The Retail Orphan Initiative (RetailROI)
www.retailROI.org is a charitable foundation that was formed for the purposes of helping the orphaned and vulnerable children of the world.
While initially soliciting donations from retailers, vendors and employees, the goal is to create programs such as "RoundUp for Orphans" at the point-of-sale, where customers can round up their transactions to the nearest dollar to support the fund, or to create custom, multi-retailer gift cards that would have a portion of the sales go to these causes.
Cathy Hotka is President and CEO of Cathy Hotka & Associates and CEO of the Retail Insiders. She creates networking events for retailers and helps technology companies create go-to-market strategies for retail. After working on Capitol Hill and in the White House, she staffed the American Petroleum Institute's IT Committee and its telecommunications subcommittees. She created the National Retail Federation’s CIO Council and the IT committee for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. She has personal relationships with many of the retail CIOs in North America, and manages the retail IT Network, which brings together IT leaders from around the world.
Timothy Kasbe is CIO of Sears Holdings, Inc. Prior to working with Sears, Timothy was CIO of Reliance Retail Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Reliance Retail Ltd. is a startup retail chain in India that in the past two years has opened 978 stores and 79 distribution centers for 14 different store formats, including supermarkets, specialty and convenience stores .Prior to joining Reliance Retail, Timothy held leadership positions for more than 10 years at IBM Corp., where he oversaw the launch of ibm.com and the startup of business-to-business e-commerce functions. He is involved in Global Orphan Care and Build-a-Village initiatives. Global Orphan Care says it all! Build-a-Village is a Winston Joseph project that focuses on building communities in the Darfur region of Africa. In India, Timothy and his wife, Amber, are involved in setting up foster care programs for the country’s 40 million delinquent and destitute children.
Jeff Roster is Research Vice President, Industry Market Strategies, Retail & Wholesale for Gartner, Inc. In his role in the Gartner Dataquest’s industry Market Strategies cluster, he communicates global IT trends in the retail, wholesale and consumer product industries, analyzes end-user requirements, and consults on strategies with IT vendor clients. He has been selected as one of the 25 Most Influential People in Retail by Retail Info Systems News (RIS) magazine and is on the Executive Technology Power 50 list. Jeff also received the coveted Gartner Thought Leadership award for IT research. Before joining Gartner, Jeff worked in logistics and process improvement for Mervyn’s. As an operations manager, he developed benchmarking and total quality management initiatives, as well as operational budget analyses. Jeff is active in coaching youth sports and helps lead a Young Life program in Morgan Hill, California.
Jeff Ketner is president of Ketner Group, a public relations firm that specializes in retail technology. Jeff has more than 25 years of experience in high technology public relations, marketing and advertising and has developed successful communications programs for many of retail’s best-known technology companies, including 360Commerce, Triversity, Wincor Nixdorf, Escalate Retail, QuantiSense, NGC and many others. Jeff and his wife, Molly, reside in Austin, Texas, and are the parents of two children.
Verlin Youd is the Senior Vice President of Trading Sector, responsible for SAP’s strategy, solutions, and success in Transportation & Logistics, Wholesale, and Retail industries globally. With the primary focus of delivering value to customers, Verlin is responsible for SAP’s investments required to develop and deliver the broad range of SAP solutions to these strategic industries worldwide. With over 18 years of industry and software experience, Verlin brings with him a strong track record of success. Prior to SAP, Verlin was the Vice President of Global Industry Solutions for Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business and also spent time at IBM and Systech Retail Systems. Verlin has traveled extensively throughout the world and has lived in three countries and two continents, including two years in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Verlin maintains contact with a number of individuals and groups involved in providing service and relief in Haiti, including orphanages.
Ed Collupy, Vice President of Information Technology for The Pantry, Inc. convenience store chain, based in Sanford, NC, directs and manages all of their systems and technology efforts company-wide. He has more than 25 years of retail technology experience in the grocery and convenience store channels, with the past 12 years focused on bringing system solutions and leading The Pantry’s technology plans through their rapid growth from 400 stores to over 1,650 stores. In 2007 he was named by Convenience Store News as their Top IT Exec of the year. He also serves in advisory roles on the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Technology Council and on various Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) efforts. After a pilgrimage visit to Uganda in 2002, Ed became a founding board member of Share The Blessings, Inc., a North Carolina-based non-profit organization (www.Share-The-Blessings.org), that has built over a dozen wells and assisted hundreds of children, many orphaned, through various educational initiatives in Uganda.
Paula Paravecchio, EMEA Managing Director for the Distribution & Services Industry at Microsoft, is responsible for driving the EMEA time zone Industry Strategy for growth in the Retail, Hospitality, and Consumer Goods verticals. Her focus is on customer and partner engagement, adoption of Industry Solutions in the industry verticals, and on the support of EMEA’s sales efforts in existing accounts and emerging markets. Paula joined Microsoft in October 2002 as the Regional Sales Director for the US subsidiary; in 2005, she served as their Worldwide Industry Manager for Store Systems; and in 2006, she launched Microsoft's Store Systems worldwide, and then served as the GM for the Retail & Hospitality team worldwide. Paula has over 25 years of experience in the Retail & Hospitality Industry as an IT executive, a Management Consultant, and Sales/marketing Leader.
Barry Wise has dedicated over 30 years to the retail industry as a hands-on retailer, technology vendor and consultant. During his 15 years with mass merchandise and supermarket retailers, Barry’s career advanced from store-level operations and management, to district and regional management, to corporate operations. In 1991, Barry founded Wise Retail Consultants (WRC) to help retailers and retail automation system providers develop and market in-store retail automation solutions based upon open architecture standards. Barry is a member of The National Retail Federation, and serves on the advisory council for the NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) Standards Committee. In addition, Barry is a member of several working committees of the RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association), and is a frequent speaker on retail technology, in-store automation and the utilization of industry standards in retail.
Stephen Bozzo is 1-800-FLOWERS.COM’s Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, a position he assumed in April, 2007. Stephen is responsible for all aspects of IT Planning, Development, Delivery Management, Infrastructure, and E-Commerce. Prior to joining 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, he served at MetLife Insurance Company as Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the international division; at Bear Stearns as Managing Director; at AIG as Senior Vice President of Telecommunications and Technical Services; and at Chase Manhattan Bank, as Senior Vice President of Global Telecommunications. In addition, he has been a member of many associations, including the Board of Directors for the Security Industry Association Technology Committee, the Education Committee of the International Communications Association, the Advisory Board for New York City Technical College, and director of the Wall Street Telecommunications Association.
Rose Spicer is responsible for Americas Retail Marketing at Oracle. As the Senior Director of Americas Retail Marketing, Rose is responsible for customer marketing, referencing, demand generation, advertising, partner marketing and the event strategy for Retail. Prior to Oracle, Rose held a variety of positions within the marketing organization of Manugistics. With over 13 years of experience in technology marketing, Rose is proud to lend a hand and marketing expertise to such a worthy cause as RetailROI.
Ryan Sorley is a Vice President with AMR Research’s Retail Strategies Practice. In his role, Ryan oversees a team responsible for business management of AMR’s retail client portfolio, new product development and launch, and strategic alliances both domestically and overseas. AMR Research advises IT and operations executives within the world’s leading retail organizations. Ryan has over 13 years of research, advisory, and media experience, having worked for firms such as Forrester Research, SPG Analyst Services, and United News and Media. Ryan is an active member of the National Retail Federation and serves as team co-captain for the Boston chapter of Team Vitamin Shoppe, a group focused on riding to cure Multiple Sclerosis.