Introducing ICMI’s Featured Contributors of 2023

Each year, we put out a call to contact center industry professionals to see who would like to contribute to our blog and add to the collective knowledge of the industry. These individuals (below) have each agreed to contribute at least six blogposts a year for our readers. Please click on their professional links and drop them a line to say thanks!

Sayo Afolayan

Customer Service and Contact Center Consultant

Sayo specializes in strategic management and implementation within the financial, fin-tech, and technology industries. She is obsessed with visualizing the customer journey and ensuring customer success.

Bob Azman

Chief Customer Service Experience Officer & Consultant, Innovative CX Solutions

Bob is a certified customer experience professional with a wealth of diverse experience in global operations and leadership. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management’s Supply Chain and Operations Management department and at the Rutgers University School of Business Executive Education programs.

Vicki Brackett

Senior Vice President - Partner Success, livepro

Recognized as a subject-matter expert on virtual/work-at-home environments and leadership development, Vicki has written for and been interviewed by Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune Magazine, CFO Magazine, CEOWorld, HR News, Training Magazine, and a host of other publications, news outlets, and podcasts on creative work-at-home and employee engagement strategies.

Nate Brown

Senior Director of CX at Arise, Co-Founder of CX Accelerator

Nate is a perpetual student of the world’s greatest experiences and the people who create them. After authoring The CX Primer, Brown was dubbed the “CX Influencer of the Year” by CloudCherry in 2019, and a top global CX thought leader by ICMI, Exceeders, Netomi, Martech and many more.

Richard Bucci

Founder and Chief Analyst, Pelorus Associates LLP

Richard has served as a contact center industry analyst for two decades. During this time, he has authored 19 comprehensive market research reports, coauthored two books, and published dozens of white papers and blog posts. His articles and blog posts have appeared in Contact Center Pipeline, CRM Magazine, CRM’s “Expert Advice” blog, and various ICMI publications.

Brad Cleveland

ICMI co-founder, author, speaker and consultant

A sought-after consultant and speaker, Brad has worked in 45 states and over 60 countries, and his clients have included many of today’s service leaders—Apple, American Express, USAA, the University of California, and others. He’s also advised governments in the United States, Australia, and Canada.

Jarrod Davis

Product Marketing Manager, Cognigy

Jarrod is an all-round marketer with a focus on helping European companies expand in English-speaking markets. His goal in life is to be able to talk to multiple people in support without having to repeat himself.

Rob Dwyer

Vice President of Customer Engagement, Happitu

For over a decade, Rob has successfully trained, coached, and developed agents and contact center leaders throughout the world to provide superior customer service and increase agent retention rates. He is also the host of Next in Queue, a podcast about people in the Contact Center and CX industries.

Gwen Foster Oglesby

Independent Consultant, First Impression Business Solutions

Gwen is a customer service enthusiast, motivator, and author, with twenty years of experience managing call center teams of various Fortune 500 companies. She is the author of the book, Call Center: A Focus on Customer Service, which explores the various factors that negatively impact customer service and one’s personal brand.

Cheryl Gregware

Associate Vice President, ChoiceOne Bank

Cheryl has been in the banking business for 20+ years, and has served six of those years in management of a call center. She has been a presenter at ICMI Contact Center Expo, and relishes sharing her knowledge and learning from others.

Kate Leggett

VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Kate is a leading expert on customer relationship management (CRM) and customer service strategies, maturity, benchmarking, governance, and ROI. She has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine, CRM Magazine, KM World, and Destination CRM.

Cynthia Long

Sr. Leader, Center of Excellence (Business Process Re-Engineering) Continuous Improvement, Intuit

Cynthia is an award-winning continuous improvement leader and strategist. Over the last 20 years, her passion for Lean Six Sigma has led her to create, innovate, and be a revolutionary leader for continuous improvement. She has been a presenter at many professional locations throughout the U.S., on many different topics.

Sharon Melamed

Managing Director, Matchboard

Sharon Melamed is an entrepreneur and Founder of Matchboard, a multi award-winning business matchmaking platform specialising in contact centers. Having started her career as a Japanese-speaking call center agent, Sharon progressed to leadership roles in the BPO (business process outsourcing) world, and has worked in 5 countries. She has been named Suncorp Innovator of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year in the ARN Women in ICT Awards.

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Leslie O’Flahavan

Owner, E-Write

Leslie delivers customized writing courses for frontline agents, social media managers, and contact center managers. She helps contact centers train agents to write well, measure the quality of their writing, and rewrite their template libraries. She's a LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) trainer and is also the author of Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.

Bill Price

President, Driva Solutions

Having once been Amazon’s first worldwide vice president of customer ervice, Bill has since co-authored three books, advised more than 160 companies, been a CustomerThink Advisor and columnist, and formed and now chairs the 30-company Global Operations Council.

Justin Robbins

CX Evangelist, UJET

Justin is an analyst, consultant, and keynote speaker who helps contact center and customer experience leaders feel greater confidence in leading their teams to success. He has developed industry training and certification programs, authored research reports and how-to guides, led strategic consulting engagements, and contributed his insights to mainstream media outlets around the globe.

Krista Scott

VP, Member Services, Pure Flix

Krista has over 25 years of experience directing contact centers and has held numerous positions that include Training and Managing at every level. Overall, her passion is to provide exceptional service through multiple channels while leading an engaged and well developed team.

Angie Sotreanu

Global Project Manager

Angie has more than 15 years of experience in customer service and care. She leads cross-functional projects to develop critical contact center expertise, like operational and strategic knowledge management, communication and engagement topics, as well as performance management and quality and competency building. 

Holly Terrill

Director of Member Support Services, Contact Center, Meritrust Credit Union

Holly [she/they] has over 20 years of combined customer service, financial institution, and contact center experience. Holly is a credit union advocate (and comic book enthusiast) with a passion for her people. Their contagious positive energy creates an environment where employees are empowered to grow and thrive.