Darren Williams (DW) is GM at Specsavers, Non-Exec Chair of Sanderson King and the Founder of Williams Harding Consulting. He has had a 35 year career in Retail, from the shop floor to Senior roles in a number of businesses in retail and hospitality, including Hotel Chocolat, Paul and Unilever. He also has extensive experience in leasing and commercial property.

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He is an Ambassador, advocate and supporter of the Retail Trust. Serving 8 years on its Annual Ball committee, as well as chairing the event in 2017 and 2018. Having spent his career in the sector, he is firmly committed to the Retail Trusts vision, values and purpose of ensuring a better life for all who work in this incredibly challenging but rewarding industry.

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DW has run 4 London marathons and a number of other major run series for the Target Ovarian Cancer charity. Darren also partners with a Bulgarian dog rescue charity (DW brought his dog Scamp home from Bulgaria for a new life in London).A member of the Twenty Club since 2015, he joined the Committee in the summer of 2023 and became our VP in the Autumn of 2024.

Helen Connolly has spent the past 20 years working in the retail sector. 
She started her career as a buyer for businesses including Next, Dorothy Perkins and George at Asda. From there, Helen progressed to executive roles, leading fast-paced, energetic teams focused on delivering commercial success.

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Helen joined New Look in 2020 from Bon Marché. Her time at New Look has been spent focussing on its Buying, Merchandising and Sourcing capabilities, improving both product and efficiencies across the business, as well as driving partnership and concessions opportunities. Now as CEO, she is working to deliver long-term, sustainable growth for the business.

Billie O’Connor joined Mulberry as CFO in Feb 2025, as an Executive & Board member. As a CIMA qualified accountant, she has over 20 years’ finance experience in the retail and consumer goods sectors, including roles encompassing M&A, IT services, warehousing, distribution and transformation. She was previously CFO and CIO for Milk & More, part of Müller Group, and also previously held senior finance roles within Selfridges Group and Walgreens Boots Alliance both pre and post merger. Billie is also the founder and Board Director of the NOVA Community Ltd, a female networking association, and a Committee member of The Twenty Club; a retail executive dining club.
 

Her retail experience across a range of both listed and privately owned consumer brands enables her to bring insight of both physical store and e-commerce trading, coupled with strong stakeholder management.

Selina is Chief Finance, Technology and Property Officer at OurCoop; a £1.6 Bn Sales business created from the recent merger of Central Co-op, Midcounties Co-op and Chelmsford Co-op. The business has 13,000 colleagues, 1 million active members and over 1,000 sites spanning food, travel, early years, funeral, utilities and investment property.

She is an ACA fellow with a 15+ year Retail career. She has held senior roles across buying and finance at Very, Burberry, Amazon and fractional Board roles across start-up disruptors. Selina is an advocate for inclusion, community and development. She has been included in WiHTL DiR’s Women to Watch Index and a finalist for GENCFO Most Influential Female. More widely, she is an active mentor, trained for the Olympic Eventing team in her youth and invests quality time raising her three daughters and trail running.​​

Sean has worked in the UK retail industry for thirty years, spanning an impressive range of well-known global brands holding senior leadership roles at Harrods, Selfridges, Nike, Matches Fashion, Dunhill, Watches of Switzerland, LVMH Group and presently as Retail Director of Fortnum & Mason.

As part of his wider responsibilities Sean also works to support several organisations in several roles such as, Retail Trust Ambassador, Retail Technology Show Advisory Board Member, Board Member Cheapside Business Alliance, Former Chairman Jermyn Street Association, Walpole Ambassador Walpole Brands of Tomorrow Mentor, Black Business Institute Advisory Board Member, London Business School Mentor and Fashion Retail Academy Ambassador and Mentor.

Sean is passionate about guiding the next generation of retailers and to profile the tremendous opportunities a career in retail can unlock and takes a keen interest in developing the future talent potential we have in the UK and work to promote the industry whenever possible.
Sean was also recognised in the Walpole 2022 Power List that celebrated the 50 most influential people in British Luxury.

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Sean joined the Committee in the summer of 2024.

Daniel Le Vesconte is a senior leader with over 30 years’ experience in retail and branded goods, managing both direct to consumer as well as third party channels across wholesale, franchise and licensing. He has held several senior leadership roles building teams and accelerating global growth, including CEO at Mothercare PLC, Group Vice President EMEA and Head of Global Corporate Development at Abercrombie & Fitch Corp, President of Dr Martens PLC EMEA, Managing Director at Wolverine Worldwide EMEA and Vice President and General Manager of Vans & Reef at VF Corp.

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​Daniel is an early stage investor, board member and advisor to a number of businesses across numerous sectors, mentoring founders and early stage businesses is now his passion and he is also the co-founder and CEO of fintech payments app KittyCard.