We need your help to ensure no stone is left unturned in the search for exceptional e-commerce leaders. 2026 nominations have now closed.
All eligible nominees will be invited to submit an application, which will be reviewed by our panel of judges.
To be eligible, you must be an e-commerce professional working at an e-commerce business or online marketplace in Australia (vendors/service providers are not eligible), and you must be able to demonstrate excellence in the following areas in the last 12 months:
- Contributed to the commercial success of the business
- Championed innovation within the business
- Demonstrated leadership within the business
A huge thanks to our sponsors
Presenting partner
Gold sponsors
Event sponsors
Timeline
30 Sep – 14 Oct 2025
Nominations period
20 Oct – 4 Nov 2025
Submission period
11 Dec 2025
Finalists notified
25 Feb 2026
Report launch party
Judges
Anna Samkova
Co-founder and strategic advisor, Albany Advisory
Lyn Nguyen is an operations and logistics specialist who helps e-commerce and traditional businesses in Australia and globally scale for success. At Auvie Consultants, she works with clients to uncover end-to-end supply chain efficiencies and automation opportunities, saving them time and money.
Lyn Nguyen
Founder and operations specialist, Auvie Consultants
Dr Jason Pallant is a Marketing Pracademic and Senior Lecturer at RMIT University, bridging the gap between academic teaching, research, and industry engagement. He is a leading authority on the impact of emerging technologies on customer experience in retail, having authored dozens of peer-reviewed studies on topics including omnichannel retail, augmented reality, big data and privacy, artificial intelligence, and MarTech. He regularly consults to major retail brands, consultancies and industry associations, and recently spent 18 months as General Manager of Knowledge Enablement at The Lumery establishing a new MarTech education platform for enterprise clients. Jason has been a past judge for retail industry awards hosted by Inside Retail and the National Retail Association, and is the only Australian academic listed on ReThink Retail’s list of global Top Retail Experts list for 2023 and 2024.
Jason Pallant
Marketing pracademic and senior lecturer, RMIT University
Nicola Clement
E-commerce consultant and adviser
Mal Chia is an award-winning CMO, agency owner, and one of Australia’s leading e-commerce and retail strategists. As the former head of marketing at Uber and CMO at Ryderwear, Mal brings deep expertise in building and scaling global brands. Now as managing director of Ecom Nation, he advises and executes growth strategies for over 40 purpose-driven retailers, collectively generating over $500 million in annual revenue.
He’s the co-host of This Week in Ecommerce, the go-to podcast for industry insights, and a regular voice in SmartCompany and Inside Retail. Mal also serves on the Advisory Board of NORA, the National Online Retailers Association. Known for combining sharp commercial strategy with deep brand and customer insight, Mal brings a rare ability to cut through noise, challenge convention, and deliver results.
Mal Chia
Managing director, Ecom Nation
Co-host, This Week in Ecommerce
Mark is an independent consultant who helps digitally led companies with their growth strategies. He has worked at Showpo, Woolworths, Officeworks, Microsoft and Vodafone, and was named a Top 50 chief marketing officer in Australia in 2018 by CMO Magazine.
Mark Baartse
E-commerce and marketing consultant
John Venetsanos is an accomplished and strategic leader, recognised for his innovative
approach and extensive commercial expertise within the logistics and supply chain
industry. With a strong background in driving digital transformation and building industry
and eCommerce partnerships, John has played a pivotal role in shaping eCommerce
strategies that add commercial value, enhance customer experience and optimise delivery networks for businesses across Australia. His commitment to leveraging emerging
technologies and data-driven insights continues to make a significant impact to Australian
retailers.
John Venetsanos
Head of Strategic Pricing & eCommerce Partnerships, Australia Post
As the General Manager of Enterprise and Government, Chelsea is passionate about delivering business transformation to support better outcomes for Australia Post customers and her team.
With over 13 years at the company, she has a proven track record of building and leading high-performance teams across Sales, Service, Product, Solutions and Partnerships. Throughout her career, Chelsea has led change by using her natural ability to bring cross-functional groups together to drive collaboration and focus on outcomes that ultimately benefit our customers.
Chelsea has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, is a Certified Organisational Coach and an advocate for mental health and wellbeing.
Chelsea O'Reilly
GM Enterprise and Government, Australia Post
Stephanie Caite Chadwick is the Features and Premium Editor of Inside Retail Australia. She contributes to Inside Retail’s content for paid subscribers and is the Editor of the publication's quarterly print magazine. As part of Inside Retail’s editorial team, Stephanie has covered numerous retail conferences, brand launches, fashion weeks, earnings reports as well as executive interviews.
Stephanie Caite Chadwick
Features and premium editor, Inside Retail
Tahlia Whitfiled
Features and premium editor (FMCG & Retail), Inside Retail
Adam Thorn leads an international team of editors to produce Inside Retail’s global features content, including exclusive series, in-depth analyses of key trends and premium quarterly print magazines and reports. With almost two decades of experience as a journalist, he has previously worked for fashion and lifestyle publications in the UK and Australia, including Esquire, GQ, Gentleman’s Journal and Cosmopolitan. Adam has also presented hundreds of B2B podcasts on a variety of topics, as well as curating and moderating major business events.
Adam Thorn
Managing editor, features and premium, Inside Retail
2025 report launch party
Contact us
Have an Inside Retail Top 50 People in E-commerce question?
events@insideretail.com.au
Nick Foster
Head of customer, Octomedia
