Matthew Stych
Research Director, Planet Retail.

Matthew has spent nearly ten years researching and analysing the global retail industry, with a particular focus on emerging markets. Matthew researches a wide range of retail sectors, including Grocery, Health & Beauty, and Home, with a special interest in issues of private label, discount retailing and brand licensing. Matthew has spoken at a number of supplier, retailer and trade events, including the National Retail Federation’s Big Show and Reuters’ Consumer and Retail Summit in the US. Recently he has spoken at the Private Label Manufacturers Association events in South Korea and Sweden. He also contributes to press articles on retail matters. Prior to joining Planet Retail in 2008, Matthew spent seven years working at Euromonitor International as Head of Retail Research.

Mark Shayler
Managing Director, Tickety Boo

Mark hasn't decided what he wants to do when he grows up yet, in the interim he's made quite a good fist of helping businesses with eco-design and environmental stuff. You know, trees, birds, bees, doing more with less, and reducing waste. That kind of thing. He's a big believer in doing better things rather than just doing things better. He's worked with some of the world's largest businesses (Walmart, GAP, Amazon, RS Components) and some of the smallest. He's helped redesign everything from packaging to pasties, houses to honey pots. He works with schools and Universities to help students think differently. He's saved his clients over £85 million (£15 million this year). He wishes he was paid a percentage.

Martyn Drake
Founder & Managing Director, Binley Drake

Martyn Drake works with business leaders to create rapid, sustainable profit growth. His work on business to business relationships and commercial negotiation has dramatically improved profits for clients across a variety of industries, ranging from international retailers and global consumer brands, to SME branded and contract manufacturers. His consultancy has advised some of the UK’s most iconic brands; helping retailers, licensors and manufacturers create more innovative ranges and more profitable relationships, whilst training and coaching scores of their buyers and sellers.
Prior to founding his consultancy in 2008, Martyn held senior commercial and strategic positions in Punch Taverns, The Spirit Group and Boots the Chemist. At the latter, he managed a number of change programmes, including the introduction of strategic sourcing and reverse auctions across the own-brand portfolio, dramatically improving quality and profitability. Martyn was also Boots’ Senior Buyer for Men’s and Skincare, creating strategies that successfully balanced major consumer brands such as Olay and Lynx, with innovative private label and exclusive brands like No.7, Time Delay and FCUK.

Elizabeth Morgan
Director, Innoweaver Consulting & previously Director of Product Development, Boots & Marketing Director Carlsberg Tetley

Liz Morgan has launched new products for some of the most famous names in the UK, such as Boots, No 7, Carlsberg and Tetley.
As Director for Global Product Development at Boots she drove the commissioning of the scientific work that led to No 7's Protect and Perfect being featured as 'the only anti-aging skin cream that works' on the BBC Horizon programme. As a result, there were queues up and down the country and phenomenal commercial success. Liz also pioneered and chaired the ‘Boots Centre for Innovation'; a unique venture to give access to Boots' distribution to new products from entrepreneurs and inventors.

Earlier in her career, Liz was Marketing Director for Carlsberg-Tetley and responsible for some of the most innovative beer launches in the UK. So new products are very much Liz's lifeblood; at Boots her team launched over 5000 new products a year. Liz also developed Boots' 'Green Tick' approach to sustainable product development.

This has led to her particular interest in helping retailers and manufacturers with products for current and future 'ethical' consumers via her own consultancy company, Innoweaver, and recent original research with the University of Leeds has given her unique insights into this field.

Ing. Maurice van Vliet is the founder and CEO of Privatelabeltrader.com. He leads a diverse team of specialists in private label development, private label capacity, purchasing programs for retailers and Asia sourcing. Van Vliet is no stranger to retail, rather he worked for Superunie where he was responsible for private label purchases. Van Vliet is also active in developing Internet concepts and foremost an entrepreneur. Offices are in the Netherlands and China.

Please note that amendments may be made to the speakers due to circumstances outside of the organisers control.