Mr. James A. Gabel, also known as Jim, has been the Chief Executive Officer and President at Roots Canada Ltd. since February 24, 2016. Mr. Gabel served previously as an Executive Officer and the President of the Performance Group at Wolverine World Wide Inc. in Michigan from June 2014 to February 4, 2016. He has more than 24 years' experience in the footwear and apparel industry. In his 13 years with adidas Group, (in descending order) he was President of adidas Group Canada with responsibility for the consolidation of adidas, Reebok, Taylormade and Rockport. He lived in Boston for 4 years where he led Reebok’s turnaround as the President of Reebok North America. Prior to joining Reebok, he served as Senior Vice President of adidas America, where he was responsible for all brand operations for adidas and TaylorMade-adidas Golf in Canada and for directing the two largest sales accounts teams within the U.S. Prior to this role, he served as the President of adidas Canada Ltd., where he led the Canadian operation through a period of rapid growth. He joined adidas in 2001 as Vice President of Sales & Marketing, adidas Canada. Before joining the adidas Group, he held senior level positions at Champion Canada and Mizuno Canada.

As Senior Vice President of eCommerce for Best Buy Canada, Thierry Hay-Sabourin oversees the company’s rapid growth in Total Retail and continued expansion into the online market. Responsible for the eCommerce strategy and vision for the organization, Thierry has been instrumental in the development of the company’s online approach and emergence as a leader in Canadian ecommerce. Since 2004, Thierry has played an integral role in the management and innovation behind the Best Buy website. He has spearheaded many significant projects including the introduction of the company’s online community forums and blog platforms. Thierry has been instrumental in bringing Best Buy Canada’s Total Retail initiatives to life, such as launching Reserve and Pick Up, eReceipts, Multi-Channel Fulfilment, Delivery Promise, Ship-from-store, and Marketplace. These initiatives contributed to Best Buy Canada being awarded with ‘Best Omni-Channel Integration’ at the Canada Post eCommerce Innovation Awards in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and named winner of the ‘Omni-Channel Award’ at the 2016 Retail Council of Canada Excellence in Retailing Awards. Thierry holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from HEC Montréal, where he was also a part of the first cohort in Canada to achieve a Graduate Degree in eCommerce.

Jen Lee Koss is Co-founder and Builder of BRIKA. Jen is a Juilliard-trained cellist, a mother of three, and a graduate of Harvard University, Oxford University, and Harvard Business School. She spent over a decade working in management, consulting, investment banking, and private equity before Co-Founding BRIKA with her partner Kena Paranjape

Frederick has joined Golf Town as Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce, to turn the brand around by elevating its digital footprint and creating an interconnected retail landscape that allows eCommerce to successfully coexist with brick and mortar. From designing and implementing a cutting-edge omni-channel plan to enhancing Golf Town’s digital presence, Frederick applies an innovative approach to building emotional connections with customers. Before engaging in the journey to establish Golf Town Ltd.’s brand as Canada’s home of golf, Frederick led the Sport Chek digital marketing and eCommerce transformation as SVP of Marketing. He also brought forward ground-breaking digital change with the launch of Canada’s first digital flyer program and rollout of several eCommerce sites for the FGL and Marks banners (Sport Chek, Sports Experts, Atmosphere, Marks). For over 15 years, Frederick has influenced top organizations in roles such as Vice President for Global Brand Marketing & Digital Strategy at LG Electronics Corp in Seoul, Marketing Director for Microsoft Europe, and Marketing Director at Nokia. Prior to revolutionizing brands as a digital disruptor, Frederick’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to take part in two successful start-ups projects in Europe — one in eCommerce and another in media.

Jennifer leads National Retail Leader & Consumer Analytics Practice Leader for Deloitte Canada. She sits on the global retail executive team at the firm and leads the Consumer Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) for Deloitte globally. Her mandate is to leverage her Retail and Consumer expertise in Omnichannel to help clients make sense of the vast quantities of data which exists in their organizations utilizing a insight-data driven approach. She focuses on assisting clients in developing insight-driven strategies to deal with an increasingly connected consumer and complex business issues. These strategies include -transitioning from a multi-channel organization to “insight driven” organizations by building and operationalizing eCommerce platforms, mobile capabilities and the re-designing the retail network. She also assists clients in embedding Advanced Analytics into her clients’ business to deliver a one-brand (“Omnichannel”) experience. Jennifer leads a multi-faceted and cross-functional team ranging from strategists to and advanced analytics teams including market researcher and data scientists. Jennifer was recently promoted to become the Managing Partner of Clients & Industries for Deloitte’s Advisory Practice, which includes over 100+ partners and 400 Deloitte staff. of She is now responsible for all topline revenue generating activities including leading Advisory’s top client account programs, eminence and thought leadership.

Rebecca McKillican is the President & CEO of Well.ca, one of Canada's largest online eCommerce companies specializing in health, wellness, beauty and baby. Before becoming part of the Well.ca team, Rebecca worked for the New York City-based private equity firm Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts (KKR) within the retail and consumer group. Rebecca has also worked at McKinsey & Company. Rebecca holds a B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business, a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from Western University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School where she was a Baker Scholar. She's a passionate online shopper, a mom to three young children. She loves shopping for green & natural products at Well.ca to keep herself and her family healthy and well.

Sylvain Prud’homme was named president and CEO of Lowe’s Canada in May 2016. He is responsible for driving the Canadian home improvement business for Lowe’s, including RONA’s network of stores and independent dealers operating under other banners. Prud’homme joined Lowe’s as president of Lowe’s Canada in 2013, and he has more than 30 years of experience in the Canadian retail industry. Prior to Lowe’s Canada, Prud’homme served as executive vice president of operations and merchandising for Loblaw Company. He was also president of western operations for Sobeys and spent several years as senior vice president of operations and merchandising for Wal-Mart Canada. Prud’homme earned an MBA from the University of Montreal’s HEC business school. He is a member of the board of directors for GS1 and Lowe’s Companies Canada, ULC.

Tech titan Michele Romanow is an engineer and a serial entrepreneur who started three companies before her 28th birthday. The newest (and youngest ever Dragon in 28 countries) entrepreneur to join CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den, Michele is the co-founder of e-commerce platforms Buytopia.ca and Snap By Groupon, which have saved millions of users hundreds of millions of dollars. She is also the co-founder of clearbanc.com, an online financial service for freelancers, independent contractors, and entrepreneurs. Snap by Groupon (previously called SnapSaves) was acquired by Groupon in 2014, and Buytopia.ca, who accelerated their growth by acquiring seven smaller competitors, ranked #3 on the "Profit Hot 50" list of the fastest growing Canadian companies, and #1 on Chatelaine's W100 list of fastest growing companies. Additionally, Michele’s work has been profiled in Forbes, The New York Times, INC, The Globe and Mail, and Chatelaine. She is also a Cartier Women’s Initiative Award global finalist.

Matthew Shay is president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade association. Shay serves as chief advocate and spokesman for the nation’s largest private-sector industry employer, responsible for creating one in four U.S. jobs — 42 million working Americans — and generating $2.6 trillion in annual GDP. Since his arrival in 2010, Shay has transformed NRF into Washington’s most powerful voice supporting the retail industry, leading the organization to new levels of effectiveness on policy issues, increasing awareness of the industry’s economic impact and expanding political engagement. Under his tenure, membership has more than doubled to 18,000, revenue has doubled and advocacy investments have grown significantly. Shay led the implementation of a new strategic plan for the organization, allocating significant new financial and human resources to government relations and advocacy, a new approach to communications and public affairs, and increased focus on delivering member value. The plan has led to legislative movement on key issues like patent litigation reform, sales tax fairness and data security; the creation of the This is Retail industry perception campaign; NRF’s most successful annual convention in its 100-year history; and the expansion of the NRF Foundation, which awarded over $1 million in educational scholarships last year alone. Shay previously served as president and CEO of the International Franchise Association, which represents more than 1,200 franchise companies in retail and other industries around the world. During his time as CEO, the IFA adopted an aggressive public policy agenda that led to a series of initiatives to restore much-needed credit to cash-strapped retail and other franchise businesses during the last recession. Shay has been recognized by CEO Update as one of the top 50 nonprofit chief executives in Washington. He serves on a number of boards and committees, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the American Society of Association Executives where he serves as chair-elect of ASAE and chair of ASAE Foundation, Good360, So Others Might Eat, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Association Committee of 100.

Nicole Tapscott is General Manager of Casper, Canada. She leads the growth strategy of Casper's largest market outside of the US, splitting her time between Casper's headquarters in New York City and her hometown, Toronto. Prior to joining Casper, Nicole was Director of Partnership Marketing at Relationship Science, and Head of New Media and Collaborative Platforms at the World Economic Forum. She began her career consulting to major retail organizations at Accenture, and led international teams to identify new partnerships and marketing opportunities in lead generation, customer retention, and community engagement. In 2012, Nicole received her MBA from INSEAD.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Jeff received an honours degree in Economics from Princeton University and achieved his Chartered Accountant Designation, while holding a position with Ward Mallette Chartered Accountants. Making the leap to retail, Jeff joined Giant Tiger Stores, where after a number of years in operational and management roles, assumed the presidency. In this capacity, Jeff helped grow the business from a regional discount chain with 250 million in sales, to 1.4 billion in sales nationally as the third largest discount chain in Canada. In 2009, Jeff joined Farm Boy with a mandate to expand the business. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a nine store chain in the Ottawa region to now 23 stores in Ottawa, Kingston, the GTA and Southwestern Ontario with further expansion plans underway.