THE GLOBAL APPAREL BUSINESS EXPERT

Walter T. Wilhelm is recognized as one of the most innovative and “connected” executives in the softgoods industry, and one of the pioneers in creating and implementing technology to streamline the product design and development processes. He has held senior positions in Retailing, Manufacturing and Technology Sales & Development. Walter has extensive experience domestically as well as internationally, having opened six offices in Europe and four in Asia.

Walter is currently Chairman of WWA Advisors LLC (WWA), a specialized consulting organization that helps retail and brand clients refine and implement “front-end” processes and technologies.

Founded by Fiona Abrahams, Fashion Heaven started life as Fashion Therapy in May 2009.

With 10 years industry experience and 9 years in fashion recruitment, she saw an opportunity to bring a different ethos to fashion recruitment offering a collaborative and personal approach engaging with top talent, and working proactively in the best interests of both candidates and clients. Her instincts proved to be spot on and the company saw exponential growth in the first year, bucking the financial climate at the time. Six years later having built allegiances with some truly inspirational individuals, brands and businesses, Fashion Therapy ascended to Fashion Heaven and continues to go from strength to strength with exciting things to come in 2017.

Geoff Watts is the CEO of EDITED. He co-founded the company in 2009 with fashion designer Julia Fowler to help apparel retailers and brands have the right products at the right price, at the right time. Geoff has a background in computing and management, and is now helping retail be more competitive by applying big data.

The industry standard software is used globally by retailers like Topshop, Net-a-Porter and Ralph Lauren, and it leads the market in real-time analytics of pricing, assortment, and deep product metrics. EDITED has been listed alongside Nike and H&M in the world’s top 10 most innovative companies in style by Fast Company.

Catherine joined Alvanon in 2017 to lead the development of the Alvanon Learning Division. She oversees the strategy and development of the industry training and education platform.

Prior to Alvanon, Catherine was a Managing Director for Typhoon Consulting, a HK-based management consulting firm. She is a new business development and global strategy specialist with over 20 years of experience working for multinationals and start-ups across Asia including Evergreen International Airlines and Samsung Electronics. Her industry experience covers education, logistics, airlines, manufacturing, consumer electronics, sports, entertainment and non-profits.

For 20+ years Emily has led teams of Engineers, QA, Patternmakers, Graders, and Technical Developers in the fit, construction and global manufacturing of apparel products ranging from denim to down. She has led teams at Levi Strauss & Co., Lands’ End, and Eddie Bauer.

Her connection with Alvanon, Inc. began with a comprehensive body scan project for Levi Strauss & Co., where over 50,000 scans were gathered from Levi stores across the United States. Gaining a better understanding what could be done with the data, and how it relates to the Consumer across many different markets, has been her focus since 2007.

Don Howard has over 30 years’ experience in apparel retail, design and manufacturing. He joined Alvanon in 2010 and heads its global team of consumer insight and business strategists. He established the Group’s renowned Professional Development Series training program and is one of the world’s foremost apparel process and product development experts.

Don previously served as Vice President of Technical Design for Ann Taylor, where he established and maintained excellence in product fit and quality. His responsibilities included global technical organization, selection development of talent and employee improvement programs in the technical design arena.

Ed Gribbin is President of Alvanon. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on apparel sizing and fit. Ed Gribbin leads Alvanon teams around the globe helping apparel, retail and fashion clients develop and implement robust data driven growth strategies and solutions in areas ranging from product development process, speed to market, sizing and fit strategy, technical design and supply chain product execution to professional development training.

Prior to Alvanon, Ed served as President of Intellifit Corporation, where he co-invented the revolutionary Intellifit Body Scanner. As Senior Vice President at Angelica Corporation, Ed managed sales, marketing, design and production for one of the largest corporate-wear companies in the United States.

Janice Wang, a member of Alvanon’s founding family, joined Alvanon in 2002 as its CEO. Under her leadership Alvanon has attracted and nurtured top-tier team of strategists, analysts and technical experts. The Group now operates in 30 countries and has evolved into a global consulting firm specializing in the apparel, retail and fashion sectors.

Having been born into an apparel manufacturing dynasty, Janice spent her formative years learning about the fashion business. She went on to hone her business management skills with such high profile organizations as Chase Manhattan Bank and industry giant Li and Fung Limited. The Financial Times has described her as: “The shaper of change for (the) fashion world.” She is dedicated to fostering a learning culture in the apparel industry.