can see details of the Littlewoods and ShopDirect online brands.
CEO, ICP EUROPE PUBLISHING PLC (2000-2004)
The online business publisher for the small business and enterprise
sectors. Brought the group to profit in 2003 and exited via trade sale in 2004. Group titles included:
BusinessEurope (archive),
Netimperative,
EUBusiness, Biotext,
Venturedome (archive)
HEAD OF ONLINE OPERATIONS, BBC (1998-2000 )
Delivering the BBC’s digital platform (online, digital and iTV). Wrote the first ISO9001 for Digital Publishing Management (BSI, 2000).
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, THOMSON SCIENCE & PROFESSIONAL (1995-1997 )
A $100m-turnover subsidiary of The Thomson Corporation. Remit covered M&A and online.
GENERAL DIRECTOR, THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ GALLERY (1991 TO 1995)
A registered charity promoting photography as an artform and medium of communication. Artistic Director in 1994.
ERNST & YOUNG (1987 TO 1991)
Qualifications
- MA Oxon – English Literature and Language, Jesus College
- ACA – Chartered Accountant (ICAEW), with first-time passes in all papers
- CITP – Chartered IT Professional
- FBCS – Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society
