Commercial Director · Ecommerce, Brand & AI
Find the opportunity.
Build the machine that captures it.
Fifteen years of commercial, brand and ecommerce leadership. Two brands of my own, a $50M+ client, 2,000+ retail doors across the UK and Scandinavia. I do the strategy and the delivery — and I build the AI systems that make the second part possible.
About
Operator, founder,
commercial partner.
I've built my own brands from nothing, and I've walked into other people's businesses and told them the uncomfortable truth about why they'd stopped growing. Turns out those are the same skill.
I started out in communications, learning how to make people care. Then I launched a haircare brand DTC, took it B2B through salons, onto Amazon UK, EU and US, franchised it across Europe through distributors and ran a sell-out month-long pop-up on Oxford Street. After that I built one of the first shoppable UGC beauty platforms, raised seed funding and won a beauty startup award. The big one was an oral-care brand into Sephora, Superdrug and over 2,000 retailers across the UK and Scandinavia, with seed funding and awards to match. Alongside that I ran the product engine for a $50M+ US apparel client, scaling the range from around five SKUs to over a hundred and running sourcing, production and logistics across Shanghai, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
What runs through all of it is the same thing: seeing the opportunity before it's obvious, and having the range to actually go and take it. Strategy is only half the job. Someone still has to build the thing.
That's what I do now — commercial leadership for businesses that need the thinking and the doing from the same person, with AI systems underneath doing the volume. The systems handle the work. I handle the judgement.
The Journey
The Route Here
Commercial Director, Fractional
Independent
Leading the US expansion of a British consumer brand. Built the trading framework, restructured agency governance and rebuilt the commercial plan inside the first quarter. Running commercial strategy, channel performance and the AI systems that make the pace possible.
- US Expansion
- Agency Governance
- AI Systems
- Commercial Strategy
Product & Sourcing Lead
$50M+ US Apparel Client
Owned the full product development journey end to end, scaling the range from around 5 to over 100 SKUs and running sourcing, field production and logistics across Shanghai, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
- Range Scaling
- Sourcing Leadership
- Production
- Logistics
Award-Winning Brand Founder
Independent
Built an oral-care brand into Sephora, Superdrug and over 2,000 retailers across the UK and Scandinavia. Raised seed funding and picked up the Vegan Beauty Awards, the Get The Gloss Beauty Award and an Asian Travel Award.
- Retail Expansion
- Seed Funding
- Awards
- International
Shoppable UGC Platform Founder
Independent
Founded one of the first shoppable, UGC-driven beauty platforms for cosmetics. Raised the seed funding myself, survived the pitch circuit, and won a beauty startup award.
- Beauty Tech
- Seed Funding
- UGC Platform
- Startup Award
Haircare Brand Founder
Independent
Launched a haircare brand DTC in the UK, built a sales team and took it B2B through the salon network, launched on Amazon UK, Europe and the US, franchised across Europe through distributors, and ran a sell-out month-long pop-up on Oxford Street.
- DTC Launch
- Amazon UK/EU/US
- Franchising
- Retail Pop-up
Marketing & Communications Manager
Public Sector
Where I learned how to make people actually care about something. The grounding in campaigns, messaging and communications that still drives my commercial work today.
- Campaigns
- Messaging
- Communications
- Brand Building
Where I Go To Work
What I Do
Commercial Strategy & Growth
The plan that actually moves the number: positioning, channel strategy, growth modelling and the sequence of bets that turns a business from busy into scalable.
Commercial Diagnostic
The teardown. Margin, pricing, channel mix and what's really driving growth versus just maintaining it. I find where value is leaking — and where it's hiding.
Brand & Marketing
Brand foundations, messaging, campaign strategy and the owned-channel engine. Fifteen years of making people care, applied commercially rather than decoratively.
Ecommerce & Marketplace
Deep Seller and Vendor Central expertise across UK, EU and US, plus Shopify, email and retention, paid social and subscription. The trading strategy underneath the account, not just the account.
Channel, Retail & International
The bit most ecommerce people can't touch. Wholesale, distribution, retail buyers and international expansion across the UK, EU, US and Scandinavia.
AI Audit & Implementation
Where the hours and the margin are going, what should be automated, what shouldn't, and then the systems built and running. Strategy, structure and systems — not a pilot.
The Multiplier
AI, applied
commercially.
Most AI work stops at a deck. Mine starts where the deck ends.
I audit the business first — where the hours actually go, which processes are quietly eating margin, what's automatable and what needs a human on it. Then I design the structure that makes AI usable inside a real company: who owns what, which systems the models are allowed to touch, where the judgement stays human, and how it holds up when someone leaves. Then I build it. Analysis, reporting, forecasting, content, listing and pricing operations, customer and category research, at volume.
The output isn't a strategy document. It's a set of things running when I leave, and a team that knows how to run them.
It's also why the commercial work moves the way it does. A channel review that used to be a six-week agency project is a week. A full category and competitor analysis is a day. The leverage is the point — it means senior commercial thinking arrives with the execution already attached, instead of arriving as a recommendation and a bill.
Three ways it lands
The Audit
A structured read of where the opportunity and the leakage are, with a prioritised build list.
The Structure
Governance, knowledge base and workflow design so AI works with your business rather than beside it.
The Systems
Agents and automations built, tested and handed over, with the team trained to run them.
Proof Points
Built. Scaled. Won.
15+
Years Experience
2×
Founder
2,000+
Retailers Placed
$50M+
Client Managed
The Full Story
Get my full CV
& portfolio.
This page is the highlight reel. Send me your details and I'll get back to you with the full pack: detailed case studies, the numbers behind the turnarounds, and how I work with brands day to day.
- Full career detail and references
- Case studies with real numbers
- How an engagement works
Availability & Rates
I take on a limited number of engagements each quarter, as a hire or as a project. Terms depend on scope. The full CV includes current availability and a clear rate card.
Let's Talk
Two ways in.
Some of this is a hire. Some of it is a project.
If you're building a commercial team and want someone who's carried the number rather than advised on it, let's talk. If you've got a brand that's stalled, a channel that's leaking margin, or an AI programme stuck at the pilot stage — same conversation, different shape.
No pitch. Just a straight conversation about what you need.