Anthony Waelter is a Vice Chair and U.S. Consumer Industry Leader for Deloitte. He leads the overall strategic direction for the firm’s consumer industry practice, including audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services. With nearly 30 years of experience, he has provided financial, operational, and information systems advisory and assurance services to U.S. and global clients in the consumer products, manufacturing, chemicals, retail and distribution, and transportation, hospitality and services sectors.

Waelter collaborates with colleagues, clients, and alliance relationships to gain insights into consumer industry trends and the evolving values and needs of the consumer. Prior to his Consumer Industry role, Waelter led Deloitte’s Controllership Services practice and continues to serve as a member of its U.S. Finance Transformation leadership team. Waelter has a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of South Florida.

Charles-Etienne Bost is a Partner, Head Consumer Goods, Retail and Luxury Business Europe at Kearney, an American global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries worldwide. Under his management, Kearney has tripled their activity in Consumer Goods and Retail for Kearney Europe and has become the first Kearney practice in Europe.

Before joining Kearney, Bost was a chief financial officer (CFO), global supply at Coty and a business analyst to partner at A.T. Kearney. He started his career in 2003 as an audit junior at Ernst and Young. Boat earned his master’s degree in finance from Université Paris Nanterre and his master of science from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech.

Daniel Zipser is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, based in Shenzhen, where he leads the firm’s Consumer and Retail Practice across Asia. He plays a pivotal role in advising both Asian and multinational companies on strategies for growth and performance enhancement, with a deep-seated expertise in understanding the Chinese consumer market.
Since joining McKinsey’s Frankfurt office in 2001, Zipser has served in a wide variety of leadership roles at the firm. In 2007, he moved to the Shanghai office, and from 2010 to 2015, he led the Sales & Marketing Practice in Greater China. In 2020, he took on his current role, overseeing consumer and retail strategies across the wider Asian region.
Zipser's work encompasses a diverse array of consumer sectors including beauty, fashion, luxury goods, automotive, and food and beverages. He focuses extensively on sales and marketing while also covering broader areas such as digital transformation, organizational restructuring, and operating model design.
An accomplished author, Zipser frequently publishes reports and articles aimed at elucidating consumer trends in China. For the past decade, he has led the research and publication of McKinsey’s bi-annual survey of consumer behavior and attitudes in China, which business leaders have come to rely upon as a fact-base for their strategic decision-making. His regular LinkedIn newsletter, “China Insights”, has been read by hundreds of thousands of professionals interested in keeping abreast of Chinese consumer trends.
Zipser is a sought-after commentator on topics pertaining to Chinese consumer trends and consumption, and appears frequently on Bloomberg News, CGTN, and other major broadcast news networks. His perspectives are frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Reuters, and other top-tier global and domestic news outlets.
Zipser holds a PhD in Finance and a Master’s in Economics and Business Administration from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.

Debashish Mukherjee is a Kearney Original, been with the firm for nearly 24 years and is the regional leader for Consumer, Retail & Agri, for Kearney in the Middle East and Africa region. He has developed practices and teams across countries and was asked to grow the Consumer & Retail practice and adjacencies in the Region. He also provides supervisory support to accelerate growth in smaller markets such as Turkey. In the past, he has served clients across Asia.

Mukherjee's impact is reflected in his ability to convince his Client Boards and decision makers about the urgency and need to implement change, which matches well with Kearney’s DNA of driving tangible impact. His unique blend of experience in emerging as well as developed markets helps him address the complex growth, profitability and capability tradeoffs in the ME&A Region.

He and the team leads transformation across a well-balanced portfolio of Clients across Consumer, Retail and Agriculture, which also includes Government Entities, driving the theme of “What’s Next” for key areas such as food and merchandise security, strengthening the P&L as well as developing new capabilities.

In the past, Mukherjee has been selected as one of the hottest 40 young business leaders in India ("40 under 40") by Economic Times in 2015. He’s a key author of thought pieces in the area of consumer behavior, Winning in Emerging markets and is widely quoted in local media.

Frank Petraglia is a Partner at KPMG. He leads a Deal Advisory and Strategy team at KPMG that is focused on serving clients within the dynamic Consumer and Retail Sector. KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services operating in 143 countries and territories. The organization has more than 273,000 people working in member firms around the world.

His technical expertise is focused on transaction support, which he developed during almost 30 years of Big 4 experience. While he brings a specific focus on carve-out divestitures, his experience spans buy-side and sell-side, private equity and corporate, with transaction values ranging from $50 million to $20 billion. Previously, Petraglia was an executive director of transaction advisory services. He graduated from ​​University at Albany with an undergraduate degree in accounting.

Fulvio Manente currently serves as Global Solutions Vice President for Retail for Softtek, a global leader in next-generation digital solutions. Softtek was the first company to introduce the Nearshore model, and it currently helps Global 2000 organizations build their digital capabilities constantly and seamlessly, from ideation and development to execution and evolution. Its entrepreneurial drive spans 20+ countries and more than 15,000 talented professionals.

Prior to Softtek, Manente served as CIO and Head of Innovation and Market Intelligence for Estapar(Mobility Company in Brazil), spent several years leading Walmart International Teams, had other leadership positions at Sprint and IBM. With his latest master’s degree in artificial intelligence and machine learning from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master’s degree in finance and financial management he is focused on empowering companies to extract the best of AI and Gen/AI applying the available technology to real use cases that translate into financial and operational benefits.

Manente is an experienced IT professional who has worked for more than 25 years for large companies in Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S. He has solid expertise on strategic planning, innovation road-maps, and national and multinational project and program management, and deep knowledge on mobile development platforms, the best use of cloud services, machine learning and complex data models implementation and e-commerce launching and transformation.

Jim Doucette is a Principal in EY-Parthenon and is the Global leader of the Consumer Products and Retail practice. He also co-leads the Sustainability Practice for EY’s Global Consumer Products and Retail sector. Doucette has held a variety of leadership positions in the management consulting and consumer products industries in a career spanning 30+ years, with a particular focus on growth strategies and enterprise transformations.

Doucette has consulted to the consumer packaged goods, foodservice, hospitality, industrial products, office products, private equity, retail, technology and transportation industries. His expertise includes corporate and growth strategy development, organization design, process design, and in-market implementation. He has led a number of large, complex transformation initiatives and has in-depth knowledge of marketing, innovation and sales strategies. Doucette has been frequently quoted in business publications, authored papers, delivered keynote presentations and appeared in a number of webcasts and podcasts. His team led an enterprise-wide transformation initiative that was awarded the Gartner Group’s CRM Excellence Award.

Doucette is a member of Cornell University’s Johnson School Dean’s Advisory Council and a member of Clemson University’s FRESH Advisory Board (sustainability-focused partnership between business and academia).

Prior to EY, Doucette was a Partner in McKinsey’s Consumer practice and began his career at Procter and Gamble in Brand and Finance Management positions. Doucette has an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a BS in Management from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Kathy Gramling is a seasoned leader in the consumer goods and retail industry with over 25 years of experience, currently serving as the Americas Consumer Industry Markets Leader at EY. Gramling brings a wealth of knowledge to her role, with a background in consumer and commercial strategy, brand management, supply chain transformation, digital manufacturing strategy, salesforce execution, and trade funds management. Her international experience includes leadership roles in Paris, London, and Africa.

Gramling’s prior roles include senior consultant at Accenture, several roles at PwC including associate partner, FMCG/retail industry executive at IBM, global vice president of marketing at CAS AG, and principal at Booz & Company. Gramling holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and earned her bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary.

Lisa Pryor is the global lead for the Consumer & Retail practice at Kaiser Associates, a boutique strategy consulting firm specializing in insights-driven growth and performance improvement.

Kaiser uniquely combines capabilities that normally require multiple firms: (1) we acquire and synthesize hard-to-reach/uncharted intelligence; (2) we devise actionable strategies informed by deep sector knowledge. This pairing brings discerning clients a powerful edge in highly competitive environments.

With over 33 years of consulting experience, Pryor is a trusted strategy advisor and thought partner to the most admired Consumer & Retail companies and Consumer PE investors worldwide. She also advises early-stage consumer brands/portfolio companies.

Pryor has deep Consumer & Retail sector expertise, a robust industry network, and a passion for brands. Her areas of expertise are whitespace growth and market entry, G2M strategy and capability building, and commercial due diligence. She and her team have a track record of generating unique insights that unlock growth for our clients and create competitive advantage.

Pryor joined Kaiser in 1990 and achieved an accelerated path from Associate Consultant to Partner. Over her long tenure at Kaiser, Pryor founded and led the firm’s European business, and served as the firm’s Global Managing Partner for multiple terms. She earned her MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and BA from Georgetown University.

Mante Kvedare is a Partner and Consumer Goods and Retail Industry Lead at Implement Consulting Group, with over 15 years of experience in management consulting and industry operations. As a trusted advisor to senior executives at leading industry players, she specializes in commercial and go-to-market strategy, portfolio management, and change management. Kvedare’s strategic insights help clients drive their growth agenda and adapt to a rapidly changing industry environment, and she is recognized for her ability to deliver strategic recommendations that deliver desired business and behavioral impact.

Kvedare’s career is marked by a strong global perspective, developed through extensive work and residency across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. This international experience has honed her cross-cultural understanding, making her a valued partner in multinational settings.

Prior to her tenure at Implement Consulting Group, Kvedare served as an executive at a leading European consumer goods company, enhancing her deep strategic and commercial expertise with practical operational experience. This blend allows her to offer actionable insights that align strategic goals with operational realities – and drive sustainable change.

Kvedare is also an internationally published author, a sought-after keynote speaker, an active mentor and an academic guest lecturer. Her contributions to thought leadership underscore her commitment to advancing industry knowledge and fostering innovative practices.

Morgan Seybert has served as the trusted advisor on data and analytics to over 65% of the Fortune 500 FMCG Retailers and Manufacturers. In his current role as the EVP of Retail and Chief Business Officer at Tredence, he is working with 8 of the top 10 retailers & CPGs in the world to set their data and AI strategies. Under his leadership, Tredence's retail vertical has grown 4X in the last 3 years to become the industry’s preferred, specialized data modernization and AI consulting partner with nearly 1000 consultants. He leads the Retail P&L and oversees growth initiatives across Tredence verticals, including GenAI, data & AI modernization, and cloud transformations.

Seybert has been the strategic force behind Tredence being named the back-to-back Databricks Partner of the Year in Retail and CPG including other recognitions such as: being recognized by Forrester as a 1 of only 3 “Leaders” in Customer Analytics and being named a “leader” in both data science and data engineering by ISG.

Prior to Tredence, Seybert served as the Managing Director & Chief Product Officer at Nielsen, where he was responsible for setting the company product direction and leading a global team of data scientists in delivering advanced analytics to Nielsen clients. At Coca-Cola, Seybert led the Trade Strategy & Category Management team to improve Coca-Cola’s trade promotion ROI and retailer partnerships..

Seybert's deep expertise in Data & AI within the Retail and CPG industries has earned him esteemed recognition, with features on premier platforms such as The Today Show, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and other leading publications, as an authority on retail analytics and AI.

Anup Prasad has served as Senior Vice President & Business Unit Head of Consumer Business at Cognizant since March 2023. Prasad’s keen insight and dedication at Cognizant has seen him rise up through the ranks of the company’s Dallas office, heading its retail and consumer goods teams for the south central U.S. and central U.S. before assuming his current position. He thrives at the confluence of technology & industry expertise and is known for his client centricity & building high-performance teams. He has brought to life numerous strategic and operational advances to cope with the post-COVID world, publishing his insights on that subject on Cognizant’s website and beyond.

Before beginning his exemplary 22-year career at Cognizant in 2001, Prasad worked as a consultant at IBM, and was a manufacturing associate at Arvind Mills. He earned a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, and pursued further training in Reimagining Strategy With Design Thinking from Harvard Business School.

Rhiannon Thomas leads the global Consumer goods and Retail practice for Kearney. She has spent almost two decades in consumer goods advisory focused on value creation and transformation for some of the largest consumer and retail players.

She joined Kearney 10 years ago, after spending eight years at boutique consultancy Mars & Co, and began her career at brand agency Interbrand. In between jobs she volunteered in Zimbabwe for Technoserve. She has worked in over 20 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the United States and still loves to travel both professionally and personally.

She gets energy from the variety of her work and thrives on the opportunity to deliver tangible results for her clients, bringing together all elements of the E2E value chain. She is convinced that the consumer goods and retail sectors are in the midst of a major transformation with new business models, channels, consumer engagement approaches, changing rules for asset ownership and optimization as well as the rise of data and sustainability imperatives. She looks forward to reshaping the industry at her clients’ side.

Rob Holston is a seasoned global leader who helps solve consumer clients’ most pressing challenges. With more than 30 years of experience, Rob has held a variety of leadership roles at EY including leading some of EY’s most strategic Consumer and Retail Client teams.

He has previously been EY’s Global Consumer Industry Consulting Leader. He frequently advises Fortune 200 companies and pioneering startups on leveraging data to transform their business and define new markets. Before joining EY, Rob held executive roles at leading professional services firms and in the consumer industry. He has been a board member of Marketing Sciences Institute, is a founding Advisory Board Member of Columbia University’s Center for Pricing and Revenue Management and has recently concluded his term on the Presidential Advisory Board for Drexel University.

Rachel Rosenblatt is a senior managing director in the Strategic Communications segment of FTI Consulting and is the Americas head of our retail & consumer sector. Ms. Rosenblatt provides strategic communications counsel, media relations, media training, presentation coaching, crisis management, corporate communications and public relations expertise to her clients.

She works with some of the most recognizable companies in the retail & consumer space to tell their stories more effectively and to build and execute integrated communications programs that help achieve business goals. She works with companies through all phases, from IPOs to building/molding reputation, moments of crisis or change, and bankruptcies or restructurings. Ms. Rosenblatt is also a founding member of the firm’s communications training team, coaching top executives from multinational companies for media interviews, investor/analyst meetings, IPOs and major presentations.

She is a recognized figure in the industry, including being ranked by The Consulting Report’s 2023 list of the Top Consumer and Retail Consultants and Leaders and Crain’s New York Business’s 2023 list of notable leaders in advertising, marketing and PR. She was also honored by Consulting Magazine’s 2023 Women Leaders in Consulting and was named Communicator of the Year by PR Daily in 2023.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting in 2005, Ms. Rosenblatt was a Director at Westhill Partners, a boutique consulting firm specializing in communications strategy. Ms. Rosenblatt is a member of the Belizean Grove, a global group of female leaders, and is an active member of the Lenox Hill Hospital Auxiliary. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in psychology.

Siddharth Pathak currently serves as a Senior Partner and Leader of the Asia Pacific Consumer and Retail Practice at Kearney, and is based out of the firm’s Singapore office.

In his 15 year career in management consulting, Pathak has served some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies as well as local conglomerates operating across the Southeast Asia, Greater China, India, Australia and Japan markets in the FMCG, retail, food services and distribution space.

He has worked with Boards, CEOs and management teams to navigate opportunities and challenges of the complex Asian markets. This includes formulating growth strategies, developing design and blueprints to start execution, and working with organizations to deliver impact through talent, process and technology interventions.

In recent years, he has partnered with his clients on growth strategies, digital, analytics and data transformations, mergers and acquisitions, route to market transformations, cost and cash excellence, S&OP transformations, supply chain resilience, operating model transformations and sustainability roadmaps.

Pathak joined Kearney Singapore as a summer intern in 2008. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

He has partnered with various industry associations including National Retail Federation, Consumer Goods Forum and Tax Free World Association and is frequently quoted in the press on consumer and retail topics.

Dr. Velislava Ivanova is a recognized sustainability expert with over twenty-five years of wide international experience in developing and delivering sustainability strategies and programs for multinational corporations from various sectors including energy, manufacturing, retail, consumer goods and pharmaceuticals. She works successfully with senior executives in large and complex organizations to set sustainability ambition and goals, improve business performance and embed sustainability across their value chains and products.

In her role as the EY Americas Chief Sustainability Officer, Dr. Ivanova drives the advancement of EY’s Sustainability initiatives to increase the long-term value of the firm and its clients. She has recently been appointed the Global Strategy and Markets Leader for the EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) practice. In this new role, she is responsible for the strategic direction and growth for EY CCaSS globally including focus on solutions, sectors, go to market and brand efforts. She oversees the development of consistent delivery methodologies, digital enablement, and innovation of EY sustainability services and the engagement of EY with sustainability partners and Alliances. Dr. Ivanova regularly engages with the analyst community and EY has been recognized consistently as the leading provider of sustainability practice in professional services globally.

Dr. Ivanova is the EY Liaison Delegate at WBCSD. Throughout her career, she has worked with the leading Sustainability organizations including CDP, WEF, SBTi, and UNGC. She regularly speaks at Sustainability forums and has published thought leadership on various topics including Sustainability strategy, Sustainable supply chains, climate and natural capital, and sustainability reporting.

She holds a PhD and MSc from the University of Manchester, UK and MSc from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. She speaks five languages.

She was recognized among the Top 100 Women in Sustainability in 2022 and 2023 by the Sustainability Magazine, among the Top 100 CSO by the Sustainability Magazine in 2023, and among the Top 25 Sustainability Consultants and Leaders in 2022 and 2023 by the Consulting Report. In 2024, she was recognized among the Top 14 Inspiring Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change by ESG News and among the Top 20 Chief Sustainability Officers by The Climate Insider.

Zeynep Koller is a Partner l in Deal Advisory and Strategy based in Boston. She is responsible for the Consumer and Retail industry portfolio and serves private equity and publicly and privately held consumer and retail companies. Koller assists clients in responding to market pressure by balancing organic and inorganic revenue growth choices. She has worked with many food, home and personal care, alcoholic beverages and pet care companies.

Having worked in more than 25 countries, Koller influences and drives alignment in the C-Suite as an operational strategist. Koller started her career in 1999 as a consultant at Arthur Andersen and has over 20 years of experience. She has also worked with Deloitte, Accenture and Grant Thornton. From there, she went on to Porsche Consulting as a partner where she worked in the consumer goods industry with responsibility to grow and accelerate the U.S. business portfolio, her most recent position prior to joining KPMG. Koller graduated from University of Tampa - John H. Sykes College of Business with an MBA and an undergraduate degree in international business.