Professor Robert Fildes
A distinguished Professor of Management Science in the School of Management, Lancaster University and Director of the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting. He was co-founder of the International Institute of Forecasters and International Journal of Forecasting. His research has encompassed business forecasting, operational research and marketing analytics across Retail and Consumer Products organisations. His major concern is that despite all the research organisations still stay with old-fashioned systems and methods and do not validate their forecasts. The solution, he thinks, is better designed forecasting systems, better trained forecasters and even more optimistically, more discriminating consumers.

Charlie Chase
Charlie Chase is the principal industry consultant of the manufacturing and supply chain global practice at SAS. He is the primary strategist for delivering demand planning and forecasting solutions to improve supply chain efficiencies for SAS customers. He has more than 30 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry and is an expert in sales forecasting, market response modeling, econometrics, and supply chain management. Charlie has also held Executive roles within various companies, including the Mennen Company, Johnson & Johnson, Consumer Products Inc., Reckitt Benckiser PLC, Polaroid Corporation, Coca Cola, Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals, and Heineken USA. He is widely seen as an industry thought leader and his most recent publication ‘Bricks Matters’ consolidated research and interviews with leading global supply chain executives into a series of best practices.