Gemma Needham, Product & Optimisation Manager at icelolly.com

Gemma has 8 years analytics experience, gained from the mail order, finance and travel industries. She introduced icelolly.com’s first conversion rate optimisation program making improvements across the user journey. Her work with technical analytics has helped to develop strong ties between the data team and development.

She now leads the data science team, who are implementing machine learning and continues to work alongside development on improving website performance.

Reema Vadoliya, Data Scientist at icelolly.com

After finishing her BSc in Mathematics at Leeds University, Reema completed a three-month internship as a Data Analyst at icelolly.com – after which she was offered a full time position.

The internship provided the perfect opportunity for Reema to understand how the business operates, as well as getting her head around the reams of data that come from the site. For Reema, this was the best way to learn about a completely new industry. The short internship meant that she had to get stuck in straight away, which in turn allowed her to make the most of her time and ultimately led to a permanent position.

At icelolly, Reema and the team have focussed on automating reports using Google Cloud Platform tools such as BigQuery and Data Studio. The advance of AI and machine learning is very exciting, and she is currently taking a Stanford University online training course to develop her understanding of this, with hopes to open career opportunities working with machine learning in the future.

Crawford Davidson, Managing Director at Go Inspire

Crawford began his career as a physicist in the nuclear industry, but marketing was his passion. He launched the Boots Advantage Card in 1997 and built the Boots CRM capability. Re-launched Tesco Clubcard with AirMiles in 2002 and develop the Tesco CRM capability along with Dunnhumby. 

He has also worked as Commercial & Marketing Director in Tesco, Aviva and Direct Line Group, across the UK, Germany and Italy. He developed a global data and insight business in Telefonica, and more recently launched the Morrison’s Loyalty Card and built their CRM capability. He is now the Managing Director of Go Inspire, providing data marketing services to many leading brands in the UK.

Mark Brown, Director of Search Intelligence at Adthena

Mark Brown is the Director of Search Intelligence at Adthena. With a wealth of knowledge in SAAS space, Mark has an extensive career in B2B tech with previous roles at Spiceworks as Director of Sales, EMEA and before that Global Director of Sales at UBM Tech. A regular speaker at events and roundtables across the UK, Mark is looking forward to sharing his expertise and better understand delegates’ core challenges with competition in search.

Jimmy McCann, Head of Digital Strategy at Search Laboratory

Jimmy is a leading expert in attribution and is Search Laboratory’s lead adviser on using data in cross-channel digital strategy. He is a regular contributor to industry publications, including Econsultancy, and has worked at a strategic level with global brands, including ASOS, The Outnet, Citrix and Kingston Technologies.

 

Ed Thewlis, Director at the Data Shed

After a decade of working with data and technology in financial services, healthcare, travel and aviation, Ed co-founded the Data Shed 6 years ago with Anna, bringing together vast experience of Data and Marketing under one roof.

Ed and the team work with a variety of clients large and small to help them make the most from the data they look after on behalf of their customers. Whether it’s a real-time insight platform, or an implementation of our Single View of Customer product, the team focusses on enabling genuine business change through the use of data – ensuring businesses know who their customers are, how they need to speak to them, and when that communication will be best received.

Sam Gardner, Founding Partner at Boxclever

Sam is a founding partner at Boxclever and heads up their commercial analytics team. He’s a professional economist and statistician who blends these two skillsets to create analytical solutions which elevate insight to a level that is more engaging and commercially actionable. Expertise include segmentation, market simulation & pricing analysis.

 

Sandeep Mendiratta, MD & Co-Founder at Acrotrend

Sandeep has got 15 years of experience in helping insight driven businesses deliver business value from their Customer Analytics strategies. He has provided a powerful catalyst to the business leaders to create a vision of the future and the tools to execute. He has helped orchestrate many transformative customer experience programmes at brands like Cancer Research UK, Nuffield Health, BNP Paribas, Reed Exhibitions, United Business Media, Ocado and others.

Sandeep brings real business experience and a deep understanding of evolving needs for sales and marketing technology. His special area of interests is in the application of Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence on evolving customer behaviours to enhance the customer experience.

Sandeep is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Acrotrend. He believes organisations need to be culturally more curious about their data and build communities around data to experience continuous success

Shailesh Mallya, Tech Leader & Co-Founder at Acrotrend

Shailesh has 13 years of experience and is a technology leader working closely with the client stakeholders to advise them on their data and technology strategy for customer analytics.  After starting his career in accounting, Shailesh switched to technology and what was to become his passion. He co-founded one of India’s first dating platforms during the millennium dot com boom along with running a web development & recruitment company. He then ventured into the world of customer insights & analytics working with Deloitte and Accenture.

He has experience of working with customer data in various geographies within industry sectors that include Retail, Events Management, Media, Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences, Health Care, Financial Services and Not for Profit. Shailesh is now the co-founder of Acrotrend and leads their consulting practice. He firmly believes in building a culture of curiosity as the cornerstones for achieving organisational objectives on customer insights & analytics.

Ian Harris, CEO & Founder at Search Laboratory 

Ian is the founder and CEO of global search engine marketing agency Search Laboratory. For the last nine years his unique scientific and mathematical approach to search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising has seen him grow Search Laboratory from a two-man operation to today employing over 150 in-house search specialists and linguists, managing a world-famous client list.

Ian’s career began in programming, which led to him being appointed as CTO for one of the world’s largest web localisation companies. Here he helped companies such as British Airways, IBM and HSBC tap into new overseas markets online. During his time as CTO Ian witnessed many large organisations trying to build search marketing campaigns in multiple languages – either by translating keywords or by using a student intern. Ian wanted to fill the gap in the market for a dedicated multilingual search engine marketing service and subsequently created Search Laboratory in 2005

Paul Morris, Former Global Digital Director at PZ Cussons (Official Master of Ceremonies)

Paul has previously led global digital transformation and digital marketing at PZ Cussons (brands including St Tropez, Imperial Leather & Original Source), led digital at the Co-op (Food & Funeralcare) and had experience of working both client and agency side with brands including Wickes, Laterooms, Silverstone, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Cash Generator and Park Resorts.

Having worked in digital for 18 years, Paul now contracts in Exec Interim roles, and will act as Official Master of Ceremonies at the Data, Analytics & Insight Leaders Masterclass. You can follow Paul on his blog Searchmuse.