Gary Hawkins is the founder and CEO of Retail Mindsteps, LLC, and one of the grocery and consumer-goods industry’s most trusted translators between legacy retail and the emerging world of AI-driven, agentic, and “bionic” enterprises.

A lifelong retailer turned industry visionary, Hawkins has spent more than three decades helping retailers, wholesalers, and technology companies navigate the convergence of human judgment, data intelligence, and exponential technology. He is the author of Bionic Retail, Retail in the Age of “I”, Customer Intelligence, and Building the Customer-Specific Retail Enterprise—books that anticipated critical shifts toward personalization, data-driven decision-making, and customer-centric operating models.

Hawkins is known for challenging conventional thinking while providing practical, executive-level guidance. Through Retail Mindsteps, his writing, keynotes, and executive briefings, he helps leaders understand how digital cores, data fabrics, and intelligent agents are changing how decisions are made, customers are served, and organizations must evolve.