STORE2019 Special Edition No.1 featuring Kevin Peesker, President of Microsoft Canada, Jo-Ann McArthur on EggQuality.ca, and David Lui, Vice President of Marketing for Mark's & FGL Sports

Welcome to a very special STORE 2019 edition of The Voice of Retail podcast I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada, and sponsored by Purolator, Canada's Shipping Company for courier and freight, learn more at www.purolator.com

Retail Council of Canada’s STORE conference is the biggest retail conference of the year in Canada, spanning two days of thought leadership, networking , industry awards and some of the best of retail solutions on display on the exhibition show floor. In addition, each evening there are important retail industry awards shows, Excellence in Retail on the first evening and Canadian Grand Prix new product awards on the second.

For 2019 In partnership with with my friends at Purolator we built the Purolator Podcasting Studio and set out to interview some of the most interesting people in retail hosting retail industry leaders from across the country live on the exhibition show floor. We talked tech, brand strategy, retail operations, customer behaviour, retail insights and much much more. I’ll be putting together several special episodes of The Voice of Retail to capture the wealth of insights that emanated from this Toronto-based event.

Let’s get kick off this series with a most excellent interview with one of Canada’s top tech leaders fresh off the STORE conference main stage; Kevin Peesker, President of Microsoft Canada. We talked about the phenomena that is Restaurant Brands Inc, (Popeye’s, Burger King and of course Tim Horton’s) and his journey to the leadership role at Microsoft, more than 28 years of experience in technology that has taken him to over 70 countries, Microsoft’s perspective on retail transformation and the impact of AI, Azure cloud based computing and the culture necessary to drive innovation.

Next an interview with Jo-Ann McArthur a specialist in food and beverage marketing as we talk about how for Genz healthy eating now includes not just what’s in food, but its entire journey - how it was made or grown, how the workers, animals, and environment were treated and how certification matters to consumers in the foods they choose and the eggs they buy. www.eggquality.ca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU

Last but certainly not least I chat with David Lui, Vice President of marketing for Mark’s and Sportchek. We talk about his personal journey to retail leadership, one of my favourite all time marketing campaigns Well Worn, and taking on the marketing of two of Canada’s most prominent retail brands.

Let’s kick this episode off starting with my interview with Kevin Peesker from Microsoft:

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.