Brandon Stranzl took a long, hard look at Sears Canada’s opportunities to better service its customers after taking the helm at Sears Canada Inc. as CEO and Executive Chairman in 2015, and created a disruptive and effective path to achieving change through technology and retail innovation. 



In just a short year and a half Mr. Stranzl has reconceived Sears Canada as a brand, strengthened senior leadership, launched Sears Canada’s digital innovation hub, Initium, and developed a new customer-obsessed concept store format.



His background in financial portfolios and hedge fund management facilitates Brandon’s out of the box, start-up approach to business.

Stéphane Bérubé has close to 20 years of experience in the beauty industry. After obtaining a Business Administration degree from Université Laval in Quebec in 1996, he started his career in Toronto in an international consumer goods company.



In 2002, he joined L’Oréal Canada as a Marketing Director for the Maybelline New York brand, where he contributed to the success of the brand’s partnership with Star Académie, which earned the team the “Marketer of the Year” award in 2003. He then moved on to become Brand Director for L’Oréal Paris in 2005 and became General Manager two years later. Amongst his various achievements, he initiated the brand’s successful partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).



In 2013, Stéphane Bérubé was named General Manager of Media and Innovation for L’Oréal Canada. In this role, he oversaw L’Oréal Canada’s media investments and negotiations, as well as experimentations and large-scale corporate sponsorships. In his current role of Vice-president Chief Marketing Officer, he is now in charge of expanding e-commerce, remodelling the company’s consumer approach and strengthening its presence in the digital ecosystem.

Scott Adel currently serves as Head of Omnichanel for menswear e-tailer Frank & Oak. He is a seasoned retail sales and operations professional whose main responsibilities include leading their omnichannel efforts, store operations and growth strategies, and developing and overseeing the execution of the in-store customer experience. Scott is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) in good standing who has built an extensive 15-year retail career integrating technology and business processes in unique ways to drive engagement and business growth.

Kristy started her career in retail with leading cosmetics brands in the U.S. and Canada, including Clinique, Prescriptives, Stila, and Philosophy for over fifteen years. Throughout her experience in the cosmetics industry, as both a makeup artist and manager, Kristy oversaw event planning, inventory control, sales strategies, team building and training.  Relocating to Canada in 2003, Kristy shifted gears and worked in executive recruiting for a few years, but went back to sales and eventually became a VP of Marketing where she oversaw SEO, SEM, PPC, direct mail and email campaigns, lead generation, conversion, user experience and account management.  With this wide range of experience and skills she was ready to start something that would bring together her talents and be part of the sharing economy at the same time.  Along with her business partner, Rent frock Repeat came to life, allowing women all across Canada to RENT a new designer dress for a fraction of the retail cost.  Becoming an entrepreneur to a collaborative consumption business that disrupts the retail norm has taught Kristy countless new skills and lessons and gives her a chance to make an impact on women, the environment and the retail landscape. 

Joanna Griffiths is the Founder, CEO and inventor of Knix Wear, one of the fastest growing companies in Canada and globally in the intimate apparel space. Knix Wear launched in winter of 2013 and three short years later Knix Wear has become a leader in active intimate apparel. The company holds the record for the most-funded fashion project in Kickstarter history and the most-funded women’s project with over $1.6M in product pre-sales for Knix Wear’s 8-in-1 Evolution Bra. The ever-expanding product line is available in over 500 retail stores across North America and at www.knixwear.com.

 

Griffiths has been profiled in Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Dragons’ Den among other media outlets. She holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD and won the Business Venture Competition and the Women’s Award for Entrepreneurship – securing the initial capital to start the business. She sits on the advisory board for Master Card’s Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy and has a passion for mentoring other young female entrepreneurs.

Gillian Stein is the CEO of Henry’s, the largest specialty imaging retailer in Canada.   Under the tagline “Canada’s Greatest Camera Store” she is leading the transformation of the traditional retailer to a true omni-channel specialty business that prides itself on listening to its customers and the community.  Born and raised in a retail environment, Gillian began working with the Henry’s team early on in her career in retail and has worked across a  number of functions giving her a thorough understanding of the inner workings of the business. 

 

Prior to joining Henry’s full time, Gillian worked within the global responsible investment research firm, Sustainalytics, and has held numerous positions in the public sector as well as the United Nations.  Gillian has a Master’s degree in International Development from the University of Sussex in England, a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of McGill and is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Johnny has been in the digital, CRM and email marketing space for over 10 years. He currently heads all email marketing initiatives for Indigo Books & Music Inc., which also includes the Chapters and Coles bookstore banners. Prior to Indigo, Johnny worked for Dell managing their consumer segment email program for over 4 years reporting into both the North American CRM group and separately to the marketing unit.



Email marketing is something Johnny is very passionate about because of its unique ability to help enrich a customer’s lifecycle for brands through meaningful and impactful communications. Email can drive acquisition, retain valued customers, increase brand loyalty, promote cross-category shopping, leverage real-time action-based behaviors and much more.  He believes to deliver meaningful communications, integration of the right technology, data & marketing platforms are needed.

Tony Long is a Marketing Technology innovator with over 20 years of global leadership of initiatives that combine marketing, technology and commerce. His diversified background includes founding one of the first “Silicon Alley” web development shop in the mid 1990’s, consulting on digital marketing projects across numerous industries, serving as senior leadership with tech and non-tech start-ups, and heading marketing initiatives for clients across the US and Europe that included major retail, banking, consumer products and sporting franchises.



Prior to joining Kimberly-Clark, Tony served in leadership roles in several prominent digital agencies as well as being SVP of Sales & Marketing of Revell-Monogram, the global toy & hobby brand. While with WhittmanHart he won WebAward honors for Consumer Goods Standard of Excellence (Black & Decker Site Redesign) & Automotive Standard of Excellence (Harley-Davidson Bike Builder). He is the author of “Data Is Currency”, an early exploration into the way data and content are fungible assets that companies need to leverage for competitive advantage.