In Focus: Retail Media’s Biggest Industry Movers
As one of the fastest‑growing advertising channels, retail media conversations revolve around measurement, transparency and true value for...
In Focus: Retail Media’s Biggest Industry Movers
By Pallavi Dey
As one of the fastest‑growing advertising channels, retail media conversations revolve around measurement, transparency and true value for high-intent customers. Meet 30 retail media advocates answering the tough questions in an evolving landscape.
Retail media is evolving into one of the fastest‑growing advertising channels, offering advertisers unique advantages like access to high‑intent audiences, closed‑loop measurement, and omnichannel reach.
With RMNs moving beyond sponsored listings into CTV, digital out‑of‑home, and social commerce tie‑ins, the line between commerce and advertising is blurring. Moreover, AI is shifting retail media from static placements to predictive, hyper‑personalised experiences that anticipate shopper needs.
With the commerce media landscape evolving so quickly, there remain many questions on; how to prove true sales lift vs. capturing purchases that would have happened anyway, how to navigate multiple walled gardens while ensuring unified reporting, how far AI‑driven targeting can go without eroding consumer trust, where retail media sits in the larger mix, and how it can prove cultural relevance so media placements feel like service to customers rather than intrusive ads.
In the spirit of peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, VMF has compiled a list of 30 retail media veterans who don’t shy away from debate.
Adam Smith, Former Head of Retail Media, Iceland Foods
Adam Smith is focused on building retail media that directly impacts shoppers. Formerly the Head of Retail Media at Iceland Foods, he created and led the retailer’s first-ever in-house retail media team, scaling a network that connects brands with over 9 million customers across digital and in-store environments.
He came up through retail buying and commercial roles within FMCG, and that grounding shows in how he approaches the space with a clear understanding of what both retailers and brands actually need from each other.
Progress over the past year has been rapid. The team relaunched Iceland Retail Media in May 2025, introduced 17 new media formats, built partnerships with Epsilon and CitrusAd, and expanded meaningfully into in-store measurement and sampling. Campaign results have been strong, with conversion rates significantly above market averages, and campaigns have gone live within 48 hours through the self-serve platform.
The network’s most significant development came in January 2026, when Iceland announced a partnership with STRATACACHE to roll out digital screens and sensor technology across 766 stores.
The deployment uses Walkbase, a camera-free audience measurement solution, making Iceland the first UK retailer to use the technology and, by its own description, the most advanced in-store retail media network in the country. Early results from the rollout showed a 10% increase in sales and a 17% rise in category share of transactions for one featured brand.
Smith is also active beyond the business, speaking at industry events including NRF 2026 in New York, where he joined a panel on in-store measurement alongside global retail media leaders.
Adonis Araujo, Retail Media Lead, OneMars / Publicis Commerce
Adonis Araujo leads retail media at OneMars, part of Publicis Commerce. He oversees omnichannel retail media strategy and execution for Mars across Amazon and beyond, working across Amazon Ads, Amazon DSP, Criteo, CitrusAd, and Epsilon Retail Media.
The team’s performance has been publicly recognised on multiple occasions.
In 2025, the Starcom and Samsung Electronics UK collaboration, of which Adonis was part, took home Gold at the Global Performance Marketing Awards for Most Innovative Technology Solution and followed that with a second win at the Performance Marketing World Awards in the Retail Media Innovation category.
Both wins were credited to the proprietary technology delivered through Publicis Warehouse.
Publicis Commerce itself has been on a strong run, with Publicis Groupe posting over $10 billion in new business wins in 2025 and continuing to invest heavily in its AI and data infrastructure across its commerce capabilities.
Ahmed Gowda, Global Head of Digital & Retail Media, BIC
Ahmed Gowda is driving digital media transformation for one of the world’s most recognised consumer goods brands.
As Global Head of Digital and Retail Media at BIC, he leads the company’s media ROI agenda across digital advertising, ecommerce, analytics, and retail media, spanning North America, Europe, MEA, and APAC.
His background includes senior digital roles at Microsoft and ASUS before moving into the FMCG world, and that technology pedigree shows in how he approaches the space with a focus on data infrastructure, analytics capability, and operational efficiency rather than just channel activation.
One of his most significant recent accomplishments has been the launch of BIC Media Cognition, a proprietary digital media analytics solution developed in partnership with Annalect that gives BIC’s global marketing teams centralised data visibility, advanced analytics, and AI-driven insights across the full funnel.
BIC itself has been on a notable trajectory, welcoming a new CEO in Rob Versloot in 2024 and continuing to invest in its global commercial infrastructure.
Ana Afán, Global Retail Media Director, The Coca-Cola Company
Ana Afán has earned her place at the top of the retail media conversation twice over.
Named in the Performance Marketing World Powerlist for the second consecutive year, she is one of the most recognised voices on the brand side of retail media in Europe.
Her perspective is grounded and honest. She is consistent in calling out the issues that matter most to brands: the fragmentation of retail media networks, the still-unresolved challenge of incrementality, and the question of how to split budgets effectively between onsite, offsite, and in-store. She is equally emphatic about building capability within organisations, across content, processes, and people.
She serves on the advisory boards of the Ascendant Network and RM Pioneers, bringing the brand voice into the conversations shaping the industry’s direction. For a space that can sometimes feel dominated by technology and platform providers, her advocacy for the advertiser perspective is a valuable counterweight.
Cai Mullins, Head of Partnerships, Affiliates & Retail Media, HelloFresh & Green Chef UK
Cai Mullins is expanding the possibilities for retail media for a direct-to-consumer brand.
As Head of Partnerships, Affiliates and Retail Media at HelloFresh and Green Chef in the UK, he works across a set of channels that are increasingly converging, using partnerships and affiliate relationships as a foundation for building genuine media value for brand partners reaching HelloFresh’s engaged subscriber base.
His approach is collaborative and commercially grounded, shaped by experience on both the brand and partnership sides of the business.
Recent highlights include a partnership with IAG Loyalty, allowing British Airways Club members to earn Avios on every HelloFresh order, a model that extends the brand’s reach into a loyalty-driven audience in a way that benefits both parties.
He has also been an active industry voice, speaking at PI LIVE Europe on the role of retention within the affiliate and partnerships space, and taking part in discussions on how the affiliate industry can position itself within the broader retail media wave.
HelloFresh has been steadily building out its media and partnership infrastructure, using tools like the Brandcrush-powered media portal to streamline campaign onboarding and give brand partners more direct access to its consumer base.
Candace Tomkiel Deede, VP of Retail Media, Stella Rising
Candace Tomkiel Deede knows retail media from both sides of the table, and that dual perspective is what sets her apart.
As VP of Retail Media at Stella Rising, she leads all retail media and marketplace activation across the agency, specialising in beauty and personal care, health and wellness, and food and beverage.
Her client roster includes e.l.f., ELEMIS, L’Occitane, Bondi Sands, GNC, and AMOREPACIFIC brands, including LANEIGE and innisfree, a portfolio that demands genuine fluency in premium brand strategy alongside performance rigour.
She manages the retail media P&L, oversees a team of over ten, and holds agency relationships with Amazon, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, Kroger Precision Marketing, and Instacart, among others. Under her leadership, the retail media practice has grown agency revenue by 25% year on year.
Before joining Stella Rising, she spent nearly 4 years at Campbell Soup Company, leading performance media strategy across the Meals and Beverages portfolio, driving a 55% year-over-year lift in organic PDP sales and adding 4 new retailer-paid search partners in a single fiscal year.
That client-side experience shapes how she builds strategy: with an understanding of what brand teams actually need from their media partners.
Stella Rising was named Silver Media Agency of the Year at the Ad Age Small Agency Awards in 2025, and Candace’s work was recently recognised with a nomination for Skai’s 2026 ShopAble Media Awards for Full-Funnel Amazon Excellence for her team’s work on AMOREPACIFIC’s innisfree.
Charlotte Murphy, Head of Retail Media, Unilever UKI
Charlotte Murphy believes retail media is not just a performance channel; it is a platform for building genuine brand desire at scale.
As Head of Retail Media at Unilever UKI, she leads a team of commerce and media specialists focused on making Unilever’s brands unmissable at every point on the path to purchase. Her approach is full-funnel and creativity-led, and she has consistently argued that measurement in retail media needs to go well beyond ROAS to properly serve brand growth.
The results have backed that view. A Hellmann’s campaign she championed won the Retail Media Effectiveness award at the Tesco Media Upfront, while a joint campaign with Nectar360 won Best Commerce Media Campaign at The Wires 2024.
More recently, she contributed to the co-creation of Nectar360’s upcoming unified retail media platform, Pollen, appearing at the IAB UK Media Upfronts to discuss how it was built around the real challenges brands face: unified workflows, GenAI integration, and multi-touch attribution.
Chase Arnold, VP of Retail Media, The Bluebird Group
Chase Arnold brings a builder’s mindset to retail media strategy on the agency side.
As VP of Retail Media at The Bluebird Group, he leads a business unit that supports over 25 clients across Amazon, Walmart and Target, overseeing full-funnel strategy and planning processes. His approach blends deep platform expertise with applied AI, leveraging tools such as Amazon Marketing Cloud, Power Query, and automation workflows to close the gap between strategy and execution at scale.
He is thoughtful and transparent about how he thinks through the space; video as the front door, AI as the engine, and authenticated reach as Amazon’s real differentiator.
The Bluebird Group has been recognised for its Walmart Connect work, with the team named as a finalist for Customer Journey Excellence at Walmart Connect’s Partner Network Awards.
Ezgi Mitchell, Retail & Partnerships Marketing Lead, Sky
Ezgi Mitchell has spent over a decade at Sky building the kind of marketing career that covers real ground from personalisation and CRM to product launches and now retail partnerships.
In her most recent move, she stepped into the role of Retail and Partnerships Marketing Lead at Sky in early 2026, working closely with major technology partners including Apple, Samsung, and Google to shape in-store marketing strategy and bring Sky’s products to life across the retail estate.
It follows eleven years in the business, culminating in leading the Customer and Product Marketing function for Sky Sports, TNT Sports, and the club channels for Liverpool and Manchester United.
Her most headline-grabbing achievement in that time was leading the launch of Sky Sports+ from a customer and product marketing perspective, the biggest product launch in Sky Sports history, driving a 20% year-on-year uplift in conversions and involving over 20 cross-functional teams.
She also led a personalised communications transformation that delivered a 129% uplift in incremental upgrades. The Sky Sports marketing team won five awards at the Academy of Marketing Awards on the back of this period of work, including the Grand Prix.
Sky is one of the UK’s most significant media and technology businesses, with a retail presence spanning hundreds of stores and partnerships with some of the world’s largest consumer electronics brands.
Fahmi Mohammed, Digital Strategy Leader, Brave Bison
Fahmi Mohammed brings an omnichannel lens to digital strategy, spanning media planning, ecommerce, analytics, and retail media.
As a Digital Strategy Leader at Brave Bison, he works across a broad range of disciplines, helping clients navigate the intersection of data, media, and commerce in an ever-evolving environment.
His background includes award-winning campaign work, including a Best Omni-Channel Campaign win at the Drum Digital Trading Awards for a McAfee campaign that tied digital out-of-home investment to PPC performance and location data, as well as senior roles working with global clients such as Avis Budget Group, New Balance, Rapha, and SAP.
Brave Bison is a digital and social media agency with a strong reputation in performance marketing, social commerce, and digital strategy. The agency has been investing in its data and analytics capabilities, with a team that spans web analytics, tracking, and marketing technology.
Helene Trad, Director of Retail Media, Kingfisher plc
Helene Trad is the Director of Retail Media at Kingfisher. She is building the retail media and data monetisation function for one of Europe’s largest home improvement retailers, whose brands include B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, and Screwfix.
Previously at AlixPartners, she spent over 3 years as a director of revenue and growth, leading the firm’s global retail media offering and helping clients across Europe, the US, and the Middle East define go-to-market strategies and build the commercial infrastructure to support them.
Before that, she spent six years at Amazon in increasingly senior roles across sales strategy, business operations, and analytics, giving her a detailed, inside view of how the world’s most advanced retail media business actually works.
Kingfisher recently announced a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud to bring AI-powered search and agentic commerce capabilities to its banners, positioning the group at the forefront of how home improvement retail is about to change.
Helene’s retail media build sits within that broader digital transformation, with an opportunity to connect Kingfisher’s considerable first-party data with a proposition that works for brands across one of retail’s most considered and high-value purchase categories.
Josh Clarkson, Global Retail Media Lead, Mars
Josh Clarkson brings a no-jargon, no-nonsense approach to one of the most complex spaces in marketing.
As Global Retail Media Lead at Mars, he has spent the past two years building the company’s retail media strategy, measurement frameworks, and agency partnerships from the ground up. It is a cross-functional role at a global scale, and one that became significantly more complex in late 2024 when Mars completed its $36 billion acquisition of Kellanova, adding brands including Pringles and Kellogg’s to the portfolio and requiring a fundamentally different approach to retail media across both planned and impulse purchase categories.
His perspective is grounded in commercial reality. He is consistent in pushing back on retail media noise, arguing that first-party data connecting the full journey from ad to purchase is what separates genuinely valuable retail media from expensive shopper marketing dressed up in new language. He is also vocal on the need for brands, retailers, agencies and technology partners to work in alignment.
Beyond Mars, he is a regular keynote speaker at international industry events and a member of the Ascendant Retail Media Council. He also runs Edify, a digital commerce consultancy that works with CPG and blue-chip brands on strategy and change management.
Julie Jeancolas, Global Head of Product, Strategy & Partnerships – Retail Media & Personalisation, dunnhumby
Julie Jeancolas is shaping the product and strategy layer of one of the UK’s most powerful retail media platforms.
As Global Head of Product, Strategy and Partnerships Retail Media and Personalisation at dunnhumby, she sits at the centre of the Tesco Media and Insight Platform’s evolution, overseeing the product direction that determines how brands and agencies experience and activate the network.
Her background spans media, digital marketing, adtech, martech, and data science across large and mid-size companies nationwide and globally, and it shows in the breadth of her thinking about the space.
Her fingerprints are on some of the platform’s most significant recent developments. She was closely involved in the launch of Sphere, Tesco Media’s intelligent self-serve platform unveiled at the 2025 Upfront event, which brought together simplicity and intelligence to help campaigns go further with less friction.
She has also been vocal in the industry more broadly, speaking at events on whether the retail media bubble has burst and contributing to the Women in Retail Media Collective’s efforts to elevate female leadership across the space.
Katy Holliday, Commercial Director UK, Retail Media, Criteo
Katy Holliday is the Commercial Director, UK Retail Media, at Criteo. She is now responsible for driving commercial strategy and senior partnerships across the UK.
She is known as much for the culture she builds as the results she delivers. Her posts and events reflect a genuine investment in people, from bespoke training programmes to industry gatherings designed around meaningful connection rather than just reach.
A recent example was the Criteo and Omnicom Commerce Catalyst programme, a certification initiative she helped launch to upskill agency teams across EMEA at scale.
Criteo itself is at a pivotal moment. The company posted record 2025 results, with $1.9 billion in revenue and strong free cash flow, but faces a near-term headwind in 2026 following scope reductions with two major retail media clients.
The underlying business remains strong, with the rest of its retail media client base growing at close to 20%, and the company is investing heavily in agentic AI and its new GO self-service platform.
Laura Belchier, Retail Media Director, Ocado Retail
Laura Belchier brings eleven years of Amazon experience to one of the UK’s most interesting retail media opportunities.
As Retail Media Director at Ocado Retail, she leads Ocado Ads, the retailer’s growing advertising business that connects brands with Ocado’s highly engaged, data-rich online grocery customer base.
Her remit spans commercial strategy, data proposition, and team building, and she has been actively hiring since joining, expanding the team across strategic accounts, growth accounts and agency partnerships, proposition development, and operations.
Her Amazon career provides the foundation. Over eleven years, she progressed from Senior Sales Manager in the CPG vertical through to Head of Retail and Hospitality, and ultimately Head of Consumer Experience Brand.
That trajectory gave her deep fluency in how retail media networks are built, how brand and agency relationships work at scale, and what it takes to translate data into commercial outcomes that partners actually value.
Ocado is a distinctive retail media environment. Its online-only model, subscription customer base, and strong first-party data make it a premium proposition for CPG brands looking for precision targeting and measurable outcomes. The recently published State of Search Report, which analysed 695 million searches across the platform, demonstrated the quality of insight Ocado Ads can generate.
Laura Kalinska, Director of Retail Media, LuxExperience
Laura Kalinska has built her career at the intersection of luxury and digital commerce, a combination that is becoming increasingly important as high-end brands take retail media more seriously.
As Director of Retail Media at LuxExperience, she leads the retail media practice for a platform that connects global luxury brands with affluent audiences through brand-safe, data-driven advertising experiences.
She joined in May 2025 after nearly two years as Director of Retail Media at Mytheresa, where she helped build out one of the most closely watched retail media propositions in the luxury sector, an invite-only, onsite programme that mirrored the exclusivity of the brands it served, and which was expanding into non-endemic categories including beauty, travel, and automotive.
Her background spans Amazon Ads, where she drove adoption of sponsored ads and ecommerce solutions across global agency networks, and two ecommerce consultancies she founded herself, both of which were subsequently acquired. She has lived and worked across five countries and speaks four languages, which shapes a genuinely international approach to the partnerships she builds.
LuxExperience is positioned as the leading digital platform for the global luxury market, and recently completed the acquisition of YOOX NET-A-PORTER from Richemont to create a multi-brand digital luxury group spanning Mytheresa, Net-a-Porter, and Mr Porter.
Lucy Hawkes, Head of Commerce and Retail Media Transformation, PHD
As Head of Commerce and Retail Media Transformation at PHD, Lucy Hawkes brings deep expertise in Amazon Ads, Amazon Marketing Cloud, and retailer clean rooms, a kind of technical and strategic fluency.
Her work focuses on helping brands navigate a commerce landscape that keeps changing faster than most organisations can adapt to.
PHD is part of Omnicom Media Group, one of the world’s leading media agency networks. The group has been actively expanding its retail media capability with Flywheel, its dedicated commerce accelerator, which plays a central role in how it delivers for clients across Amazon and beyond.
Lucy’s role sits at the heart of that evolution, focused on ensuring that commerce and retail media capabilities are not siloed but genuinely integrated into how brands plan and buy across the full funnel.
Lydia Robinson, Retail Media Commercial Strategy, John Lewis Partnership
Lydia Robinson spent three and a half years at Morrisons, where her work included leading the procurement project that brought SMG on board to power Morrisons Media Group. That experience gave her a grounding in both the commercial and operational realities of building a retail media network from the inside.
She has since joined the John Lewis Partnership’s Retail Media Commercial Strategy team. John Lewis operates across fashion, home, beauty, and technology, with a customer base and brand positioning that sets it apart from the grocery networks that have dominated the retail media conversation.
Her recent work includes co-hosting panels at events like MAD//Fest North on how brands can move beyond buying space toward building more integrated stories with retail media, bringing in brand partners, including Benecol and De’Longhi, to share real case studies in omnichannel campaign thinking.
John Lewis Partnership has been steadily developing its retail media offering, with a proposition that spans its website, digital in-store presence, and insights from its Waitrose and John Lewis customer base. Lydia’s role sits at the heart of the commercial strategy that will determine how that proposition grows.
Marjan Abdollahzadeh, Retail Media Director, Publicis Commerce
Marjan Abdollahzadeh leads retail media from the agency side, where the pressure to perform is constant, and the complexity is real.
As Retail Media Director at Publicis Commerce, she oversees account management across a portfolio of major clients, with a particular focus on Amazon strategy and execution. Her role sits at the intersection of commercial growth and operational rigour, defining growth strategies for the largest accounts, making resourcing decisions, and owning senior client relationships that drive the agency’s commercial partnerships.
Publicis Commerce is the commerce practice of Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s leading communications groups. The practice has had a strong run, with Publicis Groupe posting record new business wins in 2025 totalling over $10 billion, driven in part by its AI and data infrastructure and major account wins including Coca-Cola, Mars, and PayPal.
Within that context, the commerce division has been active, publishing regular retail media round-up reports, building out capability across global networks, and expanding its footprint in high-growth markets, including MENA.
Matt Atlay, Commercial Director, Highstreet, L’Oréal (formerly Retail Media Director)
Matt Atlay spent nearly nine years at L’Oréal building commercial and digital expertise before stepping into retail media leadership, and the progression makes sense.
His two and a half years as Retail Media Director at L’Oréal placed him at the centre of one of the most important retail media investment decisions a major beauty company can make.
L’Oréal is one of the most active spenders across retail media networks globally, and managing that strategy across the UK and Ireland required both deep retailer relationships and a sophisticated understanding of how retail media connects to brand and category growth.
Before that role, he spent over 2 years as an eCommerce Client Lead Director, giving him a grounding in digital shelf and performance that informed his approach to retail media. His earlier career included account management and category roles at Unilever, working across Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, which means he understands the commercial dynamic from the retail side as well.
L’Oréal is one of the world’s largest beauty companies, with a portfolio spanning mass, prestige, dermatological, and professional categories.
Matthew Sussberg, Director of Retail Media, HelloFresh North America
Matthew Sussberg is proving that the meal kit box can be one of the most powerful media channels in the CPG arsenal.
As Director of Retail Media at HelloFresh, he leads the retail media division for the HelloFresh Group’s entire North American portfolio, including HelloFresh, Factor, Green Chef, Every Plate, and Chef’s Plate, a combined reach of millions of engaged household decision-makers receiving weekly deliveries.
He has been building the commercial proposition since joining in January 2025, signing partnerships with major CPG brands including Kraft Heinz, McCormick, Pharmavite’s Nature Made, and RYZE, and making the case that the meal kit is uniquely positioned at the moment of cooking when products are not just advertised but actually experienced.
His background spans over fifteen years in sales leadership and brand partnerships across a range of environments, including VP roles at Brandshare, where he led sales for Walmart Baby Registry, Walmart Beauty Box, and Amazon Baby Registry, giving him a strong grounding in retail media’s commercial mechanics before the term was widely used. He has also worked in business development at MarketCast and held a go-to-market leadership role at Recess.
The HelloFresh retail media proposition is omnichannel by design: in-box sampling, recipe sponsorships, digital amplification through email, push, social, and CRM, all connected around a single high-intent moment.
Michael Hanson, VP of Retail Media, Havas Media Network
Michael Hanson has spent two decades building expertise at the intersection of performance marketing and media, and now brings that experience to bear on retail media at the agency level.
As VP of Retail Media at Havas Media Network, he leads the retail media remit for the Shell business, covering Amazon and Walmart activation, while also building out retail media capability across the broader agency.
His path to the role is grounded in performance marketing fundamentals: five years at Starcom Mediavest Group developing search strategy across major clients, nearly a decade in digital marketing leadership within the healthcare sector, and then a senior investment role at Razorfish leading Amazon advertising across Samsung’s full mobile and consumer electronics portfolio, tablets, phones, laptops, earbuds, watches, and beyond.
That Samsung experience in particular is formative. Managing full-funnel Amazon strategy for one of the world’s most complex consumer electronics portfolios requires precision across sponsored ads and DSP at serious scale, and it is exactly the kind of hands-on platform depth that translates into credible agency leadership.
At Havas, he is now applying that knowledge to help clients navigate retail media with the same rigour, building a practice that can go beyond activation and into genuine strategic counsel.
Havas Media Network is part of the wider Havas Group, one of the world’s largest communications groups, with a growing commerce media capability that positions it well for the continued shift of brand budgets toward retail media.
Michael J. Krans, VP of Retail Media, Macy’s
Michael J. Krans is building something meaningful at one of America’s most iconic retail brands.
As VP of Retail Media at Macy’s, he leads the commercial side of Macy’s Media Network at a moment of genuine momentum. The network has been expanding its capabilities rapidly, and one of its most significant recent moves has been its partnership with Amazon Ads’ Retail Ad Service, making Macy’s inventory directly accessible through the Amazon Ads console, and opening a new pathway for brands to reach Macy’s engaged fashion, home, and lifestyle shoppers at scale.
Early results from the partnership have been strong, with categories such as home and apparel delivering competitive performance from day one.
His philosophy on retail media is sharp and consistent. Relevance must come before revenue. A sponsored slot should only be filled if the product is genuinely relevant to the shopper’s intent, treating ad inventory like a personal stylist, not a billboard.
That thinking has shaped Macy’s partnership with Pentaleap, which uses real-time bidding technology to unify paid and organic search in a way that puts customer experience at the centre.
Ryan Sanderson, Retail Media Lead, THG Ingenuity
Ryan Sanderson is building retail media at THG Ingenuity. He has full P&L responsibility for the company’s retail media business, overseeing its technology partnerships, monetisation strategy, and commercial growth across owned-and-operated platforms, including LOOKFANTASTIC, Cult Beauty, and Myprotein. It has a broad remit spanning yield optimisation, audience targeting, campaign delivery, and cross-functional innovation.
THG Ingenuity has been moving quickly in this space. In 2025, the business launched a formal retail media network in partnership with Zitcha, expanded its three-year commerce media partnership with Criteo, and opened up its first-party data to The Trade Desk, giving media buyers self-serve access to beauty and nutrition audience segments across the open internet.
In March 2026, Ryan led the external launch of THG’s Gift With Purchase channel, a proven retail media solution that had already driven a 77% increase in add-to-basket rates and a 67% uplift in new brand partnerships across LOOKFANTASTIC and Myprotein. That channel is now open to selected external brand partners, with wider expansion planned through 2026.
His background is rooted in ecommerce trading and D2C, and he came up through senior roles within THG, working with global clients including L’Oréal and Anastasia Beverly Hills before stepping into retail media leadership.
Sarah Sorrenson, VP Scaled Reach (Global Media Director), Diageo
Sarah Sorrenson leads media at a global scale for one of the world’s most iconic drinks companies.
As VP Scaled Reach and Global Media Director at Diageo, she is responsible for media, retail media, social, creators, and media operations and technology across a portfolio that includes Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Tanqueray, and dozens of other world-class brands. It is a role that requires holding the full picture from investment effectiveness to transformation across markets that move at varying speeds.
Her career has spanned major CPG companies and media agencies for over 20 years, with leadership roles at Unilever ANZ, Coca-Cola South Pacific, and Diageo Australia before moving into her current global position.
That breadth of geography and category gives her a perspective that is genuinely international, and she brings it to bear on some of the biggest questions in the space: how brands should think about retail media within a broader media mix, how social and creator investment connects to commerce outcomes, and how global frameworks translate into local market execution.
Diageo has been steadily expanding its retail media capabilities, with a dedicated media activation team working across retail media and precision marketing. Sarah’s remit places her at the top of that structure, responsible for ensuring that investment across every channel, from retail media networks to social platforms to creator partnerships, is working together to build the brands she oversees.
Steve Gray, Director, SG-retail
Steve Gray has been part of the retail media story long before it became a trend.
As Director at SG-retail, he works with retailers to build and refine their retail media networks. He was closely involved in the early development of retail media through his work with dunnhumby, including helping expand it into the US as a founding director of dunnhumby USA.
He also built emnos, part of Europe’s largest coalition loyalty programme PAYBACK, into a genuine challenger business, and has served as a Senior Adviser to BCG’s retail practice.
More recently, his focus has been on where the space is heading. His view is clear. Retail media is not just another channel. It is the only media that simultaneously drives both physical and mental availability, and it plays a central role in how brands grow.
Over the years, he has worked with major global retailers including Tesco, Carrefour, Kroger, Asda, Woolworths, and Coles.
Steven Regan, VP of Retail Media, Goodway Group
Steven Regan has built a retail media practice from the ground up inside one of America’s leading independent digital agencies.
He leads a growing team focused on shopper marketing and retail media strategy for brand and retail partners. His most notable recent win has been landing Publix Super Markets as a client, making Goodway the exclusive partner for evolving Publix’s shopper marketing programme.
It is a significant relationship that opens the door for CPG brand partners to activate across one of the most respected regional grocery chains in the US, with meaningful measurement and commerce accountability built in from the start.
His path to retail media runs through over a decade at 22squared, the Tampa-based independent agency, where he rose from Search Manager to VP Media Director, working across major brands including The Home Depot, Nike, Publix, Toyota, Mattel, and HBO. That breadth of experience across both performance and brand media, combined with stints at Media. Monks and Trade School give him a well-rounded foundation for the commerce-led work he is now leading at Goodway.
Goodway Group has positioned itself as a scaled, independent leader in connected commerce, and the Publix win reinforces that positioning. Steven’s retail media team is a central part of that story.
Tracy Bailey, Senior Media Integration Lead, Tesco Media (dunnhumby)
Tracy Bailey brings a media planning and measurement perspective to one of the UK’s most data-rich retail media environments.
As Senior Media Integration Lead at Tesco Media, powered by dunnhumby, she works at the intersection of brand media strategy and retail activation, helping connect supplier plans with Tesco’s unique Clubcard-powered proposition.
Her background spans 16+ years in media, with experience in international media planning and buying, and in developing frameworks to measure campaign effectiveness. That rigour around results shows in her approach, and was recently recognised when she won the Audience Vote at dunnhumby’s inaugural internal innovation competition, the dunnhumby Incubate programme.
Tesco Media remains one of the most significant retail media platforms in the UK. With over 24 million Clubcard households, covering nearly every UK home, the platform offers brands a closed-loop environment that connects advertising exposure to customer behaviour across both online and offline touchpoints.
In 2025, the platform held its Upfront event, unveiling an enhanced self-serve platform, Sphere, and a new GenAI-powered Creative Studio. As the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaches, Tesco Media has also been positioning itself as a key partner for brands looking to reach shoppers during one of the decade’s biggest cultural moments.
Viv Craske, Retail Media & E-commerce Consultant, Grace & Co
Viv Craske has built his career at the intersection of retail and disruption.
As a consultant at Grace & Co, he works with both retailers and CPG brands, helping them navigate an industry that keeps moving faster than most organisations can keep up with.
His background spans advertising agencies, retail tech startups, and senior leadership roles, including Managing Director of grocery aggregator mySupermarket, where he built out the media and analytics business, and SVP at an AI grocery data company through its Series A expansion.
That breadth is his edge. He sees the same problem from multiple angles and finds solutions others miss.
He is also one of the more visible voices in the space. His Retail Media Therapy podcast, co-hosted with Colin Lewis and produced through Grace & Co, has become a popular industry listen, covering everything from agentic commerce and AI-driven discovery to the fragmentation challenges facing brands and networks.
He has also published Surviving Digital Disruption and speaks regularly at major industry events, including NRF and IGD.
Viv’s work there spans both retailer and supplier sides, with clients including Superdrug, Frasers, Lidl, Albert Heijn, and Woolworths.
Yara Daher, Co-Founder & Partner, Colosseum Strategy / Retail Media Standards Lead, IAB Europe
Yara Daher was building retail media networks before most of the industry knew what they were.
She joined HookLogic in 2014, a time when convincing retailers to adopt sponsored products was still an uphill battle. During that period, she was instrumental in launching retail media networks for some of the biggest names in global retail, including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.
When Criteo acquired HookLogic in 2016, she stayed on, eventually leading retail media in Brazil and heading up retail partnerships across the US.
Today, she is a Co-Founder and Partner at Colosseum Strategy, a consultancy launched in 2024 by a group of retail media veterans with 2 decades of experience. The firm works with brands, retailers, and technology partners on commerce media strategy, helping them navigate a space that has grown dramatically but unevenly.
Alongside her consultancy work, Yara leads the Retail Media Standards Committee at IAB Europe, chairing efforts to bring common language and measurement frameworks to the industry. She co-authored the organisation’s definition of incrementality and has been active in shaping the Commerce Media Measurement Standards, now in their second version.
Her focus on standards is not just theoretical. She has spent years watching fragmentation slow the industry down and sees the work being done at IAB Europe as foundational to what comes next.
To learn more, join the conversation at Vibe Martech Fest (VMF) Dubai—Register here.
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