Retail Lunch 2024

I’ve worked for LUSH for 11 years, starting on the Cardiff shop floor as a 12 hour sales assistant. Over the years I’ve managed stores of all shapes and sizes, managing teams as small as 8 and as large as 200! Most recently, I’ve joined the UK&I Retail team of 11 and am currently working on in store events and parties to ensure every LUSH shop across the Uk & Ireland is the place to celebrate your life event, be it birthday or hen do!

Luke Broster is a Retail Store Manager with Patagonia. With a passion for purposeful business, community building and leading by mission and values. An outdoor professional proud to represent an organisation that prioritises experiences and relationships over transactions.

Ed Barker is Head of Intellectual Property & Legal Governance at Manchester United Football Club.  Ed manages the club’s global intellectual property portfolio, serves as the club’s data protection officer and also has responsibility for a broad range of commercial, legal governance and compliance matters.   Ed joined Manchester United in 2016, prior to which he was Head of Legal at Digital Science and before that spent over a decade in private practice, advising clients across a broad range of industries.

David is currently Centre Director at Manchester Arndale, a position he has held for 10 years. He is also Chair of CityCo, the management company that represents over 1000 city centre businesses.

His career started in London, working for Bass and involved running bars, hotels and restaurants in the City of London before a move into the aviation sector with BAA at Gatwick, and as part of the development team for Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

The move North was brought about by taking up the position of Head of Commercial Development at Manchester Airports Group, which was responsible from all income from retail and car parks right through to the refuelling of aircraft.

The shopping centre sector move came in 2006 taking up the role of General Manager with Lend Lease for the redevelopment of the Golden Square shopping centre in Warrington, before moving down the M56 to Manchester Arndale.

Louise leads the Private Equity Growth Division for Rowan Executive Search supporting the SME market and specialising in placing C-Suite roles across the UK. Louise has over 20 years executive search experience, is qualified to CIPD level 5, personally sat at SMT level, managed a number of large sales teams and has an exceptional knowledge of the Northwest marketplace. She came out of the corporate world over 7 years ago and joined Rowan – a PE-backed, fast-paced, entrepreneur led business – to enable the next stage of her journey balancing senior leadership with her role as a mum. Louise also hosts a quarterly Empowering Women in Business to orchestrate more opportunities for females at board level as well as tackling the wider DE&I agenda.

Carl Morris is an accomplished business executive with over 20 years of experience in creating brands, driving growth and operational excellence in the retail sector. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Cress, he has been pivotal in redefining e-commerce for parents with a focus on affordability and community building. Carl’s leadership has steered Cress to become an innovative new online marketplace, supporting parents and fostering a culture of sustainable shopping.

Before Cress, Carl has built an extremely profitable hospitality business and held significant roles at major retail organisations, where he honed his skills in strategic planning, team building, and business growth. His expertise extends to crafting partnerships, marketing and scaling business. Carl is a visionary leader who is passionate about creating positive change and empowering through innovative solutions

Nigel is an experienced executive and advisor with a successful track record of growing technology businesses internationally. He has worked at senior leadership level in both larger corporates and SMEs; and has been the CEO of a number of high-growth technology and services companies, transforming them through a clear agreed strategy, designing and delivering robust sales, delivery and operational processes to provide the platform for transformation and growth.

Jennifer is a Partner with considerable experience and expertise, encompassing both contentious and non-contentious work, spanning the lifetime of the employment relationship. With extensive advocacy experience in the Tribunals, Jennifer has developed a strong reputation as a litigator and tactician.

Jennifer is listed in the Legal 500 as a “Recommended Lawyer” and a “Next Generation Partner”. The publication has described Jennifer as “very thorough and totally committed to her clients” and as a “name to note”. Jennifer has particular expertise in the recruitment sector, as well as professional services industry and hospitality, retail and tech sectors.

Clients recognise Jennifer’s excellent legal skillset and commitment to them and consistently return to her for advice. Jennifer’s personal approach, commercial awareness and excellent client care skills have previously resulted in awards, including Jennifer winning the Business Insider Lawyer of the Year.

As well as being a Partner at Forbes, Jennifer is a Trustee of the Forbes Foundation charity and is a director of pro-manchester.

Lauren Somers is a UK Chartered Trade Mark and Designs Attorney. She helps businesses from multinationals to start-ups to identify, protect and enforce their intellectual property rights. Lauren is co-chair of the pro-manchester Retail & E-commence committee and has particular experience and expertise advising retailers.