Credentials — Companies, Conferences & Certifications

Companies Helped

• Lumen (part of Sonepar) — Director of Digital Channels, 4 years, $8M budget, four consecutive years of double-digit online B2B sales growth
• Goodyear North America — Enterprise Akeneo PIM, product data governance across North America
• Husky Boutique — Shopify Plus B2B, 4 buyer segments, ServiceCentre ERP integration
• Tapestry Group (Kate Spade, Coach) — Digital readiness assessment
• Atelier du Chef — BigCommerce + SAP B2B integration
• Cobra Anchors — Product catalog + lead generation
• Bicycles Quilicot — Magento-to-Shopify Plus migration strategy

Conference Speaking

• B2B Online Chicago — 2021–2026 (5+ years, 3 sessions in 2026)
• Master B2B MindShare Summit — March 2026, Chicago
• Brands2Buyers Paris — 2025–2026, GEO and AEO for B2B
• RDV eCommerce Montréal — 2018–present
• NRF Retail's Big Show Europe — 2025, Paris
• La Semaine des entrepreneurs — AI Night, 2026
• B2B Connect — 2025, San Diego
• Darn Good Distributors Podcast — 2025

Certifications & Memberships

• Shopify Plus Partner
• Akeneo Product Experience Advisor
• Forbes Agency Council Member (since 2024)
• MasterB2B Nexus Executive Advisor
• HubSpot Sales Hub Certified
• HubSpot Digital Marketing Certified
• HEC Montréal — Alumni

Every claim, verified at the source.

Here is the context behind each of the seven credentials — why they exist, what they mean in operating terms, and what an executive evaluating a B2B operator should read into them.

18+ years operating B2B commerce

Rudy Abitbol has 18+ years of operating experience in B2B commerce, on both the distributor side and the manufacturer side. Not consulting theory, not PowerPoint decks. Real P&L responsibility, real budgets, real migrations, ERP integrations that either hold or break. That operator depth — first as Director of Digital Channels at Lumen (part of Sonepar), then as an independent advisor — is what lets him separate noise from signal quickly on a replatform, a PIM rollout, or a product-data governance initiative.

Forbes Agency Council Member (since 2024)

The Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community of agency and consultancy leaders, vetted on professional record and renewed annually. Members earn the right to publish analysis under the Forbes banner. In practical terms, this means positions on AI in commerce, on B2B transformation, and on Shopify Plus TCO optimization are reviewed by an editorial committee — not just posted on a personal blog. It is a signal that the work has been examined by people whose only job is to check it.

Executive Advisor — MasterB2B Nexus (since 2025)

MasterB2B Nexus is the inner circle of MasterB2B: a private cohort of practitioners — not vendors, not consultants on a payroll — who set strategy, share field intel, and shape the conversations that move North American B2B commerce forward. Being appointed Executive Advisor means peers in the room recognize operating expertise, not marketing presence.

Shopify Plus Partner (Human After All, since 2022)

As founder of Human After All, Rudy holds Shopify Plus Partner status and is listed in the official Shopify Experts directory. The Plus Partner designation is not a self-service signup: Shopify requires a demonstrated track record on mid-market B2B implementations, verifiable client references, and proven competence on native B2B mechanics — company accounts, catalogs, customer-specific pricing, and Draft Order checkout flows.

Akeneo Product Experience Advisor (Akeneo Partner Akademy, 2023)

The Akeneo Product Experience Advisor credential is the formal designation issued by the Akeneo Partner Akademy to practitioners who can scope and lead Akeneo PIM implementations at production scale. The program covers data modeling for complex B2B catalogs, attribute governance, Supplier Data Manager workflows, and integration patterns into downstream channels. It is the level required to drive a rollout for a distributor running tens of thousands of SKUs.

International keynote speaker (2024–2026)

Active keynote speaker in both English and French on the B2B circuit. Recent and upcoming stages include B2B Online (Chicago and Atlanta), NRF Big Show Europe (Paris), Brands2Buyers (Paris), RDV eCommerce (Montréal), and the MasterB2B Summit. Recurring themes: product data as a strategic asset, AI in the B2B buying journey, the financial read on a Shopify Plus replatform, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for visibility inside answer engines.

Publisher — The Wholesale Playbook (1,700+ subscribers)

Weekly author of The Wholesale Playbook on Substack (b2becommerce.substack.com), with over 1,700 subscribers: VPs of eCommerce, IT directors, and founders of mid-market manufacturers and distributors across North America and Europe. The publication covers native B2B mechanics, ERP integration, the AI shift in commerce, and the business read on commerce platforms — exactly the audience this site is built to serve.

Why this matters when you hire

Recognition is not the point. Recognition is a quality signal — third-party, checkable, and inexpensive to verify before the first conversation. Forbes vetts the track record. MasterB2B Nexus vetts the operating level. Shopify and Akeneo vett the technical execution. The stages vett the ability to defend a thesis in public. Substack vetts the audience. They all converge on the same statement: 18+ years of B2B operator depth, with a paper trail you can reconstruct line by line. That is what a CTO or a VP of eCommerce hires when a B2B program has to ship on time, on budget, and without architectural surprises six months in. A 30-minute conversation is usually enough to decide — book a conversation.