73rd International Retail Summit
7 – 8 September 2023
Speakers
Alter is the author of "Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most," a guide to breaking free from the thoughts, habits, jobs, relationships, and even business models that prevent us from achieving our full potential. His two previous New York Times bestsellers are "Irresistible" and "Drunk Tank Pink.” Alter’s research has been published in the most renowned academic journals, and featured in dozens of TV and radio shows around the world. In addition to the New York Times, he has also written for the New Yorker, Washington Post, Atlantic, WIRED, Slate, Huffington Post, Popular Science, and many more.
Dieter Meier became internationally known as the singer of the electropop duo Yello. He worked worldwide for decades as a director, actor and musician before becoming an entrepreneur in organic farming. In the late 1990s, he bought the Ojo de Agua estate in Argentina and 2,200 hectares of land outside Buenos Aires, producing organic wine, beef and natural products.
Kaser has been working for 25 years in various positions at the SPAR Austria Group, which runs business in Austria and 7 neighbouring countries, employs over 91,000 people and generates sales of over 18.6 bn Euro. From 2012, he was managing director of INTERSPAR, the business unit for the Hypermarkets.
He has been a member of the board of the SPAR-AG since 2021.
Sinanudin Omerhodzic has been responsible for leading the company into the digital future as Chief Information Digital Officer and board member at Aldi Nord since 2020. In November, Omerhodzic received the Innovations Award - CIO of the Year 2022 for the first cashierless Aldi store for Aldi Nord.
Janik has been Chairwoman of the Executive Board of Microsoft Germany since 2020. Since 2015, she was Country General Manager of Microsoft Switzerland. Prior to that, she had been for four years a member of Microsoft Germany’s Leadership Team, where she was responsible for the areas of public administration, education, and healthcare.
The former president of El Corte Inglés, Europe's largest department store chain, has realised a futuristic concept in Madrid: the "Wow Concept" department store. On six floors, technology products, fashion and home decoration are sold in a variety of aesthetic themes. It focuses on the experience that results from the interaction with digital gadgets and with employees.
The Ocado Group provides end-to-end online grocery fulfilment solutions to some of the world’s largest retailers, and maintains a 50% share in online grocery business Ocado Retail. David Shriver has served in the retail industry for 35 years in companies such as the German online pet food retailer Zooplus, French Groupe Carrefour or Credit Suisse First Boston.
After graduating with a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen, Kilian Wagner worked for McKinsey & Company in Zurich before founding the Swiss eyewear label in 2013. Today, he sells his products in six countries in over 50 flagship stores, more than 40 partner stores and online retail. The company has over 400 employees and over 200,000 customers.
Rachel Shechtman is a fourth-generation retail entrepreneur and founder of Story, a concept store known for its editorial, ever-changing approach to retail. After seven years and 44 different ‘themes’, in April 2018, Shechtman sold Story to Macy’s Inc. where she served as Brand Experience Officer until July 2020. She sits on the Board of Directors of the National Retail Federation (NRF) and CAMP, an experiential family retail concept and media company. Shechtman has been ranked among the most creative people in business by Fast Company, Fortune Magazine and Ad Age.
Rucker has more than 20 years of management and consulting experience in the retail sector. Among other positions, he served as Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, A.T. Kearney, and the Metro Group. The sporting goods retailer Sportscheck operates 33 stores in Germany and three online stores in the DACH region.
Kunkel is the Chief Investment Officer for Germany and Austria and responsible for optimizing the investment strategies for Ultra High Net Worth clients globally at UBS Global Wealth Management. He is an expert in economic forecasts, macroeconomic trends and global market developments.
Portas became a board member at Harvey Nichols before founding her creative consultancy. Her BBC series “Mary Queen of Shops” premiered in 2007. Her podcast series include “Beautiful Misfits” and the business podcast “The Kindness Economy”. Portas is the author of “Rebuild: how to thrive in the new Kindness Economy” (2021).
Trigo builds AI-powered infrastructure for retail stores that provides frictionless shopping and automated operations. Yair has more than 25 years of experience in top executive leadership roles and in heading business teams and initiatives across industries. Most recently, he served as the President of EMEA & APJ at Stratasys and, before that, as CEO of Jacada.
Reckon builds AI operated, cashierless, smart stores that can be easily set up in any location – from airports to offices, train stations, and hotel lobbies. The software platform combines Artificial Intelligence, product recognition, cameras and sensors.
Johannes Bauer
Head Think Tank
Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Switzerland
In his research, Bauer examines changes in consumer and purchasing behaviour, the future of retail against the backdrop of long-term consumer, technology and business model trends, as well as the opportunities and risks of digitalisation for business and society. Before joining GDI, he worked as a marketing professor and management consultant.
Moderator
Partner
Network partner
Media partners
About the International Retail Summit
The International Retail Summit is one of the international community’s leading strategy platforms for decision-makers and thought leaders in the retail and consumer goods industries. Participants are decision-makers from retail and related industries, entrepreneurs, academia and journalists from Swiss and European quality media.
Participants
Executives
Speakers
Testimonials
Past conferences
Advisory Board
Simonetta Carbonaro
Consumer psychologist, professor in Humanistic Marketing and Design Management and an internationally recognized thought leader of the consumer goods industry. She is the cofounder of REALISE, a strategic consulting company specialized in brand direction, and strategic design management.
Caroline Drucker
Vice President Marketing and Operations at Photomath. Previously, Drucker was Director EMEA Strategic Partnerships at Instagram and Global Brand Manager at Etsy. She was the first Product Manager at community-driven music platform SoundCloud. Her career began in publishing, where she played a key role in establishing VICE magazine in the German market and developed the digital strategy for the relaunch of Freitag, a national weekly newspaper.
Stephan Fetsch
Partner, Deal Advisory-Valuation, EMA Head of Retail at KPMG. Fetsch is responsible for the retail sector at KPMG Germany and KPMG Europe. In this function, his main focus lies on business planning, corporate valuation, intangible assets, joint venture as well as value-based decision making and transaction consulting.
Michel Gruber
Head of the Retail Department and member of the General Management of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Before joining Migros, Michel Gruber held various positions at Valora for nine years, most recently as Managing Director of Valora Food Service Switzerland.
Dominique Locher
As an entrepreneur, angel investor, creative promoter and innovator, Dominque Locher accompanies companies such as Edeka, Utkonos, Farmy.ch, Bring! or LuckaBox into the digital world. As a board member of the Swiss Retail Federation, he drives digitalization in Swiss retail. He helped build LeShop.ch, one of the first online supermarkets in the world, and led the company as CEO until 2017.
André Maeder
Group Managing Director at The KaDeWe Group. Maeder looks back on a long and international retail career. His focus has been on premium and luxury brands. At Harrods, he was Chief Operational and Merchandise Officer, at Hugo Boss MOB and Head Global Retail. As Chief Retail Officer, Maeder als worked for Karstadt.
Mariann Wenckheim
Co-Active Leadership Coach for Entrepreneurs and Organisational and Relationship Coach. Wenckheim is also an Executive Master in Change at INSEAD. Previously, Wenckheim was a partner and board member of 20.20, a strategic design consultancy for the retail and leisure industries.
