Dan Gingiss

Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker and customer experience coach who believes that a remarkable customer experience is your best marketing strategy. His 20-year professional career spanned multiple disciplines including customer experience, marketing, social media and customer service. He held leadership positions at McDonald’s, Discover and Humana.

Dan is the author of The Experience Maker: How To Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can’t Wait To Share and Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences on Social Media. He also co-hosts the award-winning Experience This! podcast.

He earned a B.A. in psychology and communications from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. in marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Dan is also a licensed bartender, a pinball wizard, and he once delivered a pizza to Michael Jordan.

THALES TEIXEIRA

Prof. Thales Teixeira is the co-founder of digital disruption consultancy Decoupling.co. Previously, he was the Lumry Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where he taught for 10 years. There he has taught MBA, doctoral and executive-level courses in Marketing Models, Digital Marketing and Ecommerce. His two primary domains of research constitute Digital Disruption and The Economics of Attention. He is the author of dozens of articles published in trade press outlets such as The Harvard Business Review, The McKinsey Quarterly, Think with Google, and in academic journals such as Marketing Science, JMR, JM, and JAR. His research and opinions have been routinely featured in The NY Times, The Financial Times, ABC Nightly News, NBC News, NPR, Forbes, Quartz, The New Yorker and The Guardian. He has also been an expert reviewer for the US Food and Drug Administration under President Barack Obama. And he is one of the current judges of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 most innovative startups. He has consulted or advised top executives of over 15 of the Fortune 100 companies. He lives in La Jolla, CA.

JULIE SCHARFF

Julie Creevy Scharff is a Vice President at Visa Inc., responsible for leading card present and strategic initiatives for the US. Julie has over 20 years of experience in the payments industry. For many years, she directed the fuel EMV liability shift which was completed in 2020, and she also led Visa’s rollout of tap to pay in the US. She is now also focused on tap to phone, QR, and other EMV solutions, among other longer-term projects. Julie holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Georgetown University and studied abroad at the University of Melbourne while completing her degree.

LORI BUSS STILLMAN

Lori Buss Stillman is the Vice President, Research for NACS. Joining NACS in 2019, Lori leads the association’s industry-leading research portfolio, which includes the NACS State of the Industry suite of products and events, the Convenience Voices Shopper Insights solution that provides moment-of-truth insights into shopping behavior, monthly data insights from the CSX database and other research and insights programs critical to the convenience and fuel retail industry. Stillman has a deep background in data analytics, decision support, business development and consulting. Most recently, she served as executive vice president of analytics, insights and business intelligence for Advantage Solutions. Leveraging 30+ years in the FMCG industry, she also has served as senior vice president of new client acquisition for Information Resources Inc., vice president of marketing and business development for WEBCO General Partnership, and senior vice president of strategic business development for Nielsen. Stillman earned a B.A. in business communications from Maryville University. She is active in the advancement of our industry, holding board level positions with the NACS/Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council, Conexxus, Stewart’s Enterprises, Inc., and with the Western Michigan University Food and CPG Marketing Program Industry Advisory Board. She is also a frequent speaker on the disruption taking place across the retail landscape. Lori makes her home in Northern Virginia, with her husband and daughter.

NADINE HEUBEL

Nadine Heubel is a veteran retail executive with over 25 years of experience in the industry. Beginning her career at Hugo Boss, Heubel quickly rose through the ranks to become the company’s Global Head of Travel Retail. Most recently, Heubel served as the CEO of Heinemann Americas, Inc., the US-based subsidiary of international duty-free leader Gebr. Heinemann. During her six-year tenure as CEO and the highest-ranking female executive in the company’s history, Heubel secured contracts with some of the world’s largest cruise lines, bringing the company’s projected revenue to $250 million by the end of 2022. Heubel has a talent for identifying and nurturing critical relationships within her industry. She has extensive experience working across cultures, continents, and time zones in multiple languages: German, English, and French. Her long-standing role as a “positive disruptor” with a keen eye for identifying emerging business trends means that she understands how to bring new and lucrative opportunities to her partners. Because she brings these ideas with enthusiasm and excitement, her partners frequently find themselves pursuing unchartered paths with confidence. Heubel employs a compassionate and collaborative leadership style, establishing environments that foster creativity, emphasize professional growth, and empower staff to do the work required to build a successful company. Heubel is passionate about mentorship, female empowerment, giving back to her community, and Miami’s budding tech ecosystem more recently. She sits on the Advisory Board for Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) and the South Florida Board for UNICEF. She has mentored young entrepreneurs through Babson College’s WIN Lab, Mentoro, and Endeavor Miami. Heubel holds an Executive Bachelor of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business Administration in Zurich, Switzerland.