Ben Chesser joins Across Advisory Board

Having worked for over 10 years as a consultant for some of Europe’s largest retail brands, Ben Chesser founded Coniq in 2014 to make the advanced tools of the retail giants readily available to every business in the industry. With a clear mission to demystify technology, and to put the power back into the hands of marketeers, Coniq was born.

Fast forward and Coniq is today recognised as one of the fastest growing customer engagement and loyalty software companies in the world, trusted by hundreds of shopping centres and retailers. By sticking to Ben’s founding principles of putting the customer first, Coniq’s loyalty programs continue to deliver ongoing sales growth for clients. 

During his 20+ year career, Ben Chesser has helped executives to simplify complex technology to work for them. After graduating from Cambridge University, Ben was a management consultant at Oliver Wymam working with top retailers and technology companies. 

In this most recent move to join the advisory board at ACROSS, he is excited to fast forward the adoption of technology in an industry ready for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. 

“Though hit hard by the pandemic, executives are assessing and planning strategic changes that will position their companies for the long-term. At the heart of this transformation is the recognition that using customer data to build digital and physical relationships is essential to business success,” said Ben Chesser, CEO of Coniq. “I am thrilled to be working with Reinhard and the members of the ACROSS Advisory Board to help retail destinations understand and leverage technology to create a new wave of much needed innovation in the industry.” 

“‘PropTech’ is becoming enormously important in the retail and retail real estate sector and the rapid pace of change during the Covid-19 crisis also clearly reinforces this trend. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for us to work even more closely with recognized experts in this field, and Ben Chesser is without a doubt one of the leading PropTech experts in Europe. I am very happy to have Ben on the ACROSS Advisory Board,” said Reinhard Winiwarter, Founder and Publisher of ACROSS.

The board currently consists of 24 members

The ACROSS Advisory Board’s declared aim is to offer its expertise in topic identification and formulation. The board currently has 24 members. There will be a semi-annual discussion process whereby the advisory board identifies the challenges and opportunities the industry faces and what burning problems and emerging trends they see.

The ACROSS Advisory Board includes the following industry experts:

• Christoph Achammer, Chairman of the Board at ATP architects engineers
• Ben Chesser, Founder and CEO, Coniq
• Jonathan Doughty, Global Head of Foodservice, Leisure and Placemaking at ECE
• Scott Dwyer, Group Chief Operating Officer at Atrium
• Joanna Fisher, Managing Director Center Management at ECE
• Andreas Hohlmann, Managing Director Germany of the Unibail-­Rodamco- Westfield Group
• Yurdaer Kahraman, CEO and Board Member of FİBA Commercial Properties
• Josip Kardun, Chief Investment Officer at Meyer Bergman
• Silvio Kirchmair, CEO of umdasch The Store Makers Management GmbH
• Bill Kistler, Retail Real Estate Expert
• Daniel Losantos, CEO of Neinver
• Henrik Madsen, Senior Retail Expert
• Thomas Mark, President of MK Illumination Group
• Christof Papousek, CFO of the Constantin Film Group of Companies
• Markus Porvari, Founder of HyperIn
• Thomas Reichenauer, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ROS Retail Outlet Shopping
• Dietmar Reindl, COO of Immofinanz Group
• Walter Seib, CEO of HMSHost International
• Jacques Sinke, CEO of reteam international
• Klaus Striebich, Managing Director of RaRe Advise
• Jan Tanner, Expert Consultant for the shopping center, retail real estate, and retail industry
• Peter Tonstad, CEO Boostcom
• Henrike Waldburg, Head of Investment Management Retail at Union Investment
• Marcus Wild, CEO of SES Spar European Shopping Centers

Take a look at the current ACROSS Advisory Board.