Oliver Mennell
Oliver Mennell is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NEOM, the wellbeing and beauty brand.
Widely recognised as one of the first and fastest growing wellbeing brands in the UK, NEOM offers natural products that are designed to deliver therapeutic benefits to relieve stress, aid sleep, boost energy or lift mood.
A chance encounter and savvy sales skills launched Oliver’s career in private equity, converting a two-week internship into a full-time role becoming the youngest Investment Analyst at Nikko Principal Investments. During his time spent at the firm, Oliver learnt first-hand about buying, building and selling businesses, an experience that would later prove invaluable when setting up his own business.
Two years later an opportunity arose. Close friend, Nicola Elliott, came to Oliver with the idea of creating a wellbeing and beauty brand that harnessed the power of potent essential oils. Having experienced first-hand the impact stress and anxiety can have in high pressure jobs and noticing a building momentum towards healthy living, Oliver saw a clear gap in the market for a brand designed to address key wellbeing needs. In 2005, aged twenty-three, Oliver launched NEOM with Nicola.
Based in Harrogate and employing close to 100 people, NEOM is a fast-growing multi-channel business with retail sales of over £25m in 2019. Its home fragrance and skincare ranges are sold through leading department stores such as John Lewis, Selfridges and Fenwick in the UK as well as flagship international stores. NEOM has a thriving online business and five of its own retail stores with further openings planned. In December 2017, Oliver led a major growth capital investment from Piper, the UK’s leading investor in consumer brands.
Dr Wensong Zhang
Dr. Wensong Zhang is SVP at Didi Chuxing. He is in charge of the company’s Infrastructure and Platform Department, which focuses on developing tech services for DiDi. His teams lead DiDi’s efforts to optimize the performance of network hardware/software and develop next generation Smart Transportation solutions. One of his main achievements has been the successful founding and development of the Linux Virtual Server project, an open source project to build advanced server clustering software for Linux. Before joining DiDi, Wensong served as the Vice President and CTO of Alibaba Cloud. He was also an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Technology at the National University of Defense Technology.
Liz Scott
Liz is the President at EC Scott Group where she oversees Company Strategy, Finance, Trade Marketing, Sales & Education, Communications, and the development of the Beauty and Wellness categories.
Liz attended Wharton with a concentration in retail & marketing. From her time at Saks Fifth Avenue, she brings respect for traditional retail, and from Gilt Group, a passionate entrepreneurial mentality, which fuels her motivation to bring brands and retailers success within the changing beauty landscape.
EC Scott Group, founded in 2004, is the premier Sales, Service, and Training company for prestige beauty companies in the specialty retail channel in North America. EC Scott Group’s services include everything from behind the scenes (i.e. warehousing, pick & pack, retailer headquarter management, collections), to the support in-store that makes independent retail partners successful (i.e. in-store education & training, event planning & execution, sell-through support).
Allison Elliott
Allison is the Store Director at VIOLET GREY, a content and commerce company born out of Hollywood beauty culture. As the brick and mortar retail authority at the company, Allison oversees all facets of VIOLET GREY’s Melrose Place flagship store including developing strategies to expand store traffic and optimize revenue, motivating and mentoring store staff, and ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction through best in class service. Since Allison joined VIOLET GREY in June 2018, the flagship store has experienced 50+% YOY revenue growth.
Prior to joining VIOLET GREY, Allison was the West Coast District Manager at Space NK and the West Coast Boutiques Regional Manager at Nars where she oversaw a multitude of stores, store openings and department store concessions.
Allison works concurrently as a professional make-up artist. She has trained under Francois Nars and Lena Koro and currently assists Monika Blunder. She has worked as a leading backstage makeup artist during New York Fashion Week and provided celebrities with red carpet makeup for The Emmy’s, The Golden Globes and The Critics’ Choice Awards to name but a few.