Speakers

Speaker Bios

Andrew Ashby

Andrew joined Screwfix in 2014, and leads their award winning Contact Centre team. He has 20 years experience in contact centre roles, having started off as a Customer Service Advisor in 1997 with British Gas and developing his career across a number of sectors and leadership roles. “Having learnt from customer facing roles at the beginning of my career, I understand the importance of making it easy for people to do their jobs, paying attention to the seemingly small things to help people fulfill their potential”. As Chair of the South West Contact Centre Forum, Andrew is dedicated to supporting the Contact Centre industry in the region. He holds a degree in Management Sciences and is currently studying to become a Master of Business Administration.

@ashbocks | LinkedIn

Paul Barber

Paul Barber joined the board of Brighton & Hove Albion FC as chief executive in June 2012. In his first season with Brighton, the club secured its highest league position for over 30 years, made the Championship play-offs, enjoyed the highest average attendances in its division, and signed its largest-ever shirt sponsorship agreement, a multi-year deal with American Express. Paul was named Overall CEO of the Year for England and Scotland, as well as Championship CEO of the Year, at the Football Industry Awards 2013, and won the Sports Executive of the Year at the 2016 International Stadium Business Awards. Brighton narrowly missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League, by virtue of goal difference in 2016. Paul’s career in professional football has spanned close to 20 years, during which time he has held senior positions at Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, and The Football Association. Paul has also served on various committees for the EFL, the FA, UEFA and FIFA. Most recently, Paul was elected to the board of the EFL, where he helps represent the interests of all 24 Championship clubs.

@OfficialBHAFC  | LinkedIn

Claudia Belardo

Claudia Belardo brings over 13 years of experience in the SaaS world building and leading best in class Support and Services teams. Refining her skills in the CX field she currently serves as the Director of International Customer Experience at Concur Technologies, an SAP company. In this role, she is responsible for fostering a company-wide culture that maintains an effortless customer experience at the forefront of everything that is done. Driving customer-focused change throughout the organization by pulling together their insights to build compelling business cases change and prioritizing CX improvement programs. Claudia is also a member of Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and a trained Knowledge Centered Support (KCS) Professional.

LinkedIn

Dave Carroll

Dave Carroll is an award-winning singer-songwriter, professional speaker, author and social media innovator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Known as a master storyteller, Dave’s incredible talent was introduced to millions when his 2009 anthem ‘United Breaks Guitars’ became a worldwide sensation. The song chronicled his experience in the customer service process with United Airlines. His creative use of social media to share that message as an Independent Musician, has reached over 150 million people. As the #1 most watched YouTube Music Video in the world in July 2009, United Breaks Guitars has been called ‘one of the most important [videos] in Google’s history,’ and became a metaphor for change and innovation. Dave Carroll and United Breaks Guitars are now recognized as ‘household names.’ United Breaks Guitars won the 2009 Music Nova Scotia Video of the Year Award and Dave Carroll was award the 2009 Music Nova Scotia Digital Artist of the Year. Dave was also nominated for the 2010 ECMA for Entertainer of the Year.

@DaveCarroll | LinkedIn

Lucy Johnson

Lucy Johnson, Customer Service Manager, has been with Bupa, one of the UK’s leading Health Insurance Providers, since 2012. Her responsibilities include leading a team of front-line advisers and service team managers. She is responsible for servicing Bupa’s population of registered private healthcare professionals, via multiple communication channels, and is recommended for her management, customer service and leadership skills.

LinkedIn

James King

James King, Customer Relations Manager has been with Bupa, a leading Health Insurance Provider in the UK since 2014. James is an effective, credible and professional Customer Relations Manager, with a proven track record of successfully leading operational teams in the day to day delivery of complaint resolution within the Financial Services division. James displays a diligent and effective approach to problem solving, developing processes and implementing procedures across varied and complex business areas. He is a highly engaged communicator who can inspire and challenge across all levels, and possesses a strong business acumen with developed leadership skills enabling him the ability to drive performance and deliver results at individual, team and departmental levels.

LinkedIn

Scott McKechnie

Bio

LinkedIn

Rod Newing, CCXP

With over 17 years Financial Services experience in Strategy, Research and latterly Customer Experience Rod has observed a huge amount of change across the industry primarily regulatory driven. However, the recent and long overdue focus on our customers creates a real opportunity to differentiate, placing customers at the heart of what we do, which is hugely exciting.

LinkedIn

Jan Richards

Passenger growth at Dublin Airport 2015-2017 has increased by over three times the European average, and every month currently is the busiest on record: Jan is responsible for managing the significant Dublin Airport Insights & Research programme, including monitoring future trends, passenger tracking, continuous CX improvement research feedback, and developing brand positioning strategy & measurement. She is proud of her key role in developing and launching an organisational values programme in 2014 that, after the first 9 months, had an awareness level of 73% of the 3,000+ strong workforce, and has now over 100 Values Ambassadors throughout the organisation.

Previously, Jan was the Senior Planner with MCCP Planning and Insights, where she worked with client companies in brand development and positioning, qualitative research and insight generation, and previous to this Jan worked in advertising in London, Budapest and Dublin for 16 years.

LinkedIn

Bruce Temkin, CCXP

Bruce Temkin is widely viewed as a customer experience visionary. As managing partner of Temkin Group, he leads the company’s research, consulting, and training efforts that help many of the world’s leading brands build customer loyalty by engaging the hearts and minds of their customers, employees, and partners. Bruce is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Prior to Temkin Group, Bruce spent 12 years with Forrester Research during which time he led the company's B2B, financial services, eBusiness, and customer experience practices.

@btemkin | LinkedIn