Carmen Garcia is a strategic loyalty, CRM and retention specialist with more than 14 years of experience helping brands build stronger customer relationships and drive measurable commercial growth. Her career spans loyalty, fintech, retail, CRM and strategic marketing, working with global brands, leading retail destinations and technology businesses across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Having spent many years working closely with loyalty technology providers, fintech companies and consumer apps, Carmen has developed a deep understanding of both the brand and technology sides of the loyalty industry. She has helped loyalty platforms and apps accelerate growth through strategic business development, commercial partnerships and go-to-market strategies, giving her unique insight into what drives success for brands, loyalty providers and consumers alike.

Carmen is currently part of the team at Airtime, one of the UK's fastest growing, and leading loyalty apps with over 4.5 million members which now turnsover nearly £40m per year. Prior to Airtime, she played a key role in the growth of Reward Insight, which recently sold on Nasdaq for £230m, and later founded her own consultancy, where for five years she advised brands on loyalty strategy and designed pioneering programmes across sectors including real estate, luxury retail and destination marketing, as well as helping Loyalty technology providers grow their revenue and brand awareness.

As a judge for the European Loyalty Awards, Carmen brings extensive experience in assessing innovative loyalty programmes, customer-centric strategies and technologies that deliver measurable business impact.

Phil is the CEO & Founder of Loyalty & Reward Co, the world’s only global pure-play loyalty consultancy. Loyalty & Reward Co are based in London, New York, Tokyo, Dubai, Sydney, and Melbourne. Phil is a member of several hundred loyalty programs, and a researcher of loyalty psychology and loyalty history, all of which he uses to understand the essential dynamics of what makes a successful loyalty program. Phil is the author of ‘Loyalty Programs: The Complete Guide’, the most comprehensive book on loyalty programs on the planet.

Charlie Hills CLMP is the Chief Strategy Officer of Mando, WPP’s specialist promotions, partnerships, loyalty and rewards agency. She has worked in the industry for over 20 years and has significant multi-sector loyalty experience in Telco, Utilities, Retail, Leisure, Travel, Automotive, Restaurants, Petrochemicals and Financial Services loyalty. She has won multiple awards at the International Loyalty Awards including Best Loyalty Programme in Western Europe (twice), Best Long Term Loyalty Programme, Loyalty Redefined, Best Gamification and Best B2B Programme. She is also the author of the industry leading series of white papers “What the Brits Want from Loyalty Programmes” and “Understanding Loyalty in Europe”, an Editor at Large for the Wise Marketer, a host for the “Let’s Talk Loyalty” podcast, a member of The Loyalty Academy Faculty and regularly speaks at conferences and industry events on loyalty.

In 1996, he founded Global Flight, which offers management support services in the field of customer loyalty programmes, with a focus on the travel industry. In addition to projects with programme providers worldwide, the Swiss native is also responsible for organising the annual Loyalty & Awards Conference, the largest international customer loyalty event in the travel industry.

Charles has 30+ years’ experience helping companies align business processes, teams, and technology with clearly defined business strategy. Founder & CEO of Currency Alliance which operates a global loyalty commerce platform enabling efficient partner collaboration around accrual, exchange, or redemption transactions with points/miles from any brand. Charels is Business Angel investor in 23 entities including financial services, technology development, ecommerce, and manufacturing. Specialties include, he specialises in strategy definition, team building, mergers and acquisitions, project management and international expansion.

Franziska Berwing is Team Lead Loyalty, App & Incentivization at MediaMarktSaturn, where she is responsible for the strategic development and performance of the loyalty programs myMediaMarkt & mySaturn. With over a decade of experience in e-commerce, category management, and marketing, she combines a data-driven mindset with a strong customer focus. She has successfully led program launches and app feature rollouts, including gamification elements and personalized couponing. Collaborating closely with suppliers, she co-develops loyalty campaigns that create mutual value and enhance customer engagement. Franziska leads cross-functional teams and contributes to innovation and organizational growth as a mentor and strategic driver.

Katrin Hana is Head of Loyalty & Retention at MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group, where she has led the international rollout of loyalty programs and omnichannel marketing strategies across multiple markets. With over 15 years of experience in loyalty, digital product development, and customer engagement, her work has driven significant commercial impact, including the acquisition of over 45 million loyalty members and double-digit increases in customer value. Katrin previously held leadership roles at PAYBACK (part of American Express) and PAYMILL, and began her career at Loyalty Partner. She is also the founder of a fashion label for sea lovers, reflecting her entrepreneurial spirit.

Cecilia has been on the judging panel of the International Loyalty Awards since 2017. She is the Chief Growth Officer of DataLab, a Customer Equity consultancy she co-founded in 2012 and now part of The Relevance Group.  Her focus remains on utilizing data to extract maximum financial value from customer relationships in a sustainable way.

Cecilia is a customer insight pioneer and was integral to Payback´s rapid success over 25 years ago. Since then, she has held leadership positions at top energy, banking and retail brands and continues to act as a sparring partner for C-level executives who understand the power of customer data to drive growth.

At DataLab, she has worked with her clients to create and relaunch some of Europe’s most iconic and acclaimed loyalty schemes.

An Italian national, Cecilia is also a published author and a popular guest speaker on Loyalty topics. As a member of “Generation CEO”, she gets great satisfaction from supporting young female leaders on their path to the boardroom.

Tom is a leading industry expert in customer engagement with 20+ years working in strategy and leadership roles with brands, agencies and tech partners.  Tom is an incredibly well respected and connected member of the industry with c.18k LinkedIn connections and personal relationships with major loyalty brands globally.

Tom is a leading voice in the industry.  An accomplished public speaker, content producer, and industry contributor.  Tom regularly presents at loyalty, CRM and incentives conferences across the globe, on the latest customer trends and loyalty best practices.

Tom is also a judge with the European Loyalty Awards and has himself developed market-leading loyalty strategy for brands all around the world, including Papa Johns, Krispy Kreme, Christian Louboutin, Decathlon, Vans, The North Face, Coach, Kate Spade, Mall of Qatar and others.  Tom’s loyalty experience covers financial service, retail, hospitality, luxury, travel, fuel, grocery, restaurant/QSR and B2B.  Tom is personally connected to 50+ tech and service providers across the industry.

Andy has been in the loyalty sector since before it was called a sector! He was the Director of Loyalty Technology at Kroger when in 1995 they launched what is now the largest supermarket loyalty programme in the USA, Kroger Plus. After moving to the UK in 1998, he has worked with some amazing brands to create or enhance their customer engagement, growth & retention strategies, including Carrefour, Visa, NatWest, Salling Group & Wagamama.

Cristina Ziliani, Ph.D is Professor of Marketing at the University of Parma, Italy. She lectures on loyalty management at leading universities and business events around the world, including the US, Japan, UK, France, Belgium and Spain. She has been the Director of the Osservatorio Fedeltà UniPR (Loyalty Observatory) since 1999, dedicated to research, consulting and education on Loyalty Management, CRM and CX. The Observatory runs a yearly Loyalty conference attracting over 450 managers across Italy to discuss the latest loyalty trends and research. In-depth webinars dedicated to specific loyalty topics – such as Sustainability or Engagement – are offered every spring. Over the years, the Observatory has developed international partnerships with research centers, labs and associations dedicated to loyalty, for joint research programs and echange of speakers. Cristina is also the Director of the Master in Trade and Consumer Marketing at the University of Parma, growing talents for marketing, CRM and loyalty positions in Italy and abroad. She is the author of +50 scientific papers on loyalty and 5 books, the latest being “Loyalty Management. From loyalty programs to omnichannel customer experiences” published by Routledge.

Radek dedicated last 20 years of his professional life to loyalty programs and direct marketing. He became one of the most skilled practitioners within the loyalty industry in Central Europe. His experience has been successfully exploited by companies looking to create programmes from scratch or who simply wish to use an experienced eye to evaluate an existing scheme. He is partner of the Pricewise company, which delivers Loyalty Programmes, Pricing & Direct Marketing Solutions.

Pavel Los is a seasoned marketing professional with over 25 years of experience, specializing in customer loyalty. Notably, he served as Global Loyalty Programme Manager at Shell, where he led the global loyalty team and supported markets worldwide. Currently, Pavel consults for New World Loyalty, where he collaborates with a global team of experts to provide strategic advice on all aspects of customer loyalty. Additionally, through LoyaltyCheck.eu, he evaluates and enhances loyalty schemes for SMEs across Central Europe, offering innovative and customized solutions.

Simon began his career as an accountant before moving into direct sell holidays. He spent many years in Financial Services in both building societies and Personal Banking, working across a range of products and services which included regulated products. Roles included Head of Merchandising, Process Design and CRM including running Loyalty schemes through credit cards. Since setting up his business eighteen years ago, he has worked across many different business sectors for both B2B and B2C including Charities, start ups and Schools. He is currently a member of the GDPR Institut and the EADPP, he has written core modules for the IDM (Institute of Direct Marketing) GDPR certificate which was awarded a certificate for best online course. He also has clients in Turkey, Germany, and the US. He is a guest lecturer at the Pittsburgh University helping their MA and business students understand the impact of data protection across the world. He has spoken at numerous business events on the impact of GDPR on Loyalty and is frequently asked onto panel discussions relating to GDPR and his speciality is the impact of Facial Recognition around the world.

Trish is a seasoned executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience of developing retail and customer strategies and designing and launching profitable loyalty, personalization, CRM and retail solutions on a global scale. This includes two of the world’s flagship loyalty programs – Tesco Clubcard and Pick n Pay smartshopper in South Africa. A world expert, Trish has worked across all markets sectors including financial services, FMCG retail, department store, fuel, automotive, telecoms, airlines and leisure.

Trish started her career at British Airways developing innovative forecasting and optimisation systems, before joining dunnhumby, then a startup, where she was part of the original team that trialed and launched Tesco Clubcard. Trish was one of the founding partners of 5one, which led the design and launch of Pick n Pay smartshopper. 5one was acquired by Mastercard in 2014. Trish became the Global New Product Development Lead for Retail & Commerce within Mastercard Data & Services.

Trish now works as an independent consultant, with a passionate focus on developing Retail Media Networks and the strategic and innovative use of customer data and AI to make better business decisions to drive top and bottom-line growth.

Vice President Multichannel Marketing at PAYBACK. With 20 years of CRM experience, the Head of Multichannel Marketing at PAYBACK is an absolute loyalty expert. She has helped shape the leading bonus programme – by laying the foundations for the digitalisation of many PAYBACK marketing products and driving forward innovation topics such as hyper-personalisation and real-time & lifecycle marketing in recent years. Thanks to her expertise, the PAYBACK marketing platform exists in its current form.