Ruth Harrison

Global Retail and Consumer Goods Lead

Avanade

Ruth is Avanade’s Global Retail & Consumer Goods Lead, focusing on helping clients embrace innovative industry solutions that drive growth and transformation. With a career dedicated to business development and innovation, Ruth’s role involves supporting board execs in their understanding of emerging technology, demonstrating ROI and collaborating with their leadership teams to revolutionize the consumer experience, leveraging cutting-edge technology.

Speaking in:

Monday Jan 13th

12:30pm - 1:15pm

Expo, Level 1, Expo Stage 2

Selling roses: Avanade presents – the 1-800-Flowers story

The tale of 1-800-Flowers’ success is a story of entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and commercial smarts. Join Avanade and Microsoft at NRF 2025 for a unique conversation with 1-800-Flowers Founder James F. "Jim" McCann – alongside CIO Arnold “Arnie” Leap. You’ll hear the fascinating story of how the business began in the 1970s, as retold by Jim – then a social worker and part-time bartender in NYC – who had a dream to build America’s first nationwide florist. And you’ll learn how the business has flourished since, by staying agile and innovative – moving early to thrive in the .com era, and now doing the same in the AI age with the help of Microsoft and Avanade.

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Ruth Harrison

Speaking in:

Monday Jan 13th

Selling roses: Avanade presents – the 1-800-Flowers story