2026 Grocery Industry Icons and Innovators

Chris Rogers

CEO Instacart

Yael Cossett

EVP & Chief Digital Officer Kroger

Loretta Franks

SVP, Global Chief Data & Analytics Officer Mars Snacking

Krystyna Kostka

Chief Supply Chain Officer BJ's

Tony Rogers

Chief Marketing Officer Dollar General

Andy Fang

Co-Founder DoorDash

Padma Hari

Chief Digital Officer Nestle Purina

Ganesh Rao

VP, Worldwide Grocery Partnerships & Amazon Fresh International Amazon

Adam Houston

SVP, Event Director Groceryshop

Adam started at Shoptalk and Groceryshop in 2019 as a sales director, ultimately working with key accounts across both the North American and European portfolio. After five years, he followed his passion for innovation in food and agriculture to lead Groceryshop as its event director.

Arthur Sylvestre

VP, Digital Commerce Danone North America

Arthur is vice president of digital commerce at Danone North America. He is an experienced professional in brand management and digital media.

Carla Buzasi

CEO WGSN

Benoit Vatere

Chief Media Officer Liquid Death

Ben Miller

VP, Original Content & Strategy Groceryshop

Ben is vice president of original content across the global Shoptalk and Groceryshop portfolio. Original Content are proprietary insights produced exclusively for the Shoptalk and Groceryshop community. A regular at Shoptalk events for many years, he joined the team in the Fall of 2022.

Brian Bell

VP, Strategy & Planning Church & Dwight Co., Inc

Brian is vice president of IT strategy and planning at Church & Dwight. In this role, he leads global IT strategy, innovation, project and portfolio management, strategic partnerships, and enterprise data management capabilities. He has been with the manufacturer for over twelve years after starting his career in IT and digital consultancy.

Chris Walton

Co-CEO Omni Talk

Chris is the co-CEO at Omni Talk, one of the fastest-growing media outlets covering retail. Chris is also a senior contributor for Forbes and a former vice president of innovation at Target.

Cristina Marinucci

VP, Global Growth & Omni Commercial Insights Mondelēz International

Cristina Marinucci is a visionary leader in Global Insights & Analytics at Mondelēz International, where she currently serves as the Global Head of Shopper Excellence. Here she spearheads initiatives that transform shopper behavior and insights into actionable, unified omni strategies, driving significant revenue growth. Her work is central to positioning Mondelēz as a world-class Shopper organization, with a focus on elevating Shopper Insights within the Commercial organization.

In this role, Cristina leads the development of Global Category Growth Drivers, integrating market-level 6P activation inspiration, pioneering proprietary Pricing & Promotion tools that encompass the omni shopper journey as well as advancing best-in-class Shopper & Digital capabilities across the organization.

Prior to this role, Cristina led eCommerce Insights and Analytics for Johnson & Johnson North America, where she oversaw all aspects of NA eCommerce Analytics, including pure play, DTC, and omnichannel strategies.

Cristina has a proven track record in thought leadership, pioneering new capabilities, and driving organizational transformations in the shopper and digital domains. Her experience spans across some of the largest FMCG companies, including PepsiCo, Pernod Ricard, Reckitt Benckiser, M&M Mars, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson.

Cristina is recognized as an innovative and performance-driven commercial leader, with a strong ability to challenge paradigms and act as a catalyst for change. Her versatile expertise across Sales, Marketing, and Analytics allows her to forge meaningful connections between retailers, brands, and consumers, while creating holistic full-funnel strategies that drive superior performance.

As a frequent speaker at industry events such as CMA, GroceryShop, Shoptalk, and GDS, Cristina shares her insights on the future of shopper behavior and category growth. She holds a B.S. in Marketing and International Business from Manhattan College and an MBA from NYU Stern.

Leigh O'Donnell

Head of Shopper & Category Insights Kantar

Deborah Weinswig

Founder & CEO Coresight Research

Deborah is the founder and CEO of Coresight Research. She is a renowned industry analyst who provides research and insights into the disruptive technologies reshaping today's global retail landscape.

Deepak Jose

VP & Head of Data & Decision Intelligence Niagara Bottling

Deepak Jose is a purpose-led executive leader in digital transformation, data, analytics and AI with a proven track record of driving profitable growth leading a diverse, global end to end analytics team. He is currently the VP and Head of Data & Decision Intelligence at Niagara. Deepak is also a co-founder and executive director and board member of FuturED Ai, a non-profit focusing on Ai Education. He is an in-demand speaker, and analytics thought leader in the Data, Analytics and AI focusing on CPG, Retail and Manufacturing Industry. He is a member of the Forbes Tech Council, AWS Retail & CPG Executive Advisory Forum, Industry standards associations, Editorial Board for CDO magazine, and Advisor for startups and AI/ Analytics service companies.

Deepak has experience across all major global markets in multiple categories such as beverage, confectionary, gum, food, and Health & Wellness. Before Niagara, Deepak was part of global brands like Coca-Cola, Mars and ABB in strategic roles driving business growth. At Mars, as the global Head of One Demand Data and Analytics Solutions, he started the Mars AI lab driving multiple proprietary patented solutions. Deepak has an MBA from George Washington University and a Mechanical engineer from NIT Calicut, India. He completed an executive education program from Oxford University Said School of Business in Economics of Mutuality.

Deepak was awarded the Consumer Good Visionaries by CGT and RIS news, Data IQ 100 2023, 24 &25 – the 100 most influential person in Data and AI, Top 100 leaders in Data by CDO Magazine, Top 100 Innovators in Data & Analytics in by Corinium Intelligence, AI 100 - Top 100 Influencers in AI in the US by AIM Media House, Direct 60 Award for Brand Leaders at the Forefront of the Direct-to-Consumer by The Lead and. Deepak’s team is recognized by Data IQ as Best Place to work in Data and AI in 24’. He is a Distinguished Toastmaster, and he is from Kerala, India

Ben Lewis

CEO & Founder Little Spoon

Flavia Takey

Supermarket Head Mercado Libre

Karen Fang Grant

Managing Director - Global Research Lead Accenture

Gaurav Pant

Co-Founder & Chief Insights Officer Incisiv

Gaurav is co-founder and chief insights officer at Incisiv, where he focuses on the digital transformation of the retail, grocery, consumer products, lodging, and restaurant industries. He also leads GroceryDoppio.com, an insights platform that provides insights and digital benchmarks for the grocery industry.

Gregor Murray

Chief 'So What' Officer Digital Commerce Global

Gregor is a the chief "so what" officer at Digital Commerce Global, where he helps manufacturers scale profitable digital commerce businesses. For more than half of his career, he has been involved in digital commerce, managing accounts, and leading strategy development.

Joe Laszlo

Global Head of Insights Groceryshop

Joe is Global Head of Insights at Shoptalk. He has overall responsibility for the content direction and themes across all of Shoptalk's growing portfolio of shows, contributes to original content, and builds and maintains shoptalk's reputation as an expert source on the future of retail and consumer brands.

Jordan Berke

Founder & CEO Tomorrow

Jordan is the founder and CEO of Tomorrow, a digital retail advisory firm whose clients include leading retailers across North America, Asia, and Africa. With over 20 years of digital, retail, and marketing experience, Jordan previously led Walmart’s ecommerce and in-store digital efforts in China.

Kelly Lindenau

Content Director Groceryshop

Kelly serves as the Content Director of Groceryshop, where she’s responsible for recruiting speakers and helping develop the agenda themes, topics and sessions for the annual in-person event. She brings seven years of media experience, previously serving in editorial roles to shape narratives across marketing technology and the pet industry.

Lauren Livak Gilbert

Executive Director The Digital Shelf Institute

Mario Mijares

VP of Insights, Loyalty, Marketing and Monetization Platforms 7-Eleven

Matthew Goynes

Co-Founder & Co-CEO Grocery Dealz

Mert Damlapinar

Founder & Executive Director ecommert

Neil Stern

CEO Good Food Holdings

Neil is CEO of Good Food Holdings. Good Food Holdings operates over 50 supermarkets under banners such as Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres, and New Seasons Market.

Neil Saunders

Managing Director GlobalData

Peter Strong

Partner The Partnering Group

Rachel Dalton

Head of Retail Insights, North America Kantar

Rocquan Lucas

VP, Content Groceryshop

Rocquan is Groceryshop's vice president of content. He oversees the agenda development and speaker recruitment for the Groceryshop event. He also plays a key role in programming for Shoptalk.

Sabrina McPherson

SVP Publicis Sapient

Sarah Marzano

Principal Analyst, Retail & Commerce Media EMARKETER

Sarah is a principal analyst covering retail and commerce media at EMARKETER. Her coverage areas also include retail and ecommerce, seasonal and holiday shopping, and the impact of consumer facing technology on the retail landscape.

Sebastian Bak

Managing Director & Partner BCG

Sebastian is a managing director and partner at BCG, where he leads global work in AI and advanced analytics. He has supported more than 100 client projects, driving enterprise-wide transformation in pricing, marketing, and supply chain. He is also a leader in generative AI.

Stewart Samuel

Director of Retail Futures IGD

Stewart is the director of retail futures at IGD, a leading research and insights firm in the grocery and CPG industries. He is a recognised thought leader in the retail industry, with a comprehensive understanding of retailer strategies, format evolution, digital transformation and innovation.