How can grocery win big during the summer of sport in 2024 and beyond?

With nearly 25 years’ experience in the industry, Chris is the General Manager for Unilever’s Personal Care business in the UK&I, and VP for Deodorants Europe. He is a Fellow of the Marketing Academy and also serves as Deputy chair for the industry body the Cosmetics, Toiletries and Perfumeries Association. Chris started his career with L’Oréal on their management trainee scheme, before working both in their marketing team in London, and the International Development team based in the company's global headquarters in Paris. He first joined Unilever in 2006 and has since then worked in London, Chicago, and New Jersey on many of Unilever’s biggest brands. Since 2017 he has been on the UK&I leadership team and is currently General Manager of the Personal Care business unit. He is also charged with running the program for the Deodorants business across Europe, Australia & NZ, leading the cross functional team for this €1bn business. Over the years, Chris has worked extensively on sports marketing for Unilever brands, with key partnerships including in football with Sure Deodorants, rugby on Dove Men+Care and cricket on Lifebuoy. Building on this approach, Unilever was delighted to sponsor the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, and this year announced its sponsorship of the UEFA men’s Euro’s 2024.

For over 17 years, he led England's attack and is responsible for some of the greatest moments in world cricket, from his legendary 8-15 spell against Australia, to closing out his career with a wicket off his final ball. Following last year's Ashes Series, he announced his retirement from the sport and has worked with Sky Sports alongside a number of brand ambassador roles. Alongside his successes on the career, Stuart has also worked with a number of leading brands away from the cricket field. He has held ambassador roles with adidas, Red Bull, Investec, Hardys Wine, Sage, Braun, Malmaison, Seat Unique as well as his tie up with Marmite last summer ahead of The Ashes.

Becky Durrant is a business director at Wasserman (formerly CSM Sports & Entertainment), with 12 years of experience developing best-in-class brand campaigns with sport, entertainment & media partners. Led by consumer needs and passions, she has helped Unilever brands launch category innovations with international rugby and football partners, most recently with FIFA Women's World Cup. With a track record leading integrated teams, she brings agency insights on delivering measurable growth for both retail partners and brands.

Andy leads the Sports team across the region with a key focus on leveraging Nielsen's industry leading data and insight to drive business success for clients. With a career spanning over a decade at Nielsen and Repucom, Andy has experience across numerous areas of the organisation including leading the International Solutions team focussing on establishing ways of working and effective delivery processes from Mexico to South Korea. He has also worked closely with leading brands in the sponsorship space supporting their sponsorship investment and evaluation programmes.

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Formerly features editor at The Grocer magazine, Megan now works as a freelance journalist based out of Penang, Malaysia. Covering topics spanning retail, technology, health and sustainability, she writes for a variety of publications, with bylines in The Guardian, The Times, Wired UK and MIT Tech Review.