Advisory
Fractional & Advisory AI Leadership
Stand up your AI and analytics function. Operating model, hiring, roadmap, and the culture to sustain it.
AI · Leadership · Commercial Transformation
I turn AI into Profit & Impact.
I've spent 20 years helping retail and eCommerce businesses of every size, from startups through to Australia's largest, turn data and AI into real margin growth and leaner operations, most recently $60M+ in EBITDA across Woolworths Group and Quantium. Now I help leaders do the same, and build the teams and culture to make it last.
$60M+EBITDA from AI
100+person team led
+6ptVoice of Customer
+3%online fulfilment
20+ yrsretail & analytics
01 / About
Strategy, AI, and the teams that deliver it.
I'm not interested in technology for its own sake. I care about the impact it delivers.
I've spent 20 years turning data and AI into real, measurable profit for some of Australia's largest retailers. Most recently I built and led a 100+ person AI and Advanced Analytics team across Woolworths Group and Quantium, delivering over $60M in EBITDA by getting genuinely useful AI tools into the hands of frontline teams.
What I'm best at is standing things up: the operating model, the structure, and the culture that turns a good strategy into real delivery. But I don't stop at the strategy. I've led teams of 100+ and I lead autonomously, and I still get into the data and the models myself rather than leaving that to the team. I lead people-first and authentically, building teams that are accountable, trusted, and actually enjoy the work.
These days I work alongside retail and brand leaders to turn their data into commercial advantage, and to build the organisations and develop the leaders that make it last.
02 / Breadth
Where I've worked.
Two decades across lean startups, small-to-medium fashion retailers, and enterprise FMCG. The scale changes. The fundamentals of turning data into decisions don't.
Business scale
Start-upsSME retailEnterprise
Sectors
FashionFMCG / GroceryeCommerce
Functions
Store OperationsCommercialMerchandising
03 / Services
How I help
Start here
Fixed-Price AI Readiness Audit
Not sure where to start? This is the low-risk way in. In two weeks I'll show you exactly where AI can pay off in your business and how to get there, before you commit to anything big. The approach scales to your budget, team size, and data maturity, whether you're a five-person team or five hundred.
- Two-week, fixed-price engagement
- Audit of your data ecosystem and AI readiness
- A prioritised 90-day AI roadmap with the commercial cases
Build
AI-Native Solutions
Turn data and AI into practical tools your teams use every day, and unlock measurable value from the data you already own. I build the first working prototype myself, then scale delivery with contractors I've vetted and worked with directly, or by directing your own team, technical or not. Either way, your team owns and can maintain the code once I'm gone.
Organisation
Organisational Design & Culture
Design the structure, operating model, and culture that turn strategy into delivery, grounded in authentic, people-first leadership.
Transform
Commercial Transformation
Lead large-scale change across commercial, merchandising, and store operations, including ERP, POS, and BI rollouts.
Mentoring
1:1 Mentoring & AI Acceleration
Hands-on mentoring for leaders and teams who want to move faster with AI, from first principles to live deployment.
Coaching
Executive & Career Coaching
Coaching for executives and emerging leaders on leadership, career direction, and building high-performing teams.
04 / Your Own Sidekick
Everyone could use their own AI Sidekick.
A personal Life's Chief of Staff I built for myself, now available to build for you.
New · Now taking early clients
I built my own Life's Chief of Staff. I call it Robin.
I was drowning the same way most senior operators are: email scattered across accounts, follow-ups going quiet, recordings that never turned into anything useful. So I built Robin: twelve specialised AI agents, wired into Google, Whoop, and Slack, working together on the parts of my life I kept dropping, work and otherwise. It isn't a chatbot I open when I remember to. It's agentic, already deciding what deserves my attention next, and my data never leaves my machine. It's the same build approach I bring to client work: working software first, proof before promises.
Digest · Coach · Groceries
Your brief — Tuesday
- 3 threads need a reply today, 1 flagged urgent
- Recovery trending up — good day to push training
- 2 of your regular groceries are on special this week
- On track for 3 of 4 focus areas this week
Mailroom · Scheduler
Before your 10am
- 10:00 — Strategy review, one-page brief prepped and attached
- Yesterday's calls turned into 3 searchable action items
- 2 old threads, replies drafted — waiting on your OK
Coach · Groceries · Habits
Outside of work
- 12-day streak on your morning routine
- Recovery trending up 3 days running
- A short evening check-in, mood and energy logged
Scout · Career
Worth a look this week
- 2 new leads matched your criteria, one warm intro available
- A skill gap worth closing before your next review
- A competitor just launched something adjacent, worth a look
A few of the twelve agents, mapped to the wheel of life.
Hover, or tap, a slice to see what it does.
Wheel of Life
Hover a slice
See what each part of Robin actually does.
05 / Case studies
A few problems I've helped solve.
Real problems I stood up teams and AI to tackle inside Australia's largest retailer.
Markdowns
The markdown engine
Problem
Legacy, largely manual markdown decisions were leaving margin on the table across thousands of lines and hundreds of categories.
AI solution
Stood up a data-science squad and built predictive markdown and optimisation models, put directly into the hands of commercial and store teams.
Result
Protected margin at scale, a core contributor to the $60M+ EBITDA delivered across the portfolio.
Availability
On-shelf, on time
Problem
Gaps on shelf and in online fulfilment were costing sales and eroding customer trust.
AI solution
Deployed AI-driven availability tools that surfaced risks to store and supply teams before customers ever saw a gap.
Result
Helped drive a +6pt Voice of Customer lift and a +3% improvement in online fulfilment.
Stock Loss
Cutting shrink
Problem
Stock loss was quietly eroding profit, with limited visibility of where and why it happened.
AI solution
Built predictive models and frontline workflows that pinpointed loss hotspots and prompted action in-store.
Result
Recovered margin through reduced shrink, part of a $15M CAPEX and $9M OPEX portfolio delivered to plan.
06 / Track record
Selected experience
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GM — AI & Advanced Analytics Platforms, Store Operations
Led a 100+ person multidisciplinary team. Generated over $60M EBITDA through AI, drove a +6pt Voice of Customer lift and +3% online fulfilment, managing a $15M CAPEX and $9M OPEX portfolio across Availability, Stock Loss, Markdowns, and Workforce.
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Head of Analytics Transformation
Stood up the Advanced Analytics partnership between Quantium and the Woolworths core business, delivering an 8-figure EBIT benefit in year one across ~40 people and multiple squads.
-
Head of Merchandising (Micro Space) & Range / Space Product
Directed ~250 category changes a year across 1,000 stores and 20,000 products, and deployed the first digitised planogram for supermarkets globally.
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Product Manager & Client Delivery
Directed the product development behind Fluent Commerce's Click & Collect and Fulfil-from-Store solution, and led delivery of new products for retail clients including Glue Store, Topshop Australia, Bras N Things, Seed Heritage, and French Connection.
-
Group Product & Delivery Manager
Led all technology products and projects across the support office, stores, and eCommerce for multiple licensed brands, delivering a full ERP, POS, EDI, and BI systems replacement within six months of the business's divestment from Rebel Group.
-
Senior Merchandise Planner
Started as Store Manager before moving into merchandise planning, my first steps into the commercial and product decisions I'd go on to lead at scale.
07 / Let's talk
Book a discovery call.
Grab 30 minutes that suit you. We'll talk through your biggest margin or operations bottleneck, and whether I'm the right person to help. No pitch, just a useful conversation. Pick a time below.
Prefer email? Reach me at rick@rickleathers.com