Visionary Headliners, Rockstars
and Fab Facilitators
Interested in Becoming or Nominating a Speaker?
SPEAKER ROSTER IS FROM A PREVIOUS CUSTOMER CONTACT EVENT
HEADLINERS & ROCKSTAR INSIGHTS
Craig Antonucci
Chief Experience Officer
Autocar Trucks
Craig is the Chief Experience Officer for Autocar, the oldest truck brand in the United States. Craig is responsible for the future of the Autocar customer experience. He leverages cutting edge techniques, technology, and data in the design, build, and execution of Autocar’s world class customer experience to ensure every touchpoint is creating a Raving Fan. With his work rooted in Paradoxes, Paradigms and Frameworks, Craig brings a unique perspective to the CX professional Journey. Having spent over 20 years consulting with some of the best and brightest in our space, he has seen these phenomena succeed and fail in real time. This unique journey has led Craig to Autocar, where he and his team are working on all the things that nobody has done yet but should have!
Bernie Arnason
Industry Principal
Frost & Sullivan
A member of the CX team at Frost & Sullivan, Bernie brings over 25 years of Information & Communication Technologies industry experience. As an Industry Principal, Bernie focuses his research on important CX trends in the contact center. Prior to Frost & Sullivan, Bernie spent close to 18 years as a principal and partner at a boutique management consulting firm in the telecom industry and is a past Editor-in-Chief of Telecompetitor.com, an online industry publication.
Francoise Benoit-Betters
Vice President, Merchant Services
First American by Deluxe
With over 19 years of Merchant Service experience, Francoise has an extensive knowledge of the credit card processing industry by providing 5-star quality support to over 160,000 merchants. Customer support is essential for cultivating successful, lasting partnerships, and First American by Deluxe’s hard-earned reputation is rooted in care with our highly trained, in-house customer support, installation, PCI compliance and Retention representatives capable and empowered to resolve issues for Partners and Merchants. Included in supporting our merchants, Francoise leads the in-house Deployment facility with 6-12 months of inventory and supplies for our merchants.
Natalia Brown
Chief Client Operations Officer
National Debt Relief
Natalia has over 20 years in the service industry. She has spent the last 12 years with National Debt Relief as the Chief Client Operations Officer. Natalia has led teams internationally and helped hundreds of thousands of people out of debt. She is a servant leader and an advocate for her teams and consumers.
Kelly Carney
Vice President of Digital Experience & Customer Service
National Grid
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
An inclusive and strategic leader, Kelly has spent her career developing people and solutions that have driven a marked improvement in performance, employee engagement and customer experience. She is leading the digital transformation across Customer at National Grid, while evolving the contact centers toward the Future of Service.
Michael O. “Coop” Cooper
Founder
Innovators + Influencers
Michael “Coop” Cooper is passionate about the people side of change. He recognizes changing minds can be difficult but knows often it’s much easier and simpler than we might think. He empowers leaders at companies around the world to understand and appreciate the underlying NeuroEfficiencies that people have, to speak directly in terms of what is important to them, and successfully sell their ideas and strategies.
Cary Danner
AVP, UHealth Connect
University of Miami Health System
Hannah Day
Director of Revenue Management & CRO Operations Paramount Hospitality Management, LLC
Hannah completed her studies at UCF in 2018 with a BA in only three years while holding the position of Director of Central Reservations at Paramount Hospitality Management. Eventually, Hannah was promoted to Director of Revenue Management and CRO Operations where she utilizes both her leadership abilities and analytical skills to ensure customer service and revenue optimization. Her dedication to growth has greatly contributed to where she is today, and she strives to help both women and other young leaders in their own journeys.
Steve Di Tirro
Supplier Relationship Manager
Google
Steve has spent the last two decades dedicated to transforming organizations to deliver best in class customer experiences. Steve’s six sigma black-belt and his strategic sourcing experience contributes to Google Technical Services’ coined phrase, “What Would Steve Say?” At Amazon Global Outsourcing, in addition to driving procurement, risk and control, account management and service delivery, Steve proudly carried the title “Captain Funtastic”. Steve is an industry thought leader in outsourcing business partnerships and is committed to disrupting the customer service industry by continuously raising the bar.
Wes Dudley
Vice President of Customer Experience
Broad River Retail
Wes Dudley is a 35-year veteran of the retail industry. He is known for disrupting the status quo in customer experience through people, process & technology. While he is results driven, he is people obsessed and his team always comes first.
Trey Fischer
BPO Leader and Senior Director of Operations
Optum
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
Trey has over 27 years of contact center operations leadership experience with companies such as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services, Duluth Trading Company, Colony Brands (think Swiss Colony and Montgomery Ward), Optum, and others. His contact center service programs have been recognized by CIO Magazine and Consumer Reports as some of the best in the country for being “easy to use” and “treating customers well”.
Daron Fowlks
Vice President, Global Customer Experience
Instacart
Daron is a tenacious leader that drives business impact through an intense focus on customers and those that serve them. He has led transformational change at eBay, StubHub and is now transforming the Instacart business. He has vision that motivates and inspires to create a culture of excellence, customer loyalty, and business impact.
Rob Gofourth
Vice President, Business Process
Centene Corporation
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
Chris Goostree
Director of Contact Center Operations
TMX Finance Family of Companies
A dynamic Contact Center leader with expertise in driving performance and efficiencies within a sales and/or customer service contact center. Chris has led successful programs for companies such as Toyota Connected, Cotiviti, Netflix and now the TMX Financial Family of Companies.
Jeff Grant
Senior Product Owner, Enterprise Contact Center
Southwest Airlines
Yamila Harris
Global Head of IT Support and User Experience
Munich Re
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
Over the course of her 30-year global leadership career, Yamila’s zeal for the art-of-the-possible, her unrelenting focus on user/customer experience, and her commitment to cultivating and empowering diverse teams have remained key tenets. She firmly believes that truly lasting transformational change requires a strong understanding and investment in ongoing organizational change management practices, measurable performance indicators, and effective communication strategies.
Charles Hawkins
Senior Director, Direct to
Consumer and Renewal Sales
Frontdoor/American Home Shield
Misty Hutman
Director of Workforce Developments
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
Mark Killick
Senior Vice President, Experiential Operations
Shipt
Jim LeMere
Vice President, Servicing Capabilities & Enablement
Northwestern Mutual
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
Andre Luck
Vice President, Ticket Sales & Service
Miami Marlins
Keri Malone
Senior Vice President, Customer Service
CITY Furniture
Brian McDonald
IT Manager
National Healthcare Provider
Wilson Nieves
Senior Vice President Customer Experience
Citizen Watch America
Michelle Norcross
Executive Director, Customer Care,
The Avon Company
Cindy Oberkirsch
Director, Guest Care
Panera Bread
Chris Raebel
Former SMB Solutions Leader – Digital Sales & Support
FedEx
Chris is a highly accomplished, results-focused Sales and Solutions Leader with domestic and international experience building, operationalizing, and scaling top-performing Digital Sales go-to-market strategies in the SMB space, delivering proven results that consistently exceed corporate goals, growth, and profitability. He has extensive experience in developing people, building teams, and managing enterprise projects, while advancing ideas and new technologies to drive results and transformational change.
Timothy Rauschenbach
Vice President of Patient Engagement
Millennium Physician Group
Tim is a global senior customer service executive with extensive experience delivering results for premium brands in multiple sectors. That experience includes leading customer service organizations at Disney, Amazon and UPS. Today Tim serves as the Vice President of Patient Engagement at Millennium Physician Group.
Cippy Seidler
Director, Consumer Care Center
Banner Health
Rupen Singh Philloura
Director of Terminal Operations, Customer Service & AOCC
Miami International Airport
Rupen is a graduate from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University with a major in Airline-Airport Management. He has spent 25 years in the aviation sector working at large to mega hub airports with a concentration in airport operations orchestrating the day-to-day activities. Rupen oversees Customer Service, Contact Center, Security, and Terminals for Miami International Airport. He has consulted in the Middle East, West Africa, and East Asia for airport technologies and operations and also has experience helping start-ups to seed round.
Ryan Smith
Senior Director –
Customer Care Strategy & Operations
GoDaddy
Ryan is an experienced leader in contact center operations with a specialization in contact strategy applications using heuristics and machine learning. His unique background bridges gaps commonly found between product, technology, and customer care teams. He has a passion for driving financial optimization through vision, innovation, analysis, and strategic design collaboration.
Leslie Thibodeau
Vice President, Client Engagement Center
ECRI
Leslie has worked in many facets of the business over her 18+ years in healthcare, IT, Customer Service Operations, Corporate Operations, Strategic Solutions, Sales Operations, and building Client Engagement Centers (and implementing the technology and processes to go along with them). With a passion for the team members and ensuring they have the tools and support they need to provide clients with world-class service. This philosophy is one that she brings to ECRI, to solve client friction points and make a difference in our healthcare system.
Francisco Toledo
Senior Director Global Operations
Groupon
Francisco has dedicated the past 10+ years to driving Customer and Merchant experience through Operational Excellence with multiple global assignments across Latin America, Europe, and North America. He’s a COPC CX Implementation leader, earned an Executive MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, and currently leads Groupon Global’s Customer Care organization.
David Weisman, Ph.D., CPXP, FPCC
Chief Experience Officer
NYC Health + Hospitals / Queens
David has spent the majority of his 20-year career in customer/care experience. He has a unique set of skills that have allowed him to create a culture of empathy focused on customer experience and exceed the expectations of all his customers, including patients and their loved ones, employees, and the community.
Scott Welch
Director of Contact Centers
Lumen
Scott is well versed in infusing artificial intelligence into knowledge management and telephony to elevate metrics bringing additional value to the employee and customer experience. He is an 8X Circle of Excellence award winner an honor given to the highest sales performing professionals in his organization.
Brian Wolfe
Vice President, Global Customer Experience
JBL, a division of HARMAN International
Brian is an energetic and proven senior leader in the Customer Experience (CX) space. He spent the first part of his career in management consulting for Deloitte and Accenture gaining deep experience in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy, operations, and technology. Subsequently, he was a sales manager for Oracle and Salesforce.com. For 8 years running he has been using his background in CX to lead global customer experience operations for the world’s most reputable audio company.
Fab Facilitators
Nancy Baker
Senior Process Lead
ProcedureFlow
“I believe every company can gain operational efficiency and empower their employees by simplifying complicated processes and making them easy to follow for everyone!” Nancy helps organizations innovate knowledge management. As a project management professional and change agent, Nancy has helped contact center leaders improve their operations and reach new levels of efficiency. Nancy is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and in Prosci Change Management, she has more than 20 years’ experience leading projects in many sectors.
Ian Barkin
Entrepreneur
Ian is a seasoned leader and innovator in Digital Operations, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Intelligent Automation, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and the Future of Work. He has a proven track record of digital transformation solution development and sales of complex global engagements. Ian is a 4x founder, advisor, investor, and author of “Intelligent Automation”, and several LinkedIn Learning courses on RPA and AI.
Amy Bouthilet
Vice President Global Talent
Alta Resources
With 15+ years of consumer care experience, Amy has a proven track record of increasing employee engagement and, in turn, helping global brands maximize customer experiences. She has made employee engagement a primary focus within her current organization and recent engagement results have classified them as a world class engagement culture. Whether in a corporate support role or in direct management of a consumer care team, Amy has a personal passion to deliver results.
Carolyn Borden
Senior Global Director of Learning
Development and Quality
CXperts
With a career spanning over 20 years, Carolyn has built many programs from vision to fruition that have successfully led to overall performance enhancements in leadership development, training development, and quality customer experience. She has developed extensive knowledge in learning and development around virtual vs. brick-and-mortar environments, and has created a coaching cadence embraced globally by both modalities.
Christopher M. Carrington
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner
Omni Interactions
Chris spends each waking moment thinking how to innovate the future of work. Chris started with traditional BPO work with Capgemini, then creating the work-at-home industry at Alpine Access to now innovating the Gig Economy for customer support with Omni Interactions. His expertise in the BPO and customer contact space spans more than 35 years in C-level roles leading and growing global corporations that deliver technology-enabled business services.
Marilyn Cassedy
Vice President of Customer Success
SmartAction
Marilyn is the Head of Customer Success at SmartAction where she’s partnered with customers across a range of verticals to implement and expand their self-service footprint in the call center. After more than a decade of experience in customer success, Marilyn knows that a key step in unlocking an agent’s full potential is though the technology that supports them before, during, and after a phone call.
Matt Coughlin
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
XSELL Technologies
Matt is the Founder & CEO of XSELL Technologies. He is passionate about bringing tech and people together to create an AI-powered, sustainable workforce. His vision revolves around leveraging artificial intelligence as a foundational capability to listen, learn and support agents in real time with the exact information they need to exceed customers’ expectations and deliver top performer experiences.
Ginger Conlon
Thought Leadership Director
Genesys
An award-winning editorial leader, Ginger Conlon is currently thought leadership director at Genesys, where she crafts research-led content on customer experience and co-hosts the “Tech Talks in 20” podcast and “CX Green Room” livestream show. Additionally, she serves on the Environmental Defense Fund’s Digital Advisory Council. In her prior roles as chief editor of Direct Marketing News, 1to1, and CRM magazines, she set the editorial vision and strategy, which led to increased readership, reader engagement, and revenue. Ginger, a founding board member of CXPA, received a DMCNY Silver Apple lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the marketing industry.
Casey Denby
Senior Director, Enterprise Sales
Zenarate
Jennifer Di Tirro
Vice President, Business Development
Qualfon
For the last 15 years, Jenn has partnered with clients to drive customer loyalty, maximize and expand revenues and increase their position as brand leaders. Jenn is known in the industry as an inspiring, adaptive, goal-achieving female leader and a ‘best in class’ relationship manager. Jenn not only helps businesses envision a better process, CX and call center solution, she outlines the tools and plans to achieve it!
Larry Fleischman
Senior Vice President, Business Development & Sales
HGS
Larry is passionate about empowering our employees and partners to think differently, be curious, and continue to find new ways to bring value to the customers we support.
Jade Geisen
Vice President, BPO and Client Success
Outsource Consultants
Jade Giesen has over 25 years of BPO industry experience, including 6 years overseeing call center vendor management for Best Buy enterprise customer care. She is an expert in facilitating partnerships between clients and outsource call centers to improve CX and maximize ROI.
Phil Gray
Chief Product Officer
Interactions, LLC
Kevin Hayden
Vice President, Sales
Thrio
Corey Kotlarz
Founder and President
Outsource Consultants
Corey has over 25 years of experience in the call center industry with a track record of leading companies and driving rapid growth. He is a global outsourcing expert, and specializes in regional market trends, cost reduction strategies, and elevating CX through tactical BPO partner selection.
Jim Iyoob
Chief Customer Officer
Etech Global Services
Jim has recently been awarded by Customer Contact Central with MVP awards and featured in numerous publications including CIO Review, Contact Center Pipeline, and Connections Magazine. Jim has also been listed as one of the ‘Top 20 Influential People to Follow’ on Twitter by “Iwantitnow” and one of the “Top 25 Thoughts Leaders for 2023” by ICMI.
Brian May
Director of Solution Engineering
PolyAI
With 12 years of experience in transformative technology deployments, Brian has a track record of bridging the gap between current state and future-state vision of clients. The past 4 years, he has been focused on cracking the code of Conversational AI, working with dozens of global companies to iteratively deliver omni-channel Conversational AI Bots by balancing the needs of business/technical & 3rd party stakeholders.
Sean Minter
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
AmplifAI
Sean is an experienced entrepreneur and operational strategist with over 25 years of contact center technology and operations experience. He has founded 4 tech startups, including AmplifAI. He previously managed a BPO with 15,000 contact center associates worldwide, giving him insight into the struggles and challenges of driving contact center performance. His passion is using the latest technologies to help brands deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences and get a return on their technology investments.
Nathan Park
Vice President of Global Sales
Acquire BPO
Adept at achieving business outcomes, Nathan has a strong customer focus with a broad business experience gained in the finance, retail, and distribution industries.
Patrick Reynolds
Vice President – Products & Process
Etech Global Services
Patrick has over 22 years of contact center experience and has held numerous leadership roles throughout his career, from Senior Agent through Director of Operations. His extensive knowledge at each level uniquely qualifies him to lead a diverse and talented group of leaders across multiple shores. Patrick is considered an expert in the digital space and helped transform his company’s digital capabilities.
Larry Swift
Vice President, Sales & Solution Consulting
Intradiem
Ian Tempro
Chief Operating Officer
IA Call Center
As an industry veteran with 20 years of experience in steering contact center operations, Ian’s leadership as COO of Insta Answer has been instrumental in incorporating service focused technology to drive improved customer engagement. He is committed to helping brands reach their CX goals and is recognized for his ability to build truly bespoke programs across diverse industries.
Eddie Vaca
Chief Operating Officer
CXperts
Eddie brings over (27) years of Global Outsourcing expertise in start-up and turnaround of Omni-Channel, Domestic, Nearshore & Offshore operations. His background encompasses the development and implementation of Sales, Technical Support, and Care organizations. It includes systems support, operations, production, technical, sales, and financial analysis, focusing on generating efficiencies and cost management practices and increasing revenue.
Lee Waters
Chief Operations Officer
C2Perform
Obsessed with helping teams find their full potential, Lee works with some of the world’s biggest brands to leverage various technologies and develop practical strategies to anticipate and reduce attrition.
Jennifer Wells
Global Head/Vice President of Customer Experience
Transcom Worldwide
Jennifer has been an eyewitness to the evolution of contact center technologies for three decades. Jen and her team tenaciously seek differentiating solutions to improve the agent and customer experience for more than 30,000 team members around the globe at Transcom.