NEW YORK—Two of the retail sector’s most innovative retail executives have been added to the “BrainStorm” speaker roster at Vision Monday’s upcoming 2016 Global Leadership Summit, to be held here on April 13. Rachel Shechtman, CEO and founder of STORY, one of the most creative and honored new business models in the retail realm, will share her unique approach and perspectives. Peyush Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Lenskart, India’s fastest-growing optical retailer, using a unique mix of technology and on-site sales, will also take part in the program.

Shechtman, a fourth generation retail entrepreneur, founded the ground-breaking STORY in December 2011. It is a New York-based concept store known for its ever-changing, editorial approach to retail. STORY takes the viewpoint of a magazine, changes like a gallery, and sell things like a store, updating its themes, design, and products every three to eight weeks. In four years it has created 28 unique retail installations in partnership with companies such as Intel, American Express, GE, Target, Lexus, and Cigna, who serve as sponsors for the experience.

STORY’s model has generated extensive international press and industry recognition; notably highlighted by the New York Times, Ad Age, WWD, and named one of New York’s essential shops by Time Out New York. Outside of STORY, Shechtman is a thought-leader within the start-up community. In 2016 she joined the Board of Directors of National Retail Federation (NRF). Shechtman has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business in 2012, Fortune’s 40 Under 40 List in 2013, Crains’ 40 Under 40 list in 2014, Ad Age’s Most Creative People in 2015, and was awarded the FGI Rising Star Award for Retail in 2014.


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Bansal, a former Microsoft exec, founded Lenskart, an Indian online portal for eyewear, along with Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi in November 2010. Over the last five years, Lenskart grew to become India’s leading online eyewear store. As it grew, it had also moved to a hybrid model by establishing offline stores in various cities and towns of India. Today, Lenskart is leveraging technology and a hybrid business model of online, mobile refractionists and physical stores, integrated to create enthusiastically satisfied customers. Bansal, an alumnus of McGill University Canada and IIM Bangalore, left his job at Microsoft in 2007 to return to India where is started India’s first online campus classifieds portal, SearchMyCampus.com.

Shechtman and Bansal join a diverse roster of 2016 VM Summit influential speakers in a range of fields which illustrate “BrainStorm,” the 10th VM Leadership Summit’s theme. They will explore how business execs can tap the growing connection between the brain, technology, creativity and leadership.

Among them are Michael S. Weiner, MD, chief medical information officer of IBM Healthcare who is also involved with the company’s high profile cognitive system, Watson .

Leslie Saxon, MD, is a professor of medicine, clinical scholar, at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. Dr. Saxon specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias and preventing sudden cardiac death. She is also the executive director of the internationally-acclaimed USC Center for Body Computing (CBC) and newly announced USC Virtual Care Clinic.

David Kepron, recently named vice president, global design strategies at Marriott International, is returning to the Summit for the second year in a row. His focus is on the creation of compelling customer experiences within a unique group of Marriott brands called the “Lifestyle Collection,” including Autograph, Renaissance and Moxy hotels. In 2014, STMedia Group International published Kepron’s first book: “Retail Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World.”

Jim Marggraff is founder, chairman and CEO of Eyefluence , a company focused on learning, communication and productivity, Marggraff has founded/co-founded several successful companies, including Livescribe (inventor of the smartpen), Explore Technologies, and StrataCom. Marggraff holds more than 36 patents/applications and was the Ernst & Young Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year, 2011.

Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, is professor in neurology, physiology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, the founding director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center, and director of the Gazzaley Lab. His laboratory studies neural mechanisms of perception, attention and memory, with an emphasis on the impact of distraction and multitasking on these abilities.

Ted Gioia is a jazz pianist, author of 10 books, and expert on management and business creativity. He has undertaken on-the-ground projects in 25 countries on five continents, and has consulted to Fortune 500 companies as a professional with McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group. Gioia previously served as a senior executive with Essilor International, and helped SOLA International do a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Two of his books have been honored on the New York Times list of the 100 best books of the year.

The Premier Sponsors of the Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit are Essilor and VSP Global . The Signature Sponsors are ACEP/ABS Smart Mirror, Adlens and Luxottica. The Supporting Sponsors are Alcon, CareCredit and The Vision Council.

There are still a limited number of seats available for the 2016 VM Summit. A full list of speakers and registration details are posted here.