Judges
We are enormously grateful to our esteemed judges for their time and expertise.
|
|
Beverley Aspinall Beverley Aspinall joined Fortnum & Mason PLC as Managing Director in February 2005. Having overseen a £24million refurbishment of the celebrated Piccadilly store, she is now refocusing the business on its core areas of strength – food and drink, celebration and entertainment... Read biography
|
|
|
Karen Barter Karen is a proven leader of retail brand development and management throughout an established corporate career based in the UK. Brands include Pied a Terre, The Pier Retail Ltd, Waterford Wedgwood Group and Le Creuset... Read biography |
|
|
Maxine Benson After a career spanning both the airline and film industries, Maxine Benson co-founded everywoman, now the leading provider of services for women in business in the UK... Read biography
|
|
|
Sue Brownson OBE Sue Brownson is the managing director and dealer principal of seven BMW outlets. With previous experience as a financial director for Blue Bell, she also extensive experience in the antique and catering trades. She enjoys responsibility and organisation of companies and promotional events... Read biography
|
|
|
Ann Chan Ann’s started her career in retail as a part time assistant in a shoe shop (Mansfield part of BSC) whilst she attended college to study sociology. The opportunity to work for Arcadia allowing her to pursue her love of fashion came along in 1983 where she spent 12 years working in various roles across several functions including Learning and development manager before progressing to Area management for Dorothy Perkins and IS Retail... Read biography
|
|
|
Jo Delbridge Jo Delbridge (MCIPR) is Specsavers Director of Public Relations with responsibility for the reputation and brand awareness of more than 750 optical and hearing stores in the UK and Ireland... Read biography |
|
|
Gaynor Gillespie Gaynor began her career in the Hospitality sector in the late eighties, posts included HR Director of Malmaison Hotels, and Director of Personnel and Training with Macdonald Hotels plc... Read biography
|
|
|
Vanessa Johnson Vanessa has worked within the retail industry for over 13 years in a diverse range of roles spanning from Store manager to Regional management these were held in various sectors including electrical retailing and hospitality... Read biography
|
|
|
Judith McKenna Judith McKenna has been Chief Financial Officer at Asda since 2001. The business has a turnover of £17bn and operates 353 stores throughout the UK... Read biography
|
|
|
Sandra Mclumpha When Sandra’s mother had a benign melanoma removed – a direct result of years of sunbathing – Sandra realised that the only safe tan is a fake one. Determined to raise awareness of the dangers of sun beds and sunbathing, Sandra set about finding a really good fake tan product. When Sandra came across the Fake Bake brand, already hugely successful in America, Sandra saw the potential of the product for the UK market and started importing it... Read biography
|
|
|
Michelle Mone Michelle Mone is currently 36 years old and is married to Michael. Entrepreneurial Spirit was prevalent from an early age and whilst her friends had posters of Duran Duran on their wall, she had Richard Branson. Following on from her success in modeling, Michelle decided she wanted to gain some business experience so took a job with Labatt Breweries as an office junior. By the age of 22 Michelle was running Labatt’s Scottish Sales & Marketing team... Read biography
|
|
|
June Poster June Poster started her career in the fashion industry as a catwalk model and joined Frank Usher in the late seventies and over the years has been an integral part of the brand’s continuing success... Read biography
|
|
|
MT Rainey MT (Mary Teresa) is founder and chairwoman of Horsesmouth.co.uk, a social networking site for universal online “mentoring” which launched in January 2008 and has been named one of the top 20 Web 2.0 start-ups in the UK... Read biography
|
|
|
Anne Seaman Anne Seaman is CEO of Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council which aims to increase skill levels in retail and promote it as a career of choice. She was formally Director of Enterprise and Innovation at Anglia Polytechnic University. She previously managed a sizeable department running major contracts with companies including Ford and Anglia Water and has run a three store retail business with her partner... Read biography
|
|
|
Carolyn Simons Carolyn Simons joined Homebase, part of Home Retail Group, as Commercial Director in June 2004. Before Homebase, Carolyn was previously Managing Director of Homestyle Group Plc and before that Director of Management Horizons Europe, a retail consulting firm. She graduated from university with a BA Honours in French and Russian and her retail career began as a buyer for The Boots Company plc... Read biography
|
|
|
Sue West Sue started her career with Habitat, holding a number of management roles including an international position based in Paris where she was responsible for opening stores in new global markets and franchise operations. She then relocated back to the UK to become the Retail Director... Read biography
|
|
|
Kim Winser OBE Kim Winser, OBE was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the British luxury fashion brand, Aquascutum, in April 2006 with a brief to significantly increase turnover and turn the loss making business to profit by 2010. In her first year she launched a highly acclaimed new advertising campaign with Pierce Brosnan and more recently with influential model Giselle Bundchen – a clear statement of intent with regard to her global aspirations for the business... Read biography
|
|
|
Cathy Wood Prior to joining Signet, Cathy has 21 years experience in retail concentrating her career within the buying and merchandising disciplines across many product categories and within many retail environment... Read biography
|
