2025 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS JUDGING PANEL
The seventh edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, sponsored by Vista Technology Support, 3D Cloud, EdTech Innovation Hub, and Retail Technology Show, is now open for entries.
The awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our latest winners will be revealed at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Thursday, 16th October.
Key dates
Friday, 19th September: Award entry deadline
Tuesday, 23rd September: 2025 finalists revealed
Wednesday, 24th September - Wednesday, 8th October: Judging days
Thursday, 16th October: Winners announced at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Thursday, 16th October.
Check out our 2024 winners here.
2025 RTIH Innovation Awards judging panel
We’re pleased to announce the judging panel for the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards, including representatives from the likes of Amazon, C&C Group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, NCC Group, Rohlik Group, Boots, East of England Co-op, and IGD.
We have brought together a broad spectrum of independent experts, who have experience and insight into different aspects of the retail technology industry.
Carole Kingsbury, Chief Technology Officer, C&C Group
Bio: From publishing to fashion retail, Carole has successfully delivered technology solutions and services for FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies. Whether working as a Technology Consultant, Business Analyst, Programme Manager, or IT Director, her approach has consistently focussed on people, process, data, and technology (in that order).
For the past 16 years of her career, Carole has been privileged to have led teams of various shapes and sizes to achieve delivery of complex business and technology change in the retail sector and has always advocated for cross-functional ways of working and thinking to encourage active collaboration and create a culture of continuous improvement, development, and innovation.
Rob Smith, Technology Officer, East of England Co-op
Bio: Rob is a strategic and accomplished technology and people leader with over 20 years’ experience across the retail, finance, and IT sectors.
Renowned for building and inspiring high performing teams, he consistently delivers exceptional results while driving quality and innovation. Passionate about IT, data, service delivery, and business transformation, Rob excels at modernising practices and enabling continuous improvement. As Technology Officer at East of England Co-op, he leads the organisation’s technology strategy and drives forward its digital and operational evolution.
Christine Russo, Industry Analyst and Retail Influencer
Bio: Christine is an industry thought leader, Retail Technology Innovation Hub Top 100 Influencer, and the RTIH US correspondent.
She hosts the industry recognised leading podcast What Just Happened, where tech solution CEOs, leaders in retail and brands speak candidly about industry shaping issues and challenges.
With a career spanning roles in management consulting at Deloitte and executive roles in global store development, Christine’s experience includes top down analysis as well as serving time in the retail trenches. Based in New York City, she is the mom of three grown daughters and two naughty puppies.
Scott Thompson, Editor and Founder, Retail Technology Innovation Hub
Bio: Over the past 25 years, Scott has held senior editorial positions at and contributed to a number of business and technology related publications.
Prior to launching Retail Technology Innovation Hub, he was Editor at crypto publication Coin Rivet and Senior Editor at IBS Intelligence, heading up their monthly banking technology title, IBS Journal and daily online news service.
Scott also spent ten years at retail tech title, Retail Systems.
He launched RTIH as he believed there was a gap in the market for a source of independent retail technology news, analysis and research, written by people with a genuine passion for this fast moving sector.
Toby Pickard, Retail Futures Senior Partner, IGD
Bio: Toby has over 17 years’ experience working in the food and consumer goods industry.
He researches, analyses and presents insights on innovations, technology, retail futures, sustainability and macro trends in the FMCG sector.
Paula Bobbett, Chief Digital Officer, Boots
Bio to come.
Nadine Neatrour, Chief Marketing Officer, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants
Bio to come.
Yatin Garg, Head Product & Engineering, Amazon
Bio: Yatin is a senior executive and thought leader in technology, retail, and finance, with over 12 years of global experience spanning Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, and Unilever.
He currently serves as Amazon Head of Product, Engineering, and Finance teams to scale AI driven financial technology across global markets. Yatin holds an MBA with honours from the Kellogg School of Management and an Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His work focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to drive organisational transformation, operational efficiency, and customer centric innovation.
Jack Dowling, Transformation Director (Strategy, Product, Operations & AI)
Jack is a transformation leader who turns complex challenges into growth.
Having delivered meaningful innovation at Asos and Frasers Group (as well as several other cross industry clients), he recently led the Post Office through a multi-carrier, multi-channel overhaul that launched 14 new customer propositions services, added 60 million annual customer transactions, and halted a years long revenue slide. In the past four years, he has directly generated £120 million in new revenue and £20 million in yearly efficiency gains by fusing strategy, digital innovation, data analysis and hands-on operations.
James Pepper, CEO, Vista Technology Support
Bio to come.
Suhas Grama, Senior Software Development Engineer, Amazon Just Walk Out
Bio: At Amazon, Suhas focuses on building the company’s Just Walk Out cashierless technology for retail stores, based in Seattle, USA.
Matt Taylor, CTO of Global Managed Services and VP of SecDevOps, NCC Group
Bio: Prior to NCC Group, Matt was a partner and the technology strategy and transformation leader at one of the Big Four. He has also been a CIO and previously led large scale complex global IT transformation, delivery and recoveries for over 20 years at Accenture.
Privileged to have led international teams and worked in Europe, US and India, Matt has experienced an incredibly valuable range of cultures and environments with some of the world's most innovative brands.
He is a fellow of the BCS (Chartered Institute for IT), elected committee member of the IT Leaders Forum, volunteer mentor, early careers advocate and proudly included in the RTIH top 100 retail technology influencers list.
Gary Newbury, Supply Chain Advisor and Delivery Executive
Bio: Gary has established an international reputation for rapid business performance transformation and executing supply chain designs, which consistently builds market prominence, shareholder value and consumer trust.
He helps boards and business leaders to navigate ongoing disruption and reinvigorate supply chain performance across the “make-move-sell” flow of manufacturing, third party logistics, wholesaling, retailing and the last mile.
Gary has an MBA and an MSc (Supply Chain Management & Logistics) from Cranfield University, UK and is recently CCLP, CSCMP, PMP, LSSBB and Retail Management certified.
Vineta Bajaj, Group CFO, Rohlik Group
Bio: Vineta is an industry expert in the e-commerce and grocery industry, bringing several years experience in this space.
She spent ten years at Ocado Group, the FTSE 50 online grocer and technology provider supporting its growth and strategic M&A, strategic divestments and fundraising over £1.5 billion. She is now the Group CFO at Rohlik Group, a Pan European online grocer spanning five countries that has unicorn status. Her experience spans the US, UK, Europe and Asia. She is a finance, tax and business expert.
Vineta acts as an angel investor and advisor to a number of pre-series to Series A startups across a variety of industries and gives her time to supporting small businesses.
Eugene Mischenko, Founder and President, E-Commerce & Digital Marketing Association
Bio: Eugene is a seasoned e-commerce leader and business consultant with over 20 years of success driving growth across B2B, B2B2C, and B2C sectors.
His expertise fuels omnichannel sales, marketing, and digital transformation initiatives. With a proven track record at companies like METRO, Sanofi, and L’Occitane en Provence, he brings strategic vision and a deep understanding of the e-commerce landscape.
As the President of the E-Commerce & Digital Marketing Association, he drives collaboration and oversees membership growth. Beyond his e-commerce leadership, Eugene is also a dedicated mentor, guiding the next generation of digital leaders and innovators.
Mike Cadden, Chief Technology Officer, Marie Curie
Bio to come.
Gregg London, Supply Chain Consultant
Bio to come.
If you would like to be considered for inclusion on our 2025 judging panel, please fill in the below form and we will get back to you asap.
