Visionary Headliners, Rockstars
and Fab Facilitators
Interested in Becoming or Nominating a Speaker?
Headliners
Jason Mercer-Pottinger
Senior Director, Americas Customer Care, Vantive
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
Venkata Nandanavanam
Director of Engineering, Customer Care Automation
Walmart
Rockstar Insights
Melissa Archambault
Executive Director, Customer Experience Advocacy & Strategy
CVS Health
With over 28 years of experience, Melissa has built her career in marketing and customer experience, specializing in performance measurement, voice of the customer programs, change management, and the standardization of best practices. She is adept at identifying and translating customer intelligence into business improvements that have driven brand loyalty, customer retention, and double-digit profitability.
Heather Arthur
Vice President, Global Client Experience Centres
Scotiabank
Heather is a dynamic customer experience and sales industry expert with over two decades of experience. An award-winning professional and certified NLP practitioner, Heather is also the host of the Say YES Movement podcast, inspiring individuals and organizations to reach their full potential.
Natalie Beckerman
Customer Operations & Support Executive
Described as a fixer in the customer experience and customer contact space, Natalie has run top tier, large scale operations driving transformation and change, leading strategy, while conquering operational and service excellence across the Globe. She is known to build new business, increase revenue and turn around performance, while at the same time reenergizing and invigorating businesses and leaders. Natalie has done this in the telecommunications/mobile, Home Services, Hospitality and Fintech/Financial services industries.
Philip Bennett
Customer Service Operations Manager
Empire-Today
Phil has over two decades of experience in the call center, building two centers and modernizing another. As a passionate advocate for using technology to improve the customer experience, he has faced legacy roadblocks in all of these operations, and has had to learn to deal with them in many ways.
Tashonda Betts
Customer Contact Center Manager
Tucson Electric Power
Tashonda has over 25 years of experience and a deep knowledge of utility processes and how they impact the customer. She manages a group of approximately 150 employees in multiple facets including Operations, Training, Quality Assurance, Supervision and Customer Service. Her team handles over a million customer phone calls and more than 100,000 customer emails a year. Tashonda has also implemented numerous technological and procedural changes to keep abreast within the industry and exceed customers’ needs and expectations.
Nate Brown
Head of CX Advisory
Metric Sherpa
Nate Brown loves two things very much…customer experience and community. Fortunately, these concepts go hand-in-hand! As a community builder, Nate co-founded CX Accelerator in 2018. Quickly growing to well over four thousand members, this vibrant collection of CX leaders is helping one another to maximize their career and accomplish remarkable things in service to others. Nate also heads up Advisory Services for Metric Sherpa, a research firm helping organizations to transform customer interactions.
Michael O. “Coop” Cooper
Founder & Executive Coach
High Performance Orgs
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.
Mary Henderson
Head of Contact Center Technology
IHG Hotels & Resorts
As Head of Contact Center Technology at IHG, Mary has championed innovation, inclusion, and performance on a global scale. Her journey to leading transformative CX programs across multiple industries offers insight into how women can lead with influence and impact in technology-driven customer experience roles.
Lucie Hyde
Senior Director of User Experience & Design
PayPal
Lucie is a global content leader with senior roles at top tech brands including Amazon, eBay, and PayPal during periods of rapid growth. Her expertise spans content strategy, experience design, and commercial product ownership across e-commerce and financial services. Currently a Senior Director in PayPal’s Experience Design team, Lucie leads AI transformation and oversees experience architecture for the merchant design team. Lucie brings deep strategic, operational, and cross-industry experience to her work in driving impactful digital experiences.
Natasha Jones
Director of Customer Service
King County
With extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, Natasha brings a strong track record in setting strategic priorities, driving process innovation, and improving service delivery. She leverages data and analytics to identify challenges, design solutions, and lead teams to deliver equitable, measurable improvements in customer and employee experiences. Natasha’s background in journalism, communications, technology, and customer service gives her a unique cross-functional perspective. She combines voice of the customer insights with operational understanding and clear communication to lead impactful, future-focused initiatives.
Joel Kell
Vice President, Customer Solutions
Elevate
Joel is a seasoned Operations and CX executive with two decades of experience transforming the value of customer interactions and experiences in the fintech industry. Renowned for his innovative strategies and unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction, Joel has consistently driven bottom-line growth through his visionary leadership. Joel brings invaluable insights into harnessing technology and empathy to create exceptional customer journeys.
Lee Kemp
Vice President, Customer Experience
Veritiv
A people-focused and results-driven leader in Customer Experience (CX), Operations and Supply Chain, with over 20 years of leadership experience. Lee has developed and led successful, award winning global CX programs and strategies for Fortune 500 companies, leveraging a passion for people, practicality, data science and innovation to drive truly best-in-class performance and customer experiences. A US Army officer combat Veteran, Lee is driven by the desire to make a meaningful impact through purposeful leadership and transformative ideas.
Jim McKeown
Vice President, Customer Experience & Mobility
Selective Insurance
Jim has over 20 years of experience building and leading diverse and complex Customer Experience, Mobility, Marketing and Digital Strategies for some of the best performing companies in the world. At Selective Insurance, Jim drives the strategic vision for Selective’s CX strategy, and with his team, delivers unique omni-channel experience and best-in-class self-service and mobile offerings to Selective customers, agents and employees. Previously at UnitedHealth Group and AIG, Jim and his teams were responsible for driving strategic implementation of cutting edge products and solutions that drive both enterprise wide delivery and promote innovation.
Danny McPhaul
Head of Customer Experience
Ford Pro
For over 20 years, Danny has collaborated with a diverse range of clients, including niche tech startups, Ivy League universities, and global conglomerates. He has transformed client relationships and improved organizational outcomes through a unique blend of advocacy, strategic thinking, team building, and personal connection. His leadership approach has directly driven key performance metrics, including Net Promoter Score (NPS), client retention, and revenue growth.
Nancy-Ellen Martin
Director of Customer Service
ThredUp
With 30 Years of Leadership in Customer Service, in the Insurance, Tech, and Retail industries, Nancy-Ellen has a track record of driving exceptional customer experiences across both the tech and retail sectors. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a unique ability to blend operational excellence with a deep commitment to culture-building and customer satisfaction.
Aaron Nye
Executive Vice President, Customer Operations
Connect America
A customer service leader with 25 years of experience, Aaron drives AI-enabled healthcare operations that elevate the patient experience while reducing costs. As EVP of Customer Operations at Connect America and GM at 100Plus, he led initiatives that cut 2024 OPEX by 10% through strategic use of AI and offshore resources.
Beth Roberts
Executive Vice President, Operational Excellence
PatientPoint
With a diverse background spanning technology, healthcare, and innovation consulting, Beth brings a unique, cross-industry perspective to solving operational and leadership challenges. As Executive Vice President of Operational Excellence at PatientPoint, she focuses on developing leaders and building scalable strategies that drive business growth. Beth is passionate about turning complexity into clarity—and helping others do the same.
Lora Ross Lawson
Vice President, Contact Centers
Careington International Corporation
Customer Engagement Leadership Council Member
A 20+ year veteran in CX and contact center leadership, leading teams of 1,000 +. As VP of contact centers, Lora brings strategic vision, operational prowess, and a passion for innovation, delivering tangible results for all Careington brands, its thirty-two million members and clients.
Heidi Rote
Vice President of Member Relations
Parsley Health
Heidi is a seasoned sales leader with over 20 years of experience, known for her expertise in process improvement and call center implementation. She has a proven track record in reducing member churn, implementing AI to enhance customer interactions, and driving significant growth.
Cippy Seidler
Director, Consumer Care Center
Banner Health
Speaking to and working with many diverse contact groups around the world has inspired and enlightened Cippy. It has brought positivity, new ideas and creativity to an already open mind about the importance and truly critical nature of the contact center environments. She has worked most of her career in Retail and Health Care contact centers helping others appreciate why internal and external customer service and brand loyalty begins in the contact center.
Laura Stroman
Manager of Credit and Collections and Special Plans
Tucson Electric Power
Laura brings over 20 years of experience in the Customer Contact Center industry to her role. Within the six years at the organization Laura has been dedicated to enhancing the customer experience. Her passion for the field drives her to seek out innovative strategies to engage and grow both internal and external customers.
Bobby Thompson
Director of Operations
Beazer Homes
An Army combat veteran and construction professional with over 25 years of leadership experience, Bobby has invested his entire career in sharpening his technical and leadership skills. With a career spanning various roles in the building industry, he brings deep expertise in process improvement, innovation, leadership, workforce development, and team building.
Susan Weaver
Chief Customer Officer
Slavic401k
Susan’s career progression over the past 25+ years from a front-line processor and call center representative to Chief Customer Officer has been a profound and rewarding learning experience. Her innovative approach to contact center operations and relationship management has redefined the importance of the customer experience at Slavic401k. By consistently placing the customer at the heart of every decision, Susan has fostered a culture of empathy, accountability, and excellence, achieving outstanding results for both the business and the customers they serve.
Shannon Yeats
Global Vice President, Client Success, Contact Center
Entertainment Partners
Fab Facilitators
Steven Fine
Senior Value Consultant
PolyAI
At PolyAI, Steven has spearheaded the development of the Value Function, collaborating with customers to quantify the impact of conversational AI on their organizations. Drawing on insights from recent customer deployments, he has successfully helped over 20 enterprise contact centers build business cases, leading to successful AI implementations over the past two years.
Rebecca Jonsson
Vice President of AI Products
Foundever
Jaclyn Lo
Director of Customer Success
procedureflow
Jaclyn is a CX leader specializing in onboarding, digital adoption, and change management strategies within Contact Centers. Passionate about employee empowerment and driving sustainable results, her expertise lies in identifying potential roadblocks, managing stakeholders, and implementing effective communication plans to drive successful software implementations.
Lisa Michaud, Ph.D.
Director – Product Management
Interactions
Lisa holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and spent more than 20 years in Natural Language Processing research, during which she published and presented in multiple International journals, workshops, and conferences on the topics of NLP and user modeling. She now is an established thought leader and public speaker on the application of conversational AI toward creating excellent customer experiences.
Dan Mannion
Chief Executive Officer
SparkCX
With three decades of technology business experience, Dan has built successful software businesses in customer experience, human capital, cloud, cybersecurity and AI markets. His ability to simplify the complex enabled him to scale billion-dollar businesses at four start-ups as well as Microsoft and Amazon.
Sean Minter
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
AmplifAI
Sean is a strategic visionary dedicated to elevating large organizations by harnessing the synergy of AI, people, and processes. Sean believes that people are at the heart of every successful transformation, and that tomorrow’s great transformation will be driven by those augmented by the right technology.