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.

Michal Szaniecki

Volkswagen Group

Managing Director SEAT & Cupra

Michal Szaniecki is the Managing Director SEAT & Cupra at Volkswagen Group. He has the title of Marketing Director of the Year 2018. Michael is  IAA Board Member, Member of Effie, Drum, Young Creatives, and a University Guest Lecturer on Psychology in Brand Building. He is an internationally recognized Keynote Speaker on (D)CX & non-conscious choice.

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!
 

Eric Martin

Twitter

Senior Manager, Data Partnerships

Eric is Head of Twitter's Brand Development team where he helps organizations apply Twitter data to make more informed and confident business decisions. He regularly speaks at partner and industry invents about the valuable insights that can be found by leveraging what is seen as the “World’s Largest Focus Group”, while evangelizing Twitter data thought leadership initiatives. Prior to his current role on Twitter’s Data and Enterprise Solutions team, he held senior sales and business development roles at renowned research companies eMarketer and Decision Resources Group.

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.
 

Preston Peterson

American Airlines

Director Customer Experience and Innovation

Preston is American's director of customer experience innovation with a focus on improving and enhancing the airport, service recovery and contact center experience for customers and team members. He joined American in 2013 and spent two years in network planning leading analytics projects and managing domestic capacity for the Chicago O'Hare and Hawaii markets. He joined Customer Experience in 2015 and now works on delivering a frictionless customer experience through the design, development and implementation of technology solutions. In 2020, that work is focused on delivering contactless options for all airport touchpoints and creating partnerships to deliver a digital wellness wallet for Covid-19 testing and documentation requirements. Preston earned a BSc in biology and an MBA from Brigham Young University. Personal fact: He sits on the Town of Flower Mound Parks Board and enjoys traveling and doing anything outdoors with his wife and four children.