Faculty and Leadership

Our Faculty & Leadership

Carol Buehrens

As our Faculty Chair, Carol Buehrens is the author of the best-selling customer experience book Happy RAVING Customers! Carol is a leading customer experience expert and speaker, and has been constructing extraordinary customer experiences for over 30 years for major companies such as Liberty Mutual, Northrop, McDonnell-Douglas, Bechtel, GE, Mercury Marine, and ICW Group Insurance Companies.

Carol’s passion for improving customer experience has resulted in numerous awards, including the prestigious “CX Innovation Award” from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), ICW Group CEO Award, the Liberty Mutual Star Award, and is listed in the World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals.

A Founding Member and Expert Panel Member of the international Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), Carol is also an active member of the San Diego Customer Experience Special Interest Group (CX SIG), and Professor at California State University Fullerton and University of California San Diego.

JC Quintana

JC Quintana is a fervent believer in the importance of winning and keeping customers, employees, and business partners through similar relationship-building strategies. His impressive resume includes entrepreneurial and senior executive roles over global, multiregional and multicultural initiatives in customer experience, customer relationship management, human capital, and channel alliances programs for companies that have included DHL, SAGE, ADP, and Hewlett-Packard.

JC is the author of Speaking Frankly About Customer Relation Management and Serious Relationships, both focused on identifying the core components of business relationship success and better adoption of the strategies and technology that support them. He is the founder of education and adoption company Corporate Relationship Group, and lives in Kennesaw, GA.

Erich Dietz

Erich Dietz is the Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Accounts for InMoment. He has over 15 years of executive experience spanning consulting, business development, and solutions architecture. Erich joined InMoment in 2003 and primarily works with InMoment’s large, complex client organizations within their B2B, B2B2C, and B2C markets. Erich partners with clients to architect and implement Customer Experience Management (CEM) & Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs that enhance critical business measures including; revenue generation, operational efficiency, cross-channel service alignment, customer retention, base management, loyalty, and brand advocacy. He is also a designated CXPA Expert and regular contributor to the community’s Google+ Hangouts and other events.

Prior to InMoment, Erich was a Management Consultant for several global consulting firms. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers School of Engineering.

JP Saini

JP Saini is a C-level IT executive for a B2B company with 20 years of in-depth business, technology, operations experience and strong leadership skills. Developed from his portfolio of business, technology and operations experience is his ability to advance the overall strategic direction of information technology in alignment with strategic business plans, growth goals and position IT as a strategic business enabler and partner. His sharp focus on Excellence is driven by his knowledge of client service and performance based metrics.

Mr. Saini has been successfully managing IT business and strategy through the harnessing of technology for business growth and profitability, risk mitigation, and the identification of commercial opportunities.

Donna Peeples

As a recognized Customer Experience leader, the first Chief Customer Experience Officer at AIG and current president of Motivated, a global Customer Experience consultancy, Donna Peeples is a pioneering, strategic thinker with a dynamic record of driving sustainable growth and managing resources by connecting people, process and technology to deliver business results.

Her extensive P/L responsibilities with start-ups and Fortune 50 companies have shown that effective customer experience strategies must have a verifiable ROI. Donna’s process for identifying key metrics, modeling, and performance monitoring of the front, mid, and back office make her uniquely qualified to address the challenges and opportunities in an increasingly faster evolving business landscape.

A frequent speaker at the most respected Customer Experience forums across the world, Donna is a master communicator who works with global corporations to define business objectives and articulate the corporate vision in a way that inspires imagination and compels action throughout the organization. Whether managing cost, influencing the top line or creating vibrant and productive partnerships, her focus is on blending business strategy with creativity – touching the heart and moving the mind – the result is: true paradigm shifts, sustainable change and the achievement of overall business objectives.

Curtis Bingham

The first to promote the role of chief customer officer (CCO) as a catalyst for competitive advantage, Curtis N. Bingham is recognized as the world’s foremost authority on CCOs. For over 20 years, he has been helping companies strategically engage their customers in order to create sustainable competitive advantage and dramatically grow revenue and profits.

Curtis is founder and Executive Director of the Chief Customer Officer Council™, the first peer-led advisory group for CCOs, and President of Predictive Consulting Group, Inc. Through his work with Council members and more than 200 chief customer officers, Curtis has identified and codified best practices in customer centricity, customer engagement, employee engagement, customer innovation, and more. He has created the CCO Roadmap and the Customer Centricity Maturity Model; groundbreaking, proprietary works that assist companies achieve customer-centric culture and revenue growth.

A sought-after international speaker, author, and consultant, Curtis is passionate about creating powerful customer strategies and is well known for his business acumen, actionable insights, and commitment to measurable business results. He authors The Bingham Advisory: Strategic Advice for the Chief Customer Officer, CEOs, and Boards of Directors and is the first to identify customer engagement as customer centricity’s next evolutionary step beyond loyalty. Curtis holds an MBA from Lehigh University and a Master’s in Computer Science from Brigham Young University.

Don Fertman

Don Fertman is the Chief Development Officer for Franchise World Headquarters, the service company for Subway and affiliated brands, a position he has held since 2010. In this capacity, he oversees all departments handling the franchise development pipeline, including Franchise Advertising and Marketing, Sales, Real Estate, Store Design, Site Development and Non-Traditional locations. Don previously held the position of Director of Development and simultaneously functioned as Director of Franchise Sales since 1988.

Featured in one of the highest-rated episodes of “Undercover Boss”, the hit CBS reality show, Don donned a disguise and learned the Subway business first hand as a “sandwich artist”. He was later invited to appear on the follow up episode, “Epic Bosses”, showcasing several of the more intriguing executives from the first four seasons of the show.

Don has been a member of both the Domestic and Global Strategic Planning Committees and currently serves on the System Advisory Council and Management Committee at Subway World Headquarters.

Jen Gloss

As a senior vice president of LPL Financial, Jen provides visionary leadership for LPL’s independent financial advisors. With more than 20 years industry experience working directly with advisors and their clients, she steers the Client Experience group, focusing on advisor education to drive branch office growth and productivity and plays a key role in determining direction and development of new programs and services.

Prior to joining LPL Financial, Jen worked for American Financial Group in a variety of leadership roles which included service, training, marketing, and financial advising. She holds a BBA from Thomas More College and a Master’s of Science in Executive Leadership from the University of San Diego.

Kristin Guthrie

For more than 20 years, Kristin has led sales and marketing organizations across a variety of industries, including: retail, consulting, home security, consumer electronics, and aerospace. Currently, Kristin is the Vice President, Customer Experience for the Air Transport (AT&R) business at Honeywell Aerospace. In this role, she is responsible for driving innovative solutions designed to improve the overall customer experience. Often involving the marriage of data science, change management and psychology. Kristin has continued her award winning streak by being named a “2015 CX Impact” recipient and a “Who’s Who in CX” from the CXPA.

She holds a MBA from the University of North Texas and a BS in Marketing from Kansas State University. Kristin is a certified Master Black Belt, SEO Master and CX Professional (CXPA).

Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor is the Chief Customer Officer for Samsung SDS America. In this role, he leads our innovation efforts with clients to ensure their success by working to help clients frame up the business issue, scan the technology landscape for best practices, integrate or develop a leading edge solution that ultimately leads to an exciting and engaging customer interaction. He is also responsible for executing organizational change to enable growth, productivity and innovation.

Bob has over 20 years in experience management and customer analytics working with some of the largest companies in the world. From the inception of the internet as a channel, to the mobile device as a primary interface to co-creating an environment that changes based on the consumer – it has been an exciting journey. He has spent the last 5 years focused on digital and mobility; including, offshore agile mobile development programs. Prior to joining Samsung SDS, Bob worked with a wide-range of customers at Ernst & Young and IBM.

Bob Thompson
Faculty & Board Member

Bob Thompson is CEO of CustomerThink Corp., an independent research and publishing firm focused on customer-centric business management, and Founder/Editor-in-Chief of CustomerThink.com, the world's largest community dedicated to customer-centric business.

Thompson is a popular international keynote speaker, blogger and author of Hooked On Customers: The Five Habits of Legendary Customer-Centric Companies.

Gary Tucker

As CEO of DealerRater.com, Gary is using his over 20 years experience in CX to grow the world's largest online rating service in the car industry. Prior to joining DealerRater.com in 2014, Gary spent 12 years at J.D. Power and Associates as senior vice president of global product management and marketing, reporting directly to the company’s president. He was responsible for developing products and services as well as developing brand marketing.

Prior to his work at J.D. Power, Gary served as vice president of marketing and product planning for American Isuzu Motors Inc. for three years. He also held various marketing and sales positions with GE Capital Auto Financial Services.

Jordan Zimmermam

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $3 billion. In 2015 Jordan cofounded zSchool, a new educational consulting provider focused on helping universities develop world-class executive education for the digital age.

Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Broward Health, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle, White House Black Market and many more.

In February of 2015, Jordan was a keynote speaker for the Cleveland Clinic Florida Leading in Healthcare conference. He, along with Jack Welch of GE, shared their styles on leadership in today’s fast paced, social and digital environment.

April of 2015 brought perhaps the most prestigious honor that any American could ever dream of being awarded. Jordan Zimmerman was one of twelve individuals inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. The tremendous honor is bestowed upon individuals who triumphed over adversity in their lives and achieved success despite obstacles that they overcame.

Robert Bergman

Robert Bergman is Partner and Director of UX and Product Management at Black Light Design (BLD). Utilizing his deep knowledge of UX, Robert manages the product development of industry leading companies such as BitTorrent, Cablevision, Comcast, DIRECTV, HBO, Lenovo, LPL Financial, Time Warner Cable, TiVO and Vodafone and helps to shape the public image of their goods and services. His unique process consciously and methodically considers every customer touch point to formulate a unique and unifying customer experience. With over ten years' of developing products for the global economy, he has brought to market many of the products we use on a daily basis.

Prior to joining BLD in 2007, Robert was the Lead User Interface Designer at DIRECTV. While at DIRECTV, he influenced all aspects of the customer experience from front-end development, hardware design, product packing and call center management. This unification propelled DIRECTV’s customer satisfaction to #1 in the industry for 14 consecutive years. In addition, Robert is an inventor on several patents in the areas of system interfaces and digital advertisements.