Kathy Kimple is the Chief Retail Officer at FitForCommerce, where she leverages her 25+ years of leadership in digital and store operations for multichannel retailers, with a focus on luxury brands. Kathy began her career at The Children’s Place, where she worked up the ranks to Divisional VP Store Operations. After that, she was at Linens N Things for almost 20 years, ending her time there as Corporate VP of Marketing, Ecommerce and Product Development. She was accountable for the success of all internet merchandising, operations and gift registry programs and initiated and implemented many omnichannel projects. She then went on to become VP of Ecommerce at Dick’s Sporting Goods, where she had complete P+L responsibility for their ecommerce business. Prior to joining FitForCommerce, Kathy was Executive VP of Ecommerce and Registry at XO Group (including TheKnot.com) where she had complete responsibility for the ecommerce business (10 sites) and their successful registry business. Kathy’s FitForCommerce work has included mobile commerce strategy, technology selection and organizational design at clients such as Aden & Anais, Alexander Wang, Arena Swimwear, Ascena Retail, Calvin Klein, Cleaner’s Supply, Coastal Construction Products, Cornerstone Brands, David’s Bridal, Gallup, Gucci, GameStop, HDS Global, Kenneth Cole, MasterCard Advisors, Perry Ellis, Rachel Roy, Revman/Kaltex, Lonely Planet, Our Campus Market, Orchard Mile, Puma, RevZilla MotorSports, Stein Mart, Steve Madden, The Home Depot, Thoroughbred Diesel, and many more. Kathy has B.A. in History and Political Science from Douglass College, Rutgers University.

Shelley Balanko has an informed understanding of social and cultural influences impacting the food and beverage marketplace of today and tomorrow. As a member of The Hartman Group leadership team, her focus is understanding industry challenges and needs. Shelley graduated from the University of Windsor with a Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology.

Doug Baker is a food retail industry relations vice president for FMI – The Food Industry Association where he facilitates professional, non-competitive collaboration among member communities across private brands, technology, and grocery resilience issue areas. In addition to his facilitation of the private brands leadership council and their efficiency-driven initiatives to encourage brand owner innovation, Doug also oversees FMIs Technology, Industry Collaboration and Crisis Response communities of practice. Prior to FMI, Doug began his career in the food retail industry in 1984 with Fry’s Food Stores. His 30+ years in food retail have included leadership roles at Fry’s (a division of Kroger), Kraft/Nabisco and Federated Group with focuses on retail operations, consumer packaged goods and private brand development and marketing.