Serial retail innovator and now CEO of iStore Joel Teitelbaum plus Charles de Brabant, Executive Director, Bensadoun School of Retail Management at McGill University

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of November 18, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this weeks episode I’m on the trade show floor of RCC’s DTLQC conference in Montreal talking with local key retailers and retail industry players based in Quebec.

First of all serial retail innovator and now CEO of iStore Joel Teitelbaum is my guest. Joel shares the details behind his rich retail background and reflects on his experience starting at Dylex and La Senza, plus the importance of key supplier relationships, finding great partners to grow the business and the magic of focus.

Next Charles de Brabant, Executive Director, Bensadoun School of Retail Management at McGill University joins me and we explore his luxury retail experience in Asia with Loreal, and now thirty years on standing up the retail program at McGill University.

Finally I’ll take a look at the retail news of the week, but first, lets listen to my interview with Joel from iStore

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Thanks to Joel and Charles for being my guests on this episode, now lets hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, I put this newsletter together, the biggest circulation of any weekly in Canada together each and every week, 51 weeks of the year - you can subscribe for free at retailcouncil.org

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That’s a wrap on this episode of The Voice of Retail if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a great week!

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.