John Matas

John Matas

Founder & Principal Consultant

Blacklight Strategy


John is a retail industry consultant with over 30 years of experience in omni-commerce fraud, organized retail crime, asset protection, and investigations. John has extensive knowledge in asset protection, criminal investigations, retail operations, open-source intelligence, and organizational team development.

Previously, John was the Vice President of Investigations, Fraud, and Organized Retail Crime for Macy's Inc for over 25 years. He established and directed all investigative programs, strategic planning initiatives, profit protection, and advanced business technology.

Most recently, John served as the Global Head of Risk & Fraud for Etsy Inc., responsible for the organization's fraud strategy and framework. He structured policies, processes, and tools to ensure the prevention, detection, and investigation of fraud, organized crime, and suspicious activity in a highly regulated environment.

John is a regular speaker for the National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association, International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators Merchant Risk Council, and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. John is also the co-host of the popular industry podcast The Securing Success Show now entering its third season devoted entirely to interviewing retail leaders, sharing their advice on career development and team leadership. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a Certified Financial Crimes Investigator (CFCI). John graduated from Kean University with a BA in Political Science and Criminal Justice and is studying Applied Machine Learning at Columbia University.

Speaking in:

Tuesday Jun 9

10:00am - 10:45am

Texas C, Level 3

Total retail protection unification: Beyond omnicommerce

Omnichannel retail has evolved faster than the tools designed to protect it. Offenders now move effortlessly between store and digital channels, exploiting the blind spots created by disconnected systems and siloed LP and fraud teams. In this session, industry leader John Matas introduces Unified Loss Orchestration — a practical operating model retailers can adopt themselves to finally see loss the way offenders do: across channels, not within them. Attendees will learn how to enrich in store transactions using the unused data points hidden in their online “digital exhaust,” creating a unified lens that strengthens investigations, connects the dots between commerce channels, and adds meaningful analytical firepower to the systems they already own.