ICMI Certified Associates

Brad Cleveland

Brad Cleveland is often cited as one of the world's foremost leaders and thinkers in customer service and contact centers. He has worked in 45 states and over 60 countries, and his clients have included many of today’s service leaders – Apple, HP, American Express, and others.  He’s also advised governments in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. 

Brad is author/editor of eight books, including Call Center Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in Today’s Dynamic Customer Contact Environment, which won an Amazon.com best-selling award and is used in universities and corporate training programs around the world.  He has discussed customer service issues in publications ranging from The Financial Times to The Wall Street Journal, as well as on major television networks, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the in-flight programs of several airlines. 

One of the initial partners in and former President and CEO of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), Brad grew the firm into a global industry leader that is now part of United Business Media (London: UBM.L).  He now serves as a Senior Advisor to ICMI, and is an in-demand author, speaker and consultant.  His current research is focused on the future of customer service.

Linda Riggs

lriggs@icmi.com

Linda Riggs is the Strategic Training Director for ICMI. She has over 25 years of experience in contact center management, training, development and instructional design. Her focus is on Learning and Development in the contact center environment, ICMI content, industry certification and international partnership programs.

Linda began her career as a call center agent and worked her way up to a Director level for a 2000 seat call center in the financial services industry. She later moved into Contact Center Learning and Development, and has since worked in call centers within the vertical industries of technical support, government, banking, insurance, finance and healthcare.

When delivering training, she has an uncanny ability to reach audiences of all levels of learning, regardless of their experience or position within the contact center, Linda’s energy and enthusiasm endears her to her students and promotes an environment conducive to learning and retention.  

Linda holds a bachelor's degree and is a U.S. Navy veteran. She is a member of the American Society for Training and Development, and is a certified DISC behavioral styles trainer. She has written several articles for industry publications and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

Rose Polchin

rpolchin@icmi.com

Rose is a Senior Consultant for ICMI. She brings over 20 years of call center experience including, five years as an independent consultant and 15 years of hands-on call center leadership roles in the financial services and health care industries. During her tenure as Senior Director of Customer Service Strategies for one of the country’s largest health care laboratory services, her leadership was instrumental in creating and implementing a common vision, mission, strategy and processes across the company’s multi-site contact center network. The results included standardized and improved: call handling processes, key performance indicators, quality and coaching standards, technology, recruiting and hiring practices, training programs and establishing the contact centers as strategic assets for the business.

Rose now continues her commitment to excellence in customer service through her delivery of all four of ICMI in-person seminars, multiple web-based seminars and by partnering with customers on key projects. Customers and attendees of her seminars praise her energy, knowledge and dedication to assisting individuals and contact centers in meeting/exceeding objectives and creating value for their respective organizations and its customers.

Rose is a member of the International Customer Service Association and the American Society of Training and Development. She is a popular speaker at industry seminars and conferences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and regularly authors articles on key industry topics for Call Center Management Review and other industry publications. While attending Rutgers University, Rose studied Management and subsequently graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Business Management from William Paterson University. Additionally, she completed post-graduate work in customer-driven marketing at Cornell University.

Jean Bave-Kerwin

jkerwin@icmi.com

Jean Bave Kerwin is a consultant and trainer with extensive experience in customer service management, leadership development, project management and human resources management. As a senior level executive, she was responsible for directing the activities of six call centers, as well as having responsibilities for a production and fulfillment operation; she specialized in successfully leading large, complex projects with high potential for political volatility from development through implementation. As internal contact center consultant to one of the largest organizations in the world, she worked with other contact center leaders to help them implement new centers, processes and measurement systems.

Jean has experience in strategy development, process improvement, and leadership development. She has a special interest in the effects of systems on the people who work within them, and of measurement systems on organizational behavior. Her consulting firm, JBK Consulting, specializes in working with not-for-profit, government and educational institutions to improve their customer service processes.

Jean is a Certified Associate of ICMI, a CIAC-Certified Call Center Management Consultant, and a COPC-Certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt. She has been founding president of the New York State Call Center Managers’ Association, is past president of the Capital District Chapter of the International Customer Service Association, and past Vice President of the Consulting Alliance.

Ann Gray

agray@icmi.com

Considered an industry expert, Ann Gray is the Lead Consultant and founder of Gray and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in customer experience planning and actualization. Gray and Associates helps organizations define and deliver on their customer experience strategy and to consistently and effectively deliver on their brand promise. Their clients range from Fortune 100 companies to small start-up organizations and represent a variety of industries including insurance, financial, technology, and consumer products.

Ann is a committed contact center consultant, speaker, and seminar leader.  She brings an exciting and effective combination of passion, experience, knowledge and energy to every engagement. For over fourteen years she has worked with centers in the areas of strategic planning, operations management, and performance maximization. She has worked throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

Ann is a Certified Associate of ICMI.  She holds a BAS in Business Administration from Dallas Baptist University.

Laura Grimes

lgrimes@icmi.com

Laura is CEO of Harrington Consulting Group Inc. She is an experienced consultant with over 20 years of successful business planning, project management, traffic engineering and resource management. Laura draws on her dynamic and innovative background in service and manufacturing operations with high-growth industry leaders. She has developed unique operational solutions for companies facing the challenges of managing multiple skills in multiple centers spanning the globe, including site selection and facility design. She is deft at developing customer relationship strategies and drilling those strategies down to operational plans.

Laura, a frequent speaker at conferences, enjoys sharing her passion for customer service and exploring alternative and innovative ways to efficiently and effectively gain loyalty and retain customers. She has taught and lectured at several universities, and has published many articles on different facets of call center management including strategy development, deployment of resources, motivation of associates and forecasting and scheduling.

Laura is a CIAC Certified Call Center Management Consultant. She earned her master degree in business administration.

Cheryl Helm

chelm@icmi.com

Cheryl is a contact centre / telecommunications consultant and educational instructor. She has been involved in these two areas for over 21 years. Her career began in England as a technical instructor of contact centre technologies developed by Nortel. Cheryl has worked with and instructed clients all over Europe, Australia, Japan, the Caribbean, US and Canada. She brings a wealth of experience to her clients as a result of the broad range of businesses with which she worked - insurance, health care, airlines, hotels, automobile associations, software developers, helpdesks, manufacturers, telephony and mobility, utilities both gas and hydro (electric), along with governmental agencies. To develop a well-rounded and in-depth perspective of contact centres, Cheryl teamed up with ICMI in 1998 and has instructed courses, web seminars and engaged in consulting projects with ICMI.

Cheryl’s specialty is with customer contact / call flow design ensuring the design meets the customer and business needs, along with the statistical requirements. Translating those requirements into workable solutions is her forte. She has a proven ability to provide interpretation of statistics for clients from the ACD, work force management and IVR systems. Cheryl analyzes and distils that information to meet contact centre management and C level requirements. She has the ability to trouble shoot issues and find solutions.

Gina Szabo

gszabo@icmi.com

Gina Szabo is a Certified Associate of ICMI and President of Szabo Marketing International, a company dedicated to building and improving contact center performance globally.  She has over 25 years of progression customer contact management, training and consulting experience in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, China, Costa Rica, New Zealand and Australia.

Specializing in contact center performance improvement, Gina has been establishing and implementing organizational change, people development programs and business process improvements resulting in efficient, state-of-the-art customer contact operations. Her hands-on experience with small, medium and large enterprises has equipped Gina with proven models of success for contact center recruitment, training, workforce and campaign management, sales and service, monitoring, coaching, communications, bonus and incentive programs and reporting.

Gina is a committed professional who brings high energy, focus and positive outcomes to all her clients.  Her natural collaborative style coupled with outstanding communication skills allows for effortless skills transfer.

Lori Bocklund

Lori Bocklund is President of Strategic Contact, an independent consulting firm focused on helping companies optimize the strategic value of their customer contact technology and operations. Strategic Contact helps companies succeed through projects that develop and execute plans tied to business goals, such as VoIP migration planning, outsourcing evaluations, and technology strategies. Strategic Contact partners with ICMI on consulting projects and technology education.

Lori is a recognized industry leader in contact center strategy, technology, and operations. During her 19 years in the call center industry, 13 of them as a consultant, she has acquired an understanding of a broad spectrum of systems, applications, and operational environments. Lori works in the trenches with clients on consulting projects, and brings that experience to every seminar she delivers.

Lori is a sought-after speaker for industry events, and writes articles on technology and operations for a variety of call center publications. Lori has presented seminars and tutorials to thousands of call center professionals in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland. Lori is co-author of Call Center Technology Demystified (published by ICMI Press). Attendees of Lori's courses appreciate her enthusiasm, energy, and humor. She has a great ability to use her technical and industry knowledge, along with her excellent communication skills, to make today's complex technology environment more readily understood.

Lori has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from The George Washington University.