Credentials — Companies, Conferences & Certifications

Which companies has Rudy Abitbol 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 (Kate Spade, Coach) — Digital maturity assessment, December 2025 – January 2026
• Atelier du Chef — BigCommerce + SAP B2B integration
• Cobra Anchors — Product catalog + lead generation
• Bicycles Quilicot — Magento-to-Shopify Plus migration strategy

At which conferences has Rudy Abitbol spoken?

• 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

What certifications does Rudy Abitbol hold?

• Shopify Select Partner
• Akeneo Product Experience Advisor
• Former Forbes Agency Council member and Forbes contributor
• Master B2B Nexus Expert 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.

Former Forbes Agency Council member and Forbes contributor

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.

Expert Advisor — Master B2B Nexus (since 2025)

Master B2B Nexus is the inner circle of Master B2B: 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 Expert Advisor means peers in the room recognize operating expertise, not marketing presence.

Shopify Select Partner (Human After All)

As founder of Human After All, Rudy leads a Shopify Select Partner, the tier shown on its Shopify Partner Directory listing. Select 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

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.

Akeneo certifications — verify at the issuer

Three current Akeneo certifications, each linked to its verification record on Akeneo's issuing platform. A claim you can check beats a badge you cannot.

• Akeneo Business Implementation Fundamentals — issued January 2026, valid through July 2027
• Akeneo Product Experience Advisor — issued January 2026, valid through July 2027
• Akeneo Foundation — issued July 2025, valid through June 2027

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 Master B2B 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 — two B2B commerce newsletters

Author of B2B Commerce Insights, published monthly on LinkedIn to more than 2,000 subscribers, and of a separate newsletter on Substack (b2becommerce.substack.com). Read by: 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. Master B2B 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 short exchange is usually enough to decide — send a message.