Commercial background

Roger Hanney

Operational Strategist. Applied AI in commercial operations.

roger@rogerhanney.com +61 424 482 969 Sydney ABN 84 142 485 757 linkedin.com/in/rogerhanney

Fifteen years inside commercial marketing and retail operations, the last four leading HOKA's ANZ business inside Accent Group — a $1.6B ASX-listed retail group. Custom AI tools and capability programmes built on that operating foundation.

AI implementation · in production

HOKA ANZ at Accent Group

2021–2025
$150M ANZ omnichannel at scale
  • Customised and deployed operational brand and product knowledge tooling across a 21-person team to support rapid scale-up — 2,000+ documented uses across planning, content, training and operational workflows.
  • Built HOKA ANZ SharePoint and the GTM Engine, coordinating ANZ go-to-market across wholesale, DTC eCommerce, retail, planning, logistics and finance.
  • Selected to the Accent Group Solutions Tiger Team (Jan 2024) by the Head of Solutions to shape retail technology choices across the group following the HOKA deployment.
  • Improved sales-team data efficiencies by 36% through revised assortment structures and custom-built tooling.

Independent consulting practice

Sept 2025 – present
  • Facilitating commercial strategy workshops based on Lobkovich's connected strategic stack.
  • Commercial advisor to outdoor agencies and distributors successfully applying for new brand distribution rights.
  • Marketing consultant to IT, sports performance brands and retail.
  • Converting static training archives into interactive, navigable HTML applications.
  • Custom Claude Projects and GPTs built for client teams in retail, marketing and professional services.
Training · facilitation · capability transfer
  • Built and delivered the national retail staff training programme for HOKA as the brand scaled into specialty, lifestyle and outdoor retail across ANZ.
  • Onboarded and trained the incoming HOKA ANZ sales team from late 2021; onboarded the incoming Merchandise Manager in early 2025.
  • HOKA product marketing and training content produced during this period accumulated 750,000+ views on YouTube.
  • Represented the ANZ market at annual global sales conferences, reporting to the divisional CEO and APAC supply partners.
Commercial foundation · HOKA ANZ 2011–2025
$150MANZ omnichannel business at scale
30k→1Munits annually, 2015 to 2025
$32M+combined DTC (eCom + 12-store retail)
67–69%eCommerce gross margin

Launched HOKA's omnichannel operation across Australia and New Zealand inside Accent Group: wholesale, DTC eCommerce, and 12 owned retail stores opened across ANZ in 18 months from September 2023. Grew the ANZ business to $150M at scale, with annual volume rising from 250,000 units in 2021 to one million by 2025. Opened New Zealand as the second ANZ market in 2023.

Education · recognition
Education

MBA with Distinction

University of Wollongong, 2025 · WAM 82 · Dean's Letter, Global Strategy

Strategy Days

St. Gallen, 2025 · OpenAI negotiation simulation, AI governance

ML Operations: Scaling TinyML

HarvardX, 2024–2025

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

London School of Economics, 2024

Strategic Leader Certificate

Section School, 2024 · NYU Stern, Wharton, Netflix, OpenAI, Apple

Recognition

Deckers Brands Distributor of the Year

2024

BBRC Retail & Inventory Management Excellence

Team Award, 2023

“The passion, the commitment, the values, the professionalism you showed are extremely rare.”