John Persons is the CEO of Northeast Grocery Inc. (NGI), the parent company of two long-standing grocery companies, Tops Friendly Markets and Price Chopper/Market 32. Prior to his promotion to president and then CEO of NGI, he served as president of Tops. 

As a seventh generation native of Western New York, Person’s career spans 40 years beginning with his job as a Tops cart clerk in 1984, to his role as store manager in 1992, to president in 2015. His areas of leadership have expanded over the years to include oversight for various aspects including operations, sales and marketing, data research and analytics, real estate and information technology. In 2023, Persons was promoted to president of NGI, the parent company of Tops, and then to the pinnacle role of CEO in 2024. Through all these changes, his focus has always remained the same — to successfully serve its customers and the thousands of great associates who make the company possible. 

Outside of Tops, Persons has served on the boards of numerous nonprofits and industry organizations, including board chair of The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo Foundation, The Summit Center, Junior Achievement of Western New York, The Buffalo Niagara Partnership, Food Industry Alliance of New York, and Kaleida Health. He is also on the board of director’s for Topco Associates, a $40 billion product and services cooperative for the food retail industry.

As a recipient of a number of awards and recognitions, some recent honors include the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives “Executive of the Year,” The Buffalo Niagara Partnership “Industry Leader Award,” and the “Outstanding Executive Award” from the Public Relations Society of America in Buffalo. He holds a BA and MBA from the University at Buffalo. He and his wife, Amy, are the parents of four children and live in Clarence. 

James Sinclair is a member of Bain and Company's Consumer Products and Retail practices. He primarily advises clients on full-potential growth strategy, adjacency strategy, marketing and retail media, commercial excellence and M&A screening.

In addition to his client work, Sinclair is an active member of Bain's New York MBA recruiting team, co-leading efforts at Kellogg and recently serving as the Summer Associate program manager. Previously, he worked in corporate strategy roles at PepsiCo in New York and at Mondelēz in Chicago.

Sinclair received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, graduating with Distinction, and earned a BS in economics from Duke University.

Jeff Inman is the Albert Wesley Frey Professor of Marketing and the Albert Wesley Frey Chair in Marketing at the University of Pittsburgh. He is past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Consumer Research. He was also president of the Society for Consumer Psychology and the Association for Consumer Research. His research focuses on consumer-relevant issues such as factors that increase healthy eating, in-store choice and the influence of technology on consumer behavior. Inman has published more than 70 journal articles across a variety of journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and the Journal of Marketing. He has won the Marketing Science Institute's H. Paul Root Award, given to a Journal of Marketing article that has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing.

• Scott Kessler, Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer, North East Services
• Vikas Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, ACV Auctions
• Manish Gupta, Executive Vice President and Senior Audit Director, M&T Bank Corporation 
• Matthew Adam Smith, Founder and CEO, Two Isaacs

Moderated by Kirthi Kalyanam, L.J. Skaggs Distinguished Professor Executive Director, Retail Management Institute Santa Clara University

• Matt Krueger, Senior Vice President of Digital Commerce, Analytics & Technology, East Point Sports
• Diane Colgan, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Northeast Grocery
• Erica Lipke, Associate Manager, Social Media, Rich Products

Moderated by Joseph Frick, Vice President of Business Development, Retail Media/G-Comm

• David Polinchock, Founder/Chief Experience Officer, Unified Brand Experience Lab
• Erinn Steffen, Executive Vice President, Agency Operations, Mower Agency
• Donna Genesky, Vice President of Retail, Delaware North

Moderated by John Hennessy, President and Founder, Hennessy Advisory

Story Telling from Digital Receipt Panel 
Christine Boule, Client Insights Consultant, Circana 

Retail Analytics Applications
Brian Alfond, Global Sales Support and Enablement, SAS

Neuromarketing Tools and Applications
M. Kim Saxton, Clinical Professor of Marketing, and Director, Behavioral Research Lab, University at Buffalo School of Management

Browsing the Aisles or Browsing the App? How Online Grocery Shopping is Changing What We Buy 
Sai Chand Chintala, Marketing PhD Student, Cornell University

Retiring the Store Flyer: Effects of Ceasing Print Store Flyers on Household Grocery Shopping Behavior 
Kristopher Keller, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

How Used Cars Change the Power Dynamics Between Manufacturers and Dealers: A Structural Model of Automobile Demand and Supply
Sivaramakrishnan Siddarth, Department Chair, Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business