Amar leads thought leadership on health and wellness. He creates insights that inform strategic decisions related to key drug, home improvement, discount, convenience, grocery, and digital channels. Amar is a seasoned brand, shopper, and advertising researcher. Before joining Kantar in 2018, he managed consumer insights at a leading CPG brand, which included brand management, packaging optimization, and product innovation. Amar has an MSc in marketing and consumer studies from the University of Guelph in Canada.

Vince is the Managing Partner of Watt International, a globally recognized integrated retail agency delivering strategic and creative services that help retailers position themselves for growth and success. As a seasoned and multi-disciplined strategist who applies a holistic view to assessing brand and business challenges, Vince has a proven track record in delivering solutions that get in-market results and build lasting brand equities for clients.

Having spent a number of years working in market research, consumer insight,
strategic planning, and business consulting, Vince brings a solid background
encompassing both agency and client-side experience. He has worked with leading national and global brands in the consumer-packaged goods and service industries, and with retailers on a global scale.

Nikolas is an expert in Public Affairs and Communications research. Since joining Leger in 2021, he has presented the organization’s annual Youth Study, focusing on the values, behaviors, and attitudes of Gen Z and Millennial Canadians. He is particularly interested in how these age groups will challenge established consumer norms. Nikolas holds a Master of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Queen’s University, with a specialization in Political Studies. Additionally, he has formal training in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies through the Research Analyst post-graduate program at Georgian College.

With over 25 years of experience in marketing and analytics, Seoni understands business needs and how data and analytics can help solve them. A Chartered Marketer, he has worked with organizations of all sizes to unlock the value of information in decision-making and business strategy. He specializes in helping organizations understand population trends, segmentation and performance benchmarking and appears regularly on CTV’s Canadian and U.S. federal election coverage as a commentator on voter demographics in key races.

Ivano Pirro is an experienced sales leader with over two decades of telecommunications leadership. He currently supports more than 3500 team members across Bell, Virgin+ Best Buy Express and Lucky Mobile. As a strategic leader he is passionate about customer experience and talent development and driving high performance. Ivano’s leadership ensures Bell’s retail stores are a go-to for personalized customer service, innovation and simplifying complex technical problems into everyday value add solutions.

Ivano is a seasoned business leader whose contribution has been felt throughout Bell in a range of progressively senior roles. Ivano began his career with Bell as a technician, later serving in various call center roles, and then in 2006 he joined Bell retail stores leading the successful nationwide integration of brands like Solo Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

Ivano holds a Diploma in Business Administration from Dawson College and a Bachelor’s degree from Concordia University with a Major in Sociology and a Minor in Law.

Neil Patel is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Adam is the Senior Vice President of Product & Marketing at Flipp, a leading retail technology company. In his role, Adam is focused on building products and technologies that help people make smart shopping decisions while enabling retailers and brands to influence those decisions through digital merchandising experiences. 

Adam is an experienced, charismatic speaker, who most recently delivered the Concurrent Session at RCC’s Retail Marketing Conference in September 2023, alongside Matthew Cheung. Adam is an accomplished public speaker with the ability to distill complex and large ideas into relatable real-life analogies and examples that bring context and inclusivity to multiple audiences.  

Before joining Flipp, Adam led various businesses at Procter & Gamble including Retail Innovation, eCommerce, Market Strategy & Planning, and the Amazon Business Development Team. Adam graduated from the University of Toronto where he studied Computer Science and Political Science. Before graduation, Adam took a four-year break from University to tour the world as a member of a critically acclaimed reggae-rock band called Panic & the Rebel Emergency.  

Doug Stephens is one of the world’s foremost retail industry futurists. His intellectual work and thinking has influenced many of the most widely known international retailers, agencies and brands including Walmart, Google, L’Oreal, BMW and LVMH.

Prior to founding the consultancy Retail Prophet, Doug spent over 20 years in the retail industry, holding senior international leadership roles.

Doug has most recently released highly anticipated book in Spring 2021 entitled Resurrecting Retail: The Future of Business in a Post-Pandemic World. He is also the author of two International bestselling books – Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World and The Retail Revival: Re-Imagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism. Doug is the nationally syndicated retail columnist for CBC Radio and sits on multiple corporate and academic advisory boards.

His unique perspectives on retailing, business and consumer behavior have been featured in many of the world’s leading publications and media outlets including The New York Times, The BBC, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company.

Andy is responsible for connecting the dots between TC’s design studio, digital teams and their print, structural and industrial production facilities, to grow the envelope of what’s possible in-store, while maximizing sales lift, customer engagement and ROI for both brands and retailers.  Andy’s previous roles in distribution and as a brand owner, working with supply chain, operations, finance, sales and marketing, gives him a unique, holistic lens to problem solving for current in-store challenges

Bobby Sahni is a veteran and thought-leader in the multicultural marketing and advertising industry. Bobby was the Head of Multicultural Marketing at Rogers Communications and has been a pioneer in developing, executing and managing diversity and multicultural marketing initiatives for a number of best-in-class organizations. He is Co-Founder and Partner at Ethnicity Matters – a multicultural marketing & advertising agency dedicated to helping companies drive new growth and sales by engaging North America’s fast growing, big spending ethnic and new immigrant communities. He is also Partner in Tulsea Sports Marketing, a US-based marketing consultancy focussed on the intersection of multicultural marketing and sports & entertainment. 

Bobby has earned national and international recognition for his work and thought leadership in multicultural marketing. Bobby also loves teaching, having guest-lectured at many universities/colleges and regularly speaks at industry events and conferences across North America. Bobby has also been on a variety of advisory boards and committees including Hockey Canada, Imagine Canada, Seva Food Bank, Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer, Cricket to Conquer Cancer, Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce, Reel Asian Film Festival and Credit Valley Conservation Foundation. Bobby earned his MBA from the global Kellogg Schulich Executive MBA program with cross-cultural studies in Hong Kong, Germany, Miami, Chicago and Toronto. He also holds a Bachelor of Science & Business degree from the University of Waterloo.

Victor is an Account Director with TC Transcontinental Premedia with over 20 years in the industry serving some of Canada’s largest retailers, specializing in providing omnichannel solutions for clients in areas of print, ecommerce, and instore marketing.  As part of the innovation team, Victor assisted in launching the Advanced Digital Flyer, leveraging a combination of traditional and digital channels to maximize engagement as part of the path to purchase.

Recruited to Walmart Canada as VP, Product & Delivery to steward our accelerated investment in technology in 2021. Promoted to Chief Technology Officer, Michon and her team are responsible for core systems strategy and delivery, technology infrastructure and operations, infosec and architecture across stores, pharmacies, supply chain, merchandising, core data platforms, associate tools and enterprise technology (including real estate). Michon is a long-time advocate of the environment and inclusion, and leads programs in support of Green Technology and to promote and advance Diversity in Technology.

Career History

The TJX Companies Inc. (Winners, Homesense, Marshalls) 2018 – 2021
VP, Information Technology, Canada Country Lead

Bank of Montreal (BMO) 2014 – 2018
Lead Technology Officer, Marketing, Corporate Solutions & BMO.com

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) 2002 – 2014
Director, Retail Technology Program (Branch of the Future)
Director, Enterprise Architecture, Accessibility & Usability
Sr. Manager IT Planning & Control, Applications & Infrastructure
Assistant Manager to Manager, Digital Channels, eCommerce

Personal

Mum to Aaron, Sam and Leah

Kayaker, skier and hiker; former mountaineer, scuba diver and volun-tourist

Michael is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Secure conference with leaders from The Gap and Kroger talking about violence in retail stores, keynotes on the state & future of retail in Orlando and Halifax, and at the 2023 Canadian GroceryConnex conference, hosting the CEOs of Walmart Canada, Longo’s and Save-On-Foods Canada.   Michael brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi’s, Black & Decker, Hudson’s Bay, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael also produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in North America, Remarkable Retail,

Canada’s top retail industry podcast; the Voice of Retail; Canada’s top food industry and the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor, with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail influencers for the fourth year in a row, Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer, and you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Sheri is a marketer, strategist, entrepreneur, media expert, speaker, and teacher.  Sheri has extensive experience in communications planning across the entire marketing ecosystem and loves understanding the consumer’s role in the decision journey.

With 20+ years of experience, Sheri has held numerous senior

level positions at various agencies in both Montreal and Toronto. Sheri oversees the agency team at PMG and believes that partnerships, agility and creativity are the keys to success.

When not at work you can find Sheri dockside or slope side depending on the season, traveling the globe with her husband or knee deep designing her next renovation.