In a major people move within the UK’s retail media space, home improvement retailer B&Q has appointed Laura Karsunky as its new Director of Retail Media.
Karsunky most recently held the role of Head of Global Growth Sales, UK at Amazon Ads, an organisation where she had worked since 2015, beginning as Senior Sales Manager and working her way up through the company in a tenure that spanned nearly 10 years. She then took a career break to travel before announcing her move to join B&Q as its Retail Media Director.
Writing about the move on LinkedIn, Karsunky reflected that she had decided to “[be] patient and wait for something that genuinely felt like the right fit”, and that “Every conversation [with B&Q] left me thinking I’d genuinely like to work with these people and that’s not something I say lightly.” She went on, “I’m looking forward to getting to know the business, learning from the team, and helping grow B&Q’s Retail Media proposition as part of the wider Kingfisher group.”
Retail media has been a significant priority across the portfolio of businesses owned by Kingfisher, starting in 2023 when the company broadened an existing partnership with CitrusAd to add retail media to its offering. The company has set a target of retail media accounting for 3% of online sales, and in its full-year results for 2025, announced that retail media had aided in its gross margin rising 80 basis points to 38.1%, along with marketplace growth, improved inventory management and clearance activity, and “AI driven promotional effectiveness”.
Virginia Wakefield, Ecommerce Director at B&Q, said that, “Retail media is a key strategic priority for B&Q, helping us deliver more relevant experiences for customers while creating greater value for our supplier and brand partners. Laura’s appointment comes at an important time as we continue to evolve our proposition, and her extensive experience will be instrumental in shaping the next stage of our growth.”
Meanwhile, following two and a half years with Asda’s retail media and insights commercialisation business, LS Eleven, John Beill has announced that he is stepping down as Director.
Writing on LinkedIn, Beill said, “Working in a retailer going through a significant transformation was tough but the LS Eleven set up in year one was some of the most exciting work I’ve ever been a part of. … The second year was then about transforming and scaling the already existing retail media & insight business.”
Beill then named some of the stand-out wins from his time at LS Eleven, including the launch and scaling of Asda’s offsite proposition (Asda Access); the testing learn of in-store digital screens and creation of the rollout plan for 2026; and the development of new ad formats with improved ROI on the new Asda website.
Recently, Asda announced that it would become the first non-US retailer to partner with Amazon Ads for its ecommerce proposition, with the partnership rolling out in phases from Q4 in order to create new opportunities that would let brands take advantage of its retail media and commerce media solutions at scale.
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