Speaker Profiles

2012

Rob Collins, Personnel Director, Waitrose

Rob is the Personnel  Director of Waitrose, the supermarket division of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership. Educated at Edinburgh University, where he read Business Studies and Spanish, Rob spent a year working for textile giant Coats Viyella in Argentina. He joined the John Lewis Department Store Graduate Training Scheme from University in 1993 and held a number of senior roles in the business including Managing Director John Lewis Aberdeen, Managing Director John Lewis Cribbs Causeway and Director of Selling Support at the company’s Head Office in Victoria Street London. In 2007 Rob moved to Waitrose to establish its E-Commerce function with the brief of helping the business realise a key part of its multi-channel ambitions. At the beginning of April 2010 he was appointed Personnel Director (Waitrose). Rob is a passionate advocate for the vitality and longevity of the Partnership’s co-owned business model and believes the Partner/customer/profit circle bestows significant competitive advantage in the marketplace. He sees the successful development of existing and new Partners in a rapidly growing business as the biggest challenge for his directorate.

Alan Giles, Chairman, Fat Face

Alan is Chairman of Fat Face, the active lifestyle retailer, and a non-executive director of Rentokil Initial plc, Wilson Bowden Plc and The Office of Fair Trading. He is also an Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Management at Cass Business School, City University. He formed HMV Group as Chief Executive in1998 as a leveraged buy-out and led the Group through its London Stock Exchange IPO in 2002 before retiring from the Group in September 2006 to develop a portfolio of non-executive and teaching roles. From 1993 to 1998 he was Managing Director of Waterstone’s, having joined WH Smith Group in 1982 and being appointed to their board in November 1995. He also served as Operations and Development Director for Do It All and General Manager (Books) for WH Smith Retail. Prior to this, he spent seven years in buying and marketing roles with Boots. He was a non-executive director of Somerfield plc from 1993 until 2004. He graduated in Physics from the University of Oxford (Merton College) and holds a masters degree in Management from The Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, California.

Ben Phillips, Managing Director, Steamer Trading

Ben is the Managing Director of Steamer Trading Cookshops, a speciality retailer of all things for the kitchen. Having joined the business, founded by his parents in 1985, in 2001, he has overseen the growth of the business from a single store to 21 currently. In 2009, Steamer Trading was named ‘Emerging Retailer of the Year’ in the Oracle/Retail Week Awards. Despite having been born into a family of retailers, Ben’s previous career was with the city bank Credit Suisse First Boston, where he spent eleven years, latterly as Managing Director with responsibility for consumer products and retail.

Stephen Roberston, Director General, British Retail Consortium

Stephen was appointed Director General of British Retail Consortium in 2008. Based in Westminster, Edinburgh and Brussels, the BRC represents UK retail, large and small, in lobbying governments and near-government organisations as well as producing key retail data. Stephen appears frequently in tv, radio and press to discuss business issues. Stephen's career has spanned 14 years on the boards of major UK retailers building on earlier management roles with Mars Inc, Unilever and Alberto-Culver. Stephen served for seven years as Marketing Director at B&Q plc before leading the acquisition of Screwfix Direct. He went on to become Director of Communications at Kingfisher plc and took the helm of the Ellen MacArthur sponsorship. More recently Stephen served for 3 years on the retail board at Woolworth plc. In a non-executive capacity Stephen served for 3 years at Fresca, the leading fresh food supplier, and is currently a board member of the National Portrait Gallery Company. Stephen has recently joined the board of Timpson Group, the privately held retailer which operates mainly under the brands Timpson (shoe repair and key cutting) and Max (photographic services) through 870 shops nationwide. He is a former Chairman, and now Fellow, of the Marketing Society.