Meet the team

Glenn Keast

The Orchard Retail Group founder, with nearly 18 years at Cotton On Group. Glenn played a pivotal role in growing the brand from 178 local stores to over 1,500 stores worldwide, operating in 26 countries and still growing. In his last role as Chief Operations Officer he led all operational support functions including Technology — and his success in that role enabled Cotton On to grow and scale rapidly through rock-solid foundations.

Glenn realised through his later days at Cotton On that his real passion was helping others be successful. He believed his experiences could assist other retailers to grow sustainably by being operationally sound, so he set up Orchard Retail Group — whether that means ensuring a supply chain can cope with growth, transforming a network, reviewing a technology stack, or creating the capability to grow through having the right support partners in place.

Countless experiences in new markets, with not much more than a mobile phone for support, have given Glenn a deep understanding of what it takes to open in a new market. He loves nothing more than seeing a business evolve or transform to be successful, or open in a new market — in his words, “that’s the fun stuff”.

Connect with Glenn on LinkedIn

Brent

Brent is a seasoned executive with over two decades of international experience in building and optimizing global supply chains. He excels at fostering strong partnerships with vendors and suppliers while driving operational excellence through strategic recruitment, team development, and meticulous planning.

Throughout his career, Brent has led transformative supply chain initiatives across retail, food and beverage, and third-party logistics — including scaling national distribution for a premium coffee brand, spearheading U.S. expansion efforts for a fast-growing international retailer, and managing high-volume operations in a global 3PL environment. These roles have honed his ability to design agile, customer-focused networks that deliver both cost efficiency and service excellence.

Brent’s deep understanding of end-to-end supply chain dynamics — combined with a strong command of budget management, labor planning, and operational execution — has consistently produced measurable results. He has successfully partnered with teams and stakeholders across six continents, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America, bringing a truly global perspective to every project.

Claire Pearson

Claire is a seasoned supply chain leader with over 30 years of experience, driving operational excellence across global markets. She spent a transformative decade offshore in Asia, where she first worked with members of the Orchard Retail Group — a team that sparked a deep alignment in values and vision, resulting in successfully delivering Cotton On’s expansion plans.

Now based in the UK for the past 10 years, Claire has continued to lead large-scale logistics operations, 3PL contract management, and business expansions for a major off-price retailer. Her expertise lies in delivering sustainable growth through successful teams, blending strategic insight with hands-on, results-driven execution.

Claire now brings her expertise and deep knowledge of the UK, European and Asian supply chain networks — a full-circle moment in both her career and personal life, having once lived not far from Orchard Rd in Singapore, the very road this organisation is named after. Defined by trust, energy, and purpose, optimised and efficient supply chain networks excite her, and she is especially passionate about creating inclusive environments and championing women.

Barnaby Gray

Barnaby is a successful senior executive with extensive global supply chain management experience gleaned across sectors including retail, FMCG and third-party logistics services. Celebrated for leading and developing teams with a natural drive and a demonstrated ability to continuously improve all aspects of the supply chain, with stakeholder engagement a key competency enabling successful commercial outcomes and goal delivery.

A hunger for detail and a curious mind led Barnaby to graduate with an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, while moonlighting in retail logistics for a major Australian retailer. After graduating he moved into operational roles, building a solid career leading retail logistics and 3PL operations in Australia and the UK. When a global 3PL set up a pioneering Lean program in Europe, his curious and questioning nature came into its own — he’d always known he wasn’t happy with just a couple of “whys”, and Lean’s famous five whys vindicated him. He went on to apply those Lean skills to over 60 warehouse sites across the world, leading Lean cultural improvements across automotive, retail, mining, FMCG and electronics with three employers, and now continues in our Orchard engagements.

Who doesn’t like a good plan? After rolling out a logistics improvement program for a global Australian beer, wine and spirits business, Barnaby moved into supply chain planning — leading the planning and inventory functions and supporting program management for key supply chain change projects. Back in retail, a global retailer applied his skills to resetting processes and building an improvement function for logistics, then to a build and reset of its nine distribution centres across the globe, involving complex WMS implementations and automation uplifts. Barnaby has since written the playbook on moving large-footprint, multi-channel, customer-focused DCs successfully at least cost and minimal impact. Planning, program management and right-sized logistics solutions are now where Barnaby is focused with our Orchard customers.

Travis Robertson

Travis Robertson has spent the last 25 years working in logistics operations and project management within two companies that were both on the growth trajectory. Over the past five years of his Cotton On journey he managed the international freight function, including a global tender that managed vendor change for the first time in 13 years. Through a variety of roles Travis has gained significant experience in understanding what is required to create strong commercial results to complement these growth strategies.

In a global business this has provided the opportunity to experience different cultures — being on the ground for projects or managing teams geographically separated. It is Travis’s professional compassion, combined with his love of just getting stuff done, that has consistently created strong internal and external relationships that deliver results. He helps businesses achieve their goals and strategy by focusing on what is important and how it can be executed, through collaboration and expertise learnt over successes and failures across his career.

Travis has spent 30 years within community and semi-professional sport, which drives his motivation to improve team and business performance — he simply loves to deliver successful results, all done with a smile, whilst having fun on the journey.

Leigh

Leigh is a seasoned logistics and operations leader with a strong focus on warehouse design, network optimization, and distribution efficiency. With extensive experience at Cotton On Group, Leigh has played a pivotal role in shaping global supply chain strategies, overseeing large-scale warehouse builds, and supporting operational transitions across international markets. His ability to streamline complex distribution networks has helped businesses scale efficiently while maintaining high standards of safety, automation, and cost-effectiveness.

Throughout his career, Leigh has successfully designed and implemented greenfield distribution centres, refining layouts to maximize throughput, reduce bottlenecks, and enhance overall operational flow. His expertise spans end-to-end project management, stakeholder engagement, budget planning, and tender processes for international expansions, ensuring seamless execution and integration with evolving retail demands. By leveraging data-driven insights and advanced automation solutions, Leigh has optimized warehouse functionality across multiple regions, leading to measurable improvements in efficiency and service delivery.

Beyond the technical aspects of supply chain management, Leigh is deeply committed to fostering collaboration, mentoring teams, and driving cultural excellence within organizations. He excels in engaging cross-functional teams, partnering with key stakeholders, and navigating complex logistical challenges with a strategic yet hands-on approach. Outside of his professional endeavours, Leigh remains actively involved in community initiatives, volunteering with various organizations and contributing to grassroots sports development.