Joe Bannon

Joe Bannon works in Strategy for AutoTrader Group, the parent company for AutoTrader.com and Kelly Blue Book.  His previous role was as Consumer Services Program Director at AutoTrader.com, and Joe is also a 30 year veteran of the advertising and media industry. Joe has been at AutoTrader.com since January 2003. Prior to his roles in Strategy and Consumer Services, Joe’s assignments included Director of Strategic Planning and Sales Operations, Director of Operations and Classified Advertising Director. He has been a member of AutoTrader.com’s Innovation Garage Council and Social Media Strategy team since their inception, helping ATC foster innovation and participation in the social web. Joe holds an MBA and a B.S. in Advertising from the University of Florida. He and his wife Jennifer reside in the in-town Atlanta community of Morningside with their daughter Sara (16) and son Jackson (14). In his free time, Joe enjoys playing bass and guitar in the AutoTrader band RoadKill, volunteering with ATC's Community Relations team and the Cox Enterprises/Chamblee High School Mentoring Program and enjoying life inside the perimeter.

Gerry  Barber

Gerry is a twenty-five year veteran of the call center industry. He is currently the Call Center Leader for Deloitte Services, LP internal call center. Gerry’s responsible for the strategic delivery of support services to Deloitte U.S. Firms 45,000 employee base. Support services include HR benefits and technology support with call centers located in Hermitage, Tennessee, Hyderabad, India and Los Angeles, California. Throughout his career, Gerry has attained operational success through blending the right technology with people, work processes and performance management techniques. Gerry has engaged in award winning start ups, growth expansions and re-engineering projects. Gerry’s experience in contact management leadership spans single and multi-site call centers, both large and small with experience in sales, service and support oriented applications. Gerry has lead call center management teams in financial services, healthcare, direct consumer retail, business-to-business supply distribution and tech support.  Gerry has served as a guest speaker at numerous contact center industry conferences and has contributed many articles and writings to contact center industry publications. Gerry is a founding member of the Call Center Industry Advisory Council (CIAC), where he served as a corporate officer and Secretary/Treasurer for nine years. Gerry currently serves on the board of advisors for the International Customer Management Institute’s (ICMI) conference programs. In addition, Gerry is VP. of Programs for the Music City Help Desk International (HDI) chapter.

Lori  Bocklund

Lori is a widely recognized and respected expert with 25 years of experience in contact center strategy, technology and operations. She brings her thoughtful and insightful expertise to each client engagement, creating project approaches that serve client needs and solve real business challenges. Representative engagements include:

- Developing contact center and technology strategies to address business objectives
- Leading clients through projects that include process change, organizational redesign, change management, and technology acquisition and implementation
- Building contact centers from the ground up to support new companies or new business initiatives
- Assessing existing operations and technology environments against best practices and developing actionable recommendations
- Developing requirements and helping clients select and implement the best technologies to meet their needs
- Serving as an expert witness in patent lawsuits in the contact center technology industry

Lori has also co-authored the highly applauded book, Call Center Technology Demystified, along with many papers, toolkits, and seminars. She's a frequent columnist and contributor in industry publications and has presented at conferences around the globe.

Lori received her BSEE from South Dakota State University, and her MSEE from George Washington University. She also holds certification in Change Management with Prosci.

Melinda Butterfield

Melinda Butterfield is the Vice President of Operations at  BerylHealth, a technology-enhanced patient experience services company serving over 500 hospitals and health systems nationwide. With more than 20 years of experience in contact center operations, project and vendor management as well as strategic contact center planning, Lindy’s experience and knowledge has been a key in the shaping of BerylHealth’s unique product delivery philosophy. Inside of BerylHealth’s nationally recognized workplace, Lindy provides strategic oversight for the contact center operations, customer service and quality, recruitment and training of managerial staff. An avid philanthropist, Lindy has been recognized for her volunteer efforts for the United Way and the March of Dimes and was a recipient of the Presidential Volunteer Award, Chairman’s Leadership Award and YMCA Women of Business Award.

Brad Cleveland

Brad Cleveland is known globally as one of today’s foremost experts in customer strategy and management. He has worked across 45 states and in over 60 countries, and his clients have included many service leaders — American Express, Apple, Coca-Cola, USAA, HP and others. Brad’s books and articles have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he has appeared in media ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the in- flight programs of several airlines. Brad is author of Call Center Management on Fast Forward (see new edition, 2012: www.icmi.com/fastforward), which won an amazon.com best-selling award. He is a sought-after consultant and a popular speaker who presents with "sparkle, insight and humor."

Larry Eiser

Larry Eiser is Managing Principal of Contact Center Insights, LLC, specializing in strategic and operational contact center consulting across all industries. Larry has over ten years of experience as a strategic and operational leader in the contact center industry. Most recently, Larry has served as Vice President of Call Center Operations for Duke Energy, which finished as a semi-finalist in ICMI’s 2008 Call Center of the Year awards. Prior to the Duke / Cinergy merger, Larry served as General Manager, Customer Contact Services for Cinergy, winner of the NSDI Teleperformance Grand Prix Customer Service award and were certified for excellence by J.D. Power. Larry was recognized by ICMI as the Global Call Center Manager of the Year in 2003 and is ICMI-Certified as a Call Center Strategic Leader. Larry has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Dayton and held a number of positions in the information technology arena.

John  Fitzpatrick

John Fitzpatrick is a Director in USAA’s Member Experience contact centers.  He has been with USAA since 2001,and during that time he has led call center teams that service bank deposits, credit cards, auto loans, and home equity loans.  He has also led mortgage, equity, auto loan, and insurance sales teams.  He has also been a key contributor in the development of USAA’s coaching and call quality programs.

Prior to USAA, Mr. Fitzpatrick led call center and fraud operations teams at American Express in Phoenix, AZ.

Vickie Friece

Vickie Friece has 30 years of Financial Services experience, with more than 10 years specializing in Contact Center management, training, and quality assurance.  She is currently a Vice President with Zions Bancorporation’s Client Contact Services, where she leads Contact Center Training and Quality Assurance.  In addition, she manages 50 team members at one Contact Center site. 

Vickie works with her peers in the Contact Center, developing strategy and goals and determining appropriate methods of measuring, engaging, and developing representatives with a laser focus on “saving the world from poor customer service.”  An innovative new program of new hire training and onboarding was recently implemented under her direction, as a key step toward that goal.

Prior to joining Zions, Vickie spent 19 years in the mutual fund industry, where she managed operations and services departments. She holds several Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) licenses and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Management, and Political Science.

John Goodman

John Goodman received a B.S. in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. His book, Strategic Customer Service, was published by the American Management Association in April 2009. Mr. Goodman cofounded TARP in 1971. He has managed more than 600 separate customer service studies, including TARP's White House sponsored evaluation of complaint handling practices in government and business; studies of word of mouth and the bottom-line impact of consumer education sponsored by Coca-Cola USA; Business Week credits him with instigating creation of the GE Answer Center and the use of toll free telephone and web self service systems by hundreds of major corporations. In addition, he has developed frameworks for building and assessing Voice of the Customer processes in B2B and B2C environments. He has taught service quality and service reengineering courses at Wharton Business School's executive education program. He has appeared on “Good Morning America”, the ABC Evening News, and as a panelist on PBS.

Dan Hammelman

Dan Hammelman is Vice President of Operations for NOVO 1 headquartered in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX with contact centers in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Montana.  As Vice President, Dan coaches his team to exceed client expectations by driving optimal utilization and maximizing efficiencies across the multiple sites. 
 
Prior to NOVO 1 he worked for ADP Inc leading their BPO Employee Service Center operations in 5 domestic and 2 international locations. His focus on standardization, process redesign and continuous improvement resulted in both enhanced efficiencies and improved quality. He has held senior leadership positions with State Farm Insurance Companies and The Minnesota Department of Revenue.  Dan has experience in service integrations and mergers/acquisitions.  He has implemented many forward thinking processes and programs to support an "Employer of Choice" culture. 

A native of Grinnell, Iowa, he attended the University of Northern Iowa where he earned his BA in Management – Business Administration. Dan currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI).

Todd Hixson

Todd Hixson is the Care Operations Resource Planning Manager for Intuit’s Payment Solutions and Employee Management Solutions Divisions.

The Payment Solutions Division provides innovative and creative payment solutions while the Employee Management Solutions Division the small business payroll leader with over 1 million customers. Todd has been in contact center operations/management for 13 years, working for Travelocity prior to joining Intuit. He has been an out-sourcer, and in-sourcer and an us-sourcer with a belief in efficiencies realized using creative scheduling, performance based “right for me” shift bidding, and pushing limits with optimization that keeps an eye on delighted customers and engaged employees. During Todd’s career, he has driven back-office utilization of work force management practice, multiple channel skill based operations practices, and cross functional understanding via “a day in the life of operations” workshops. Prior to the contact center, Todd had a successful career in the entertainment world, first as a professional musician, and then as a business owner facilitating and scheduling labor for events such as the NBA All-Star game and arena-type rock concerts.

Marilyn Saulnier

Marilyn Saulnier is the Principal Consultant at Interactive Intelligence with over 25 years of experience working with organizations to improve their contact center efficiency and quality of service by implementing proven methodologies and effective processes. She has also worked with companies on recognizing the contact center’s value to the overall mission and designing strategies to maximize the center’s contribution across the enterprise.  Marilyn has consulted with clients across a broad range of industries including financial services and insurance. Prior to Interactive Intelligence, Marilyn was a Senior Consultant for over ten years with Service Agility, International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and Alltel Information Services, Global Professional Services. Marilyn’s corporate experience includes leadership positions at Potpourri Collection and Chadwick’s of Boston, and Eastern Airlines.

Joan Scazzaro

Joan is currently the Corporate Senior Director of Care Operations at Bright House Networks (BHN).  BHN is a multi-service provider of cable, internet and phone service in several regional markets.  Joan is responsible for providing support for a network of 12 internal call centers and 3 outsource vendors.  This support includes workforce management, reporting and analysis, vendor management, CARE quality program, quality assurance audit, social media support and customer escalation support.

Prior to joining BHN, Joan was the Outsource Manager for North America for Nokia mobile phones and provided vendor support for the in-house outsource vendor that handled all U.S. and Canadian calls related to Nokia mobile phone products. Prior to her time at Nokia, Joan worked for Capital One Financial Services as a Senior Contact Center Manager. She supported several teams of inbound customer service representatives and was also involved in several outsourcing projects including the first vendor program in India and subsequent outsource launches in Canada and the Philippines.

Joan has a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and a Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts from the University of South Florida. She has training in both Six Sigma and Project Management.

Sarah Stealey Reed

Sarah Stealey Reed is the Content Director at the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and is a member of the ICMI Advisory Board. She has over 18 years of global expertise in the areas of operations, offshore outsourcing, customer experience, and contact center management. She is an influential strategic leader who has built contact centers from the ground-up, fiscally managed them to support growth, and acted as a turn-around specialist for struggling metrics and employees. Her expertise is in building the operational baseline, while improving and maintaining an exceptional level of customer satisfaction. A consistent and amazing customer experience regardless of location, language, tenure, or channel is her mantra.

As the Content Director for ICMI, Sarah is responsible for the editorial content and community strategy for icmi.com. She’s a writer, blogger, and social poster, and often speaks on Customer Support and Emerging Channels at national events and through online webinars.

Sarah can be reached, followed, liked, or shared through:

Twitter: @sstealey

Email: sstealey@icmi.com

LinkedIn

Missy Zacks

Missy Zacks is the Head of Operations, Americas  for GTA Travel, a global multi-channel travel company focused on hotels and travel services with 26 offices in EMEA, APAC and the Americas.  Missy is responsible for Operations and Customer Support for the North America Sales Division.  Her primary focus is GTA NA Operations, overseeing the Customer Contact Center, Training and Development, Customer Relationship Methodology, and Technical Support.

Missy’s valuable contribution to implementing the GTA short and long term strategy has been her relentless effort to always identify the balance between the customer, the employee and the business. This trio has been the key driver in her operatrional execellence programs and in the development of employees through training and recognition programs. This approach has proved successful for the organization as sales has tripled while less resources are utilized and customer satisfaction continuously improves.

Missy has 20 years of professional experience and leadership in the travel and customer service industries.  During her career, she held several senior-level positions in the areas of Customer Service and Operations. Missy is led by her passion to deliver the highest standard of service by assessing work streams and providing solutions to enhance effeciency.