Retail Advertising and Marketing Club Canada

Barry Crystal, Vice-President, Operations, Premier Salons International

Chair/Past Chair

• Executive Committee

Barry Crystal is an experienced retail executive with extensive operations and managerial expertise. Barry has over 20 years of retail experience, driving business results and innovation for success and most recently with Premier Salons as Senior Vice President, Operations, with more than 1,000 spas, salons, and stores across the United States and Canada operating as Halcyon Days Salons and Spas, Premier Salons and Spas, Winston’s Barbershop, Trade Secret, Pure Beauty, Beauty Express, Beauty First and operate within retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Holt Renfrew, Neiman Marcus, Macys, The Bay and Sears. Prior to Premier Salons, Barry was an executive of Sony of Canada and held other positions with retailers such as Mark’s Work Wearhouse. Barry is a graduate from the University of Toronto, BA in Commerce and Economics.

Blair Severn, President and Managing Partner, Azure Corporation

Past Chair

• Executive Committee

Azure Corporation ~ enabling ideas, empowers clients with success-critical tools (financial rigour fused with design thinking) to deliver higher sustained return on investments. Azure creates and executes for companies profitable new-growth engines and new-growth breakouts.

Brian Miles, President, db advantage Inc.

Treasurer

• Executive Committee

Brian is an experienced business executive who has spent most of his business career in the business products industry. He held executive-level marketing, merchandising and general management positions with a national retail and B2B distributor, spent 12 years as in independent marketing and strategic planning consultant working with over 80 retailers, distributors, manufacturers and trade associations and for the past 3 years has been managing partner of DB Advantage Inc.

Brian has served on the RAC Board since 1994, chaired the Membership and Strategic planning committees, was Board Chair in 1999 & 2000, member of the Executive since 1998 and currently is Secretary Treasurer.

Christine Olijnyk, Director, Marketing & Media, Lowe's Companies Canada, ULC

Director

• Executive Committee
• Research Committee
• Flyer Symposium Committee

Steve Acland, President, Geomedia Inc.

Director

• Executive Committee
• Flyer Symposium Committee Chair

Steve Allmen, Vice-President, Business Development, Aeroplan Limited

Director

• Sponsorship Committee Co-Chair

Steven Allmen is GM, Business Development at Aeroplan Canada. He has over twenty years of experience working with leading companies in the Loyalty, Retail, Telecom, Financial Services and Marketing sectors. Steven has practical business experience across multiple industries having held senior positions at The Hudson's Bay Company, Air Miles,and Compusearch Micromarketing.

Aeroplan, Canada's premier loyalty marketing company and operator of the Aeroplan loyalty program, is dedicated to developing and executing programs designed to engage the loyalty of its prestigious membership. Aeroplan's millions of members earn Aeroplan Miles with its network of more than 70 world-class partners, representing more than 150 brands in the financial, retail, and travel sectors. Miles earned may be redeemed for Aeroplan's industry-leading ClassicFlight Rewards, innovative ClassicPlus Flight Rewards, and global Star Alliance Flight Rewards, offering travel to more than 850 destinations worldwide.

Marc Beaulieu, Vice-President, Vertex Consultants Inc.

Director

• Events Committee

Sue Borthwick, Vice President National Sales, Black Press Group Limited

Director

Black Press is Canada's largest independent newspaper group with over 100 communities, daily and urban weeklies located in BC, Alberta, Washington State, Ohio and Hawaii. Black Press hosts more than 200 websites including bclocalnews.com and usedeverywhere.com. The principal focus of each newspaper is to provide high quality local news and information to its loyal readers and demonstrate outstanding community leadership. Black Press is also a leading commercial web offset printer with 16 printing operations in North America, including 8 in British Columbia.

Tony Cahill, Manager, Eastern Toronto Office, The Toronto Star

Director

The Toronto Star is Canada's largest daily newspaper, with the largest readership in the country. It is published seven days a week in the Greater Toronto Area and is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The newspaper is printed at its production facility, The Toronto Star Press Centre, located in Vaughan, just north of Toronto.

Rick Chad, President, Chad Management Group

Director

• Sponsorship Committee Co-Chair
• Marketing & Communications Committee

President of Chad Management Group since 1981. Previous experience in marketing with Proctor & Gamble and William Neilson Ltd (now Cadbury Adams). Wife — Claudia and four teenagers at home. Commerce graduate of McGill.

• Community Involvement: Kids Help Foundation; Board of Directors (6 years)
• Numerous fundraiser committees, tied in with kid's schools/religious organizations, sports organizations, etc.
• Previously: Coached hockey/"Trainer"
• Sports Enthusiast — primarily cycling, hockey and skiing.

David Chambers, CITT, P.Log, General Manager, Pro Distribution Services

Director

• Events Committee

David has been involved in Distribution/Transportation for over 20 years. An Award winning performer, David has certainly been involved in every aspect of distribution which has led him to his recent position as General Manager for Pro Distribution Services which for the past 25 years has ‘Strictly’ handled the logistics/distribution of Dated Material for some of the largest Corporation’s in Canada. David’s experience is predominant in the Pharmaceutical and Retail Operations. Most recently prior to joining Pro Distribution David was responsible for managing the 1 million sq. ft. Best Buy/Future Shop Distribution facility located in Brampton that employeed close to 800 personnel.

David joined Pro Distribution near the end of 2004 and is looking forward in continuing to bring his experience & knowledge into growing Pro’s business in Retail Advertising Distribution.

Darrell Cook, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Conversys Inc.

Director

• Events Committee

Darrell has over 18 years experience in sales, marketing and business development throughout North America and the UK. His success has been largely focused in Retail technology, web and Internet businesses that include a spectrum of companies from Fortune 500 to small start-ups. He is an accomplished presenter who has spoken at many technology conferences and corporate functions. Darrell has unique expertise in bundling offline advertising services with online offerings. Darrell is a former Board of Director of the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada (2000-2003)

Conversys Inc. is a Digital Marketing Promotions company focused on strategic placement of product content for; hosting digital publications (flyers, catalogues, ROPs, Banners etc...) and repurposing the content through multi-channels (Email, Mobile, Social Media, Advertising, etc...). Conversys works with retailers to promote their products through a series of versioned and zoned marketing campaigns in order to build online communities, drive traffic to the store, create additional online transactions and increase the average size of purchases.

Jim Dale, National Sales Manager, CustomerLink Media Solutions

Director

• Flyer Symposium Committee

Jim Danahy, President & CEO, CustomerLAB

Director

• Education Committee

Martin Durlak

Director

A passionately competitive senior executive possessing key brand and retail experience within companies that are best in class within their industries covering functional areas including: sales and marketing, brand management, franchise strategy and management, merchandising, store design and construction, operations. Known for his approach, Martin is focused on delivering performance through teams, leveraging experience and determination, to enhance the brand, consumer experience, and improve corporate results.

Martin started his career as a part time student at a local Canadian Tire store in Kitchener, Ontario in 1990. His early retail career consisted of multiple management roles in numerous Canadian Tire Stores. In 1996, Martin joined Canadian Tire's corporate team where he spent 11 years in various roles including IT, Operations, Dealer Relations, and Store Support. In 2005, Martin commenced his Executive MBA at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. In June of 2007, after 17 years with Canadian Tire, Martin decided to join Nike Canada as Director of Retail Development. At Nike, Martin lead Nike's owned retail, partnered retail, and wholesale retail support.

Stephen Gardner, Executive Producer, Gardner Productions Inc.

Director

• Events Committee

Gardner Productions is a full-service video, television, and web production house providing services from concept to completion. In today's competitive marketplace, effective communication is the key to success. Gardner Productions makes the difference. For more information please visit www.gardnerproductions.ca.

Dave Mathews, Managing Director, Stratafly Inc.

Director

• Event Committee Chair
• Flyer Symposium Committee

Dave's career began at Metroland newspapers, where he focused on flyer, catalogue and specialty distribution business for 7 years. He spent 10 years at Netmedia managing national distribution media programs for retailers and other advertisers based in Canada and the U.S.

StrataFly is a media management firm offering targeted direct-to-home distribution solutions for retailers and advertisers. The company is focused on flyer and catalogue distribution across Canada. The company's core mandate is to provide transparent and innovative household delivery strategies to a broad base of clients.

Neil Morris, President. Chellematt Services Limited

Director

Neil founded Chellematt Services, a 'business to consumer' focused creative, production and sales promotion agency, in 1986. Chellematt's unique streamlined style of contracting services as needed allows for diverse and cost effective operations whether it be direct with a client or through a strategic partner. Chellematt Services is currently aligned with Crombie Marketing working on some pretty exciting projects!

Lisa Orpen, Retail Sales Director, Metroland Media Group Inc.

Director

• Education Committee
• Flyer Symposium Committee

Anna Percy-Dove, Co- Managing Partner, Blitz

Director

• Marketing & Communications Committee Chair

Anna has more than 20 years of marketing communications experience across a variety of communications disciplines, including integrated marketing, direct marketing, customer relationship management, retail and interactive. Since joining Blitz/Cossette in 2005, Anna has worked with a range of clients including Bell Canada, Sage Software, Yellow Pages, Grey Power and Shoppers Drug Mart. Anna also has extensive experience in the energy and financial services sectors. She was a consultant to Direct Energy and VP of Marketing at Aon Direct Group as well as Director of Small Business Marketing at Scotiabank and also Director of Database Marketing at Scotiabank.

Blitz/Cossette is the retail, direct response, data and CRM management business unit of Cossette, Inc. Cossette is Canada’s largest marketing communications services company and is among the top 25 worldwide, with international operations in the U.K., U.S. and Shanghai. Cossette offers a full range of leading-edge communication services to clients of all sizes, including some of the most prestigious brands in the world.

Bruce Smith, Vice President, Business Strategy, DMD Ltd.

Director

• Events Committee

Bruce was initiated to the world of retail at a small marine store during his teens. He has consulted on retail environment design to such respected firms as T Mobile, Bell Canada, Cotton Ginny, Sheridan Nurseries, Rona, The Beer Store, and Source for Sports.

His passion for retail business realities helps shape the direction of DMD's work.

DMD Ltd. is a multi-disciplinary design firm staffed by gifted talent, that delivers branded 3D design solutions for clients in both the US and Canada. DMD's services include complete proprietary and branded solutions, concept development using 3D technologies, roll-out development and production execution. Since 1987, DMD has created retail environments for firms such as Loblaws, T-Mobile, AT&T, Victoria's Secret, Bell Canada, Cara, Citi Financial, GM Canada, and Cannon Canada.

Uwe Stueckmann, SVP, Customer Relationship Management; Loblaw Companies Limited

Director

• Events Committee

Before joining Loblaws, Uwe worked at Cossette Communications as General Manager, Blitz, Direct and Data Division. Previous to this he was Vice-President, Marketing for Lowe's Companies Canada. He has also held the position of Vice-President, Marketing and CRM for Shoppers Drug Mart, where he played a key role in the evolution of the Shoppers Optimum program. Uwe has more than 15 years experience in direct marketing, CRM and customer loyalty program development.

Lisa Tompkins, Director, Marketing & Communications, CN Tower

Director

• Membership Committee Chair

Lisa Tompkins has worked in event marketing, operations and retail management for over 25 years. She has spent the last 14 years with the CN Tower — Canada's celebrated iconic attraction, a world-class entertainment and dining destination - in a variety of leadership roles.

In her current role, she is responsible for the marketing and communication functions, as well as having responsibility for the gift shop operations. Lisa holds a degree from Queens University and serves on a number of industry and community Boards.

Margaret Torrance, President, MVJ Group Inc.

Director

• Research Committee Chair

For almost 20 years, Margaret has led MVJ Group Inc., a boutique marketing company specializing in business development, marketing research; strategic planning; advertising/promotion; and custom publishing. Clients have ranged from international to regional within such industries as manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, retail, service and not-for-profit. Margaret has always been actively involved in the community having sat on numerous Boards of Directors and as Chair or member of many Committees. 

Lyndsay Walter

Director

• Research Committee
• Flyer Symposium Committee

Lyndsay has over 25 years of retail marketing experience driving innovation and profitable results most recently as Senior Vice President with The Source (formerly RadioShack Canada).

Having relocated to Vancouver she anticipates continuing her carreer on the retail front, as well as, supporting RAC in their National vision. She will also be providing guidance and leadership to her community, having recently joined the board of Marpole Auxillary supporting G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre.

Jeff Wright, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Statopex

Director

• Events Committee