Executive Team
Ambassadors
Stefan Osthaus
President
CX & EX Thought Leader
Strategy Consultant
experience5
Stefan Osthaus
Stefan has 15 years of experience as a Fortune 500 leader. Responsible for tens of millions of customers’ experiences and thousands of employees’ experience, Stefan has built his career on dramatic CX improvements (specifically, that’s +30 NPS points) and on work-life balance. He intimately understands the connection between a comfortable employee and a productive one. From Dusseldorf, Germany, Stefan helps leaders around the world to consider their CX and EX practices as two sides of the same coin for better business results and better word of mouth.
John Wong
Chief of Staff
Founder and CEO
CX Insights to Action
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John Wong
I am passionate about designing and delivering a great Customer Experience. Customer Success translates to an organization’s growth and its people’s growth. It is a win-win-win. I love leading people through influence, inspiration, and collaboration. I believe the key drivers in delivering superior Customer Experience includes:
- Products that are intuitive to use, and focused on solving customers’ needs.
- Technology that centers on the human experience to achieve the desired outcome.
- Processes that innovate new ways of thinking and getting a job done.
- Great People Experience with great talent is a key lever to improve Customer Experience.
- Project Management skills and infrastructure to ensure successful execution.
Diane Magers
Executive Director
Founder and CEO
Experience Catalysts.
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Diane Magers
Passionate experience transformation executive and change agent. Sherpa for new and developing experience obsessed organizations. Thought leader and innovator for ways of engaging associates, customers and partners. Believes sustainable change requires embedding customer and experience capabilities into all parts of an organization.
Skilled in creating CX business value and systematically changing organizations to align around experience and drive financial impact. She specializes in enabling brands with skills and competencies like design thinking, journey management and value mapping to drive sustainable shifts in how organizations work to achieve results. Over 25 years of transforming experiences working in and with brands such as Sysco, AT&T, State Farm, Dale Carnegie, CommScope, Invisalign, Ciena, Freeman, Sodexho, Equifax and MoneyGram.
Diane is the Emeritus Chair and recent CEO for the Customer Experience Professionals Association, speaks and conducts workshops all over the world to help transform CX strategy into action. Diane earned a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a Masters of Business Administration. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), and holds certifications in Voice of Customer, Customer Experience Management, Net Promoter Score and CX Design and Innovation LUMA certified.
A little bit more personal me….
Passionate experience transformation professional and change agent. Sherpa for new and developing customer and employee obsessed leaders. Thought leader and innovator for ways of engaging associates and customers. Spirited entrepreneur. Skilled in business benefits development and systematically embedding experience into an organization. Believe that brands who win choose to focus on human and emotional elements. Develops the hearts and minds of others. Firm executor in the ‘pay it forward’ model. Writer, speaker and artist.
Ian Golding
Ambassador
Blogger, Author & Speaker
CX Trainer
CXC
Ian Golding
Ian, is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and Customer Experience Specialist. A certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Ian has spent over twenty years in business improvement, working hard to ensure that the businesses he works for are as customer focused as possible. Based outside of London, Ian lectures worldwide and is a workshop rock star when it comes to teaching the basics of Customer Experience.
Our Board of Directors
Rolu Adebola
Director
Branch360 Limited
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Rolu Adebola
Rolu Adebola is a Director in Branch360 Limited. He was previously the CEO of CFS West Africa Limited, a leading Customer Experience Advisory and Technology firm in West Africa. Rolu is a leading influence on the Customer Experience practice in Nigeria. He holds the prestigious CCXP Certification from the globally recognized Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), being the first Nigerian to hold the certification since 2016. Mr. Adebola previously started the CXPA local network in Nigeria and Ghana and served as the Local Network Team Lead for Nigeria. He was also a member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the CXPA. He is a seasoned CX transformation specialist and is constantly attracted to new business challenges and motivated by the opportunity to solve business problems.
Ruqaiya Al lawati
Head of Experience and Change
Oman Housing Bank
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Ruqaiya Al lawati
15+ years of exceptional experience in the banking sector, with a proven track record of driving business excellence, enhancing customer experience, and leading successful change initiatives. Dynamic and innovative, I’m committed to delivering transformative solutions that optimize performance, increase efficiency, and drive sustainable growth within the bank.
Dr. Shadi AlSwairki
Operation & Customer Experience Excellence
Bupa Arabia
Dr. Shadi AlSwairki
Medical and Operational Professional with superb leadership skills, impressive record of growth and success for more than 13 years of experience in healthcare, Operational and Customer Experience sectors
Leading the customer strategy and engagement which embark on a journey of customer-centric culture change to put the customer at the heart of all we do. I strongly believe in passionate and inspirational business leadership which energizes both organizations and individuals. Investment in people is a crucial pre-requisite when embarking on the new opportunity, Certified Coach Building Influence, Impact & Inspiration.
Michelle Ansell
Managing Partner
Douglas Jackson
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Michelle Ansell
Customer Board, Senior Leadership, and Executive Search across the CX space, I am an accomplished Headhunter specialising in Diversity and Customer Experience (CX/EX/DX). Guiding businesses through Transformation, Strategy, and Ops, I’ve led the charge in recruiting Chief Customer Officers, Directors, and ‘Head of’ roles across CX, Strategy, Contact, and more. I work with many award-winning teams, or businesses going through transformation. 58% diverse placement rate. Passionate about success, We help our clients hire more impactful leaders who stay for longer. Transparent, committed, open, honest and results-driven—when leadership excellence is paramount.
Prof. Dr. Linden Brown
Creating Profitable Customer Centric Cultures
MarketCulture
Prof. Dr. Linden Brown
Linden has worked as a management consultant, academic and an entrepreneur in start-up organizations. For more than 20 years he has worked with multi-national firms in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific to develop their market-focus capabilities and business strategies. He has had Visiting Professor appointments at several universities including INSEAD (France), Cranfield (England) and the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia). Linden has published 14 books on management, marketing and strategy.
Codin Caragea
Head of Customer Experience
Alinma Bank
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Codin Caragea
Codin has 20 years of experience in banking, management consulting and energy sectors in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His main areas of expertise cover Customer Experience framework design and implementation, Enterprise BPM, Process Architecture & Improvement, Lean Management, Organizational Design, Innovation and Performance Management.
In 2005 he joined OTP Bank, the largest Hungarian bank, as Head of BPM Department with main responsibility of creating a BPM framework and running efficiency programs across the bank. He also worked for Volksbank, a leading Austrian bank, as Head of Process Excellence and Change Management. In 2013, Codin joined Riyad Bank, one of the top 10 banks in the Middle East, as Senior Vice President, Head of BPM Centre of Excellence and Experience Design. Currently he is the Chief Manager, Head of Customer Experience for the largest bank in Oman, Bank Muscat.
Codin has a Bachelor and Master degree in Organizational Management. He is also a certified Lean Six Sigma black belt. He is a frequent speaker and publisher for his expertise areas and enjoys challenging different organizational management practices for the benefits of the customers and the employees. He advocates upon designing the organization around the successful customer outcome, removing the silos, hiring characters, building skills and expertise for champions around the organization, leading by example based on inspiring, transparency, integrity and mutual trust. He is happily married, sport practitioner, investor, heavy traveler and reader, tech savvy, gourmet and art collector.
Gabriela Ciupitu
Founding Member
Customer Experience Romania
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Gabriela Ciupitu
As a passionate advocate for Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Journey Management, Gabriela brings a wealth of expertise and a practical approach to enhancing customer engagement strategies. She holds a CCXP certification and is a co-founder of Customer Experience Romania and the Romanian CX Professional Community. Recognized as one of the top 3 CX influencers by Customer Experience Magazine for two consecutive years, her team assist companies throughout Romania and Southeast Europe in developing and executing their CX strategies.
Her work involves constructing detailed customer and employee journey maps and implementing comprehensive CX programs. Drawing from her robust experience as a CX Manager, Gabriela adopts a hands-on approach not only to advise and train CX teams but also to actively participate in the implementation process. She is driven by results, which are the core motivators for her professional activities. Her commitment to the field is reflected in her active involvement in shaping industry standards and enhancing customer satisfaction across various sectors.
Alec Dalton
Partner
Hospitality Leadership Academy.
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Alec Dalton
Alec Dalton inspires exceptional experiences using service science. Leveraging over a decade of experience in the hospitality industry, Alec is a Co-Founder and Partner of the Hospitality Leadership Academy. The consultancy supports brand names and boutique businesses alike with service-oriented customer experience strategy and training. He proudly serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Customer Institute, in addition to being on the Advisory Board of HorizonCX. Alec’s publications include co-authorship of the textbook Operations Management in the Hospitality Industry and the first two international best-sellers in the series Customer Experience. In 2018, Hotel Management Magazine named him to the “30 Under 30” list of rising hospitality executives. In 2021, the Customer Experience Professionals Association recognized Alec with the inaugural Emerging Leader in CX Award.
Qaalfa Dibeehi
Partner
Human2outcome
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Qaalfa Dibeehi
Qaalfa has 25+ years experience in the customer space. His expertise is in the area of CX led cultural transformation, leadership and innovation. He is the Dean of the Majid Al Futtaim CX Leadership Institute (Dubai) where he is responsible helping to transform the culture of the 45,000 person conglomerate to one based on CX. Previous to that he was VP of CX Consulting at Forrester (London). His previous experience includes Chief Consulting Officer at Beyond Philosophy (London) and Director- Consumer and Internet Strategies with Fulcrum Analytics (NYC). He was also for many years a lecturer in various NYC universities. He has an MBA from New York University and three other Masters degrees from the City University of New York in Statistics, Psychology and Public Health Administration.
Elly Domene
VP, Cloud Services Channel Development
Mangata Networks
Elly Domene
Elly Domene has over 20 years of experience in the space industry and is a globally recognized leader in B2B customer experience management. She’s an expert at designing and implementing integrated feedback systems that fuel Sales, Marketing, HR, Product, Engineering and executive teams with macro and micro trends and insights needed to continually optimize the customer experience.
Currently she is heading up Customer Success globally for Mangata Networks – a start-up company in the space industry that is transforming the way the world interacts with information through a superior global proprietary network of satellites and terrestrial systems.
Elly is also a Board Director at the Customer Institute, a recurring Judge at the Customer Centricity Awards and at the International CX Awards, and she is a certified facilitator of #IamRemarkable workshops. This is a Google initiative aimed at empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. Elly’s greatest passion is to make a meaningful difference to the people she works with, the companies she works for and the world around her – what she calls ‘humanizing business success”.
Rodrigo Edwards S.
Founder
loyaltymetrics
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Rodrigo Edwards S.
Rodrigo has over 15+ years implementing Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX) and Net Promoter System (NPS) programs throughout Latin America both as an executive and as a consultant.
Rodrigo founded Loyalty Metrics in 2014, a Customer Experience Management consulting and training firm helping businesses achieve customer centric growth.
He has a firm conviction that the future and sustainability of businesses is in understanding their customers’ needs, acting on their feedback and then continuously evolving their strategy and operations to achieve customer loyalty and profitable growth.
Rodrigo holds a Master´s degree in Management from Harvard University and is a Customer
Loyalty and NPS® Certified expert from Satmetrix.
Ragna Ghoreishi
VP Customer Success
Cleeng
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Ragna Ghoreishi
A seasoned executive with over 28 years in technology and Media & Entertainment, specialized in enhancing the customer value chain from digital selling to customer support. Skilled in building customer-centric organizations, establishing international remote teams, and implementing effective VoC programs. Proven success in business transformation, strategic planning, and scaling organizations. Adept at cultural agility and fostering industry growth through mentorship and speaking engagements. Holds an MBA, CCXP, Lean Six Sigma yellow belt, and multiple digital certifications.
Olga Guseva
Co-founder
Integria Consult
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Olga Guseva
• Co-author of 2 international bestsellers on Customer Experience, blogger, keynote speaker, consultant
• Managing partner of Integria Consult
• 2020 TOP 150 Global CX Thought Leader
• CXPA recognized trainer, trainer of the International Customer Experience Masterclass in Russia and Europe
Duc Hoang Anh
Head of CX Center
MSB Bank
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Duc Hoang Anh
Duc is the 1st Asian person earning the 3 prestigious certificates including CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional) by CXPA – Global Customer Experience Professionals Association, XMP (Experience Management Professional) by Qualtrics XM Institute, and CCX (Certified Customer Experience & NPS Practitioner) by Bain & Company.
• The 1st Vietnamese person was the Top 8 CX Leaders Impact on an Organization 2023 recognized by CXPA, and was invited as the judge for iCXA – the International Customer Experience Awards 2023.
• With 18 years++ of diverse experience in Total Quality Management and CX Management, he consults and coaches dozens of brands spanning Telecom, Finance & Insurance, Retails, Technology, Services, etc. Every year he propagates the CX knowledge to hundreds of students. Aside from that, he has generously contributed many articles to Vietnamese CX forum and is regularly invited as a speaker at CX conventions and workshops.
Aymen Ismail
Head of Customer Engagement Solutions
smart Europe GmbH
Aymen Ismail
A Provocative Disrupter in customer experience and engagement, with over 20 years of expertise. As Head of Customer Engagement Solutions at smart Europe GmbH, he played a key role in earning Germany’s Customer Service of the Year 2024 in the automotive sector. Recognized as a top CX influencer and a three-time Customer Engagement Industry Champion, Aymen’s background spans various industries, including automotive, telecom, and insurance. He also serves on the advisory board of IQPC’s Customer Contact Week Europe.
Atasun Kaşbaş
Director of Marketing and CX
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts
Atasun Kaşbaş
Atasun, Director of Marketing & CX at IKSV (Istanbul Foundation for Culture & Arts), has 20+ years of experience in finance, telecommunication, retail industries, and non-profit organizations. He is practicing customer experience management with data-mining experience. His primary focus is reading between the lines of what consumers seek, using the combination of all possible data.He’s also a part-time lecturer for the Customer Experience Management course at Istanbul Kultur University and loves writing articles about customer experience in various prestigious magazines and publications.He has been a judge and chair of judges for the International Customer Experience and Turkey Customer Experience Awards for several years.
Gokhan Kaya
Founder
dbX Consulting
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Gokhan Kaya
18 years ago, I started my career as a strategy professional and worked in the CEO offices of big corporates for years. The years passed with balanced scorecards thinking that the main problem was strategy execution. This was until I realized that focusing on customers while internalizing your brand promise, and adjusting your corporate value proposition accordingly is the best strategy for sustainable success for a company. Now as a certified customer experience professional (CCXP), founder of dbX Consulting, and a true believer in this holistic approach, I consult companies to adopt the best CX strategy for their organization, invest in the right CX initiatives, and support them during implementation. My cross-industry and cross-functional hands-on experience in automotive, telecommunications, financial services, prop-tech start-ups, and customer insight companies is my key asset in making this happen successfully.
Stefan Kolle
Founder & CEO
Futurelab
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Stefan Kolle
As founder and CEO of Futurelab, Stefan has been developing winning customer strategies, CEM, CX, customer journey management and customer centric innovation, for over 20 years now. He has learned the hard way how to bring you profit opportunities, practical ideas and concepts that allow you to create a great customer experience, differentiate your business in the market place and even transform your industry. In other words – practices that make your customers more loyal, happier, and more likely to recommend you.
Stefan has had the opportunity towork with senior teams at companies like Volkswagen, Vodafone, Lexus, Toyota, Vodafone Group, ING, Heineken, Philips, and many B2B stars.
Stefan is an accomplished speaker with a long trackrecord. He regularly publishes whitepapers and delivered many webinars, which can be found here: https://www.futurelab.net/inspiration
Stefan is Net Promoter® Certified Associate, and a juror at the International CX Award, the Webbies Awards, and the LOVIE Awards.
Amjad Khan
Head of Customer Intelligence & Advocacy
HSBC
Amjad Khan
Having worked across various industries in People and Customer Leadership and Transformation roles, Amjad is a multi-award winning leader and has recently been recognised amongst the Top Customer Experience Leaders globally and Top CX Stars 2021.
Ledi Lapaj
Director of Customer Experience
Bank al Etihad
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Ledi Lapaj
A passionate Customer Experience (CX) professional dedicated to driving customer-centric transformation.
My expertise encompasses the entire CX spectrum, including customer acquisition & growth, retention & loyalty, customer engagement & experience as well as marketing technologies and strategy. By leveraging omnichannel strategies, gamification, and organizational change, I’ve driven sustainable results: managing over 1.5 million subscribers and generating over $100 million in revenue.
As a published author, I’m dedicated to sharing best practices and fostering a customer-centric culture within organizations. I lead impactful change by prioritizing the customer in every decision. My impact extends internationally, as I speak on CX topics like customer centricity, omnichannel, and culture across the Middle East and Europe.
Desirree Madison-Biggs
Founder
align listening solutions
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Desirree Madison-Biggs
Desirree has over 20 years of experience in building and managing voice of customer programs, from Fortune 500 companies to startups such as Symantec and Airbnb. Prior to her roles in customer experience, she led B2B sales teams and spent a number of years in a variety of roles in HR providing her with a uniquely human-centered focus to her consulting practice. A passionate leader and a customer advocate, she is an Emeritus Chair and a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals’ Association. She also is a certified leadership coach, a CX mentor, and frequent speaker.
Daudi Mugabi
Corporate Affairs Manager
Statewide Insurance
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Daudi Mugabi
With over 15 years of experience as a marketing professional, I possess a comprehensive understanding of Business Development, Marketing Strategy, and Customer Experience Management. My expertise lies in implementing customer-centric marketing strategies that effectively drive company growth, ensuring alignment with the business priorities and initiatives.
Prof. Dr. Susanne O’Gorman
Professor of Marketing
IU International University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Dr. Susanne O’Gorman
Susanne is a professor of Marketing with a focus on -Customer Centricity. Before starting her academic career she held the position of Global Head of Customer Experience at Kantar, a global insights and consultancy firm. Her primary research areas are Customer Experience Management, Social Media and Digital Marketing, Sustainability.
Morris Pentel
Consulting Services and Customer Experience Director
Sentient Machines
Morris Pentel
For 35+ years I’ve been lucky enough to work in leading-edge innovation teams for the world’s largest organisations. During that time, the science of “experience” brought together many disciplines that developed.
Today, my analysis and design work is built on best practices, tools, and insights that didn’t exist even 5 years ago.
I also run training and workshops in 20 countries for thousands of delegates because I am here to learn – every day is a school day :)
Nils Schmeling
CX Specialist
NECXT
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Nils Schmeling
A passionate CX expert working with large organisations around the globe. Believer in inspirational leadership and team sessions, organizing CX Benchmark Tours, the CX Leadership Circle Training with Ian Golding and CX consultancy on operationalizing CX in your organisation.
Nathalie Schooling
CEO
nlightencx (Pty) Ltd
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Nathalie Schooling
Nathalie is an experienced CX improvement specialist with more than 25 years of expertise in the customer experience industry. She founded nlightencx in 2005, which was selected Global CX Agency of the year (2023 & 2024) at the Customer Centricity World Series Awards. In 2023, Nathalie was recognized as one of the top 5 Global thought leaders by CXM as well as one of the Top 50 CX Influencers to follow by the CX Network.
Michelle Spaul
Customer Experience Consultant
Delta Swan Limited
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Michelle Spaul
My first Voice of the Customer project completed in 1994 and I saved my employer, Philips, two million pounds in product returns. And a priceless sum in reputation.
I worked in various roles building business and technical skills before coming home to CX in 2020 as an independent consultant.
Manuela Pifani
Founder & Managing Director
CXellence Consulting
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Manuela Pifani
Having spent 15+ years as CX Director for retail and financial services organisations across Europe (ASDA, Kingfisher, Direct Line Group, RBS/Natwest, Barclays), I founded CXellence to be able to work with more organisations to increase customer-centricity and ROI from CX initiatives. I help them set the customer strategy and co-design intentional and impactful customer experiences and journeys to become their customers’ brand of choice and, ultimately, build a more profitable business. My results have been recognised by winning 20+ prestigious awards, including Top 20 Global CX Leaders 2022.
Betül Yılmaz
Founder and Managing Director
Elephant
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Betül Yılmaz
Betül is a customer experience professional and founder of Elephant.
She works with organizations to create value to their customers, employees and partners, to provide a competitive advantage and set sustainable and measurable values.
Prior to that, she was Head of Marketing and Customer Experience at TEB BNP Paribas and taken various positions in multiple countries leading the customer experience, marketing and sales teams. She had the opportunity to work on an international start-up bank as Head of Sales and Marketing.
She is expert in customer journey mapping, design and implementation of voice of customer programs and design thinking methodology.
She is a regular judge at the customer experience awards, a member of Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and also a global best-selling author with a CX book. She is a professional executive coach and a lean change agent.