Irina Pashina

SAP SE

Certified Leadership and Team Coach | Leadership Culture & Development Expert

Irina is a certified coach (PCC, CPCC), a seasoned mentor of individuals and teams, a leadership expert, and a leader specialized in transformation. Her passion for people development, leadership, and public speaking took her to five continents, where she inspired and drove change in various industries such as technology and non-profits. 
Leading a content strategy function at SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, she feels fortunate to shape superior customer experiences with a focus on digital transformation. Irina also builds bridges to people leadership topics such as a transformation to a newly established leadership culture. Her ability to connect with people across cultures and functional areas has been a key factor for meaningful connections and success in all her roles.
A requested speaker on leadership and communication topics, Irina is a transformational leader who inspires and helps people discover more, develop, and bring about a positive change in the world.

Sarah Metcalfe

Happy Coffee Consulting

CHO

Sarah Metcalfe is the CHO of Happy Coffee Consulting. She founded Happy Coffee Consulting after 9 years building award winning customer service and  customer experience. Sarah has spent the last 10 years researching and training in Happiness at Work and recently became a Certified Chief Happiness Officer providing Happiness at Work consulting after training in Denmark with Alex Kjerulf and Woohoo Inc.

In 2019 Sarah co-founded the first Global Summit for Happiness at Work. In the two years it has been running we have had over 2000  participants from 62 countries and more than 60 leading expert speakers from around the world. 

In July 2020 she became co-leader of Woohoo Unlimited, a group of over 100 happiness at work experts, from thirty one countries. Our partnership has helped to train over 100,000 people worldwide on being happier at work and provided training and keynotes to companies like Accenture, KPMG, LEGO, Shell, Microsoft, Nespresso and many others.

Happy Coffee worked with companies like WDHB, L’Oreal, FUTR, Abcam Life Sciences, Teleperformance, Sabio, DoctoLib and Woohoo Inc. and provided international keynotes and workshops in Canada, U.K., Denmark, France, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Poland and NL.
 

Archana Ramachandran

American Airlines

Product Leader, Manage & Change Reservation, Digital Customer Experience

Archana has 19 years’ experience in the technology industry, prior to joining American she has worked in the e-Governance, Education and Healthcare domains and has a background in Engineering  
At American, her key contributions are :
-integration of legacy US Airways and American Airlines international sites 
-driving customer experience for American Airlines International websites
-creating relevant post-booking customer experience during the pandemic
Archana’s leadership strengths include developing strong strategic relationships and deep knowledge of International portfolio, Digital Customer service and post-booking, and pre-day of travel from both a technology and business perspective. She is passionate about digital transformation, creating a culture of trust, with a Customer-first strategy, and tapping technology in new ways that will delight customers!
Archana is constantly on the lookout for innovative ideas, always open for a good chat, you can connect with her on Linkedin!
 

Katrina Schiedemeyer

Danone

Sr. Customer Experience Center of Excellence

Katrina Schiedemeyer is an innovative leader in designing and executing strategic initiatives in numerous disciplines.  Her expertise includes Customer Experience Design, Supplier Experience, Ethnographic Research, Six Sigma Data Analytics, Lean, and Employee Engagement. Katrina is an engaging and energetic speaker who thrives on transforming complex processes into digestible knowledge. 

Katrina’s professional career includes leading the Customer Experience & Voice of Customer strategic initiatives at a Fortune 500 company and providing consultant guidance to inspire innovation across numerous organizations. In addition to her professional career, Katrina serves as a Board of Director member for numerous international organizations where she utilizes her deep business knowledge to find innovative problem-solving solutions. 

Katrina is a prominent public speaker and published researcher certified in project management (PMI), quality engineering (ASQ), predictive and descriptive analytics (Wharton), and continuous improvement (LLC). 

Katrina is a proud alumna from Louisiana State University (LSUS) where she obtained her MBA in International Business and from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh where she obtained a bachelor’s a degree in Supply Chain Management. 
 

Alex Genov

ZAPPOS. COM

Head of Customer Research

Alex is an experienced customer research professional who applies his Experimental Social Psychology background and his passion for research, design, and innovation to solving important customer and business problems. His professional goal is to help teams create remarkable products and services which make people's lives easier and more enjoyable.

Currently Alex is leading Customer Research for the Zappos Family of Companies.  In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like TurboTax (Intuit), State Farm Insurance, and the Active Network.   He has over 20 years of relevant experience – 5 years of academic research and over 15 years of customer research in the software industry.  Alex received his PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from Clark University.   His areas of research include: defining and measuring emotions, individual differences, usability, and consumer segmentation.
 

Marketa Gibson

McCain Foods

Vice President Global Supply Chain

I am a Supply Chain executive with over 20 years of international experience. As Vice President of Global Supply Chain for McCain Foods I am responsible to shape the overall Supply Chain vision and direction, enabling highly efficient and effective supply chain teams in delivering industry leading cost, growth, and service performance. Through development and mentoring of leadership and talent, and by leveraging advanced analytics and digital solutions, I strive to ensure executional excellence and best-in-class supply chain cost efficiency, network planning, Regional and Global Integrated Business Planning, as well as coordination of McCain’s Global supply network, in order to deliver superior Customer experience and growth.
Over the past 20 years, I have acquired expertise in Supply Chain Management, Lean Thinking & Value Creation, Business Process Improvement, Digital transformation, Cross Functional Project Management, Leadership Development, and SAP & Technology implementation.
 

Shawn Johnson

Discovery, Inc. | NBCUniversal | Microsoft

Former GVP Global Product & Design

Emmy® Award winning Executive Speaker, Innovator, & Entrepreneur; Shawn is the former GVP Global Product & Design for Discovery Inc. Responsible for Product, Design UX, Brand and Customer Experience, he defined the Product & Design Vision, and Go-to-Market Strategies for Discovery+ and TV products, platforms, services and experiences. Prior to Discovery, Shawn led the Experience Design practices for NBCUniversal and Microsoft.

Combining an award-winning product portfolio with technology and business acumen; Shawn is a proven executive global leader who builds cross-functional teams through Product & Design Leadership.  His products have been used by billions of people around the world - delivering engaging experiences that create positive, memorable & lasting relationships through evolving product and technology ecosystems.

Blurring the lines between the impossible and possible, Shawn thrives at the intersection of product, design, technology, and the imagination of the human spirit. He attended Otis Parsons School of Art & Design, and became one of the youngest instructors at the prestigious design school.
 

Lee Somerhalder

Transportation Insight

Vice President Digital Marketing

Lee Somerhalder brings 20 years of B2B and B2C experience building lean methodologies that propagate rapid sales growth and drive global brand identity. His previous startup was accepted into University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator and DLA Piper’s Venture Pipeline program. He has held marketing leadership roles at Yamaha Motor USA and Triumph Motorcycles. Currently, Lee is driving the digital marketing transformation of one of the largest technology driven supply chain and logistics companies in the country. By defining and implementing the technical marketing roadmap for a new era of premium “connected” customer experiences, Lee's teams are modernizing the way organizations conceive digital content, ingest consumer behaviors, connect more shippers and carriers and move more product around the world. They manage the people, process and technology that get the right content to the right people at the right time.

Karen Root

Boehringer-Ingelheim

Director, Experience Strategy

As a senior executive with more than two decades of experience in founding, leading, and transforming organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 multi-national companies in digital and customer experience, Karen holds an MBA and Advanced Certificates in Leadership, Strategy, Creative Problem-Solving, and has been tested as among the top 2% of the world’s most innovative thinkers by SWARM. 
Karen Root has driven organizational transformation around customer experience and digital for three different companies to successful implementations. She currently leads within the Business Transformation team at Boehringer-Ingelheim as the Director of Experience Strategy.
Karen Root spent a decade at WL Gore & Associates as a Global Marketing Leader and drove Customer Experience transformation at a divisional level in medical, industrial & electronics industries, exiting as the Enterprise Leader of Brand and Culture. 
Prior she led digital transformation through leadership and integrating the fuzzy front end of technology in practical applications that drove business results.  Industries worked include pharmaceutical, medical devices, biotech, publishing, computer software and consumer packaged goods.  
As a CX practitioner pushing boundaries, Karen has worked with architectural firms to integrate innovative experience strategy for four facilities, transforming spaces into places with meaning that evoke emotion.  She has consulted in experiential strategy for live events, and corporately in employee experience - to unleash human potential.
With deep expertise in strategy, systems thinking and organizational transformation to upskill new capabilities, Karen Root impacts commercial models to demonstrate differentiating value.
In addition to her experience work, Karen is a life-long learner, holds a patent in Blockchain Technologies and enjoys gem mining.  She lives on a small horse farm in Pennsylvania with her daughter Kayla and her canine companion Rajah.
 

Ahmad Shabazz

Tech Leader | Customer Experience Curator | Advisory Board Member

AHMAD SHABAZZ is a voice of the customer champion and delivers “magical” interactions and “moments that matter” throughout the customer journey.  He is an inspirational leader who stands firm on authenticity, collaboration, and diversity, while establishing a culture of kindness.  He is a servant leader who has a contagious enthusiasm and passionate belief in people that inspires, enables, and empowers team members to excellence.

Formerly, as Head of Community Operations at Snap Inc., a global camera company that empowers people to express themselves and live in the moment, Ahmad was responsible for ideating and driving improvements on how to capture meaningful customer data and derive insights for the product and platform teams.

Previously, as Director of Community Operations for the Americas, Ahmad led the omni-channel community support and service for the community and platform.  During this time, he set team goals, policies and best practices, as well as worked with counterparts in EMEA, APAC, and cross functional leaders to deliver strategic and operational excellence.  Earlier in his career he rose through the ranks of Deloitte and Hitachi Consulting, Google, Lenovo, Facebook, and Anaplan transitioning from finance to Customer Service & Support, and ultimately Customer Experience.  He began his career in corporate finance with Texas Instrument in corporate FP&A, treasury services and finance operation roles. 

Ahmad holds an MBA in Finance from Howard University in Washington, DC, BA in History from Winthrop University, and a Customer Experience certification from Forrester.  He serves on several Advisory Boards including Ascendo AI and SaltyLama.  
 

Jesse Poe

MATERIAL

VP Experience & Product Strategy

Jesse has spent the last 15 years as a CX practitioner, speaker,  and product strategist for agencies such as Code and Theory, Havas, and AKQA, amongst others. He has specialized in CX-led large-scale business transformations through a customer-first approach, specifically within financial services, telcos, and other heavily regulated industries.

He served as Kauffmann Foundation Entrepreneur in Residence, leading and advising early-stage startups. Jesse designed and launched the Havas CX global network and has been an active member of the CX Council of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) since 2020.

He is a regular judge for CX awards, including the inaugural 2022 Chiat Day CX Strategy Award and the upcoming US CXA 23.

for agencies such as Code and Theory, Havas, and AKQA amongst others. He has specialized in CX led large scale business transformations specifically with the financial services industry. He served as Kauffmann Foundation as Entrepreneur in Residence leading and advising early stage startups.

Michelle Martinez

Head of Customer Experience

For the last 6 years I’ve worked in the Home Warranty space for HomeServe, initially managing their Energy Utility relationships and most recently, managing the customer experience at HomeServe, responsible for the contact center operations, complaints/feedback and automation of the HomeServe journey. Today, I’m working with a start-up, helping craft the ideal customer experience from the start. I have 20 years of marketing experience, 13 years of product development and account management experience from start-ups to Fortune 500 and everything in between. Prior to joining HomeServe, I was at Synapse Group, Inc. (a Time Inc. subsidiary where I managed marketing, product development and overall relationships with DRTV partners). To my parents chagrin, I received a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College. hold an M.A. in Sports Marketing from the University of Connecticut and am a licensed holistic nutrition coach. I used to coach and play lots of tennis, but put that on hold for the last 11 years when my oldest daughter was born, with no regrets. I love being outdoors with my two girls (7 and 11) and husband (whom I met on match.com). In my spare time, I figure out ways to make the junk food my kids love into health food.

Prabhu Kannan

ByteDance

Former Head Global Business Process

Prabhu has over 15+ years of experience with large-scale operations, solving complex problems, empowering, and leading people for brands like Microsoft, Atlassian, Indeed and TikTok. He is skilled at influencing key stakeholders, handling customer and partner escalations, and motivating geographically dispersed, culturally diverse teams to drive positive change using data and analytics, while building great partnerships based on trust. Over the years Prabhu has gained experience being a leader balancing customer needs, health of the team and driving product innovation, by providing thought leadership and displaying a willingness to listen to his teams and taking calculated risks, with the ultimate goal of helping empower people to achieve their full potential.