Dan Ochwat is the Executive Editor of Store Brands magazine, part of the EnsembleIQ network of publications. Dan's been involved in writing and editing for retail-based trades for nearly two decades.

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.

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.

Over the last twelve years, John has migrated from a successful career in business to teaching and research in the field of marketing, retail, and general business. Retail and educational consulting are also part of his weekly activities. Many of the courses he teaches involve the use of business or marketing simulations with a strong focus on connecting business activities to financial results. In 2012 he received the William Panschar award for teaching excellence.

Keith started his career within the industry by doing an internship with Walgreens during college and upon graduating took an analyst position with Daymon. During his 9 years there he held multiple positions across numerous categories and worked with such retailers as Meijer, Safeway, Dollar General, CVS & Big Lots. Upon leaving Daymon he took a position with Davion, a personal care manufacturer, where he spent 4 years as their Vice President of Sales and Marketing. In his current role as a Senior Category Strategy Manager - Our Brands at Sprouts, he manages their private brand personal care, vitamins and non-foods grocery business.

DR. ANDREA COLLARO earned her PharmD from UIC College of Pharmacy. She has a strong professional background rooted in healthcare with positions spanning Pharmacy Operations & Procurement to Merchandising and is currently Senior Director Product Development & Brand Management responsible for Owned Brand Healthcare at Walgreens Boots Alliance. At WBA, she spearheads the product development of insight-driven, consumer-led healthcare products, including products that have won notable industry awards. She is a skilled strategist who articulates direction, promotes collaboration, and inspires diversity of thought to develop high performing teams.

Dana started her career within the CPG industry within R&D. As a formulation Chemist she held numerous roles spanning across multiple SBUs. She worked on brands such as OrangeGlo, Arm & Hammer Essentials, Orajel and Vitafusion. In search of new opportunities, she made the transition from CPG to retail, where she has spent the last 7 years primarily within the Health & Wellness/Rx space supporting categories that span across Equate, Spring Valley, Assurance and ReliOn. In her current role, she continues to drive Private Brand growth across Household Chemicals, Personal Care/Beauty, Health & Wellness and Rx.

Christine Arden brings extensive international experience in consumer-driven product development and brand building to her role as CEO of textile innovation company Confitex. Utilizing its award-winning patented sustainable textile technology, the company designs and manufactures market-leading leakproof absorbent underwear (including period panties - a current hot trend!), with a focus on Europe and the US. Having worked across international markets, Christine is happy to share her insights with private label partners around the challenges and opportunities of introducing innovative products to market.

For more than 20 years, Corkery has been innovating at CVS Health, particularly in store brands, a department that may have seen its most innovative year yet at the company. From May 2020 to April 2021, Corkery oversaw a team that launched the Live Better by CVS Health line of better-for-you and better-for-the-environment products, as well as the men’s store brand Goodline Grooming Co. She’s also working on its home goods own brand: Total Home.

The Navio Group is a Minneapolis-based consulting firm that works with retailers to accelerate their transformations. The firm has worked with over a dozen Fortune 500 retailers as well as high growth direct-to-consumer Internet companies Castelán’s work on behalf of clients has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Associated Press, and The Wall Street Journal. Before founding The Navio Group, Carlos was the Managing Director at Noma Consulting Partners, acquired by Conlego in 2016, a boutique firm where he developed tailored solutions for retail clients.

As Chief Merchandising Officer, Nick is responsible for developing and driving Petco's global merchandise strategy. In his role, he leads multiple business units across pet food, supplies, visual merchandising and merchandising operations. Nick also spearheads Petco's transformational pet nutrition strategy and journey, which has made the company the first and only major retailer of pet food to take a stand against artificial ingredients* for dogs and cats. With these new standards, Nick and Petco aim to raise the bar for the entire pet retail industry. An accomplished merchandising executive, Nick brings to this role more than 18 years of experience transforming teams, building brands and leading retail operations. Prior to joining Petco in 2015, Nick served as Director of Food and Merchandising Planning for Target. There, he held a range of merchandising, planning and leadership roles across the food and fashion categories. Nick holds an honors bachelor's degree in political science and government from St. John's University. He is based at Petco's National Support Center in San Diego.