Meet Evgeny Nelepko, Chief Growth Officer at Uzbekistan’s leading grocery chain. Early in his career, consulting businesses wasn’t enough for him —Evgeny wanted to build the things he was advising on. That drive led him to Leroy Merlin, where a collaborative culture, unlimited budgets and timelines gave him room to experiment. One of those experiments? A feedback simulator for managers, where a virtual employee would stand up and walk out if treated poorly. Evgeny says it felt like Ready Player One.

In this episode, Evgeny and Elena talk about retail media, scaling both startups and global companies, and how AI and LLMs are reshaping the customer experience. He also shares why marathon training has been his secret weapon for career breakthroughs — like the one he's about to make now.

TagTalks is a podcast about the people behind retail — the category leaders, store managers, pricing directors, and frontline operators who make commerce happen every day. Hosted by Elena, Chief Marketing Officer at Data Operations, each episode dives into a real-world retail career and unpacks the decisions, projects, and pivots that define success in today’s fast-moving retail landscape. The show is produced by Data Operations, a retail technology company focused on intelligent dynamic pricing and assortment optimization in the U.S. market.

Find out more about Data Operations: https://dataoperations.org

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dataoperations

Team:

Host: Elena, Chief Marketing Officer with Data Operations

Guest: Evgeny Nelepko

Production: Hatch Up