Everything has gone green in the world of Poster who co-founded Perfect Ted four years ago when she unleashed her Matcha green tea-powered products onto the market. It has rapidly grown into a serious business with its products in tens of thousands of stores across more than 50 countries. This runs alongside its DTC channel through which an expanding array of green products are available. Poster previously spent a couple of years in the real estate and finance sectors.

While Mardall was recovering from illness she identified the funeral sector as ripe for disruption because of its manipulative sales techniques, poor care for the dead, and an inflexible approach with customers. She launched Poppy's in 2012 to revolutionise the funeral trade and it has brought a whole new refreshing model to the industry with its new ways of marketing, options, communications and service levels that involves embracing a multi-channel approach. Helping scale the business is Montagu who joined in late 2021 following her previous roles at Royal Trinity Hospice and Terrence Higgins Trust.

Wellness brand SURI was co-founded by Rushmore and Safavi in 2021 with a sustainable electric toothbrush designed as a thorough rethink of the category. The company has pushed on with its sales growth this past year with the UK and US representing the bulk of sales – with approximately 40% from the US. Interest is also picking up from other export markets including Australia. The vast majority of its sales come from the brand’s own website. Rushmore and Safavi both cut their marketing teeth during stints in branding at the likes of P&G.

Dewey founded her eponymous fashion brand in October 2020 after being more than frustrated with not being able to find suitable clothing for her 5’4” height.  She has successfully carved out a position supplying to petite and extra-petite women with a range of clothing that perfectly suits their needs. Dewey has built a business with real purpose that has won her a raft.

Ghasempour is a board-level AI leader with over 15 years of experience driving AI strategy, innovation, and governance across retail, technology, and research while working at Very, THG and more recently Kingfisher Group. He leads its AI strategy across the B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Dépôt businesses. He has added value within the areas of pricing, search, visual search and recommendations and leads the way in the retail sector. Ghosempour is also a non-executive director at Hays Travel.

Ozaydinli describes himself as a serial tech founder and investor with over two decades of experience in pet tech, wellness tech, personalisation, AI and innovative products. He is currently founder and CEO of Scooch, an AI-powered pet health subscription service that is dedicated to eliminating the guesswork in pet care. The company has won many awards for its innovative approach to looking after pets through a range of food and supplements and it raised funding last year to help with its expansion..

Hair and beauty products brand Gisou was founded in 2015 by beauty influencer Negin Mirsalehi who sought to boost the credentials of the business with the appointment of Watt in 2022. She has moved the brand on to working with the likes of Sephora, which has pushed up sales and given the brand much greater scale. Watt brings serious experience from her former roles at Bugaboo, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty and L’Oreal. She held myriad positions at the latter across many of the group’s beauty brands.

Howard joined The BrandAlley Group in late 2025 with a role involving shaping and implementing pricing and product discovery strategy. He previously spent 13 years at Asos where he latterly had responsibility over the sensitive area of returns. Managing serial returning customers is a very contentious area and Howard must be give some credit for tackling this issue with some innovative solutions. Although they might not be universally liked such brave, disruptive moves should be applauded.

Since joining Fabacus in late 2024 Wilson has become an important part of the team with a challenging role that involves balancing the needs of various stakeholders at Fabacus. The company is rapidly building a trusted system of record for the products of large brands and retailers that provides the infrastructure for implementing Digital Product Passports (DPPs). She has previously held various ESG-related roles and is certainly one to watch in retail and its wider eco-system.

It can be difficult to identify effective disruptors within large organisations but Schroedl has been recognised as a very effective operator within the vast Amazon empire. He has shown great skill at bringing various brands together and overseeing progress with cleaning their product listings data that is used within Amazon and other sales channels. This places him in an important position as retailers and brand owners increasingly recognise the value of their data and supply chain visibility. He previously worked at SAP in the US.

Grace Vernon, Head of Boots Ignite and Foresight & Trends in Beauty – Boots

Ensuring Boots stays on top of the latest trends in the beauty and skincare market is a big task for Vernon who is building Boots’ position in the growing wellness category. She joined the company over seven years ago and has been instrumental in bringing new and innovative brands into the Boots business – both online and in-store. Vernon started her career at Wilko where she spent four years gaining vital experience in trend management.

Emma Hill, Founder & Creative Director - Damson Madder

Hill had been working as a buyer in the fashion industry before she founded cult womenswear brand Damson Madder in 2020. Disillusionment with the industry’s practices led her to create something slower, more considered, and more sustainable. Its multi-generationaL styles have become viral hits and taken the brand beyond the UK with listings in Parisian department stores and pop-ups in various US cities. The brand has also moved into homewares. Hill is certainly one to watch as she builds out the Damson Madder brand.

Liz Le Breton, Vice President for UK - Eat Club

Le Breton joined Eat Club in March 2025 to oversee growth at the business that gives restaurants and bars real-time control over demand by allowing them to drop exclusive offers during quieter periods – helping fill seats, stabilise revenue, and reduce waste with zero disruption to operations. She brings a wealth of marketing experience to the role, with particular focus on start-ups and scale-ups having spent time at the likes of Trusted Housesitters and Generation Home along with John Lewis and the BBC.

Dan Murray-Serter, Co-founder - Heights

Heights was co-founded by entrepreneur Murray-Serter in 2020 and has become the fastest growing UK-based supplements company. The business recently raised £2 million to give it a valuation of almost £60 million on the back of an annual revenue rate of £20 million, double that of 2024. Sales to date have been purely through its website but its recent listing in Boots stores will give it a multi-channel platform for further growth. Murray-Serter has built a number of online businesses and is an angel investor.

Phil Learney, Co-founder - HMN24

Strategic wellness and human performance consultant Learney founded supplements business HMN25 in 2021 to provide products and education designed to optimise daily arousal states, regulate the nervous system, and enhance sleep and recovery. Along with selling these products and services online he is also involved with the Advanced Coaching Academy that he set up back in 2008 and he also recently founded science-led consultancy Future Wellness Group. He is having an outsized impact on this growing part of the market.

Joe Wilkinson, Co-founder – Hulcan

It has certainly been a transformative year for Wilkinson with the recent purchase of MatchesFashion and its in-house brand Raey by his newly-formed luxury group Hulcan. This also comprises the members-only Mile business that has hit profitability and is in a hyper-growth phase as it seeks to re-invent the unsold inventory problem within the luxury fashion sector. It works with the likes of Off-White, Kenzo Paris and Missoni. Mile was created from a pivot away from the mystery box business Heat. Wilkinson looks like he is building a sizeable operation in the luxury sector.

Emmanuel Eribo, Co-founder & CEO – LØCI

It has been a period of building the brand equity of LØCI by Eribo who founded it in May 2021 as a vegan sneaker and apparel brand for men and women. Investor in the brand Nicki Minaj created a collection for the business and has helped it build a significant presence in the US. The focus of the business continues to revolve around next-generation materials such as bio leather, with all the materials 100% animal-free, which contributes to what is very much a purpose-led business.

Michael Jones, Chief Technology Officer – loveholidays

Jones joined Loveholidays in 2019 and has overseen a period of great growth at the online travel agent. It also operates in Ireland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. He brings skills from previous roles at online operators including uSwitch and TrafficBroker. Jones has proven pretty adept at scaling technology and has latterly been involved with a serious AI transformation at Loveholidays.

Alice Mannion, Product Director – Ocado Technology

Mannion made the interesting move from working within Ocado Retail in 2021 to Ocado Technology where she took up the role of head of product working on some of the complex tech behind the customer experience. She has taken on tasks involving dynamic pricing on delivery and moved up to the product director position in late-2024. She joined Ocado in 2011 and has gained great insights across the whole organisation from various roles.  

Simon Ellis, Head of AI transformation and enterprise architecture – Pets at Home

Experienced tech practitioner Ellis is bringing his skills to bear at Pets At Home where he is leading the charge on AI. He is successfully moving it beyond theory and into day-to-day retail operations, delivering tangible efficiency gains and competitive advantage. Among the initiatives he is pushing is getting AI into the hands of the store teams via headsets. He joined Pets at Home in 2024 and prior to that worked at Boots and in various consulting type capacities over a 30-year career.

Jack & Charlie Rubin, Co-founders – Purdy & Figg

Since Jack and Charlie took on the running of the family business in 2020 they have brought a digital-first mind-set, which has transformed the eco-friendly cleaning products retailer Purdy & Figg from a cottage business into a Direct-to-Consumer powerhouse. They have utilising Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to push subscriptions that helped grow annual sales to £40 million in 2025. They recently teamed up with William Morris on a new range.

Laurence Newman, Founder & CEO - The Beauty Tech Group

Newman is well versed in the field of wellness and cosmetic innovation following his creation of The Beauty Tech Group back in 2009. The business comprises the beauty device companies ZIIP and Tria along with the Currentbody LED mask operation that has been gaining significant traction recently. The strength of the company under Newman’s leadership was highlighted by its flotation in 2025 giving it a value of around £300 million.  

Brian Walmsley, Founder & CEO – ReBorn Homewares

Walmsley founded ReBorn Homewares in 2022 to create functional and planet-friendly homewares in the UK from recycled materials. They are circular by design in that they are also recyclable again at end-of-life. The growing range of products are sold direct from the company’s website. Walmsley is bringing extensive marketing and branding experience to re-inventing the furniture category with time previously spent at EKO, Joseph Joseph and Johnson & Johnson among other businesses.  

Malcolm Carter, Digital & Marketing Director - The Entertainer

The Entertainer is a stalwart of the high street that has been undergoing a digital transformation - to bring it in-line with younger, digital-based players – under the guidance of Carter. He joined the business in January 2023 and was promoted to his current role in December 2025. He has introduced a raft of new CX initiatives such as 30-minute click & collect and brought AI into various aspects of the organisation. He has held previous roles at Curry’s, Carphone Warehouse and Dixons.

Emma Cunliffe, Group Innovation Manager - Tesco

She might have only been at Tesco since late-2020 but Cunliffe has already had a great impact. She specialises in identifying, evaluating and scaling emerging technologies that helps accelerate future growth at Tesco. This has included leading on Tesco’s Whoosh rapid delivery service. Cunliffe also created Tesco’s One Planet Community, a sustainability network of around 1,000 colleague members, which combines to suggest she is a serious one to watch in the sector. 

Colette Laxton + Mark Curry, Co-founders – The Inkey List

The Inkey List was founded by Laxton and Curry in 2018 with the view that skincare can be confusing but that better knowledge can power improved decisions. They have used their experience working for various brands to build a business that sells into many retailers including Boots and has achieved some impressive sales in the US. They also have a reputation in the industry for helping the founders of other start-up beauty brands. They continue to innovate, which includes the newly-created InkeyLab that gives them insights before betting big on any new NPD. 

Aimee Connolly, founder & CEO - Sculpted by Aimee

Connolly launched make-up and skincare brand Sculpted by Aimee in 2016 and it has grown into an award-winning operation with a wide range of products sold through various retailers in a number of countries as well as through its own website. It also has four of its own stores including a unit near Carnaby Street in London. Connolly had formerly been a make-up artist running her own business.

Eli Khrapko + Giorgia Granata, Co-founders – Wype

Launched in late 2020 by Khrapko and Granata, Wype is a gel applicator for toilet paper that does a better job of cleaning than paper and is better for the skin than wipes. It is essentially a wet wipe in a bottle. Khrapko had done a three-year stint at Amazon before Granata approached him with the idea and since launching Wype they have attracted 300,000 customers and the products are now available in Boots and Holland & Barrett. Partnerships with the likes of Anglia Water further broaden the reach of the two entrepreneurs’ sustainable brand. 

Deirdre McGettrick, Co-founder & CEO – Ufurnish

After a period in finance McGettrick co-founded Ufurnish in 2019 and has built it into the UK's leading search and comparison website for home furniture and furnishings with over five million users. The platform brings together furniture and furnishings from over 100 high street retailers and smaller independents. McGettrick and the team are driving AI-led innovation in the way consumers connect with retailers and products available in the market to help furnish their homes.