2024 W² Labs Cohorts

Mentoring on Digital Fulfilment

Carl was appointed MD of Digital and eFulfilment in January 2022. Previously, Carl was Chief Commercial Officer at Clipper Logistics having spent 13 years in a variety of operational and leadership roles. At Clipper, Carl operated and developed many large scale retail, ecommerce and returns operations for customers including John Lewis, Asos, Asda, Tesco, Wilko, Farfetch and Pretty Little Thing as well as establishing and developing operations for a number of ecommerce start-ups and mid-market retailers.

Prior to working for Clipper, Carl spent 12 years with retailer, The Homestyle Group (Rosebys, Bensons, Harveys, Fabric Warehouse) developing his passion for driving efficiency into retail supply chains and delivering innovative and creative solutions to support retail.

Mentoring on Digital Fulfilment

Mike is MD for the Cygnia Logistics business and Director of High Volume eFulfilment in Wincanton. In these roles, Mike is responsible for business growth in this sector including development of our customer propositions and operations, across Cygnia and the WEB eFulfilment hub in Corby which is the first 3rd Party shared user facility delivering automated eFulfilment services to multiple clients.

Before joining Wincanton, Mike has enjoyed a varied career in both in-house and third party logistics businesses, including senior roles in M&S, ASDA, Yodel, and Gist.

Mentoring on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Jo is the People Director for Wincanton Operations a logistics company based across the UK & Ireland.  Jo leads a team of circa 180 HR professionals who support the 19,500 Wincanton colleagues. Recruiting, developing and retaining great talent in the business and leading on the wellbeing and engagement agendas. 

Jo has experience in operations and has spent over 20 years in various HR roles, latterly working as HR Director in both the food industry and healthcare at Greencore and Johnson & Johnson respectively. She has a strong generalist and business partnering background, undertaking a number of transformational change initiatives including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and technology implementations. She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Additionally, Jo is a Non-executive board member for Selby Educational trust, who’s mission it is “To provide an inspirational and outstanding learning experience for all young people in Selby and the surrounding area.”

Mentoring on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Dean, Group HSEQ Director, joined Wincanton in 2012 and is responsible for setting the strategy for continuous improvements in health, safety, environment and quality.

Previously Dean worked at DHL as Vice President for Operational Risk for Mainland Europe after being HSE Director for the UK and Ireland for Exel and DHL. In Summer 2020 Dean joined the board of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK (CILT UK). He is also the Chairman of the CILT Transport & Logistics Safety Forum and the Competitor Benchmark Forum.

Mentoring on Wildcard (Technology & Robotics)

Rachel Gilbey is the Managing Director of General Merchandise at Wincanton, and is responsible for our operations for well-known brands like B&Q and Screwfix.

Rachel’s principle objective is to deliver safe, efficient and low cost operations for Wincanton’s customers. Alongside this the team drive and support our customers growth through continuous improvement, collaboration, innovation and automation.

Rachel has worked in third-party logistics for the Retail and Consumer market for over 18 years. Joining Wincanton as a graduate, she progressed through the business to take on senior strategic commercial roles, mostly recently as Finance Director of the Retail and Consumer Sector. Having made the journey herself, Rachel is a passionate sponsor of developing internal talent, both up the ranks and across business functions.

Having made the journey herself, Rachel is a passionate sponsor of developing internal talent, both up the ranks and across business functions.

Mentoring on Wildcard (Technology & Robotics)

Carl is Group Operations Director at Wincanton, responsible for group transport, business improvement, health, safety and sustainability, automation and fleet. Carl joined Wincanton in September 2016 as the Fleet Director and was appointed as Procurement & Fleet Director in April 2019.

Carl has a background in both commercial and business leadership and experience across a number of market sectors, including rail, construction, highways and utilities. Prior to joining Wincanton Carl was the Fleet Director at Balfour Beatty.

Paul was appointed Chief Customer and Innovation Officer in June 2021. Previous to this Paul led Wincanton’s Digital & eFulfilment business, responsible for developing our direct to customer propositions and growth. Over the past 10 years Paul has established Wincanton as a market leader in home delivery and eFulfilment services with clients such as IKEA, M&S, Wickes and Screwfix.

Before joining Wincanton Paul worked for Tibbett and Britten and latterly DHL Supply Chain, leading supply chain operations for blue chip clients in the UK and Asia. Paul has a passion for developing people and chairs the CILT’s ASPIRE foundation, which provides funded education and training opportunities for those in transport and logistics.

Claire joined Wincanton in 2004 and is the Head of our W2 Innovation Programme. Claire works alongside the W2 Labs cohort to deliver proof of value and test the products at pace.

Claire also mentors the successful businesses to help them develop and commercialise the products as Wincanton propositions. Prior to her current role, Claire spent the last 10 years in sales, business development and solution design roles across the Wincanton Group. Previously she enjoyed 10 years in retail transport operations.