THG Ingenuity appoints industry veteran Gemma Spence as CEO as part of broader leadership transitions
THG Ingenuity has announced the appointment of Gemma Spence as Chief Executive Officer. Spence became one of the youngest CEOs within Omnicom, where she founded and scaled its e-commerce consultancy across EMEA, supporting some of the world's largest brands. Her career also includes client side experience.
She has worked with various brands across commerce, marketplaces, retail media, data, and technology. Most recently, she served as CEO and Country Manager for VML and WPP Luxembourg, leading its Marketplace and Amazon Centre of Excellence. Across THG Fulfil, THG Commerce and THG Studios, THG Ingenuity spans content production, commerce technology, marketplaces, fulfilment, automation and robotics capabilities.
Spence says: “Having spent 17+ years in this industry, what excites me the most is the exceptional talent, the operator led capabilities and the speed of this organisation. Ideas move incredibly quickly from concept to scaled capability. By connecting these through a common decision layer, the opportunity is enormous. That’s the future of commerce, and very few businesses are as well positioned to build and own it as THG Ingenuity.”
Elsewhere, John Gallemore will move into the role of Chairman. He comments: “THG Ingenuity was built to scale the world’s most ambitious e-commerce businesses, using data led technology, automation and robotics to solve the practical challenges of operating at scale. The next phase will be about making these platforms operate faster, smarter and more connected than ever. Gemma brings extensive experience of building commerce businesses, and a clear understanding of what brands need to grow. Her track record speaks for itself, and I’m confident she will lead THG Ingenuity in its next phase of growth.”
Alistair Crane will also become a Strategic Consultant for THG Ingenuity. He says: “I look forward to continuing to work closely with THG Ingenuity, identifying new opportunities for the business and seeing how it develops even smarter solutions through data, analytics and AI.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
E-commerce will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
