ICMI has selected only the best instructors in the industry to deliver our course offerings. These instructors are well known for their experience in our industry and their ability to deliver a quality course experience. To learn more about a ICMI Faculty member, click their name or photo below.
Brad is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on call center management and customer services. He is a passionate advocate of customer contact services that deliver higher returns to organizations and better experiences to customers. His enthusiasm and leadership set the standards for success that drive the entire organization. An engaging speaker and sought-after consultant, he has now worked across 40 states and in over 50 countries. His clients have included small startups, national governments, and multinational corporations.
Brad’s articles have been featured in a wide variety of professional journals, and he has appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, as well as on major television networks and the in-flight programs of several airlines. He is author of ICMI's Call Center Management Dictionary and Call Center Management on Fast Forward (which won an Amazon.com best-selling award), and co-editor of ICMI handbook/study guide series on call center management.
Brad adamantly believes that, as information and communications capabilities proliferate and dramatically change our world, the contact center industry stands poised at a critical, exciting juncture. He has been recognized as an industry trail-blazer by Call Center Magazine (as a recipient of its Pioneer and Hall of Fame awards), and was nominated for a ComputerWorld Smithsonian 21st Century Pioneering award. He has also received honorary membership in a number of call center management associations around the world.
Brent Haferkamp is a Senior Consultant for International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) providing strategic and tactical consulting for organizations in a variety of industries. During 2008, Brent has performed a number of call center assessment assignments, as well as two mid-term Executive Replacement (Director) assignments.
Prior to joining IMCI, Brent was a Senior Manager overseeing the workforce and technical operations of a large passenger transportation company with 24/7/365 operations and annual call volumes in excess of 24 million. Prior to that, Brent was a Workforce Manager for a large international call center outsourcer, supporting up to 20 programs at any given time. Brent graduated from Parks College of St. Louis University with a degree in Aerospace Science. He is a former U.S. Air Force Pilot and veteran of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. In his spare time, he writes and develops Visual Basic call center tools and is very active on a number contact center related web forums.
As a Senior Consultant, Susan brings over 20 years call center operations experience to ICMI. Her background includes domestic and international consulting as well as many years in call center leadership roles. Serving in these roles has allowed Susan to gain a broad perspective of call center management and operations as well as hands-on practical experience.
Prior to joining ICMI, she worked in a wide range of industries, organizations and environments providing strategic guidance and solutions to facilitate and achieve business results. Over the course of her career, she held a senior level position with an international management consulting firm focused on call center optimization and behavioral analytics, had her own customer care and training consulting firm and held management positions in call center operations for corporations such as T. Rowe Price Mutual Funds and Ralston Purina.
Susan strengths include call center strategy development, training and facilitation, operational and organizational planning, project design and management, people performance and development, and customer relationship methodology.
Susan graduated from the University of Delaware and now lives in the Midwest.
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.
Linda Riggs is the Director of Training and Certification for ICMI. She has over 20 years of experience in management, training, development and instructional design in contact and technical support centers, both large and small.
She has worked with centers in the fields of banking, finance, insurance, internet, healthcare, military, news, retail, travel and utilities.
With 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.
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.
If you have any questions about ICMI’s training, please feel free to contact her at 443.402.0605.
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.
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.
As President of Touchpoint Associates, Inc., Bob Furniss works with organizations to increase productivity and profits by bringing out the best in their people. Beginning as an agent more than 25 years ago, he understands call centers from the inside out. He has consulted in the areas of leadership and service with some of the top companies in America—FedEx, Corporate Express, DePaul University, Delta Airlines, Hanley Wood and more.
Bob is a member of the National Speaker Association and is a featured speaker at many industry conferences, including ACCE, Call Center Demo, ICCM and CRM Solutions. His favorite topic focuses on building effective relational leaders.
Touchpoint’s consulting programs are based on building long-term, sustainable results. Their programs help companies develop actionable strategic roadmaps that allow them to improve employee culture and implement effective customer-centric processes. Bob’s new book, co-authored with long-term friend and colleague Scott Thomas, Ideas At Work—Powerful Ideas to Transform Your Contact Center has become a top-seller in the call center industry.
Prior to founding Touchpoint, Bob’s career included leading the contact center consulting group at iXL/Scient, serving as Senior Consultant for ALLTEL’s Contact Center Solutions Group, and directing BellSouth Mobility's regional customer service contact center (winner of the prestigious ACCE-Award for Call Center Excellence). He also contributes to several industry publications—including Call Center Magazine, Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine, CRM Buyer, 1to1 Magazine and CRM Magazine.
Rebecca Gibson is an ICMI Certified Associate and founder of Learning Currents. She is a “people management” expert who spends her time and her energy in educational seminars and consulting projects communicating to managers their ability to markedly impact agents’ attitudes and their performance. Monitoring, coaching and feedback, agent motivation and supervisory training are just a few of the issues Rebecca feels most passionately about. She thinks the call center is the most exciting place to be in any organization, and the point of interaction between our customers and our agents is the most exciting place to be in the call center.
During Rebecca‘s tenure with one of the U.S’ largest outsourcers, she consulted with clients in the pharmaceutical, insurance, healthcare, financial services and high-tech industries on issues surrounding best practice hiring strategies, results-driven quality monitoring and coaching programs and high-impact agent motivation and incentives. Years in human resources and recruiting, curriculum development and training, and program management provided her with a well-rounded perspective of the issues that call center managers face and the people management strategies that best address those issues.
Rebecca is a CIAC-certified call center consultant and is working towards a Master’s Degree in Instructional Development at the University of Maryland.
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 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.
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 20 years of progressive customer contact management, training and consulting experience in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, 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 communications skills allows for effortless skills transfer.