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My tenure as Chair of the CXPA is over, but my passion for the association has never been stronger.

During the Spring of 2010, my wife Karen & I had a “crazy” idea… let’s create a non-profit professional association for the people who call themselves customer experience professionals. Lawyers have the Bar Association, doctors have the Medical Association, so why shouldn’t the growing number of CX professionals have their own association?

Jeanne Bliss joined us as one of the founding leaders, and together we launched the CXPA in April 2011. Now, four years later, we have an amazingly strong, vibrant community of members who are dedicated to the collective success of the customer experience profession. It’s awesome!

I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished during four years, building a thriving community of more than 3,000 CX professionals around the world. The CXPA is a very special organization, which is built on a concept that I call M2M (Member-to-Member). We’ve worked hard to create an environment and build programs where passionate CX professionals can connect with and help other passionate CX professionals.

The CXPA’s success is the result of the commitment and efforts of many, many people, including the CXPA’s founding members, board members, sponsors, and volunteers. While there are too many people to thank individually, I want to give a special shout out of thanks to these people:

• Jeanne Bliss for joining me on this amazing journey and jointly creating something special out of nothing.
• Andy Freed is the President of Virtual, the company that handles all of the CXPA’s operations. He has been a partner in creating the association and has provided sage advice along the way.
• Megan Cannon is our lead contact at Virtual and makes sure that the CXPA operates effectively. She is one of the dozens of people from the great Virtual team that keeps the CXPA rolling, which includes the super work of Bre, Jack, Brittney, Allie, Laura, Tim, Liz, Tom, Julie, and Kevin.
• Janice Carroll was our initial operations and member relations leader at Virtual. She did just about everything that needed to be done to successfully launch the association.
• Parrish Arturi is a Vice Chair of the CXPA and led the creation of the CCXP certification. He has also provided sound advice all along the way.
• Karyn Furstman is taking over as the new Chair of the CXPA and has been active in many initiatives, including our member experience efforts.
• Desirree Madison-Biggs is a new Vice Chair of the CXPA and has led our education committee for several years.
• Karl Sharicz is a CXPA board member and one of the most active volunteers that I have ever met. He’s been a leader of the Insight Exchange, the Local Networking Events, and is always willing to do whatever the CXPA needs.
• Lesley Lykins is last on the list, because I want to end with a big bang. She’s the Director of Member Engagement, but more importantly she’s the heart and soul of the association. Her passion for the association and our members is contagious.

We established a governance structure and a set of bylaws to ensure that the CXPA will continuously renew and sustain itself. Part of that design includes term limits. Therefore, after four years as Chair of the CXPA, it’s time for me to step down.