Speakers
These influential leaders, world-renowned visionaries, and passionate entrepreneurs will discuss the most critical topics affecting retail today.
Peter Hughes
National Customer Experience Practice Leader
KPMG Canada
Peter Hughes
National Customer Experience Practice Leader
Peter has worked across the globe advising some of the biggest, most influential brands in Retail and beyond. Peter and KPMG in Canada’s Customer practice is a highly sought after strategy consultancy specializing in shaping an ambitious path for clients in the areas of Unified Commerce, Customer Experience and Service Design. However, Peter’s work goes beyond strategy – his portfolio of work includes dozens of technology enablement platforms bridging strategy through to execution. Peter is a Partner at KPMG in Canada and part of the global Customer practice leadership team.
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Michèle Boudria
President & CEO
McDonald's Restaurants of Canada
Michèle Boudria
President & CEO
Michèle Boudria, President & Chief Executive Officer, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, is responsible for the business operations across more than 1,400 McDonald’s restaurants from coast to coast. A people-first leader, Michèle is focused on driving business results and creating a bigger impact to deliver on McDonald’s purpose of feeding and fostering communities.
As McDonald’s Canada’s first woman President & CEO who started her career behind the front counter more than 35 years ago, Michèle is committed to using the organization’s scale to realize its purpose to feed and foster communities. She will ensure McDonald’s lives up to its promise to be a leader of positive change here in Canada.
Before leading the Canadian business, Michèle served as Managing Director of McDonald’s Netherlands. During this time, she was pivotal in focusing the organization on operations, helping the brand to secure a top position in the market. Together with the leadership team, she also refined the organizational structure to ensure the entire market was able to deliver strong results.
Michèle began her career with McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited in 1984 as restaurant crew in Aylmer, Quebec. From there, she moved on to regional, national, and international leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including Worldwide Operations teams in 2014. In 2015, she joined the Canada Leadership Team as McCafé Officer. In that role she helped define the vision for McCafé coffee leadership and guided her teams to sustained and consistent periods of growth. In 2018, Michèle was appointed West Regional Vice President, where she established herself as a strong partner to the Owner/Operators in the region.
Passionate about DE&I, Michèle is a former Chair of the Canadian McDonald’s Women’s Leadership Network and a former Vice-Chair for the US Women’s Leadership Network, she has also held the positions of Canadian Women’s Leadership Network Sponsor and Canadian Representative on the Global Women’s Leadership Network.
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Sylvain Michel
Senior Vice President, Strategy & Change
Holt Renfrew
Sylvain Michel
Senior Vice President, Strategy & Change
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Steve Worthy
Founder/CEO
Worthy Retail
Steve Worthy
Founder/CEO
Meet Steve Worthy, the visionary leader of Worthy Retail Global. As Founder and CEO, Steve blends executive coaching and leadership training for senior retail professionals worldwide.
Steve draws from over 27 years of executive retail experience to provide invaluable insights. His clients include top leaders from global retail brands.
An authority on leadership development, Steve’s coaching practice began in 2006. Holding an MBA and certifications in Enneagram, DISC, and Myers Briggs, he cultivates impactful capabilities. Steve also heads THE CAMPUS, Worthy Retail’s global learning community.
His perspective shines on his podcast Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy podcast. Up next authoring “The Approachable Retail Leader” to be released in the fall of 2024.
With a solution-driven approach, Steve empowers senior retail leaders and teams to become change-makers driving personal and business success. His mission reshapes retail leadership globally.
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Selwyn Crittendon
CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer
IKEA Canada
Selwyn Crittendon
CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer
Selwyn Crittendon is CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA Canada, a world-leading home furnishing retailer. For more than 40 years, Canadians have welcomed IKEA into their homes, and have been strong supporters of the IKEA brand, product range and its vision “to create a better everyday life for the many people”. Selwyn joined IKEA in 2002 at the IKEA Woodbridge, VA store as the Customer Convenience Manager. During the last 20 years, Selwyn has held numerous roles across the organization from driving an excellent customer experience to developing and strengthening leaders.
Today, Selwyn leads the ongoing transformation of the Canadian business to create a more affordable, accessible, convenient, and sustainable shopping experience for the IKEA customer and more importantly, a rewarding place to work for IKEA co-workers nationally. Throughout this omnichannel, people-focused transformation, IKEA continues to explore new store formats, enhance the in-store experience, invest in new digital experiences, improve its service offer, and optimize its distribution networks.
Selwyn’s passion for people, transformation, and change, fuels his focus on strategic growth that will propel IKEA Canada for many years to come.
An avid foodie and father of two, Selwyn has settled with his family in Oakville, ON.
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Maya Colombani
Chief Sustainability & Human Rights Officer
L'Oréal Canada
Maya Colombani
Chief Sustainability & Human Rights Officer
Maya Colombani has been appointed Chief Sustainability and Human Rights Officer of L’Oréal Canada in April 2022. With an international career of over 20 years at L’Oréal, Maya is distinguished by a rich and comprehensive professional background. She began her career in France, working for leading design and advertising agencies such as Dragon Rouge, Publicis, and Euro RSCG. She then joined L’Oréal’s Professional Products division in 2001. There, she held positions in operational marketing and DMI (Direction Marketing International), for Kérastase and L’Oréal Professionnel. She carried out assignments in India and in the Western Europe zone, before moving to Brazil in June 2010 where she worked in marketing functions. Since the end of 2016, she has been Director of Sustainable Development for Brazil.
In this role, she profoundly transformed L’Oréal Brazil’s approach to sustainable development and human rights. She has implemented actions that inspired the L’Oréal Group and positioned L’Oréal Brazil as a national benchmark. L’Oréal Brazil is indeed regularly cited as an example and is used to fuel new reflections, both on environmental issues and on human rights issues, as well as with respect to the relations with the indigenous people of Brazil.
Her projects have been rewarded by the best rankings such as Guia Exame 2017/2018/2019; recognized as the best company in climate change as well as biodiversity management; and has received the WEP gold award 2021 on women empowerment supported by ONU Women and Compact Global.
In 2022, thanks to her strong inclusive social programs for indigenous and communities, the GLOBO recognized L’Oréal Brazil as “The company that makes the difference in term of inclusion and diversity.”
In Canada, Maya’s mission is to increase the positive footprint internally and externally in terms of sustainable development and human rights, and to accelerate the actions carried out within the framework of “L’Oréal For the Future.” Among her first projects, she has already focused, with the Canadian teams, on achieving the company’s full carbon neutrality on all its sites, as well as accelerating ambitious targets on water management and implementing cleantech partnership and eco-design business with committed brands.
Thanks to impactful projects in Canada, earned her the prestigious “Canada’s Clean 50” award that “recognized the most impactful 50 individual LEADERs that have demonstrated measurable leadership in fighting climate change and helping Canada transition to a low-carbon economy.” Another important achievement for Maya is being named President of the “Positive Impact Club” of the French CCI in Canada, to have a positive impact on our society and reinforce the bond between France and Canada.
Maya graduated from Reims Business School and completed an MBA semester of International Business Strategy in Victoria University, Australia. She now lives in Montreal, Québec, Canada with her family.
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Diana Dimitian
SVP, Managing Director of South Europe, North Africa
Levi Strauss & Company
Diana Dimitian
SVP, Managing Director of South Europe, North Africa
Diana S. Dimitian is the Senior Vice- President, and Managing Director of South Europe for Levi Strauss & Company. She leads the important region within Levi Strauss Europe, including 17 countries. Dimitian was appointed to this position in October 2018, and the company moved her to Paris in January 2019 to manage and grow this important cluster of countries for Europe, Africa. Dimitian was recruited by Levi Strauss & Company, the America’s Region, in May 2015, and appointed Vice-President, and Managing Director for Canada. Within her first three years leading the market, she tripled the women’s Levi’s business, grew both Levi’s & Dockers Men’s market share, expanded the denim leader into new lifestyle categories, launched Ecommerce within Canadian market, and practically doubled the country’s business whilst losing their second largest retailer. Prior to Levi Strauss & Company, Dimitian was a highly accomplished, and regarded footwear executive. She worked for Wolverine World Wide for over sixteen years holding various senior executive positions in both the Canadian, and USA markets. She led sales, marketing, merchandising, brand management teams for International brands such as Hush Puppies, and Harley-Davidson.
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Derrick Emsley
CEO & Founder
Tentree
Derrick Emsley
CEO & Founder
From a young age, Derrick Emsley has been actively involved with environmental stewardship. At 16, he and his brother founded a tree planting company that sold carbon credits to businesses, a venture that saw over $1 million dollars in contracts, and planted 150,000 trees. This venture helped pave the way to the founding of tentree in 2012, where Derrick has operated as the CEO ever since, guiding the company’s vision. tentree is a lifestyle brand that plants trees for every product sold. In just under a decade, tentree has set new standards in the sustainable apparel world, sold >10MM units, and contributed to the planting of over 100 million trees. Today, Derrick also serves as the CEO of veritree, a technology platform built to verify, report, and monitor global reforestation projects. veritree now offers “reforestation-as-a-service” to over 200 companies across the globe looking integrate sustainability and restoration into their business model. Named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2020, Derrick has dedicated his career to making saving the planet simple.
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Thomas Haupt
Country General Manager
Sephora Canada
Thomas Haupt
Country General Manager
Thomas Haupt is a seasoned retailer with over 20 years of experience working for both mass consumer and luxury retailers. Prior to joining Sephora Canada, he was with Louis Vuitton as Senior Vice President of U.S. Retail, where he successfully led the LV U.S. retail teams through unprecedented growth during his five-year tenure. At Sephora Canada, Thomas is focused on propelling the business forward through his passion and commitment to developing teams, challenging the status quo and his ability to drive results. A true people leader, Thomas is also the executive sponsor of Sephora Canada’s ONYX INCommunity employee resource group dedicated to cultivating, strengthening and maintaining positive relationships between Black employees and the broader company.
A believer in well-being and mindfulness, Thomas enjoys travelling and staying active outdoors.
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Greg Hicks
President and CEO
Canadian Tire Corporation
Greg Hicks
President and CEO
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Jan Kestle
President and Founder
Environics Analytics
Jan Kestle
President and Founder
President and Founder of Environics Analytics, Jan Kestle, has been a leader in data and analytics for over five decades. An expert in using statistics and mathematics to solve social and business challenges, she has worked with hundreds of organizations in all sectors to support their data-driven decision-making. She is a member of the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council, Western University’s Morrissette School of Entrepreneurship and the Ted Rogers School of Management’s Dean’s Advisory Council. Jan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics from Western University.
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Eric Morris
Managing Director and Head of Retail
Google Canada
Eric Morris
Managing Director and Head of Retail
Eric Morris is the Managing Director and Head of Google’s Retail practice in Canada, where since 2002, he has worked alongside the country’s top marketers and advertising agencies.
Eric has held several leadership roles at Google Canada, leading sales, operations, research, strategy and analytics for Google’s advertising business. Most recently, he led Google Canada’s search and performance advertising business.
In 2016 Eric was named inventor and issued a patent in the United States for identifying rising search queries and trends at scale for advertisers worldwide.
Eric was elected to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada’s board of directors in 2009, and elected Chair of the board in 2015.
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Doug Stephens
Founder
Retail Prophet
Doug Stephens
Founder
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.
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Holt Renfrew
Holt Renfrew
Holt Renfrew
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Diane J. Brisebois
President & CEO
Retail Council of Canada
Diane J. Brisebois
President & CEO
Diane J. Brisebois, CAE, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Retail Council of Canada (RCC). She oversees the largest retail association in Canada serving over 45,000 retail establishments including independent merchants, chain stores, mass merchants, big box and online retailers. RCC’s membership covers all segments of the retail market including general merchandise, grocery and pharmacy.
Diane joined RCC as its President and CEO in January 1995. Diane has held CEO positions in the not-for-profit sector representing various industries for the past 35 years.
Diane has and continues to serve on a variety of Boards across North America.
Ms. Brisebois is Immediate Past Chair of the Fair Factory Clearinghouse (FFC), an organization established to enable collaboration between vendors and retailers in assessing and improving workplace conditions globally.
Ms. Brisebois is also the Immediate Past Chair and a member of the Executive Committee of the Forum of International Retail Association Executives (FIRAE) which represents retail associations from more than 30 countries brought together to collaborate on issues affecting the retail sector globally.
Ms. Brisebois also served for many years on the Board of Covenant House Toronto, on the Board and as Chairman of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation and on the Board and as Chairman of the Canadian Society of Association Executives.
She currently serves on:
- The Ted Rogers School of Retail Management Advisory Council
- The Advisory Board of the University of Alberta’s School of Retailing
- The Board of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, and
- The Board of Stewardship Ontario (Ontario Blue Box Program)
Ms. Brisebois is a native of Montreal, Quebec and now resides in Toronto, Ontario.
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Michael E. LeBlanc
Founder & President
M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc.
Michael E. LeBlanc
Founder & President
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide.
Michael is also the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts, including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks, all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and all major podcast platforms.
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Interested in speaking at RCC STORE 23?
Contact Sponsorship rccsponsorship@retailcouncil.org for more information.