Advisory Board

Jo'Ann Alderson
Founder
Progressive Communications

Tripp Babbitt
President
Bryce Harrison, Inc.

John Cushman
Vice President Sales & Service
AT&T Business Direct

Edwin Derks
Marketing Performance Program Manager – Corporate Marketing Group
Intel

Eric Dodds
Community Chemist
BrainsOnFire

Alex Grech
Social Media Strategist
Strategy Works

Carol Kurimsky
Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing
PC Mall

David Lee
Principal
HumanNature@Work

Rick Mans
Head of Social Media
Capgemini

Derek Martin
Director of Relationship Care
American Express

Joakim Nilsson
Head of Social Media
BetClic Everest Group

Mitchell Osak
Principal
Quanta Consulting

Jill Ouellette
Business Development Director, Global Consumer Services
The LEGO Company

Barbara Porter
Vice President, Business Development & Customer Service
Nicor National

Steve Riddell
Chief Operations Officer
Blinds.com

Lisa Schulman
Sector Leader and Director of Product Development
IQPC

Tyson Snow
Partner
Mumford, West & Snow

Scott Swift
Vice President, Customer Information
Hunter Douglas

Mike Wittenstein
Customer Experience Design Specialist

 

About our Advisors

Jo'Ann Alderson

In a world of send, reply and you've got mail, Jo'Ann Alderson is one of the few specialists in communicating in a faceless and a face-to-face world. Through her innovative work and hands-on approach her client have measurably exceeded their sales targets, attained the highest levels of customer satisfaction in their industry and reduced costs. On the Board of Governors and Patient Care Quality Committee of Mt. Sinai Hospital Alderson's professional career is enhanced with a Performers Certification from Trinity College, University of Toronto; studies with Second City; Certification in Leadership and Sales Effectiveness from Management Resource Group, Boston and The McQuaig Institute in Toronto. She is also a Professional Member of the Canadian Speakers' Association.

 
 

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Tripp Babbitt

Babbitt's background in continual improvement, Lean and Six Sigma with banks (Tier 1 to Tier 3), healthcare, government (federal and state) and many other industries has kept him looking for effective new methodologies for service. His encounter in 2005 with Vanguard started as an intellectual exchange and culminated in his partnership with them. He describes the partnership as "a better method to improvement and sustainability for service organizations through better thinking and not tools."

Babbitt writes a blog called, The No Tool Zone (blog.newsystemsthinking.com), he maintains a website
(www.newsystemsthinking.com) and is in the process of writing a book aimed at changing thinking for service organizations. He holds an MBA (University of Evansville and a BA from Hanover College). Babbitt can be reached at tripp@newsystemsthinking.com.

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John Cushman

John Cushman is a 25-year veteran in the information technology field. His background includes extensive sales, marketing and operations experiences that span a number of major defining points in the industry, including the Bell System divestiture, 800 Number Portability, the expansion to new toll-free area codes such as 888, 877 and 866, Payphone Compensation legislation, the AT&T trivestiture, and the explosive use of the World Wide Web for everyday business and information needs. For the past several years, Cushman has been leading the creation of a comprehensive vision, an execution strategy, and the day-to-day field operations for electronic sales and service, a channel that has grown to represent more than $1.5B in annual revenue and over $350M in productivity savings. As Vice President of eSales & Service, he is responsible for all aspects of B2B eCommerce for AT&T.
 

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Edwin Derks

Measuring marketing performance is Edwin’s passion and, luckily for him, a big part of his day job at Intel with the Marketing Excellence and Operations Team (EXO part of Corporate Marketing Group).

Today, Edwin is responsible for CMG’s Top-Tier Indicators – measuring progress to Intel’s worldwide marketing goals – and managing a ground-breaking MROI project to quantify and optimize Marketing’s contribution to Intel business success.

Since 2007, Edwin has focused his efforts on marketing metrics – first, to establish marketing performance measurement at Intel, then to help elevate Intel Marketing from “analytically impaired” to an “analytical group.”

Edwin started at Intel in 2001 as a Market Research Analyst and moved to Marketing Operations a few years thereafter.

Edwin holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics (Marketing Research/Economic Psychology; Tilburg University, The Netherlands) and an MBA in International Business (Santa Clara University).

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Eric Dodds

Eric works with the marketing pirates at Brains on Fire (www.brainsonfire.com). His study of marketing gave him a strong distaste for interruptive advertising, and he’s passionate about changing the marketing landscape for the better.

His evolution as a professional is a great story – which he’ll be happy to share with you over you beverage of choice – but it goes something like this: Eric started out at Brains on Fire as a Fearless Fact Finder and was an integral part of the Insight team. But now he’s what most would call a Community Manager – but he doesn’t. Eric has played an integral role in the insight, strategy, creation, and implementation of word-of-mouth movements for the likes Best Buy, Colonial Williamsburg and DoubleDay Publishing. But instead of “manage,” he works shoulder-to-shoulder with client’s employees and customers to fortify successful, long-term relationships between the two.

When he’s not working word-of-mouth (or writing for the Brains on Fire blog – www.brainsonfire.com/blog), you can probably find him mountain biking, hiking, or building something in his workshop.

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Alex Grech

Business strategist, management consultant and change agent with experience in some 18 countries world-wide. I'm increasingly immersed in developing social media strategies for corporates and NGOs. I'm also conducting PhD research on social media at the University of Hull.

My early corporate career in financial management provided me with a solid basis for the eventual shift to business strategy and change management. My industry expertise includes telecoms and ICT, public sector reform, tourism, education and online gaming. I've worked as an advisor to Government, multinationals and start-ups.

http://www.strategyworks.net/

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Carol Kurimsky

A classically trained technology marketing executive, Carol has over 25 years of top tier marketing experience. After graduating from the Kellogg School of Management, Carol worked at several premier marketing-driven companies including Procter and Gamble, Pizza Hut, and Quaker Oats. She moved into technology marketing over twelve years ago, working at Sage Software as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Ingram Micro as Vice President, Marketing North America. Carol joined PC Mall in 2009 as Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing.

Carol was selected by VAR Business Magazine as one of the top 50 most powerful women in the channel in both 2007 and 2008. She currently serves as the chair of the Orange County Marketing and Sales Executive Society within the Technology Council of Southern California and is also active as an executive mentor to executive MBA students at University of California-Irvine. Carol has a BS in Business from Indiana University

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David Lee

David Lee is the founder of HumanNature@Work and is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance and engagement.

He is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, as well as over 50 articles that have been published in trade journals and books in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Referred to as “one of the pioneers in the field of onboarding,” Lee is the author of one of the first industry white papers on this topic, titled "Successful Onboarding: Starting New Employees Off Right" and the creator of the audio program "All Aboard!" Secrets of Effective Onboarding.

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Rick Mans

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Derek Martin

Derek F Martin is Director of Relationship Care^SM for American Express World Services, responsible for customer engagement, sales, and retention for the global consumer telephone centers in 24 countries.  Prior to this role, Derek worked as a director in the American Express Service Network Strategy and Engineering team, responsible for the Platinum & Centurion Servicing strategy, managing the CAPEX investment portfolio decisions for the servicing business unit, and driving six sigma reengineering projects that delivered over $50MM in benefits.  Derek was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the American Teleservices Association, ATA.

Before Joining American Express, Derek was a VP of Strategic Sourcing with Broadlane, and a strategy consultant with Mitchell Madison Group.  Derek has traded coffee with Cargill in Peru and was a business volunteer with the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.  Derek holds his MBA from the University of Michigan and has a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do..

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Joakim Nilsson

Joakim Nilsson is the Head of Social Media at one of Europe’s largest online gaming groups. He has more than 6 years professional experience within the online gaming industry, with a background colored by customer service, affiliate marketing, website management and a whole lot of ‘starting things’.  He blogs at joakimnilsson.com.

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Mitchell Osak

Mitchell Osak is passionate about strategy and a keen observer of its implementation.  Mitchell speaks often on business topics and is a regular columnist for the National Post newspaper (Financial Post section). He is the Managing Director of Quanta Consulting Inc., a boutique management consultancy serving Fortune 1000 companies. Osak also teaches at the Schulich School of Business, Executive Education Centre, at York University in the areas of channel management, customer experience design and change management.

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Jill Ouellette

Responsible for operationalizing strategic initiatives including country expansion, new product support and social media programs from initial idea through to training and go-live.

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Barbara Porter

Barbara Porter is Vice President, Business Development & Customer Service, Nicor National. In this customer-centric role, she is responsible for a 250-agent Call Center, which serves the warranty, energy management, and HVAC needs of the company’s customers. Under her stewardship, the Call Center has been recognized by J.D. Power and Associates for providing “An Outstanding Customer Service Experience” five years in a row. In addition, the Call Center has been presented with CRM’s 2011 Service Elite Award.

In addition, Barbara oversees the performance of Nicor National’s Client Relations area, which ensures that the expectations of its utility partners are met, as well as leads business development initiatives that are designed to help the company realize its national expansion plans. Prior to joining Nicor National in 2005, Barbara served as President of IBT Services, a leading call center in the utility/energy industry, which she founded in 1991. When Nicor National acquired IBT in 2005, she was named General Manager, and subsequently promoted to her current position in 2008.

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Steve Riddell

Currently leads the Operations Teams for this successful online retailer and largest internet company in Houston.

Company has grown to $80 million revenue, including three acquisitions. Ranked #192 of all U.S e-commerce companies, #1 e-commerce company in Houston, and the world's #1 online retailer for blinds, shades, and other window coverings. Also see Blinds.com and Blinds.ca

Awarded 2010 Leader of the Year Award and Blinds.com won the AMA Marketer of the Year (2009), Call Center of the Year (2010), and 2011 #1 Best Places to Work Award for Companies between 100-500 employees by the Houston Business Journal. We have received this award two years in a row.

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Lisa Schulman

Lisa Schulman is the Sector Leader and Director of Product Development for the Customer Management and Marketing IQ Portfolio at the International Quality & Productivity Center (www.iqpc.com).

First joining IQPC in 1995, Schulman continues to build a strong portfolio of large-scale branded events, including: Call Center Week, Call Center Summit, Customer Feedback Week, Customer Experience Summit, Customer Loyalty/Retention and a legal show E Discovery.

Her contribution to the company was recognized by her peers, and in 2008, Schulman was honored as IQPC's Most Profitable Conference Producer.

Schulman conducts industry research, identifies and secures speakers, writes promotional materials, helps secure sponsorship commitment, conducts on-site interviews, and plays a strategic role in internal marketing/telesales functions.

Schulman also creates and leads Customer Advisory Boards to ensure content quality, relevancy and value for attendees. Her aim is to respond to customer feedback and to provide customers, speakers and sponsors with the best possible customer experience. Schulman has also co-hosted numerous business radio shows, conducting live speaker interviews.

Schulman is on the Advisory Boards for the CMO Council's Customer Experience. Schulman has an MBA in Marketing and Management from Columbia Business School.

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Tyson Snow

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Scott Swift

Scott Swift manages both Customer Information and Consumer Affairs for Hunter Douglas Inc. a worldwide leader in window fashion products. As Vice President, Customer Information, Scott oversees all consumer contact in phone and web environments, customer feedback programs, market trends as well as training and development programs critical to maintaining world-class customer service.

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Mike Wittenstein

 

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