Advantage : Atlas Technology Group Appoints Mark Samuels as President

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas - Consumer goods and retail veteran Mark Samuels has joined Atlas Technology Group, a leading technology company that provides data analytics and insights to many of the world's largest consumer goods companies, as president.

Samuels will lead Atlas Technology Group, an Advantage Digital Commerce agency, supporting the agency's mission of providing consumer goods companies with timely, actionable insights to make better business decisions to increase sales in physical stores and on digital retail sites. For instance, one Atlas platform leverages its proprietary algorithms to analyze sales and inventory information from leading retailers to monitor shelf conditions down to the product level, helping brands to identify challenges in the supply chain, including high priority issues like out-of-stocks and phantom inventory.

With more than two decades of experience in the retail and consumer goods industry, Samuels has defined and implemented new category management and merchandising processes and technology solutions to execute best-in-class assortment planning, forecasting, allocation, pricing and inventory strategies that improve product appeal and customer engagement. Most recently, Samuels served as an external advisor for Bain & Company's Retail and Consumer Products Practices, where he delivered category leadership capabilities and sales strategies to global consumer packaged goods companies and national retail organizations. Prior to Bain & Company, he spent 20 years with Walmart in various leadership roles across the United Kingdom and United States spanning merchandise planning, category lifecycle management, space planning and pricing.

Samuels comes on board at a time when Atlas is investing in extending its value proposition in two key areas: predictive analytics and analyzing product sales from a comprehensive, omnichannel perspective.

'We are very pleased to welcome Mark, whose domain expertise has made him a valued partner to brands and retailers all over the world, to the Advantage family,' said Chris Butler, president, Advantage Digital Commerce. 'Mark's forward-looking, tech-oriented approach aligns with the mission critical needs of our clients in this fast- and ever-changing business environment. He is the perfect leader to accelerate Atlas' growth initiatives and leverage Advantage's ability to provide consumer goods companies a true omnichannel commerce solution.'

In his role as president of Atlas Technology Group, Samuels will help advance Advantage Solutions' larger enterprise vision for growth-oriented omnichannel category management and merchandising strategies enabled and accelerated by new technologies.

'Atlas has long been a pioneer in synchronizing data and applying advanced analytics that provide consumer goods companies with actionable insights for better decision-making and operational efficiencies,' Samuels said. 'As the pandemic has upended supply chains, sales patterns and shopper behaviors, actionable data has become even more important for our clients. I look forward to working with the Atlas and Advantage teams, at a time when the future of the industry is being reshaped.'