BTHA AGM & Industry Day

Mandy Hickson

Former RAF Pilot

Since leaving the RAF she retrained as a facilitator and coach in human performance factors.

Drawing on her experience of calculated risk-taking, decision-making under pressure and the critical role of the human in the system, she transfers vivid lessons from the cockpit to other management and leadership contexts.

Mandy is now a highly demanded keynote speaker across a range of business sectors, where she talks with humour and great passion to inspire those around her. She has been invited to share her insights with some of the most successful organisations across the world where she describes the strategies & behaviours that can adopted when the stakes are at their highest.

She has recently launched her bestselling book, ‘An Officer, not a gentleman’, her inspirational journey to become a pioneering female fighter pilot.

Don Williams

Partner – Retail, KPMG

Don has over 30 years of experience of advising clients in the retail sector initially as an audit partner and National Head of Sectors at BDO. His clients are, predominantly, private (family) or private equity owned and focused on managed growth to maximise shareholder value.

Don joined KPMG in late 2014 and continues his focus on the retail sector with a view to building on the existing strength of the firm’s retail franchise and leveraging existing experience and services that are currently employed effectively with other sectors. Although based In London, he is service line and geographically agnostic.

Specifically he seeks to help clients with some of the key opportunities and challenges that the sector faces: supply chain and operational efficiency, identification and effective penetration of international markets, the world of omni-channel, and the effective collection and analysis of data together with the systems and processes that are required to achieve this .. And helping businesses to pay for this investment and comply with the increasingly complex regulatory environment.