| ACS | The Association of Convenience Stores

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Tom Fender, Non-Executive Director, Bolt Learning

Tom has over 25 years’ experience in the UK retail and wholesale sector and is former co-owner of HIM shopper research consultancy. He has travelled the world, working with both regional and international retailers, wholesalers and FMCG suppliers to help improve their business.

Michael O'Loughlin, industry expert and MD at 360 Degrees Retail

Michael is a well known figure in the UK forecourt & convenience sector. During 20 years with Applegreen he served as Retail Director with the Irish business before locating with his family to the UK in 2008. As MD he would lead Applegreen UK to a network of 85 sites before departing in 2017. Next he joined MFG as Managing Director with special responsibility for acquisitions & business development.

Matt Eastwood, Commercial Manager, Serve Legal

Matt is the Client & Commercial Manager at Serve Legal, the UK’s leading retail compliance auditor. Matt has over 10 years’ experience in advising many retailers across all sectors to successfully improve compliance in key areas such as age verification and customer engagement as part of their responsible retail approach. He previously held senior commercial roles with News International Newspapers, sports sponsorship agencies and studied two degrees in History and Physiotherapy.

Steve is a retailer of 5 Londis stores in the SouthWest, 4 with Post Offices. Steve has always had a good Food on The Go offer and this summer invested in a dessert bar in his Weymouth town centre store. More recently Steve has launched www.brown-box.co.uk a retail product distribution Company using Smiths & Menzies as the distribution partners reaching 55,000 retailers daily.

Has one store in Codicote, Hertfordshire. The 1600sq ft. store celebrated its 175th year of trading in 2016 with a complete refit focusing on fresh and chilled and creating an area for regular wine tastings with the launch of a loyalty wine tasting club. The store won Independent Drinks Retailer of the year in 2017, Community Retailer of the year in 2016 and Unsung Hero Award at the Asian trader in 2016 and was one of the top 34 stores in the top 100 independent stores competition in 2017.

Jamie has over 25 years experience in the Convenience and Wholesale sector. Starting his career with Costcutter, he progressed through the business from a Merchandising Assistant to Board level and to Sales & Development Director. Prior to the sale of Costcutter to Bestway Wholesale, Jamie was the Business Development Director, leading the New Business area of the organisation.