About Us

Michael Connolly most recently served as head of Global Consumer Products for DreamWorks Animation.  In this capacity, Connolly drove the company's worldwide consumer products business, overseeing a portfolio containing many of the world's most beloved entertainment franchises including Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar.  DreamWorks Animation's recent acquisitions of Classic Media, Big Idea and the Troll doll brand have added tremendous depth and breadth to its retail and licensing businesses.  Upon his arrival in 2013, Connolly quickly built a "best in class" consumer products organization to meet the needs of suppliers, retailers and territories across the globe.

Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, Connolly served as Senior Vice President for Consumer Products at Viacom International Media Networks.  In this role, Connolly headed up business and legal affairs, finance, category development, marketing, creative brand management, recreation, live events and retail sales.  Michael and his team were responsible for driving evergreen franchises like Dora The Explorer and SpongeBob back to growth, while planning the relaunch of one of the biggest boys properties of all time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  

Prior to Viacom, Connolly worked for the Walt Disney Company for seven years, most recently in the position of Vice President of Marketing and Seasonal Merchandise for North America.  His time at Disney also included Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Europe and Global Director of food, health, beauty and stationery for Disney Consumer Products.

Michael started his career with Walmart Stores, Inc., where he worked and was promoted within several areas of the company including logistics, global supply chain, merchandising and regional management.

Kelli Corbett is a solutions-driven creative thinker who is adept at building high performing teams, long term strategic sales plans, collaborative in negotiations, driving brand and category growth, delivering customer specific programs, controlling costs and optimizing efficiencies. She holds a reputation for driving immediate positive impact and profitable results for both brands and retailers alike.

Most recently, Kelli served as Vice President of Global Retail Sales and Trade Marketing of Consumer Products at DreamWorks Animation. In this position, Kelli directed strategic retail planning,  partnerships and merchandise programs across multiple channels of distribution that positioned DreamWorks as a top tier entertainment brand. She built a best in class sales and marketing team that led the consumer products expansion into 50,000 new doors across multiple channels of retail.

Prior to joining DreamWorks, Kelli worked for Disney Consumer Products for nine years driving retail sales for new business initiatives including Seasonal, Multi-Cultural, and Home Improvement and launching Disney’s Home, Gifts and Infant businesses at Target.  

Before joining Disney, Kelli was Vice President of Sales for Little Tikes Toy Company.  She led the sales strategy and business growth for North America, managing a team of twelve.  

Kelli began her career as Director of Sales at Levy Home Entertainment, the largest national book distributor in the US.  In that position, she was responsible for the sales and marketing for books and magazine at key accounts such as Walmart, Target and Walgreens.

Colin McLaughlin most recently served as Director of Retail Sales for DreamWorks Animation, where he was directly responsible for execution of cross-category merchandising and marketing programs with domestic and international retailers, including Toys R US, Spencer's Gifts, Spirit Halloween, Barnes & Noble, CVS and Party City. McLaughlin's efforts resulted in driving 200%+ year-over-year business at his key accounts via Direct-to-Retail partnerships, Preferred Supplier relationships, and Licensee-driven programs. Based out of New York, McLaughlin also served as a liaison for the Studio's east-coast based Consumer Products partners.

Prior to DreamWorks, McLaughlin was the Director of Licensing for Classic Media, responsible for the company's North American Licensing and Global responsibility for video and mobile gaming. McLaughlin managed and secured business relationships in all licensed categories across 200+ licensees, driving double-digit year-over-year revenue growth for 6 straight years. Within the walls of Classic Media, McLaughlin worked hand-in-hand with Business & Legal Affairs, Finance, Home Entertainment, and Marketing teams.

Before joining Classic Media, McLaughlin was a key member of the Steve & Barry's licensing team that managed $75M+ retail business for License Magazine’s 2006 Retailer of the Year. McLaughlin was the point-of-contact for 40+ licensed entertainment and consumer products brands, over 350 collegiate licensing partners, and select celebrity lifestyle lines, including the direct-to-retail collaboration with PGA Tour Golfer, Bubba Watson.

McLaughlin is a a graduate of Cornell University, Magna Cum Laude.

Gemma Witts has worked most recently for CPLG, as UK Retail and Marketing Director.  Within this role, Gemma built strong, strategic relationships with all major UK retailers.  Overseeing a diverse portfolio of entertainment, sports and lifestyle brands. These included Despicable Me and Minions (Universal Studios), Care Bears (American Greetings), Sesame Street and England Rugby (RFU).  Gemma quickly built a solid team to deliver against a clear strategy where retail became a focus within the organisation, driving opportunities from the top down, which helped to deliver multimillion pound campaigns at retail.

Prior to CPLG, Gemma worked in Strategic Marketing for Hasbro.  Aligning the European teams to deliver collective, impactful campaigns for Hasbro’s biggest brands, including My Little Pony, Transformers and Littlest Pet Shop.

Prior to Hasbro, Gemma worked as Commercial Manager for Argos at the Walt Disney Company.  Building a strong and effective partnership with the retailer, creating and executing impactful programmes that delivered true value to Argos.  These included a campaign with Toy Story which generated over £50m in retail sales, and an exclusive Disney Fairies campaign, delivering over 40% market share in the brand.

Ashley Emig was previously a National Account Manager at Spectrum Brands and a buyer at Walmart Stores Inc., and has managed licensed, branded and private label product portfolios in excess of $350 million annually.

Holding roles of increasing responsibility over the past 10 years, Ashley has acquired a breadth of experience in retail merchandising, brand development, strategic execution, category management, and financial planning. Ashley has a strong track record of driving sales and improving process efficiency.

Ashley received her MBA at the University of Arkansas, and  bachelors in Business Management - Entrepreneurship from Brigham Young University."

Kate Byron is an accomplished Retail Sales Executive and Leader with extensive experience in building brands, developing best-in-class retail and licensing solutions, as well as, managing category partnerships across retail, with a specific focus on Target.

Kate's diverse work background includes working at various entertainment studios and CPG manufacturers, where she was instrumental and integral to launching and growing retail businesses. Her career started at Nickelodeon/Viacom, leading to building the Target business with DreamWorks Animation Studio and then onto Sony Pictures. Most recently, she led the Target team for Ferrara in which she successfully established the retail strategy that elevated the business and exponentially grew it to reach $100M+ RSS.  

Kate's goal-oriented drive to creatively problem solve, create innovative opportunities, and collaborate in her partnerships, has allowed her to optimize and exceed both short- and long-term goals.

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Jennifer Hori is a skilled retail professional, with expertise in merchandising, brand development, and category management.

Most recently, Jennifer oversaw all Licensing Programs and Brand Partnership opportunities, including Affiliate, Influencer and Ambassador Programs for the leading Men's Wedding Band company, Manly Bands. Additionally, she revamped the retail/gifting portion of the site and created unique product opportunities to be sold on Manly Gifts to create an additional source of revenue for the company.

Prior to Manly Bands, Jennifer spent almost 8 years with Zulily where she was a founding member of the Licensed Merchandising Team, ultimately ending her time there as the Licensing Brand Manager and Senior Buyer of Licensed Apparel and Costumes. During her time there she oversaw the retail campaign strategy from inception to completion, collaborating with Marketing, PR and Operational Counterparts. Additionally establishing and controlling growth of multiple merchandise categories such as licensed apparel, accessories, home, and sleepwear.

Throughout her career she has developed a reputation for being reliable and conscientious, taking initiative and executing goals in fast paced environments, which has allowed her to consistently exceed short and long term goals.  

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Beth brings A-Level retailer experience to Retail Monster.  Beth started her career as a merchandise manager for Walt Disney World, and shortly thereafter moved on to become a buyer at Walmart, Tesco, Amazon.co.uk, and The Disney Stores.  As Manager, Beth helps the organization prepare for merchandise meetings due to her vast experience as a buyer with the world's top retailers.

A seasoned executive, Juanita Palomino brings more than 20 years of consumer products
leadership and expertise, and is credited with significantly shaping the U.S. retail strategy for
Mattel Consumer Products, working on globally recognized brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels,
Fisher-Price Masters of the Universe and Monster High.

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Juanita launched numerous multi-category retail programs at Walmart and Target, built direct to
retail (DTR) partnerships with specialty and expanded licensee distribution into value retailers.
Juanita also held executive roles at DIC Entertainment, Paramount, and MGM.
As a Southern California native, she enjoys gardening and staying active.

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Charlotte Klopfer is an experienced operations lead specializing in procedure development and organizational problem-solving, with a spotlight on creative process. She’s worked on creative development and branding for best-in-class IP in multimedia entertainment and book publishing.

Most recently, Charlotte was the senior project manager forNBCUniversal’s franchise creative team, where she managed development of their live-action style, packaging, retail, and marketing guides for franchises such as Jurassic World, Fast & Furious, and Universal Horror, as well as evergreen IP such as Back to the Future, The Office, and Universal Monsters.

Before NBCUniversal, Charlotte worked at Nickelodeon and, later, the Paramount consumer product team, where she was the senior project manager for preschool, youth, and adult brands such as SpongeBob SquarePants, TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles, JoJo Siwa, PAW Patrol, Star Trek, and Yellowstone.

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Liesa has spent the last 4 years managing retail marketing across Europe and the UK for Universal Brand Development. Beginning with the strategic planning, management and delivery of the European retail programs for Minions and Jurassic World in 2015, to leading retailers.  Working with partners, retailers and agents to successfully execute market leading campaigns and collecting awards for best retail programs in the UK, France and GSA.  Most recently the focus for Liesa was UK specific campaign management on Despicable Me 3, Trolls and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, as well as development and delivery of ongoing classic programs at retail.

Prior to Universal, Liesa spent 8 years at Marvel and Disney, where she built up strong, diverse and strategic licensing and marketing experience with globally recognizable brands.  Having held European roles in both softlines and hardlines, this enabled Liesa to liaise and category manage multiple product areas with leading suppliers for multi billion dollar movies, including Frozen, Avengers, Cinderella and Guardians of the Galaxy.  In addition she worked within franchise management for Disney Princess, Marvel and Star Wars across EMEA, developing and executing strategic plans to support the brands BTB and BTC.

Prior to moving to London, Liesa's career began in Belfast.  Following a short period with a local charity after university, she went on to work for a leading home textile company, Ulster Weavers, initially as a Marketing Executive, and finally as Marketing Manager.  During her time there, she built their licensed portfolio with renowned classic and lifestyle licensing partners globally.

Tom has recent previous experience with Evode, a Print-On-Demand specialist merchandising partner, where he worked as the Product Development Manager.

In this role Tom worked with key client accounts including Fremantle Ltd, Manchester City Football Club, and Comic Relief in an effort to provide popular and market appropriate products with a strong emphasis on creating ethically sourced sustainable goods.

Prior to this Tom worked for Consumers International as the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue Coordinator where he worked with experts in the five key policy areas of: Financial Services, Intellectual Property, Food, Product Safety and Chemicals, and Digital Rights. In this role Tom and the team he coordinated made great strides particularly in the field of Digital Rights culminating in contributing towards and steering the discussions surrounding the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Protocols.

Prior to Consumers International, Tom worked at the Maltese High Commission in London as the Policy Officer for the European Union where he contributed towards such programs as the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB), International Maritime Organization (IMO) Protocols, and post-Brexit public and private sector economic discussions.

Vicki joins Retail Monster from prominent UK retailer Sainsburys, where she was a Senior buyer in Baby and Children’sFashion for 17 years.  For 12 years Vicki managed all licensing relationships for Sainsburys clothing, working closely with all other non-food categories, as well as licensees and licensors to deliver incredible cross category promotions.

Prior to Sainsburys, worked for retailer Adam’s in Childrenswear, and holds a Fashion and Textile degree from Nottingham TrentUniversity.

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Alicia recently joined the business to support the team in a licensing and retail role.

She has 16 years of experience within the Fashion and Retail Industry in buying, sales and technical roles, which included working for retailers and suppliers across branded, non-branded and licensed products within Ladieswear, LadiesEssentials, Childrenswear, Handbags, Accessories, Nursery homeware and Toys.

Her previous role as SalesManager for R&A Sales (KidDesigns & Globix), include: managing the launch of the children’s clothing and nursery division, planning ranges, meeting with various top licensors and retailers to discuss new business opportunities, sourcing new brands (such as Aden & Anais accessories) and succeeding in gaining new retailer accounts for the business (including Next,Harrods and N Brown).

Prior to this Alicia spent7 years at Wiley Accessories as a Technical Production Manager where she set up the technical department working closely with the factories, test houses and a wide range of leading retailers including Tesco, Avon, George, Kurt Geiger andASOS. She managed all of the critical path management, quality and testing analysis for high volume, multi- million pound orders and built a strong reputation in efficiency and high quality standards for the company.

Alicia’s career began in buying at George at Asda, gaining 4 years of invaluable experience across the business within Ladieswear, Essentials and Kidswear. The role involved all aspects of buying her own range, as well as supporting the department on all ranges including: range planning, negotiations, approval sign offs, critical path management, sales analysis, marketing and in-store plans.For any licensed products, she worked closely with Disney, Warner Bros, Universal and Sanrio.

Evia is Retail Monster’s junior brand and product development manager for Europe andInternational. Before joining Retail Monster, she had recently graduated from Brunel UniversityLondon obtaining a master’s degree in Design and Branding Strategy.

Preceding her master studies, Evia was working as a freelance designer, utilizing UX methods and researching consumer needs to create brand identities for various clients. Prior to that she completed her Graphic Design internship in a print on demand Graphic Design and Typography agency. On that role Evia was in charge of creating design briefs, communicating clients’ needs into design artwork, creating visual elements for digital and print use, as well as quality assurance of the printed elements.

Caroline Melchi is Retail Monster’s Creative Operations and Marketing Intern. She is a student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, studying film. She has previously worked for Sundberg America and Giftbar in which she was responsible for managing their Social Media platforms to drive brand awareness and new customer acquisitions.