Ravi Thakran is the Group President for LVMH South Asia, Southeast Asia ad Middle East. He is also the Managing Partner of L Capital Asia, a LVMH sponsored Private Equity Fund.
With over 20 years of operating experience in Asia, Ravi has led development of leading luxury brands in Europe and The Asia Pacific region. He has an in-depth knowledge of various Asian markets, especially China, Southeast Asia, India and Middle East. He has played a key role in driving LVMH’s investments in Asia’s strategic marketing – China and India.
A graduate from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Ravi started his career in India. Subsequently, he has held a variety of business and marketing positions, including roles for The Tatas, The Swatch Group and Nike in Europe and Asia Pacific. In 1998, he became the youngest member of the Group Management Board at Swatch Group, Switzerland.
Ravi is married with two children.
Aida Bayoud, who has dual American and French nationality, has extensive international retail, marketing and commercial experience.
She has previously held the following positions: Head of Retail France for Levi's and Dockers, Retail Director for La Vallée Village Outlet Shopping, Group Retail Consultant as well as in-house trainer/developer of the Retail Academy and co-initiator of the GRS (Group Retail Services) programme at Value Retail.
Most recently, Aida has been working in New York for Assouline, the established publisher specialized in fashion, art, design luxury books and lifestyle where she was overseeing the expansion of their international business.
Stefan Bruun is the Managing Director at the digital agency, Lion&Lion. Its data-driven team help clients such as IKEA, SingTel, AirAsia and Reckitt Benckiser jump light years ahead on the digital marketing knowledge and execution curve. The approach builds on the lessons from countless hours of marketing execution and learnings from spending more than USD 300 million online over the last years.
Prior to Lion&Lion, Stefan was the Asia Pacific Chief Marketing Officer and the leading expert on online marketing for the largest internet venture company in the world, behind Zalora, Lazada and Groupon, called Rocket Internet. Rocket Internet is well known for being best in class worldwide when it comes to online marketing, and is the largest client of Facebook and Google globally. When building online companies, winning or not winning comes down to how great you are at driving traffic, leads and orders online.
Stefan has previously held positions as Vice President, Asia at Groupon and at investment banking with Morgan Stanley in London. Stefan holds a BS in International Business from Copenhagen Business School.
Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and graduated in 1993 from London’s
Central St Martins School of Art and Design. His degree collection was bought by British
iconic boutique Browns, launching him as a significant new fashion force. In 1994 Chalayan started his own label. He was named British Designer of the Year in 1999 and 2000.
In 2002, Chalayan moved his internationally lauded fashion show from London to Paris where the Chalayan collection is shown seasonally. The ready‐to‐wear collection is regularly featured in top fashion magazines and international press as well as carried in the world’s best boutiques. It is favoured by actresses, musicians, artists and tastemakers on and off the stage or red carpet.
Chalayan has been the Creative Director of Asprey and TSE New York. He designed capsule collections for Top Shop, Marks & Spencer and has collaborated with J Brand Jeans. In 2008 he was appointed Creative Director of Puma. In 2006 Chalayan was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s list. In 2011 Rizzoli published the first complete monograph on Chalayan’s work entitled Hussein Chalayan. Chalayan also released his first fragrance Airborne in the same year.
Chalayan lectures regularly on his work and has exhibited in museums worldwide including the V&A in London, The Kyoto Costume Institute, The Musée de la Mode‐Palais du Louvre in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MOMA in New York.
Stefan Ellrott is Country Manager at Global Blue Singapore. In this position he is responsible for managing Global Blue’s strategies, budgets, and employees in Singapore.
Stefan first joined Global Blue in Germany on 1 February 2008, where he was Head of Key Account Management and responsible for Global Blue’s key accounts. Prior to this role, he was working at Elavon Merchant Services, a pan-European acquirer of VISA, MasterCard and Diners Club International transactions.
Stefan began his career at 3C Communications International. He was subsequently appointed as an area manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and during his tenure, his portfolio expanded to include Middle East and Central Europe.
Stefan is married and he has two children – boys aged 10 and 5 years old. He is fluent in English and German and likes to spend his free time attending rock and pop concerts.
Jennifer Fall has worked for Galeries Lafayette since 2001, first as Commercial Coordinator for GL projects in France and six years, as Commercial Coordinator International for stores worldwide.
Since January 2012, Jennifer has become the Vice President of the Brand Galeries Lafayette in Asia, moved to Hong Kong and she is working on the development in Asia with local partners and teams.
An international retail strategies expert and founder of Global Purchasing Companies, Mercedes R. Gonzalez is sought after to streamline domestic and international fashion businesses.
Gonzalez’s 23 years of experience includes working for and successfully restructuring her uncle’s apparel manufacturing company in the heart of the NYC garment district; buying for Frederick Atkins and some of the most important buying offices in the US; streamlining thousands of stores nationally and abroad such as the inaugural Sears store in Panama; and participating in private label for stores like Dillard’s and Harvey Nickels of England.
Gonzalez is praised for having industry know-how and for sharing tricks of the trade that her every day experiences have afforded her. She has been featured on the “Today Show” and Fine Living Television as a retail expert and on Univision, playing herself as an industry maven.
Along with television appearances, Gonzalez is repeatedly featured in industry publications, such as WGSN, California Apparel News and Women’s Wear Daily. Known notably as having the most practical business sense, Gonzalez is a preferred speaker at a multitude of regional and international fashion events including Miami Fashion Week, Jamaica Fashion Week, Asia Fashion Summit, and the Istanbul Textile Conference.
Lorna Hall is a business analyst and journalist with 16 years' experience researching, and commentating on the fashion retail market. Before joining WGSN, she was the executive editor of the UK's award-winning fashion trade magazine Drapers.
As the head of Retail and Strategy at WGSN, Lorna is responsible for keeping the industry informed on best practice and innovation across all forms of retail including, online and offline strategies, store design and visual merchandising. Lorna speaks at and chairs international apparel conferences and seminars; most recently she chaired three sessions at World Retail Congress Asia in Singapore. She also led WRC Asia’s Retail Study Tour.
Lorna is a regular commentator on the fashion trade via international media and she has been the host and moderator at the Asia Fashion Summit, since its inception.
Marcus Ho is the Director of Client Leadership at Social Media Hub, the Asia’s foremost measurable social media company that helps business achieve business objectives through integrated social media. Well known for his fresh insights and business objective focused programmes, Marcus has successfully helped 150 over corporations and SEMs in the area of social marketing in the short span of 2 years. Some of his recent clients are Qatar Airways, Red Prairie, and Singapore Management University.
Marcus honed his social media chops with his previous startup, Tech Zone, a leading national Apple accessories e-store. He translated his experience into a bestselling book, Secrets to Facebook Marketing.
Most recently, a client of Marcus won runner-up for “Best Social Media Promotion of Travel Deals for a Global Airline” awarded by New York’s Magazine Travel+Leisure.
Ruth Marshall-Johnson is a consumer trend analyst and consultant specialising in identifying and communicating far-reaching future trends for fashion, beauty and style brands. She consults for many global companies on future consumer trend and retail development.
As the leader of the WGSN Think Tank directory, Ruth is responsible for WGSN's future consumer research and forward-thinking agenda. Ruth regularly comments for global media and speaks at international conferences on future trends.
Ruth was trained at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in Fashion Communication and has worked across online and print fashion media, researched for fashion history publications for the V&A and Vogue, and has seven years of experience in trend-forecasting.
Ann Kositchotitana is an oft-quoted regional media darling renowned for her bold fashion instincts and new-age business savvy. She is a rule-breaker who boldly builds her empire on a singular principle: That of eschewing international fashion's front row fetishes for her own understated "underground" fashion finds.
Today as the founder/owner, and buying director for the iconic FRONT ROW multi-label shop at Raffles Hotel, APC and FLYNOW shops in Singapore, she has made many new fashion heroes of hitherto unknown Asian labels. And she is a trendsetter with her taste-making predictions, market analyses and personal tips which are often sought to set the tone of our times, when she is featured in a slew of international publications ranging from WGSN, MILK X (Hong Kong, China and Taiwan), Bangkok Post (Thailand), The Straits Times (Singapore), Her World (Singapore), Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore, China), L’Officiel (Singapore), Harper’s Bazaar (Singapore), Vogue (Australia, France) and many other online websites and TV shows.
Ann is also a Steering Committee member of the prestigious President’s Design Award, Singapore’s highest honoured award given in the fields of design, art and architecture. Her latest pursuit in co-creating HEADLINE SEOUL will reflect the impact of Asia on global fashion.
In 1987, Dr. Peter Lau returned from Canada to Hong Kong to join Giordano International Limited in its infancy. Shortly after the company went public in 1991, Dr. Lau became the company’s Chairman and CEO in 1994.
Giordano is now a well-known regional retailer of men, women, and children fashion wear, with over 2,600 self-operated and franchised stores across China and in 30 other markets, mostly in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Trained as a professional accountant and with a MBA from Canada in his earlier years, Peter later earned a doctoral degree in Business Administration from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on topics of customer service and a master’s degree in Buddhist Studies from the University of Hong Kong.
For his public services, Dr. Lau presently serves in various roles such as investment ambassador of InvestHK; working group member of the Economic Development Commission of the HKSAR; chairman of the Management and Marketing Departmental Advisory Committee at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and adjunct professor of Marketing at the City University of Hong Kong. He at times speaks at international conferences, generously sharing his unorthodox views on leadership, customer service, and marketing.
Lena Lim is Director of Browzwear Solutions which specialises in business simulation. She also heads its consulting arm specialising in strategy, process change and business restructuring.
Lena has over 20 years of experience managing SME and MNC businesses and her international portfolio spans across industries from electronics and technology to recycling. She has held senior positions in sales and marketing, supply chain and operations, global restructuring and general management.
As Regional Managing Director of ZALORA, Harry Markl is responsible for the regional sites’ brand & product assortment and development, as well as buying. He tracks e-commerce market trends to make accurate decisions on inventory levels to keep, categories to explore, and brands that South-East Asia’s leading fashion & beauty e-tailer should carry, on its well-trafficked sites.
A career start in investment banking where he supported technology IPOs, honed Harry’s business skills in the technology sector before he entered the reputed management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. During his nine years at McKinsey, he served large clients within the Telecommunications, Consumer, and Retail industries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, with a focus on procurement, corporate finance, and sales & marketing. About five years ago, Harry moved to McKinsey’s Singapore office as Junior Partner, to lead and advise major Asian B2C clients on various strategic aspects of their business – Enhancing product offering; Pricing strategy; Setting-up e-commerce as a new sales channel. While there, he conducted analyses of e-commerce’s potential in South-East Asia and became familiar with the region’s e-tail landscape and future growth potential.
His work also gave him insights into market opportunities in fashion e-commerce, motivating him to make his latest entrepreneurial career move into the nascent e-business space that ZALORA leads in South-East Asia. Under his leadership, ZALORA has achieved exponential growth to become a cutting-edge e-tail front-runner providing top-notch styles and brands on intuitive web and mobile platforms.
Colin McDowell has been involved with fashion at many levels, including designing, for more than 30 years. He worked in Italy for 10 years before returning to London where he became involved with education. He is proud to say that he taught John Galliano. He has been a journalist since the mid-eighties, working for quality newspapers and magazines published in the UK and several in the USA. He has been the senior fashion writer of The Sunday Times since 1986, for the last 10 years for Style.
Colin has written 20 books on fashion, including biographies of John Galliano, Ralph Lauren, Jean Paul Gaultier, Matthew Williamson and Manolo Blahnik. He is currently completing two more. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, both as a 'talking head' and as writer and presenter. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and has been awarded honorary doctorates and professorships by five British universities. In 2010, he was appointed Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art. He was appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) in The New Year Honours List 2008.
He is the founder and creative director of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden, bringing together an outstanding panel of influential fashion supporters (including Tom Ford, Donatella Versace and Anna Wintour) to successfully foster new fashion talent in London.
Colin has worked as Creative Editor at Large for Net-a-porter.com and is Creative Director of Singapore Fashion Festival and Chair of the Sri Lanka Design Festival Symposium on Sustainable Fashion. He is Curator of Drawing Fashion, the fashion illustration exhibition currently showing at The Design Museum in London.
Nehal Medh is a graduate in Statistics and a post-graduate in Marketing Management from a premier B-school in India. After a two year stint in FMCG product management, Nehal joined the market research industry. Nehal worked for 17 years with one India’s best-regarded research agencies – MARG. Nehal stayed with MARG (which, after a series of mergers, became ACNielsen ORG-MARG – India’s largest market research agency). Nehal left ACNielsen ORG-MARG to set up Ipsos India, and has joined Ipsos Singapore in February 2010.
Nehal has been an active member of the Market Research Society of India (MRSI) and of the Market Research Society of Singapore (MRSS). Nehal has been the convener of the annual seminar of the MRSI and was in charge of Training initiatives at the MRSS.
Nehal has experience in researching a wide range of products – media products, CPGs, durables, automotive, banking, pharmaceutical, management consulting, retailing, etc. His experience also spans use of both research technologies - qualitative and quantitative research.
Nehal has kept his interest in academics alive by teaching at some of the most reputed management institutes in India.
Wayne Milano is the Senior Vice President Asia and Managing Director of Abercrombie & Fitch HK, Ltd. He is responsible for the Asia Pacific Region with an emphasis on sourcing, manufacturing, product integrity, and procurement.
With over 20 years of experience in Apparel Manufacturing, Product Development and Retail Management along with a high level of Cultural Dexterity, Wayne is a key contributor to the Abercrombie & Fitch efforts within APAC.
Wayne has established himself in the industry as a self-motivated leader with a solid track record in building and leading high performance teams, and with a combination of both a creative and business acumen.
Wayne joined Abercrombie & Fitch in 2002 as a Director of Sourcing and was later transferred to Hong Kong in 2005 to establish the Hong Kong operation where he assumed his current areas of responsibilities.
Prior to Abercrombie & Fitch, he held posts at J.Crew, Macy’s and Gap.
Wayne has also taken an active role in the advisory committee efforts for the World Retail Congress – Singapore 2013, Retail Asia Expo – Hong Kong 2013, and International Retail Conference – Hong Kong 2011/12.
Steve Newbold is the General Manager Asia Pacific for the Top Right Group, owner of WGSN. The Top Right Group is an international multi-media business consisting of market-leading publications, festivals, large-scale events, exhibitions and information services. Key markets include retail, infrastructure, media, fashion, architecture, home and gift, renewable energy, health, education, government, creative, design and customer insight sectors.
Steve is responsible for acquisitions, business development, partnerships and launches across the group’s events and exhibition business. He was previously Managing Director of TRG’s exhibition arm and prior to this was the Global Managing Director of WGSN (the world’s leading fashion information service). He has also been publisher of global men’s lifestyle magazine brand FHM.
Marcello Pace was born and raised in Italy. He started his career in BSO (Bata Shoe Organization) in Italy. Over the years Marcello held several posts as Managing Director heading Bata Companies in Singapore, Thailand, Central America and Malaysia. He then became Group Managing Director for Bata Emerging Markets East, expanding the business in the Region and leading the central sourcing function with offices in China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. Next, Marcello was President of the Bata Global Growth Initiatives. Currently Marcello is the Retail President Bata Emerging Markets, responsible for company-wide leadership in strategy, operations and management. Marcello has refined and implemented the company’s retail strategic plan and he is expanding Bata retail’s operations whilst positioning the company retail concepts as leaders in the Emerging Markets.
Beside his “Bata” career Marcello worked in Management Consulting and was engaged in a pilot project (committed by the European Community) for developing entrepreneurship. Marcello was also posted to Shanghai as China CEO for “United Colors of Benetton” and to Hong Kong as Asia Pacific CEO for “Replay”.
Marcello loves tennis and Medieval Music. Married, he has a 13 years old daughter, Zoe Maria. Marcello enjoys lecturing, which he did for various Bata courses as well as for international seminars and for several Universities.
Marcello holds a Master degree in Law from University of Perugia in Italy. He attended various management courses in Italy and abroad, including the prestigious Advanced Management Course at the Wharton School – University of Pennsylvania. Marcello is very proud of having been Lieutenant of Carabinieri (Italian police) and being ranked n.1 out of the officer’s school.
Malcolm Pinkerton is a Research Director, based in London, responsible for Planet Retail's e-commerce coverage.
Malcolm has been analysing and researching the industry since 2004, specialising in e-commerce and multi-channel retailing. He has worked for the British Retail Consortium, Verdict Research and most recently the retail research agency ABA Market Research. Malcolm regularly presents Planet Retail's views to senior industry and professional services audiences as well the media.
Malcom holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial systems and business management from the University of Westminster, London.
Simone Pederson has over 15 years of experience in the beauty retail and education fields, working most recently for luxury brand Chanel Australia and specialty retailers, Lane Crawford (General Merchandise Manager- Cosmetics) and Joyce in Hong Kong and China.
Simone is passionate about Customer Sales and Service, and when working in cosmetic retailing in Asia, she realised that there was a need to provide retail staff with the fundamental knowledge required in the key areas of Customer Sales and Service, Grooming, Skincare, Makeup and Fragrance.
To fill this need, she has attracted the most sought after industry specialists and worked with them to create courses in each core area. The courses have been designed to teach the essential knowledge retail staff need to provide exceptional service, increase sales and maximise company profits.
Simone’s strong relationships with key executives in the retail industry, has meant that the most significant brands and retailers have endorsed the eLearning programs. Red Scout courses are being rolled out in many different languages across wide geographic regions in Asia Pacific.
Red Scout’s content has attracted worldwide industry interest, and most recently, she was named by Women’s Wear Daily as one of the ’12 Rising Stars of Beauty’ in 2013.
Simone is also the founder of retail consulting company, Red Beauty, and is called upon to speak at industry events and sits on the judging panel for the Beauty and Service industries. Red Scout has offices in Sydney and Hong Kong.
Stephanie Phair was appointed to launch and run THE OUTNET.COM, a division of NET-A-PORTER Limited, in February 2009. Stephanie is responsible for overall business performance and leading strategic direction for the brand. She also sits on the Executive Team of the NET-A-PORTER Group.
Prior to joining THE OUTNET, Stephanie’s career in the luxury goods industry spanned across brand management, marketing and merchandising. As Vice President, Merchandising at Portero, she spent three years building the auction-based website’s product acquisition and merchandising team, having previously worked in US Vogue’s editorial Public Relations and Marketing group and at Issey Miyake USA.
Stephanie has travelled extensively throughout the world and speaks four languages fluently. She served on the Parsons School of Design selection committee for Designer of the Year and has lectured to students on the connection between Architecture and Fashion Design. Stephanie holds a B.A in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Massimo Prando is Managing Director of RTT Asia Pacific and is on the management team of RTT AG. RTT leads in professional high-end 3D visualisation in realtime. As a strategic partner, RTT enables companies to explore innovative ways for an emotive digital product experience across the entire product life cycle - from design and development to marketing and sales applications.
RTT's unique portfolio of high-end technology, creative turn-key solutions and CGI is the basis for customised applications. Building on industry-specific expertise, RTT's comprehensive approach, ensures sustainable process to help develop and market products faster, cost-effectively and in exciting new ways.
Since late 2007, Massimo is engaged with RTT AG as General Manager of Asia - to provide new design's influences; strategic innvovation process; and new holistic product communication practices right through to sales and retails for RTT Asia clients across several history.
His recent involvement into Audi's new retail showroom concept is but one of many such renowned projects
Giuseppe Ravenna has been working in Swarovski Elements for more than 13 years. Previously based in Milan, Italy, he brings to South East Asia his precious experience in sales and marketing as well as a large network within the fashion and jewellery industry. Ravenna is currently responsible for all the operational and business development matters in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Specialised in emerging technologies and influencer marketing, Daniel Saynt has helped direct social media campaigns for Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, H&M and more recently, Rebecca Minkoff, where he has been instrumental in the brand’s leadership in social marketing.
His work at Minkoff has included well-received campaigns with Bloglovin, Polyvore, Instagram, Lookbook.nu, Facebook, Twitter and over a hundred of the world’s most prolific fashion and beauty bloggers.
Daniel is best known as the creator of FashionIndie.com, an online media network that at its height reached nearly 5.4 million consumers. He is currently the CEO of the Socialyte.Collective, an agency specialised in blogger brand relations and branded media properties.
Daniel’s efforts have led to stories and profiles by Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, Luxury Daily, PRWeek, New York Magazine, Entrepreneur and WWD. He was also nominated for the Social Media Manager of the Year Award at The Shorty Awards 2012.
Darren Watson creatively directs the environmental and digital projects for FITCH in Asia. He has been responsible for leading the creative strategy for Asian Paints in India, whose FITCH-designed ‘Colour’ experience stores in Mumbai and Delhi were the winners of 14 awards since 2008, as well as the visual merchandising execution for P&G SK II, now one of the world’s biggest luxury skincare brands.
Darren is also primarily responsible for piloting innovative ideation techniques within the FITCH network, and for defining the FITCH digital offer. His recent project illustrating the integration of digital and retail is ‘Vivid Homes’ for B&Q in China – a new home décor store concept piloted in Shanghai.
Before moving to Singapore to join FITCH in 2005, Darren worked at I Am Associates, Corsie Naysmith and The Design Solution – all independent agencies in London. His clients included Abbey National (Darren introduced Costa Coffee outlets to its bank branches), BAA, Debenhams, HMV, Armani, L’Oreal, and New Look.
Darren has a degree in Interior Design from Middlesex University in the United Kingdom.
Born in Hong Kong in 1965, Douglas Young spent his formative years abroad, where he received formal training in Architecture at Sheffield University and the Architectural Association in the UK. Since 1991, Young has worked in Hong Kong on projects ranging from residential to retail interiors.
In 1996, Young co-founded G.O.D. with Benjamin Lau. The product range consists of contemporary furniture, fashion, homeware, and lifestyle accessories with a Chinese twist. Most of the merchandise is designed in-house by a multi-disciplinary design team led by Young. The long-term vision of the company is to build a Hong Kong brand that is both forward looking in nature and proud to display its cultural origins.
To date, G.O.D. has quite a few stores located throughout Hong Kong ranging in size from 1,000 sq. ft. to the flagship store of 10,000 sq. ft. At present, there are stores at the following locations: Central, The Peak, Sai Kung, Stanley, Cyberport, and Ap Lei Chau. Besides, there are two franchise stores in Guangzhou and Singapore.
G.O.D. products are available in many of the world's foremost department stores, boutiques and museum shops, and many designs have been the subject of much media attention.
 Ravi Thakran, |
 Chris Burch |
 A panel discussion by Italian speakers on lifestyle retailing and the Italian experience. From left to right: Barbara Ende, President, Sycamore Marketing Group Inc.; Mario Boselli, President, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana; Lorenzo Della Croce, Director and General Manager, Forall Asia Pacific Limited; Andrea Petochi, Managing Director Pomellato Division, Pomellato; Andrea Bonardi, President, Italian Chamber of Commerce (Singapore) and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, La Perla Asia Private Limited |
 An up close and personal interview with Nicola Formichetti, Creative Director of Thierry Mugler by Colin Mc. Dowell, Leading Fashion Commentator. |
 A panel discussion on how social media can seal the sale, online and in-store. From left to right: Lorna Hall, Senior Retail Editor, WGSN; Sarah Curran, Chief Executive, my-wardrobe.com; Hani Mahdi, Brand Marketing, Nike SEA; Corinne Ng, Founder, shopthemag.com and Group Editor, MediaCorp Publishing; Eddie Chau, Founder and CEO, Brandtology; Jane Perry, General Manager, BBDO Proximity Shop
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Having cultivated a passion for social, political and cross-cultural issues since his teenage years, Andrea Bonardi studied Political Sciences at the Catholic University in Milan where he graduated in 1995. Then, after a brief stint at Nestlé Italia, he joined the Institute for Industrial Promotion, an agency of the Ministry of Trade, where he managed a few industrial co-operation projects aimed at boosting the presence of Italian SMEs with neighbouring countries in Northern Africa and Central Europe.
In 2000, he expanded his market knowledge by taking up the post of Asia Manager at the Milan Chamber of Commerce, which helped him get acquainted with the business environment of this strategic emerging market. His passion for Asia translated into an opportunity to lead the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce in Bombay between 2001 and 2006. Andrea was responsible for launching several promotional and business programmes in emerging strategic industries such as tourism, jewellery, fashion, food and wines, sports, as well industrial co-operation projects in the SME sector with the support of EU-funded programmes. His team’s activities brought India and Italy much closer and earned Andrea a knighthood by the Italian Government for his contribution to fostering bilateral relations.
Andrea was asked to develop the La Perla brand in Asia following a beautiful La Perla fashion show organised by the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce in India. Since 2006, he has been responsible for the opening of over 25 La Perla stores in nine Asian markets with many more to open soon. Since 2011, he has also been responsible for business development in emerging markets, including Latin America, Eastern Europe, the CIS and the Middle East, while keeping his base in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Andrea has not left behind his original passion and has been President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore since 2009.
Mario Boselli, the President of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (the Italian Chamber of Fashion), is a leading figure in Italian fashion. He began his career in 1959 at his father’s company, Carlo Boselli of Garbagnate Monastero, a silk mill steeped in tradition, and through the years, developed the business in Italy and abroad, in Slovakia. He left the company for other pursuits in 2005.
Mario is also Chairman of the Cariplo, Setefi and Moneta (Intesa SanPaolo Group) Pension Funds as well as of the Italy-Hong Kong Association, and sits on several company boards. He has been President of Federtessile, Fiera Internazionale di Milano, Pitti Immagine, International Silk Association (Lyon), Italian-Slovak Chamber of Commerce (Bratislava), Centrobanca, as well as Member of the Board of UBI Banca.
Among his many honours, he was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro (1990), Commandeur de l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur (France 2002) and Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (2007).
J. Christopher Burch, founder and CEO of J. Christopher Capital, has been an entrepreneur and active investor across a wide range of industries for nearly thirty years. He contributed to the rise of multiple technology and luxury brands, including Aliph (Jawbone), the Faena Hotel + Universe, NextJump, PowerMat, Tory Burch and Voss Water. He is a board member of Tory Burch and is a former board member of Guggenheim Capital and The Continuum Group.
Chris’ entrepreneurial success began in 1976 when he was still an undergraduate student at Ithaca College. With his brother Bob, he invested $2,000 to start Eagle’s Eye apparel, a business they grew to $165 million and then sold to Swire Group. After the sale of Eagle’s Eye, Chris was one of the earliest investors in Internet Capital Group, a well-known IPO story in the Internet space.
Chris relied increasingly on his ability to find the nexus between innovation and implementation and continued to realise unusual success, based in part on his intuitive understanding of consumer behavior and his experience utilising superior sourcing infrastructure and direct-to-consumer channels.
Chris has invested in domestic and international real estate ventures, from developing luxury homes on Nantucket, in Palm Beachand in Southampton, New York, to large-scale building projects in Argentina, where he partnered architect Philippe Stark and hotelier Alan Faena to redevelop a underutilised parcel of land into the Faena Hotel + Universe.
Chris is currently launching several lifestyle and consumer products brands that include: C. Wonder, an apparel, accessories and home decor retailer; MONIKA CHIANG, a curated collection of apparel, handbags, shoes and jewelry; No. 9 Chris, a high end home furnishings and apparel company; and Electric Love Army, a sportswear label with People’s Revolution publicist Kelly Cutrone.
Arnault Castel was born and raised in France and has been a resident of Hong Kong since 1996. In the course of his 12-year working experience in Asia, Arnault has developed an extensive knowledge and understanding of the Asian consumer goods and retail environment, with a special focus on financing of these activities.
Arnault created kapok in 1996 as an antidote to the perceived blandness of Hong Kong retail scene. kapok focuses on designers and brands whose work reflects their attitude towards quality craftsmanship and creativity in design. It has now expanded to three locations in Hong Kong with the introduction of a cafe/gallery space in January 2010, and a nautical-themed store in May 2011. Each shop provides a unique roof under which people in the community can meet and find inspiring quality goods.
In 2001, he joined the team in charge of the development of the Lomography brand in Asia, with an initial focus on finances and administration. Arnault later took the position of head of the Southeast Asian operations for Lomography, based in Hong Kong.
Arnault is also the co-owner and director of Working Unit Ltd., the exclusive distributor for the Moleskine brand in Southeast Asia, founded in 2005.
In 2002, Daniel Castle left his International Investment banking position at Lehman Brothers and joined his family’s established private label manufacturing business, In Private. Daniel was responsible for managing the key accounts such as Target, Kohls and JC Penney. Daniel felt strongly about capitalising on the growing popularity of action sports. In 2003, he signed a North America Master License agreement with Piping Hot Australia and launched the action sports label in the United States as well as all JC Penney doors.
Daniel focused on marketing and developing the categories In Private was established in such as swimwear and wovens and then licensed out the other categories. He has always had a passion for branding and in 2005, he founded the celeb-friendly young designer men’s and women’s label, Castle Starr (www.castlestarr.com) worldwide. Castle Starr was featured in top retailers around the world and Daniel's position as owner of this brand gave him exposure to key players worldwide.
As VP of International at Iconix Brand Group, Daniel is responsible for growing the company’s global footprint by seeking out and working with best in class licensees worldwide while also managing the established International offices in London, Panama and Mumbai. His vast experience on both the private and branded label side of the business as well as his licensing background makes him a unique source of information for the Asia Fashion Summit.
Eddie Chau is the Founder and CEO of Brandtology (a Sentia Media company), a business and brand online intelligence service provider which enables global brands to manage and extract invaluable insights from consumers' conversations in social media. Through an effective combination of proprietary technology, processes and trained professionals, Brandtology enables companies to stay aware of social media trends and conversations about their brands, competitors and industry, thus allowing for strategic decision-making in a timely manner. With a team of highly experienced social media analysts, Brandtology is able to provide highly accurate and relevant insights in multiple countries and languages.
Prior to Brandtology, Eddie was the founder and CEO of e-Cop Pte Ltd, which grew to become a market leader in the Information Security Industry. He pioneered the first 24×7 Managed Security Services in the world with e-Cop which was acquired in 2007 by a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd.
Eddie holds a MSc in Communication Engineering from Imperial College, London. Previously, he held senior management positions in IBM and Computer Associates Inc.
Jim Crawford is the executive director of the Global Retail Executive Council (GREC) and principal consultant at Taberna Retail. Having worked in the retail industry as an analyst, consultant, strategist and technology company executive, Jim has a unique perspective on the retail industry, bringing together divergent points of view – the consumer, the retailer, CPG supplier, and technology vendor – into a compelling storyline that addresses all sides of the issue.
As a retail analyst at Forrester Research, Jim authored research reports on topics ranging from next-generation store design to the use of RFID in the retail supply chain. At Retail Forward, Jim served as vice president and CTO, leading strategy projects for retailers including Home Depot, Metro, REI and Limited Brands and developing custom research for technology vendors including IBM, Oracle, and Intel. Managing an annual marketing budget of $1.3 million at Intel Corporation during his tenure as global industry manager of retail/CPG, Jim increased vertical revenue by 32% in one year and led strategic proof of concept deployments at Wal-Mart, Metro, Tesco, and Circuit City. As the director of industry solution marketing for SAP Retail, Jim created the go-to-market strategy for food, fashion, and hardlines as well as retooling SAP's trade show presence to tell a convincing story using HD video for the first time.
Sarah started her career at News International as a sub-editor for The Times Online, where she developed an understanding and passion for internet publishing which would take her to launch her business in the online space.
In August 2003, Sarah opened Powder, a designer fashion boutique in Crouch End, North London, which offered ‘everyday luxury’ womenswear designers such as By Malene Birger, Paul & Joe and Marc by Marc Jacobs. In 2006, after a move to the south of France and in anticipation of the rapid growth of the online fashion industry, Sarah decided to launch my-wardrobe.com, which has become UK’s leading online retailer of ‘everyday luxury’ designer womenswear and menswear fashion.
The rapid growth of the business brought Sarah back to UK, where she set up the base of my-wardrobe.com in Nottingham and the HQ in central London. With a 100-strong team, my-wardrobe.com now offers beautifully edited collections from over 180 leading womenswear and menswear designers including Marc by Marc Jacobs, Anya Hindmarch, 3.1 Philip Lim, Camilla Skovgaard, Paul Smith, Burberry and Acne.
my-wardrobe.com was awarded Best Customer Experience at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards in New York, as well as Best Customer Experience at the Drapers Etail Awards 2010 and Gold: Overall Winner and Best Innovation at the 2009 Drapers Etail Awards.
As CEO of my-wardrobe.com, Sarah attends fashion shows around the world and regularly comments on trends and designers for leading print and broadcast media, as well as speaking at key events including the British Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference, the Drapers Fashion Summit, Fashion Business Club and the 2010 L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.
In recognition of Sarah’s entrepreneurial skills and expertise in the fashion sector, she has been made a fellow of the RSA (The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce).
Lorenzo Della Croce is Pal Zileri’s International Media and Press Relations Director. Born in November 1948 in Lugano, Switzerland to a famous Swiss textile family, Lorenzo was destined to work in fashion. At age 24, he was among the first three people in Europe to have obtained the highest university degree in textiles at the University of Koeln Moenchengladbach.
After spending several years working in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, Lorenzo founded his own company in Switzerland, which offered global services to a number of brands. During this time Lorenzo had the opportunity to work directly with prominent designers such as Armani, Versace, Ferre, Valentino, Moschino, and Jean Paul Gaultier.
20 years ago, Lorenzo was introduced to the producer of Pal Zileri from Forall Group, and quickly formed a very close working relationship with the brand. He took up the challenge of developing the business and brand image, which at the time had only five clients outside of Italy. Today, the brand has become one of the most recognised high-end men’s fashion in the world, and is sold in over 50 countries, with an increase in exports from 5 to 55 percent in just 10 years’ time.
Lorenzo is also Director and General Manager of Forall Group’s subsidiary, Forall Asia Pacific, which aims to provide all-rounded services to Asian markets with a focus on Greater China. In Hong Kong, Pal Zileri has been going strong with four outlets and a boutique.
Barbara Ende is a marketing expert with an extensive background in advertising, market research and business management. After completing a Master of French at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Barbara returned to New York where she was part of the advertising team at Revlon for several years. Her love of France led her to accept the position of North American Director of the French Fashion and Textile Center, where she managed the public relations, business relationship building and marketing strategy for the various French trade associations such as the couture, womenswear, menswear and fabric groups.
In 1994, Barbara formed her own international trade development consultancy, Sycamore Marketing Group Inc., focused on developing strategy and increasing the footprint of various international clients in the US market (i.e. Center for Exports of Morocco, PromPeru, Enterprise Mauritius, Reed Trade shows, etc.). In addition, her firm works on event development in the global trade show and conference space, working with major clients such as MAGIC Marketplace in the US, EUROVET France, etc.
In 2005, Barbara was nominated as a Senior Apparel Marketing Specialist by USAID (an independent US federal government agency responsible for providing economic and humanitarian assistance around the globe) and hired to create marketing strategies for various USAID funded projects in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Nicola Formichetti was born in 1977 to Japanese and Italian parents and spent his childhood between Rome and Tokyo. In 1997 he moved to London to study architecture, but changed course when he found his interests lay elsewhere. He was one of the instigators with Yuko Yabiku of London’s The Pineal Eye which opened in June 1998 in Soho. The edgy, avant-garde shop was the first to mix one-off pieces from designers with vintage Comme des Garçons, new names, cult accessories and magazines. Nicola was the store’s buyer and art director.
After a few years, he was approached by Katy England and Alastair Mackie to join them on the team of the legendary English style magazine Dazed & Confused for which he first edited the Eye Spy column and is now a contributing editor. He is also Fashion Director of Vogue Hommes Japan and a contributing fashion editor of V Magazine and VMAN in the US. From there, he became a stylist for other magazines and advertising campaigns for Uniqlo, Dolce & Gabbana and many more.
Formichetti met pop sensation Lady Gaga at a 2009 photo shoot for V magazine and is currently responsible for all aspects of her wardrobe (videos, tours, on and off stage style), a kaleidoscopic array of tongue-in-cheek, optical illusions and fantasy glamour which has become a pop style sensation.
In September 2010, Thierry Mugler S.A.S named Nicola Creative Director of its men’s and women’s ready-to-wear beginning with the Fall/Winter 2011/12 collections.
Mercedes Gonzalez has been a buyer in the garment industry since 1988. Her passion for the industry began when she was 14 years old, working every summer for her uncle who operated a manufacturing company in the heart of the New York City garment district.
After graduating from New York University where she earned her degree in economics, she worked full-time with her uncle. She moved production overseas, streamlining the organisation’s operations and ensuring a stronger bottom line. Soon after, Mercedes decided to try buying and was hired by one of the largest buying offices at the time, Frederick Atkins where she was involved in private labels for stores like Dillard’s and Harvey Nickels of England.
She left Frederick Atkins to work at one of the member stores, Gonzalez Padin in Puerto Rico, and her love for international trade grew. In the last 20 years Mercedes has worked with some of the most important buying offices in the United States, and has helped to open or restructure hundreds of stores both nationally and abroad, including the inaugural Sears store in Panama.
Mercedes started Global Purchasing in 1998 and has been successfully expanding her international and domestic business since. Noted as an industry expert and a self-proclaimed Wal-mart expert, she has hands-on experience in every facet of the industry, from manufacturing to marketing. In 2005, Global Purchasing became Global Purchasing Companies.
Regularly featured in industry publications such as California Apparel News and invited for speaking engagements, Mercedes’ most recent accolades include the Award for Best Speaker at the Fashion, Textile and Apparel Conference and Exhibition in Istanbul and a 100% satisfaction rating from a group of 300 retailers at a conference in Chile. Shecurrently sits on the board of the Fashion Merchandising Department at both the University of Arkansas and the University of Nebraska.
Lorna is a business journalist with 15 years' experience writing about and commentating on the fashion retail market. Before joining WGSN, she was the executive editor of the UK's award-winning fashion trade magazine Drapers. As Senior Editor of the Retail area at WGSN, Lorna is responsible for keeping the industry informed on best practices and innovation across all forms of retail including, online and offline strategies, store design and visual merchandising.
Lorna speaks at and chairs international apparel conferences and seminars; immediately prior to coming to Singapore for Asia Fashion Summit, she was chairing the luxury retail session at the Global Department Store Summit in Paris. Lorna is a regular commentator on the fashion trade via international media.
Julie is a commercial Fashion and Media specialist, having spent over 20 years working in the print and online world running large commercial and creative teams, publishing market-leading magazines and managing B2B and B2C online businesses. She has managed and launched some of the best-known magazine brands in the UK and currently heads the World’s leading Fashion Trend Forecasting Service, WGSN.
Before joining WGSN, Julie was the General Manager of Hachette Filipacchi (UK). In her five years there, she was responsible for creating a top-10 magazine-publishing company, including managing the leading fashion brand ELLE and hiring some of the best magazine talent in the UK. In 2005 she launched Psychologies UK and in 2006 she launched ELLE Collections, a biannual fashion bible.
In 2007, Julie joined WGSN as Managing Director of Asia Pacific and relocated to Hong Kong. She was responsible for the strategic development of WGSN's business activities in Asia Pacific and Japan, overseeing sales and marketing teams in 15 countries.
In 2011 Julie took on the Global management of WGSN with a remit to accelerate the growth of the business, develop new tools and services for their 38,000 users and create a suite of market leading products to support current and future clients across the fashion and design industries
Julie was a Director of the British Fashion Council for three years before leaving the UK, and she ran her own consultancy business helping companies to develop their brand positioning and create new product opportunities.
Lauren Indvik is the associate editor of marketing and media for Mashable, covering digital marketing news, the fashion industry and the evolving media landscape from Mashable's New York headquarters.
In addition to Mashable, Lauren's work has appeared in InStyle, Forbes, USA Today and Fashion Theory, a peer-reviewed academic journal. She has been quoted in the New York Times, the AP, The Economist’s Intelligent Life, USA Today, MTV and WWD, and has been a guest on the TODAY show and CNN.com.
Before joining Mashable, Lauren led social media strategy and operations at financial news site TheStreet. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where she received a bachelor's degree in English Literature with Honors.
Ann Kositchotitana is the founder and managing director of Front Row Group, which comprises of three divisions: retail, wholesale and creative consultancy. As part of its retail operations, Front Row Group owns and operates three stores in Singapore: its own multi-label boutique Front Row, an A.P.C. franchise store and a FLYNOW franchise store.
The Group’s wholesale division is Front Row Studio, a sales agency that is best known for representing some of Asian’s best fashion talents from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Korea as well as selected brands from the States and Australia who want to enter the Asian markets.
Ann graduated from Cornell University in 1998 and has been living in Singapore for the past eight years. Previously she was a management consultant in New York City and Los Angeles, and a strategic planner with a multi-national advertising agency.
Hani Mahdi leads Nike's x-Category Brand strategy across the Southeast Asian region. He began his association with Nike seven years ago when he worked agency-side in London, spearheading the Nike Europe, Middle East and Africa business, before relocating to Singapore in 2009, where he ran the Nike Account, representing Mindshare.
Since joining Nike SEA in 2010, he has also led Brand Connections (Advertising & Digital) for the region, and driven some of Nike's most brand-defining campaigns, including World Cup 2010, AFF Suzuki Cup 2010, three Manny Pacquaio 'Just Do It' campaigns, UAAP Basketball campaigns in the Philippines, and several running initiatives, including the hugely successful WE RUN 10K franchise in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, and the inaugural Goddess 5K Singapore in 2011.
Hani has a contagious passion for design, innovation and story-telling; in particular, how these influence consumer behaviour and create business opportunities.
Ruth Marshall-Johnson is a consumer trend analyst and consultant specialising in identifying and communicating far-reaching future trends for fashion, beauty and style brands. She consults for many global companies on future consumer trend and retail development.
As the leader of the WGSN Think Tank directory, Ruth is responsible for WGSN's future consumer research and forward-thinking agenda. Ruth regularly comments for global media and speaks at international conferences on future trends.
Ruth was trained at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in Fashion Communication and has worked across online and print fashion media, researched for fashion history publications for the V&A and Vogue, and has seven years of experience in trend-forecasting.
Colin McDowell has been involved with fashion at many levels, including designing, for more than 30 years. He worked in Italy for 10 years before returning to London where he became involved with education. He is proud to say that he taught John Galliano. He has been a journalist since the mid-eighties, working for quality newspapers and magazines published in the UK and several in the USA. He has been the senior fashion writer of The Sunday Times since 1986, for the last 10 years for Style.
Colin has written 20 books on fashion, including biographies of John Galliano, Ralph Lauren, Jean Paul Gaultier, Matthew Williamson and Manolo Blahnik. He is currently completing two more. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, both as a 'talking head' and as writer and presenter. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and has been awarded honorary doctorates and professorships by five British universities. In 2010, he was appointed Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art. He was appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) in The New Year Honours List 2008.
He is the founder and creative director of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden, bringing together an outstanding panel of influential fashion supporters (including Tom Ford, Donatella Versace and Anna Wintour) to successfully foster new fashion talent in London.
Colin has worked as Creative Editor at Large for Net-a-porter.com and is Creative Director of Singapore Fashion Festival and Chair of the Sri Lanka Design Festival Symposium on Sustainable Fashion. He is Curator of Drawing Fashion, the fashion illustration exhibition currently showing at The Design Museum in London.
Lynne Murray is the founding member of Holition, an award-winning digital creative studio specialising in emerging technologies for retail. Holition crafts premium 3D digital experiences for a growing network of pioneering digital luxury organisations including Richemont, LVMH, Swatch Group and Gucci Group across the emerging digital fashion and accessory sectors.
Lynne has an entrepreneurial commitment to the development of new and emerging technologies for the luxury industry, driving Holition's continued growth through marketing, sales strategy and design. A hybrid thinker, Lynne’s background in design and technology has supported the collaborative nature of Holition, which aims to clearly develop commercial solutions that not only technically functional, but do so with a creative retail flair.
A design graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, Lynne is now heading up the development of Holition Clothing, enabling consumers to try on clothes in real time with fluid cloth dynamics. This next stage of development for Holition Augmented Retail suggests significant potential to create exciting new global platforms for apparel retail, bringing audiences closer to brands and connecting digital to retail by delivering memorable retail experiences online, in-store and through mobile.
Lynne was awarded KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) Business Leader of Tomorrow 2009 for her contribution to Holition.
Corinne Ng is one of the veterans in Singaporeʼs publishing scene, having spent the past 15 years helming various consumer titles in Singapore and Asia. She first cut her teeth at Cleo magazine where she held the position of Editor for four years. Subsequently, she assumed the role of Editorial Director of ACP Magazines in Singapore and included in her portfolio Harperʼs Bazaar, Cleo and the Womenʼs Weekly, and various other titles that she launched and editorially managed in Asian markets including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Currently, she holds the post of Group Editor at MediaCorp Pte Ltd where she oversees some of Singapore’s top-selling publications including fashion magazines Elle, Style and StyleMEN; men’s magazine FHM; and other lifestyle titles StyleWeddings, StyleLiving and Mother&Baby.
In March 2011, Corinne launched shopthemag.com, an online retailer with a USP that continues to make it the only one of its kind in the world – the site is dedicated to retailing only luxury fashion names born and produced in Asia. Top-tier names that feature in shopthemag include India’s Manish Arora, Malaysia’s Khoon Hooi, Singapore-based Koonhor and Japan’s Akira Naka.
Nobuyuki Ota plays a key role in the Japanese fashion industry as a mentor for young designers. From 1992 to 2000, he was the Senior Director of the Institute for the Fashion Industries (IFI Business School), a post-graduate school founded by the government and the industry and taught fashion merchandising to many buyers.
Nobuyuki worked as a freelance fashion journalist in New York upon graduation from Meiji University in 1977. In 1985, he founded the Council of Fashion Designers (CFD), Tokyo with leading designers in Japan like Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, among others, and served as the Executive Director and Chairman for 10 years until 1995.
Nobuyuki was also the president of Issey Miyake Inc. for 10 years until 2010. Since 2006, he has been serving as a board member of Japan Fashion Week. Most recently, in March 2012, his company Matsuya organised Ginza Runway on the main street of Ginza in central Tokyo together with Isetan Mitsukoshi.
Jane Perry is the General Manager of BBDO Proximity Shop – advertising agency BBDO’s regional hub for Retail and Shopper Marketing specialist projects. Proximity Shop works with clients to understand how people buy their brands, helping to define the journey a shopper takes to the point of handing over their cash across markets, sales channels and retail categories and formats.
Jane joined BBDO/Proximity with twelve years of industry experience across a multitude of categories. Working closely over the years with her clients and their retail channel partners, Jane has gained significant experience in the complexities of building brand awareness across multi-national modern format retail channels and within the independent/traditional trade channel globally.
Jane has spent much of her experience working in emerging markets throughout the Asia Pacific region to gain insights into bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers and the trade channels in which they shop, ultimately developing in-store visibility solutions delivered in a way that supports and enhances her clients’ brands at the point of sale.
Previously, Jane was a board director with iris Nation, based in Singapore. She was responsible for developing a global centre of retail excellence and to drive the free sharing of retail best practice to iris Nations clients around the world. She was tasked with creating a high performing Global Retail Team.
Andrea Petochi joined the Pomellato Group in February 2010 as global Managing Director, Pomellato Division. Over the past two years, the company’s international business has increased from 50 to 70 percent of global turnover and to 500 points of sale. Andrea was also involved in the development of European, North American retail and pacific operations, as well as new product categories.
Prior to running Pomellato, Andrea was with Procter & Gamble for over a decade, first as a brand manager and then as Country Manager for Russia P&G fragrances portfolio. From 2006 to 2009, he was Global Commercial Director for Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino fragrance and makeup licences, which saw organic growth of USD 400 million reaching USD 1 billion sales. Andrea was also responsible for commercial strategy and retail development in over 40 markets, as well as strategic evaluation for acquisitions.
Andrea was previously at J.P. Morgan and before that, at Italian Crown jewellers responsible for client management and product design supervision. He graduated cum laude in Economics from La Sapienza University, Rome.
Jan Quammie is a buyer for premium multi-brand retailer in China, Source and has been in the fashion industry for over 12 years. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, Jan developed a strong eye for creativity and a love for fashion at a young age. She made her mark working for several fashion wholesale showrooms in her teens.
Jan immersed herself in the designer world while working as a sales manager at Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the leading luxury retailers in the world. With American designers such as Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Rachel Roy, Jason Wu etc. under her direct management, Jan began to form relationships with fashion industry insiders. With a few years of experience on the sales floor, Jan realised that her calling was to be a merchant. She was transferred to the Corporate Buying office following a meeting with the Saks Vice President for women’s ready-to-wear, John Cruz.
While in the contemporary casuals buying office, Jan gained the skillsets needed to work for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s high end contemporary brand Elizabeth and James as their sales coordinator, Christian Dior as an associate buyer for handbags and small leather goods, and Ann Taylor as a senior allocator. Still highly motivated and inspired by buying and travel, Jan accepted the role as a buyer for Source, based in Shanghai where she now lives. Jan buys premium street brands from around the world for Source’s 12 locations throughout China and is ecstatic that she has landed her dream job as an international buyer.
Specialised in emerging technologies and influencer marketing, Daniel Saynt has helped direct social media campaigns for Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, H&M and more recently, Rebecca Minkoff, where he has been instrumental in the brand’s leadership in social marketing.
His work at Minkoff has included well-received campaigns with Bloglovin, Polyvore, Instagram, Lookbook.nu, Facebook, Twitter and over a hundred of the world’s most prolific fashion and beauty bloggers.
Daniel is best known as the creator of FashionIndie.com, an online media network that at its height reached nearly 5.4 million consumers. He is currently the CEO of the Socialyte.Collective, an agency specialised in blogger brand relations and branded media properties.
Daniel’s efforts have led to stories and profiles by Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, Luxury Daily, PRWeek, New York Magazine, Entrepreneur and WWD. He was also nominated for the Social Media Manager of the Year Award at The Shorty Awards 2012.
Angelia Teo sits at the cross-section of design and business – having worked across lifestyle categories and the media over the past 13 years. From her vantage point as Content Director of Asia Pacific at WGSN, Angelia has personally witnessed phenomenal change in the fashion and beauty market in the region, be it the emergence of China’s exalted luxury consumer to the widespread adoption of Korean innovation, BB Creams. A consumer researcher and journalist, Angelia tracks and monitors shopping behavior, purchasing drivers and cultural shifts in the region. Her insight into the new Asian consumer enables WGSN’s global reputation; keeping the trends forecaster and fashion news site and its 38,000 customers abreast of the quick and game-changing movements here in Asia.
Based in Hong Kong, Angelia oversees an expert team in WGSN’s Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai creative labs, as well as a vast network of freelancers in the region – all tasked with analysing up-to-the-minute information on fashion design, product development, retail and business.
A style hunter, Angelia has tracked emerging designers through the back alleys of Shanghai, cajoled reluctant youths to strut their stuff for the camera and, of course, seen at the front row of the region’s fashion weeks. Having consulted for WGSN with beauty and fashion retailers, brands and government bodies, she is equally at home spotting emerging consumer trends from the street corner as she is in a boardroom.
She is a sought-after commentator on the Asian fashion scene and its emerging designers, Asian youth and luxury consumer and retail trends. Angelia is a skilled speaker and frequently called upon to host and present at industry conferences including Hong Kong Fashion Week, CHIC Beijing, World Retail Congress Asia Pacific and Retail Asia Congress.
A Singaporean, Angelia is best known at home for her work with Harper's Bazaar and her involvement in FashBash, Singapore's celebrated cult shopping event.
Ravi Thakran is the Group President for LVMH South Asia, Southeast Asia and Middle East. He is also Managing Partner of L Capital Asia, a LVMH sponsored Private Equity Fund.
With over 20 years of operating experience in Asia, Ravi has led development of leading luxury brands in Europe and the Asia Pacific Region. He has in-depth knowledge of various Asian markets, especially China, South East Asia, India and the Middle East. He has played a key role in driving LVMH’s investment in Asia’s Strategic marker, China and India.
A graduate from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Ravi started his career in India. Subsequently, he has held a variety of business and marketing positions, including roles for the Tatas, The Swatch Group and Nike in Europe and Asia Pacific. In 1998, he became the youngest member of the Group Management Board at Swatch Group, Switzerland.
Andrew Wu |
Eric Jennings |
Juliet Warkentin |
Hamilton South |
Avid Larizadeh |
Martin Mason |
Jose Gomes |
Aaron Boey |
Marci Zaroff |
Mr. Ken Erman |
