Ruth Crowley has diverse experience across industries including Experience Design, Retail, Hospitality, Theme Parks, Entertainment, Brand Strategy, Licensing and Consulting. Ruth has worked with iconic brands including Lowe’s Home Improvement, Universal Studios, Harley-Davidson, Nickelodeon, M&M Mars and Host Marriott in the US and Global Markets. Ruth was head of Customer Experience Design at Lowe’s, a Fortune 100 Company. She has held positions across functions including Store Design, Merchandising, Brand Strategy, Product Design, Concept and Portfolio Development, Operations, Marketing and International Business Development. Currently Ruth works with Hudson Group, a Division of Dufry International, the largest travel retailer in the world.

Raghu Sagi serves as Chief Information Officer of Inspire Brands, a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes nearly 32,000 restaurants worldwide. Raghu is responsible for driving the technology strategy across Inspire, including the rapid evolution of digital and data capabilities through technology solutions. This strategy ensures systems and technologies used are profitable, secure and efficient, and are driving innovation across all facets of the technology organization. Prior to Inspire, he served as Chief Engineering Officer for Sephora Americas (an LVMH brand), where he was responsible for Omni-Channel Digital, Retail, Personalization & CRM, including Loyalty and Data Insights technology capabilities and platforms. Prior to Sephora, Raghu held technology leadership positions at Walmart and Best Buy.

Speaker bio coming soon!

Speaker bio coming soon!

Louise Hudson has more than 27 years of marketing experience, specializing in building brands, enhancing the consumer experience and increasing customer engagement within the food service industry. She joined Aramark in 2012 with a primary focus on the education and healthcare sector. Today, as Vice President of Marketing Operations, she oversees corporate and regional marketing, strategy, program development, insights, and communications. Louise is a graduate of Memorial University; she studied Business Administration (Marketing), Nutrition and Foodservice Management, and has a Professional Facilitator designation.

Capital Provisions’ CEO, Woody Kassin, is a senior-level executive with 25 years of management experience and proven expertise in driving value creation for growth-oriented companies. Prior to Capital Provisions, Woody served as CFO for Four Sigmatic, an investor-backed company specializing in “functional mushrooms”, used for their medicinal benefits in a variety of food and health products. Woody also founded JKC Brands in 2009, which provides strategic and interim management services for growth-oriented companies. That experience included serving from 2011 to 2019 as CFO of Body Ecology, a marketer of nutritional supplements and products, and serving from 2013 to the present as CEO and owner of Faucet Face, a marketer of consumer and promotional products.

Elliot Maras brings a background covering the retail, foodservice and payments industries, having served as the editor of Automatic Merchandiser Magazine for 20 years and as the founding editor of VendingMarketWatch.com. He is a graduate of the National Automatic Merchandising Association/Michigan State University Executive Development Program, a former board member of the International Foodservice Editors Council, and a winner of the Journalism Award of the Office Refreshment Development Foundation.