Aviad Abiri has over 12 years of experience helping contact center and customer care professionals drive business performance by leveraging voice-of-the-customer solutions. As a business solutions specialist for NICE Systems Inc., Aviad has helped numerous organizations build the business case for implementing NICE’s market leading customer-interactions based analytics solutions. These solutions include capturing interactions across all communication channels, analyzing data in real time using speech & desktop analytics to extract customer insights and leveraging these insights to drive impact across the enterprise. In his current role, Aviad is responsible for promoting the entire portfolio suite of NICE’s enterprise solutions, assisting organizations to improve operational efficiency, sales effectiveness and customer experience. Aviad has a BSc in Computer Sciences and an MBA from the Recanati school of business at the Tel Aviv University.

 

Arvindh Balakrishnan is the Vice President in the North American CRM group in the Industries Business Unit at Oracle.  

Arvindh started his career in Oracle in 1996, in Oracle Consulting, and between 1999 and 2002, Arvindh founded and served as the CEO of MetricStream, an enterprise QA/RA software provider. Arvindh has held various field roles in Oracle, and is a trusted advisor to business and IT executives globally. Most recently, Arvindh was the Vice President for the Oracle Life Sciences Industry Business Unit globally. Arvindh graduated from IIT Madras in 1991, and has a MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Minnesota, and was a Deans Fellow  in the Doctoral program at Texas A&M.  

 

Renee Cacchillo joined Safelite AutoGlass® as Vice President of Service Delivery in August 2011. In this role, she focuses on delivering Safelite’s vision and business goals by driving performance in the areas of customer service and labor management, partnering closely with many of business units to establish Safelite® as a world-class service organization. In addition, she will work closely with other Safelite® leaders and their teams to implement cross-functional projects that are geared toward strengthening our operational performance. 

With more than 20 years of experience, Renee brings a wealth of experience, best-practice knowledge and a proven track record of success around improving the customer experience. Her background includes delivering results in fast-paced, consumer-focused businesses such as Bob Evans and Mimi’s Café Restaurants, Bath & Body Works/Limited Brands, Hallmark and Dillard’s Department Stores. She also has more than 5 years of experience at Accenture in leading large scale system implementations as well as in change management. 

Renee earned her M.B.A. and B.S. from the University of Kansas. She is a member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.

 

Ms. Chozick is responsible for sales and service support for e-commerce, catalogue sales and Business Sales. She has 25 years of broad-based experience in sales, sales support and customer service and currently runs contact center operations in support of B2B and B2C sales, customer service and in-store retail support. She has extensive expertise in the areas of strategic planning, business process improvement, voice of the customer (VOC) and CRM. As Vice President, Sales Service, Ms. Chozick has provided strategic direction in the development of customer experience strategies while ensuring best practices are deployed across all contact centers and e-commerce globally.

Ms. Chozick joined Tiffany & Co. in 1984 as a Sales Executive in Business Sales. She subsequently held a management role responsible for designing proposals and providing sales support to Sales Executives in Tiffany’s B2B recognition business.

Prior to joining Tiffany & Co., Ms. Chozick practiced as a Speech/Language Pathologist.

Ms. Chozick was born and raised in New York. She received her Bachelor of Science from Emerson College in Boston and Masters Degree in Speech/Language Pathology from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. She currently lives in Montville, New Jersey with her husband, daughter and son.

 

Thomas B. Crane is Chief Human Resources and Communications Officer for Skanska USA Inc., comprising the $5+ billion group of heavy civil and building construction and project development businesses in the U.S. of parent company Skanska AB, Stockholm, Sweden. He is a member of the Skanska USA management team and is responsible for human capital and brand management strategies in the U.S for Skanska.  

Prior to joining Skanska in 2002, Crane spent several years with AlliedSignal (now Honeywell International Inc.), serving in a variety of executive communications leadership roles, including Corporate Spokesperson and merger communications lead during the company's 1999 acquisition of Honeywell Inc., General Electric's bid for Honeywell, and retired Honeywell Chairman and CEO Larry Bossidy's subsequent return to the company and successful turnaround initiative following the GE acquisition attempt. 

Prior to joining AlliedSignal, Crane spent several years in the public relations industry in New York City, advising clients on both external and employee branding and crisis communications. He served with top-ten NY public relations firm Ruder Finn, Inc., in addition to other firms focusing on both consumer and industrial business-to-business accounts. Clients included AlliedSignal, STP and PRESTONE automotive products, STP Racing, WNBC, Manville Corporation, Stanley Tools, Mitsubishi Corporation and the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. He also served in a political campaign communications leadership capacity for former Pennsylvania district Senator Joseph Rocks.

Crane has authored articles on communications issues and has received editorial and industry awards, including Telly and Galaxy awards. He is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), Governing Body Member New Jersey Leadership Summit, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Tri-County Scholarship Fund in New Jersey, a non-profit organization that provides educational financial support to economically disadvantaged inner-city children. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Temple University’s School of Communications and Theater.

 

Nancy is an accomplished, entrepreneurial executive with over 25 years of experience in general technology management, product innovation, marketing, research, business development and strategic planning in the software industry. Her career prior to Aspect spanned positions in both product development and marketing, in application areas covering survey research and enterprise feedback management, predictive analytics and data mining, and intelligent search and text analytics. At Aspect she is Vice President of Solutions Marketing, having responsibility for defining and implementing programs for introducing Aspect solutions to the marketplace that effectively address customer business problems and use cases.

 

Kelley J. Everetts is senior vice president of Client Care & Implementation Support at First Data. In this role, she is esponsible for implementations and boarding of all products and customers in North America. In addition, she handles merchant retention and all second level and account management support functions within North America. 

Prior to her current role, Everetts was the senior vice president of global customer service operations with responsibility for setting global strategy, financial targets and future business direction for First Data call centers. Her background with First Data includes responsibility for the key business processes as part of the First Data/Concord integration, dispute resolution, information products, merchant retention, and general management of the Paymentech relationship, statement and settlement operations. 

Before joining First Data in 1996, Everetts spent twelve years with Coopers and Lybrand where she held a variety of positions in industrial engineering, strategic planning and management and consulting. 

Everetts earned a bachelor’s degree in applied engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

 

Lisa Eyer is Vice President of the Client Service and Support team representing one of the largest financial institutions for First Data Merchant Services. Lisa has over 22 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry that includes a diverse knowledge of Issuing and Payments Processing. Background includes working with major banks both domestically and internationally. Experience ranges from contact center management and sales management roles to strategic migrations and project implementations to drive increased business efficiency and effectiveness. 

 

Marci Ginzburg is a member of the Global Leadership Team and is Senior Vice President of the CA Technologies Global Customer Success organization.  The mission of this organization is to improve the experience our customers and partners have with CA technology.  We do this by ensuring positive outcomes that maximize the value our solutions provide to customers while continuously improving the speed, efficiency and effectiveness with which we address their underlying needs and enable them to achieve their business goals.  

Marci began her career at CA Technologies in 1993 as a client service representative and since that time has held a number of sales and service leadership roles within CA Technologies, in both a regional and global capacity.

Prior to her current role, Marci spent 5 years as Senior Vice President, Global Customer Portfolio Management, leading a global team focused on streamlining CA Technologies license renewal process. Through her leadership and the efforts of her team, she established a repeatable process for our renewal business that ensured a consistent, customer focused approach and methodology that led to an improved customer experience.  In this role she was also responsible for building, maintaining and growing relationships with CA's existing base of customers.  In the 5 years prior to leading this effort globally, Marci created and ran the Portfolio Management business in the Northeast US, then across North America and then across the America’s.

Marci received a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Maryland.  She is based in CA Technologies Manhattan Headquarters and home of the Executive Briefing Center.

 

Les Harrell is Vice President, Business Customer Service at Windstream Corp.

Windstream Corp. (Nasdaq: WIN) is a leading provider of advanced network communications, including cloud computing and managed services, to businesses nationwide. The company also offers broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers primarily in rural areas. Windstream has more than $6 billion in annual revenues and is listed on the S&P 500 index. 

Les has been a transformation-driven Customer Service executive at 3 major telecommunications companies for 24 years. He began his career after education at University of North Carolina, East Carolina University, and University of Southern California with Sprint wireline, now CentryLink. In 2003, Les was recruited to become Assistant Vice President of Sprint/Nextel Corp where he transformed B2B organic and outsourced customer service centers into dynamic solutions-driven teams, reduced B2B churn, and improved acquisition costs in a sales+service quota-bearing environment world-wide.

Les’s current energetic leadership at Windstream has driven significant sales increases in SMB space, unified CLEC and ILEC strategies, elevated offer rates north of 75%, blended inbound and outbound life-cycle leadership, and he also served to create a top tier VIP team for Windstream’s largest accounts in a multi-media context.  

Les lives in Charlotte, NC and has 3 daughters, plus a new Doberman puppy and a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard.

 

Ben Hoffman is currently the acting Chief Customer Officer for Cigna, a global health service company, dedicated to helping the people they serve improve their health, well-being and sense of security. His 25 years in customer experience have provided him the opportunity to work on a broad variety of initiatives and industries - from auto insurance quoting to health care to railroad yard management. He has extensive experience in leading customer experience functions, customer/usability research methods and in starting new customer experience functions (having done so over 10 times).

Previously, Ben has worked for Travelers Insurance, The Hartford, Dell Computer and IBM. He holds a BA in Psychology from Moravian College and a Masters in Statistics and Measurement from Rutgers University. He currently resides in Madison, CT.

 

Diane Kelley is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida’s vice president, provider services. In this role, she provides oversight for local claims and accumulators, BlueCard claims and provider contact centers, provider issue resolution and provider account receivable management teams and other party liability.

Prior to this role, Kelley served as vice president, contact process where she provided leadership for meeting the diverse service needs of the organization’s members and providers. She has also served in various leadership roles in the Service Organization, and has worked for First Coast Service Options Inc. (FCSO), a wholly owned subsidiary of BCBSF, where she held a number of leadership positions. 

Kelley holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University.

 

Kathleen F. Kerr joined New Jersey Natural Gas Company (NJNG) in January 2005 and is presently Vice President - Customer Services; overseeing the meter-to-cash processes and Customer Satisfaction. She is a member of the Benefits Administration Committee and the Executive Safety Committee at NJNG. Kathy also chairs the Customer Service Committee of the NJ Utilities Association. 

Before joining NJNG, Kathy was Director of Customer Services at Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) where she worked for 19 years during which she held various leadership positions in Customer Services. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Villanova University and attended the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development. She resides in Howell, NJ with her two daughters. 

 

David Morse is Vice President of Performance and Workforce Management for NICE Americas. He has almost 15 years of experience in Fortune 500 customer service and sales operations as well as sales, marketing and customer service software companies.

 

Laurie has 28 years of insurance industry experience and is currently the Senior Vice President of Operations for Tower Group Companies, a provider of property casualty insurance products and services. She is responsible for service delivery including aspects of personal lines and commercial small business underwriting, billing and collections, premium audit, statistical reporting and technology user acceptance testing. She has extensive experience in acquisition integration and off-shoring of back office processes. Prior to joining Tower Group in 2003 she was Regional Operations Director of the Northeast for Kemper Insurance. Before Kemper, Laurie held management positions at Highlands Insurance Group, Inc. from 1996 until 2002, where she held the positions of Vice President, Claim Field Operations, and Vice President, Underwriting and Operations, responsible for a commercial small business service center. She began her insurance career with Aetna Life and Casualty and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Economics.

 

Suzanne Ronner is the Vice President of Global Customer Experience for The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., a global media company that creates and sells products and services in 21 languages in 78 countries and serves over 130 million customers globally through multiple channels, including 83 branded websites.  The flagship, Reader’s Digest, is joined by other brands such as Time Life, Taste of Home and The Family Handyman.  

Suzanne serves as primary customer advocate, and manages the development and introduction of customer policies that promote customer retention and loyalty, drive improvements in customer satisfaction and reflect key business priorities.  She oversees all customer contacts within their multi-site outsourced environment and is proficient in translating customer-centric initiatives to revenue, retention and bottom line enterprise growth.   

Prior to joining the Reader’s Digest, Suzanne worked for Kraft General Foods where she managed Consumer Affairs for the Maxwell House Coffee and Gevalia Kaffe Import Service divisions.  Additional business experiences include extensive customer care and management with The New York Times and several call center outsourcing providers.   

Suzanne speaks frequently at industry events and has published articles for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP).  Suzanne also serves on the Board of Directors for the New York metro chapter of the American Tele-servicing Association (ATA).

 

Ed Shepherdson serves as Coveo's Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions. Mr. Shepherdson brings 30 years of experience in the technology industry to his role with Coveo. Prior to joining Coveo, he spent 18 years at Cognos, now an IBM company, where he most recently served as Vice President of Global Customer Support. While at Cognos, Mr. Shepherdson also held a variety of senior positions in the company’s Research and Development and Applications Development teams. Mr. Shepherdson has also served as an Advisory Board member in several industry associations, including the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA).  Mr. Shepherdson holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership and completed the Ivey Executive Program at the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University.

 

Kishore Siva is currently Senior Vice President & Head of Customer Connection, HSBC USA's program to enhance the Customer Experience across all areas of the organization. Kishore joined HSBC in 1996, and has held a number of roles in Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, and Retail Banking. Prior to his current role, Kishore was Senior Vice President & District Executive, leading the bank's 41 branches and 400+ employees in the Long Island market. In addition, Kishore was selected to participate in the first class of HSBC's Next Generation Development Program, a global initiative for high potential executives, which allowed him to participate in projects spanning 4 continents.

In 2009, Kishore was recognized by the Long Island Business News as one of Long Island's "40 under 40" Business Leaders. Kishore also serves on the Board of Virtual Enterprises International, a non-profit organization which provides entrpreneurship opportunity and business experience for high school students around the world. In 2011, he was honored by VEI with their Crystal Leadership Award for his efforts with this organization.

Born in Sri Lanka, Kishore and his family emigrated to the US before his first birthday. While obtaining his MBA at George Washington University in Washington DC, Kishore spent a year as a White House Intern. Kishore lives in Westchester County, New York with his wife and 3 year old son.

 

Vicky Stennes is Vice President, Inflight Experience at JetBlue Airways based in New York City. Vicky is responsible for in-flight service throughout the airline’s system, with the primary goal of maintaining the highest level of customer service standards while delivering the JetBlue experience at altitude. An industry veteran with over 35 years of aviation experience, she has a passion for serving crewmembers who serve customers. JetBlue is the proud recipient of the JD Powers and Associate Award for 2005 through 2011 – achieving the highest satisfaction ranking for Inflight Service among all North American carriers. 

 

In 1999, Lee Valentini opened Amica Mutual’s first contact center with a staff of six.  Prior to his role as Director of Voice and Service Center Operations, he worked for Amica in its Claims Executive Department where he served as both a property and casualty examiner.    

In his current role, Lee is responsible for oversight of Amica Mutual’s three contact centers (Lincoln RI with a staff of 170, Spokane, WA which staffs 80 and Indianapolis, IN with a staff of 30).  In addition, in 2008 Lee brought Amica’s Voice Operations team under the Service Center umbrella in order to manage the corporate vision of call routing throughout Amica’s 40 countrywide locations.  Lee and his Voice Ops team have been responsible for Amica’s transition to a VoIP telephony platform, overall design of its telephony topology and management of the customer experience with respect to customer interaction through various delivery channels.   Through use of a single ACD which distributes calls countrywide to an agent population of 2000, Amica has been able to redefine how they utilize staff in multiple locations to simultaneously handle routine customer contact and catastrophe calls.  During Hurricane Irene in 2011, Amica answered 3000 catastrophe First Notice of Loss calls within 24 hours with < 0.01% abandon rate and a 99/20 service level while concurrently handling its normal call volume from those customers unaffected by the storm.  In coordination with its recently rolled out “Electronic Claim File” (the ECF project code named Every Customer First), Amica has been able to shift calls and work (rather than staff) throughout the enterprise, resulting in maintained staff retention without associated individual location staffing shortages or overages.  Through the use of a real time chat feature, Service Center personnel provide customers with an alternative communication channel to the traditional voice, fax and e-mail offerings.  

Lee attended Wake Forest University where he earned English and Political Science degrees.  He has been awarded the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation along with Continuing Professional Development, Associate in Management, Associate in Claims, and Certificate in General Insurance professional designations.  He has earned a Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma certificate through Villanova University and is currently enrolled in the Master Certificate in Six Sigma program.