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Adam Elman

Head of Delivery – Plan A & Sustainable Business, Marks and Spencers

Adam is Head of Delivery for Plan A - Marks & Spencer’s groundbreaking eco/ethical plan. Launched in January 2007 and extended in March 2010, Plan A aims to make Marks and Spencer the most sustainable major retailer in the world by 2015. He is responsible for driving and reporting on the delivery of Plan A across e..

Adam Elman

Head of Delivery – Plan A & Sustainable Business, Marks and Spencers

Adam is Head of Delivery for Plan A - Marks & Spencer’s groundbreaking eco/ethical plan.  Launched in January 2007 and extended in March 2010, Plan A aims to make Marks and Spencer the most sustainable major retailer in the world by 2015.

He is responsible for driving and reporting on the delivery of Plan A across every part of the business, ensuring that appropriate controls are in place and working with colleagues to manage issues and realise opportunities.  In addition, Adam drives the internal communication and engagement of Plan A as well as managing the companies £5m annual Plan A Innovation Fund.  He has been responsible for managing the development of the process and methodology for the business case for sustainability at M&S.

More recently, Adam has also taken over the management of M&S Energy which offers customers gas and electricity as well as solar and loft insulation services.

Prior to joining Marks & Spencer in 2004, he has held a number of senior programme/change management roles across a variety of industries.

Alan Pennington

Managing Director, Mulberry Consulting

Alan is Managing Director of Mulberry Consulting a business he founded with David Hicks 9 years ago. Mulberry Consulting is recognised as a leader in the field of customer experience and its approaches and tools have been cited a number of times by Forrester as ‘best practice’, it is delighted to be retained by some of th..

Alan Pennington

Managing Director, Mulberry Consulting
Alan is Managing Director of Mulberry Consulting a business he founded with David Hicks 9 years ago. Mulberry Consulting is recognised as a leader in the field of customer experience and its approaches and tools have been cited a number of times by Forrester as ‘best practice’, it is delighted to be retained by some of the world’s best known brands. Personally he has been responsible for leading the design and deployment of Customer Experience based transformational programmes in a wide range of large organisations . 

Since the launch of Mulberry Consulting Alan has worked in a broad range of international markets, most recently in China, and has gained a reputation as a highly experienced customer experience professional, both an innovative and practical thinker and valued executive coach.

Alan Wilson

Professor of Marketing , University of Strathclyde Business School

Alan is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Strathclyde Business School in Scotland. Before joining the University, he was a senior consultant at a London-based marketing consultancy and prior to that, an Associate Director of a leading marketing research agency. He has written numerous articles and advised many organis..

Alan Wilson

Professor of Marketing , University of Strathclyde Business School

Alan is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Strathclyde Business School in Scotland. Before joining the University, he was a senior consultant at a London-based marketing consultancy and prior to that, an Associate Director of a leading marketing research agency. He has written numerous articles and advised many organisations on service delivery, customer satisfaction, reputation and branding.  

He is the author of one of the leading marketing research textbooks Marketing Research: An integrated Approach and co-author of the European edition of Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across The Firm. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Market Research Society. 

Alexander Kjerulf

Chief Happiness Officer, Projekt Arbejdsglaede

Alexander is one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work. He is a speaker, consultant and author, presenting and conducting workshops on happiness at work at businesses and conferences all over the world. His previous clients include companies like Hilton, LEGO, IKEA, Shell, HP and IBM. Alex has a masters de..

Alexander Kjerulf

Chief Happiness Officer, Projekt Arbejdsglaede

Alexander is one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work. He is a speaker, consultant and author, presenting and conducting workshops on happiness at work at businesses and conferences all over the world. His previous clients include companies like Hilton, LEGO, IKEA, Shell, HP and IBM.

Alex has a masters degree in computer science from The University of Southern Denmark, and was a co-founder of Enterprise Systems – a truly happy IT company.

Alex is the author of 3 books including the international bestseller Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life and Kick Butt at Work. The book has been extremely well received all over the world and is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Vietnamese and Chinese.

And in case you're wondering, his last name (Kjerulf) is pronounced a little like care-oolf.

Anders Amot

Head of Service Training, SAS Scandinavian Airlines

Anders Åmot is part of the newly formed Customer Experience team at SAS Scandinavian Airlines. With a background from retail, airport operations (where he was named “SAS Service Hero” in 2007) , business intelligence, and product development he now forms the role as Head of Service Training. He is the co-designe..

Anders Amot

Head of Service Training, SAS Scandinavian Airlines

Anders Åmot is part of the newly formed Customer Experience team at SAS Scandinavian Airlines. With a background from retail, airport operations (where he was named “SAS Service Hero” in 2007) , business intelligence, and product development he now forms the role as Head of Service Training. He is the co-designer of the airline’s newly introduced motivational workshops where the goal is to set standards in meetings with the customer based on their experience and feedback from customers.

Anders holds a Master’s degree in Service Management from Florida International University and the University of Stavanger

Andrew Grill

CEO, Kred

Andrew Grill is the CEO of Kred, the measure of Influence and Outreach in communities connected by interests. A disciplined executive with a record of building social marketing campaigns based on deep analytics, Andrew is one of the world’s foremost advocates of engaging influencers and ‘local rockstars’ to foster s..

Andrew Grill

CEO, Kred
Andrew Grill is the CEO of Kred, the measure of Influence and Outreach in communities connected by interests. A disciplined executive with a record of building social marketing campaigns based on deep analytics, Andrew is one of the world’s foremost advocates of engaging influencers and ‘local rockstars’ to foster strong customer relationships. Previously Andrew was head of International client strategy for Visible Technologies. He is also the editor of social and mobile blog LondonCalling.co. He can be found on Twitter as @andrewgrill.

Brian Curran

Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy, Oracle

Brian Curran is Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy for Oracle RightNow, and ensures that clients receive the greatest possible value from the Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service solutions to help them retain their customers, improve satisfaction rates, and drive increased revenue. Prior to joining RightNow, Brian was..

Brian Curran

Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy, Oracle

Brian Curran is Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy for Oracle RightNow, and ensures that clients receive the greatest possible value from the Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service solutions to help them retain their customers, improve satisfaction rates, and drive increased revenue.

Prior to joining RightNow, Brian was vice president at BestBuy.com. While there, he was part of a senior team responsible for building the company’s web site and contact center strategy, and was tasked with Best Buy’s initial customer centric transformation.

Brian has spent the last 20 years of his career in senior multi-channel roles operating call centers, web sites and stores in the retail, consumer electronics and telecommunications markets.

Carol Chapman

Chief Client Officer, Performance Inspired, Inc.

Carol is a Founding Principal and Chief Client Officer for Performance Inspired, Inc. a research-based experiential consulting, learning and media firm. Their speciality is helping organisations leverage the Science of Inspiration to increase workplace performance and customer advocacy from the inside out. The firm produces the M..

Carol Chapman

Chief Client Officer, Performance Inspired, Inc.

Carol is a Founding Principal and Chief Client Officer for Performance Inspired, Inc. a research-based experiential consulting, learning and media firm. Their speciality is helping organisations leverage the Science of Inspiration to increase workplace performance and customer advocacy from the inside out. The firm produces the Most Inspiring Companies Lists, published annually by Forbes. It has also developed and validated The Inspiration Index an internal employee survey for companies to measure organizational and leadership inspiration.

Previously, Carol was co-founder of the Brand Ascension Group, an organisation and brand development firm specialising in transforming employee and customer cultures from the inside out. Prior to that, she held several senior HR leadership roles including Vice President, HR for Asia Pacific for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the largest hotel companies in the world, housing some of the world’s best-known brands such as InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

Carol is co-author of "Brand DNA: Uncover Your Organization’s Genetic Code for Competitive Advantage". Her articles and white papers have been featured in brandchannel.com, ehotelier.com and Sales and Service Excellence. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA USA.

Chair: Gillian Joseph

Broadcaster, Sky News

Gillian Joseph presents Sky News Sunrise Friday - Sunday. ­­­­­­­­ Prior to joining Sky News, Gillian presented the news on BBC Breakfast and on BBC London. She has also worked as a presenter for BBC News 24,Radio 5 Live and as a reporter on BBC Newsnight. Gillian played a major role in the coverage of the aft..

Chair: Gillian Joseph

Broadcaster, Sky News
Gillian Joseph presents Sky News Sunrise Friday - Sunday. ­­­­­­­­

 

Prior to joining Sky News, Gillian presented the news on BBC Breakfast and on BBC London. She has also worked as a presenter for BBC News 24,Radio 5 Live and as a reporter on BBC Newsnight.

Gillian played a major role in the coverage of the aftermath of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, and has reported from locations across the globe including Northern Ireland, South America and Africa.

She presented live on air for BBC News 24 the day Iraq went to the polls in the country’s historic first­­­­ democratic elections.

She started her broadcasting career with the BBC in Manchester before becoming a radio reporter and producer with Radio Merseyside. During her time in Liverpool, she was one of the first to break the news of the Jamie Bulger murder case in 1993.

Gillian returned home to London in 1998, working as a reporter and newsreader on BBC Radio 1. Since then she has reported for the BBC’s Black Britain programme, and both the one and six o’clock News, Newsnight and Holiday. She also presented a Sunday morning reflective news show on BBC London 94.9FM and regularly presented for 5 Live.

Gillian has been presented with a Race in the Media Award from the Commission of Racial Equality and in 2004 won the European Federation Of Black Women Business Owners’ award for professionalism in her field.

She is married, has two daughters and a son and lives in North West London.

Chris Daniels

Head of London 2012 Activation, Lloyds Banking Group

Chris Daniels is Head of London 2012 Activation for the B2B division of Lloyds Banking Group. The role is to ensure value is created from Lloyds London 2012 Sponsorship and thus is wide ranging and links into business development, community involvement and employee engagement. An Oxford mathematics graduate with an MBA..

Chris Daniels

Head of London 2012 Activation, Lloyds Banking Group

Chris Daniels is Head of London 2012 Activation for the B2B division of Lloyds Banking Group.  The role is to ensure value is created from Lloyds London 2012 Sponsorship and thus is wide ranging and links into business development, community involvement and employee engagement.

An Oxford mathematics graduate with an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Chris was most recently Head of Financial Institution Sales & Business Development in Bank of Scotland Treasury. Prior to that he spent a period in Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets Sales and 6 years in Barclays Capital Structured Capital Markets, Corporate Risk and Derivatives sales, covering the financing and risk management needs of a range of clients. 

Prior to joining the Banking industry Chris was an Officer in the Parachute Regiment for 5 years, an Expedition Leader for World Challenge and a youth development team leader for the Prince’s Trust.  He was a volunteer at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as the Athletes Services Manager for the Modern Pentathlon event. 

He has studied for a Diploma in Applied Psychology at Birkbeck College during his evenings since 2008, and has recently completed the courses on Work Psychology and Consumer Psychology.  Chris is a qualified Mountain Expedition Leader and Athletics Coach, and a keen runner.

Dave Carroll

Singer / Songwriter / Speaker, Dave Carroll Music

For over two decades in the music business, internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Dave Carroll has delighted fans with his clear, warm and intimate approach to music. A master storyteller, Dave’s unique and insightful songs are injected with a ‘coming home’ sense of familiarity and his rich, unforced vocal..

Dave Carroll

Singer / Songwriter / Speaker, Dave Carroll Music

For over two decades in the music business, internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Dave Carroll has delighted fans with his clear, warm and intimate approach to music. A master storyteller, Dave’s unique and insightful songs are injected with a ‘coming home’ sense of familiarity and his rich, unforced vocals have resonated with audiences around the world. Most recently, Dave’s incredible talent has become known to thousands of new fans through his United Breaks Guitars fame and his career as an entertainer and songwriter have rapidly gained momentum.

With the release of United Breaks Guitars in the summer of 2009, Dave Carroll took the Internet by storm becoming one of YouTube’s greatest hits and caused an instant media frenzy across all major global networks and sources (including the likes of CNN, the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Rolling Stone Magazine & the BBC to name a few). Worldwide audiences discovered Dave’s Canadian charm, winning persona and unique creative abilities. Demonstrating the power of the individual, he became an instant phenomenon in the age of social media and a globally recognized advocate for customer experience improvement. The first two songs of the United Breaks Guitars Trilogy have reached viral status with over 7 million views and climbing on YouTube. United Breaks Guitars received a number of real time honours in July including the #1 Most Viewed Music Video; the #6 Most Viewed Video (all categories) and the #18 Top Rated Music Video of All Time. There are currently over 20 million exact match references on the Internet to United Breaks Guitars, moreover, it is estimated that easily 100 million people have heard the story.

David Cartwright

Group Chief Executive of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Arise Virtual Solutions Inc

David is Group Chief Executive of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., and is responsible for growing and accelerating Arise’s virtual business services and operations throughout this region. Before joining Arise in June 2010, David spent 20 years at Accenture, a global managemen..

David Cartwright

Group Chief Executive of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Arise Virtual Solutions Inc

David is Group Chief Executive of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., and is responsible for growing and accelerating Arise’s virtual business services and operations throughout this region.

Before joining Arise in June 2010, David spent 20 years at Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. A partner for the last 10 years, his roles with Accenture spanned sales, sales management, transition, delivery and operational management in the U.K., Ireland, France and the U.S.A.

David led a number of Accenture’s largest and most complex sales utilizing the full range of Accenture’s services both onshore and offshore. He has worked in the healthcare, utilities and more recently in the financial services sectors. David spent two years running Accenture’s outsourcing business within the financial services industry for the U.K. & Ireland during a period of over 200% revenue growth. Prior to Accenture, David spent 2 years at NCR Ltd., developing new business and implementing IT systems.

David graduated from Loughborough University in the U.K., with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Diploma in Industrial Studies.

David Williams

CEO, HOWTOEXPERIENCE

David has engineered successful customer experience programmes with some of the world’s leading organisations including British Gas, Royal Mail, American Express, Royal Bank of Canada, & Vodafone. And this continues to be a major focus of HOWTOEXPERIENCE's work. This knowledge and expertise is consolidated in HOWTOEXPE..

David Williams

CEO, HOWTOEXPERIENCE
David has engineered successful customer experience programmes with some of the world’s leading organisations including British Gas, Royal Mail, American Express, Royal Bank of Canada, & Vodafone. And this continues to be a major focus of HOWTOEXPERIENCE's work.

This knowledge and expertise is consolidated in HOWTOEXPERIENCE's Academy - which consolidates healthcheck, a knowledge base and other practical tools aimed at helping customer experience professionals deliver real improvements.

More recently David has built an end to end contact incubator, so that large organisations can rapidly test new real-time multi-channel contact strategy. It combines contact strategy (HOWTOEXPERIENCE) real-time multi-channel contact powered by an agile cloud-technology platform (tPoint) and is executed in our contact innovation centre in Swindon (Carpeo). He has an ownership stake and sits on the board of all these companies.

David draws on 10 years experience at BP, where he led and delivered international business transformations. A co-founder and ex-Vice Chairman of QCi, he built CMAT into the world's leading customer management benchmarking tool used by over 800 organisaations across the world. He successfully took the company into the WPP group in 2001.

A regular speaker and industry commentator at major
conferences worldwide, David has written many articles on customer experience and marketing effectiveness, including the IDM’s Guide to Customer Experience.

Dennis Fois

Director of UK & Northern Europe, eGain

Dennis Fois is Director of UK & Northern Europe at eGain. Dennis joined eGain to focus on meeting the high enterprise demand for multichannel customer interaction solutions. Having lived, worked and studied across Europe, he brings strong local knowledge to bear when understanding customers’ requirements across geograph..

Dennis Fois

Director of UK & Northern Europe, eGain

Dennis Fois is Director of UK & Northern Europe at eGain. Dennis joined eGain to focus on meeting the high enterprise demand for multichannel customer interaction solutions. Having lived, worked and studied across Europe, he brings strong local knowledge to bear when understanding customers’ requirements across geographies and vertical sectors. Dennis has more than 15 years of sales and management experience, gained at global organisations including Barclays, Solera and ADP.

Dirk Jan Dokman

CEO, The Selfservice Company

Dirk Jan Dokman is CEO and one of three founders of The Selfservice Company. The Selfservice Company is a best in class provider of online Virtual Assistant solutions, working globally with organisations such as photobox, Toys R Us, Staples Direct, Philips and Deutsche Telekom. Recognised as a Gartner Cool Vendor and a Deloitte T..

Dirk Jan Dokman

CEO, The Selfservice Company

Dirk Jan Dokman is CEO and one of three founders of The Selfservice Company. The Selfservice Company is a best in class provider of online Virtual Assistant solutions, working globally with organisations such as photobox, Toys R Us, Staples Direct, Philips and Deutsche Telekom. Recognised as a Gartner Cool Vendor and a Deloitte Technology Fast 500, clients derive value through improved customer experience, increasing sales conversion, visibility of valuable customer insights and reducing cost (volume) into the contact centre.

Dirk Jan’s (or DJ’s) career has spanned a range of disciplines focussed on improving digital channels and customer contact, constantly evaluating cost reduction whilst improving superior customer experience. Dirk Jan is a recognised thought leader on self service, customer care and channel management.

Dirk Jan holds a masters degree in Economic Sciences, Marketing and Sociology from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. 

Frank McCusker

Director, SynGro

A renowned loyalty and industry figure, Frank has been helping global brands improve their bottom line performance by enabling them to build more effective, profitable relationships with customers, channels and employees. With a twenty year track record at leading marketing and customer loyalty agencies, Frank has trans..

Frank McCusker

Director, SynGro

A renowned loyalty and industry figure, Frank has been helping global brands improve their bottom line performance by enabling them to build more effective, profitable relationships with customers, channels and employees.

With a twenty year track record at leading marketing and customer loyalty agencies, Frank has transformed the customer churn rates of major brands across the financial services, telecoms, utility and retail sectors; helping companies such as Virgin Mobile achieve the lowest churn rates in their industry.

An evangelist of NPSTM, Frank firmly believes that passion for customer excellence combined with a clarity of vision and project goals are the essential ingredients for customer insight to transform culture and the customer’s experience.

Gayle Terry

Head of Innovation Delivery, British Gas

Gayle leads the team that is driving forward a range of new customer propositions in the area of the smart connected home, leveraging British Gas' leadership in rolling out smart metering to its sixteen million customers. These customer focused propositions will deliver many benefits to consumers through energy efficiency and con..

Gayle Terry

Head of Innovation Delivery, British Gas

Gayle leads the team that is driving forward a range of new customer propositions in the area of the smart connected home, leveraging British Gas' leadership in rolling out smart metering to its sixteen million customers. These customer focused propositions will deliver many benefits to consumers through energy efficiency and consumer control enabling smarter and easier living.

The common theme uniting a diverse set of roles during Gayle's ten years with British Gas is a drive for excellence in customer service. She has built a customer retention operation in its Services business. She has also driven forward major transformation programs in customer-facing business operations, delivering customer journey improvements and understanding through identifying and optimising customer "moments of truth". She took charge of developing and delivering a muti-channel customer service strategy, supporting the transition of customer service operations from traditional voice contact to online self-service.

Gayle studied at Glasgow University, where she attained a Master's degree in Economics and Business Studies.

Greg Rich

Regional VP of Enterprise Feedback Management, MarketTools

Greg Rich serves as Regional Vice President of Enterprise Feedback Management for the Eastern United States and Europe, reporting to the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Greg has more than twelve years of experience in customer/employee feedback and market research in a broad range of disciplines. These include executive..

Greg Rich

Regional VP of Enterprise Feedback Management, MarketTools

Greg Rich serves as Regional Vice President of Enterprise Feedback Management for the Eastern United States and Europe, reporting to the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Greg has more than twelve years of experience in customer/employee feedback and market research in a broad range of disciplines. These include executive management, service operations management, professional services, and strategic account management. At MarketTools-CustomerSat, he manages the Eastern US and European sales teams and oversees all global programs with our fortune 1000 customers.

Prior to joining CustomerSat, Greg held the position of Senior Strategic Account Director at a mid size research firm specializing in the design and implementation of loyalty management strategy programs. As the Strategic Account Director, he had full accountability for the execution and delivery of all enterprise level accounts for both customer satisfaction/loyalty and market research studies.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Mathematics Minor from Bridgewater State College.

Guy Stephens

Social Media / SCRM Consultant , Capgemini

Guy Stephens is a champion of the use of social media for customer services. Currently a Social Media / SCRM Consultant with Capgemini, previously he was Senior Consultant at Foviance, before that the Customer Knowledge Manager at The Carphone Warehouse, where he was responsible for setting up their use of social media to provid..

Guy Stephens

Social Media / SCRM Consultant , Capgemini

Guy Stephens is a champion of the use of social media for customer services. Currently a Social Media / SCRM Consultant with Capgemini, previously he was Senior Consultant at Foviance,  before that the Customer Knowledge Manager at The Carphone Warehouse, where he was responsible for setting up their use of social media to provide customer service. He is the Founder of the LinkedIn group - where social media meets customer service.

Guy has worked in the online environment for over ten years, building up experience in online marketing, eCRM, SEO, ecommerce, email marketing, project management and social media. He is a strategic thinker who is passionate about championing the cause of the customer and how their needs can be met in an increasingly fragmented and cross-channel environment. Guy is an avid tweeter (@guy1067) and occasional blogger on http://beingguy1067.wordpress.com

Ian Golding

Board Member, Customer Experience Professionals Association

Ian is currently a member of the board of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). Founded in 2011, The CXPA is a global non-profit organization positioned to guide and enhance the growing field of customer experience management. As Former Head of Group Customer Experience at Shop Direct Group (SDG), Ian was resp..

Ian Golding

Board Member, Customer Experience Professionals Association

Ian is currently a member of the board of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). Founded in 2011, The CXPA is a global non-profit organization positioned to guide and enhance the growing field of customer experience management. As Former Head of Group Customer Experience at Shop Direct Group (SDG), Ian was responsible for building and embedding the customer experience strategy for all retail brands within the SDG portfolio in the UK. Ian spent over 6 years helping SDG to align improvement in the customer journey to customer experience strategies that benefit the customer, employee and shareholder.

Ian is now operating as a freelance Customer Experience consultant, advising a wide range of companies on Customer Experience strategy, measurement, improvement and employee advocacy techniques and solutions.

A certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Ian was recruited into SDG to assist in the deployment of Six Sigma and Lean methodologies. Prior to joining SDG, Ian’s involvement in business improvement spans a twelve year period at Brakes Foodservice, Liberata, GE Reinsurance and GE Commercial Finance.

James Westlake

VP Sales EMEA & Asia Pacific, Confirmit

James has spent 10 years working with organisations to develop multi-channel customer experience feedback and Voice of the Customer programmes. Working with clients across sectors, James has a wealth of experience in working with corporate executives to improve business performance through effective feedback programmes that retai..

James Westlake

VP Sales EMEA & Asia Pacific, Confirmit

James has spent 10 years working with organisations to develop multi-channel customer experience feedback and Voice of the Customer programmes. Working with clients across sectors, James has a wealth of experience in working with corporate executives to improve business performance through effective feedback programmes that retain and grow customers, drive tangible benefits to employees, and streamline process efficiencies. Prior to working at Confirmit, James was a CRM consultant with Cap Gemini.

Jo Higton

H/O Learning, Customer Plus

Jo Higton is an experienced trainer and manager in a range of operational environments including retail, contact centre and professional services. Jo previously worked with Argos, Homeserve and Domestic & General and her current clients include Ford Retail, Greene King, and Rentokil Initial. Jo has worked closely w..

Jo Higton

H/O Learning, Customer Plus

Jo Higton is an experienced trainer and manager in a range of operational environments including retail, contact centre and professional services. Jo previously worked with Argos, Homeserve and Domestic & General and her current clients include Ford Retail, Greene King, and Rentokil Initial.

Jo has worked closely with John and the team at Ford for the last four years to design, develop and deliver a customer experience improvement project to enable Ford Retail to engage with and manage customers’ emotions. Jo’s role was central to the whole project, designing and delivering a customer service skills workshop that would engage all 3,000 employees regardless of their role in the organisation. Jo still plays an integral role on the Moments of Truth steering group.

Jo is a Mathematics graduate of Sheffield University, a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and an NLP master practitioner. Jo is an accredited customer service trainer and assessor with the Customer Service Training Network and the Institute of Customer Service. She is an Associate Lecturer in Leadership and Marketing at the University of Derby.

Joe McEwan

Communities Manager, innocent

Joe began working for innocent in 2007. He dedicates his time in Fruit Towers to building a thriving two way relationship with innocent's community of consumers. His leadership has helped establish innocent as one of the few brands that truly understands how best to engage with consumers. The company has recently been ranked 7th ..

Joe McEwan

Communities Manager, innocent

Joe began working for innocent in 2007. He dedicates his time in Fruit Towers to building a thriving two way relationship with innocent's community of consumers. His leadership has helped establish innocent as one of the few brands that truly understands how best to engage with consumers. The company has recently been ranked 7th in the world for effective use of social media in Headstream's Social Brands 100 list.

In his role as communities manager, Joe oversees all forms of consumer contact at innocent ensuring that the company maintains an open, honest and interesting line of communication with the people who buy their products. He has sole responsibility for creating content across all of innocent's social media channels, regularly writes copy for their website and packaging, and project manages the award winning annual innocent AGM (a grown up meeting).

John Leathern

Leadership Development Director, Ford Retail

John joined Ford Motor Company in 1990. A 20 year career with Ford in sales and marketing has provided him with a great deal of experience in the area of customer service in what is an extremely competitive market. John has been instrumental in Ford Retails cultural change programme centred on the customer called ‘Momen..

John Leathern

Leadership Development Director, Ford Retail

John joined Ford Motor Company in 1990. A 20 year career with Ford in sales and marketing has provided him with a great deal of experience in the area of customer service in what is an extremely competitive market.

John has been instrumental in Ford Retails cultural change programme centred on the customer called ‘Moments of Truth’, which in 2010 has the Motor Trader Customer Care Award, National Customer Service Awards Best Training and Development Project, and a Chartered Institute of Marketing Excellence Award. In recent years Ford Retail has seen a dramatic increase in net promoter scores with new vehicle sales across the UK consistently over 90%!

As a member of the Institute of Customer Service and a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practioner, John is always looking to meet new people, try new things and visit different companies to see what best practices can be shared through continuous improvement. It is for this reason he was keen to speak at this year’s conference.

John enjoys running and competes for Leamington Spa Athletics Club, and generally has a love for all sports. Although this could be questioned as he is a life-long Spurs fan !

Jonathan Browne

Senior Analyst, Forrester Research

Based in London, Jonathan serves Customer Experience Professionals. He examines the best practices of companies creating groundbreaking customer experiences online, including the mobile Web and new Social Computing channels. He leads Forrester's research in Europe on interactive design agencies and personas. Prior to th..

Jonathan Browne

Senior Analyst, Forrester Research

Based in London, Jonathan serves Customer Experience Professionals. He examines the best practices of companies creating groundbreaking customer experiences online, including the mobile Web and new Social Computing channels. He leads Forrester's research in Europe on interactive design agencies and personas.

Prior to this role, Jonathan was a senior analyst serving Customer Experience Professionals in Tokyo. Jonathan graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Japanese studies. He lived in Japan for 14 years, helping to launch Forrester's Japan office in 2000 and serving as a country sales manager there before becoming an analyst in 2006.Prior to joining Forrester, he worked in business development roles for TDK Electronics (UK) and for a trading company in Japan, exporting components to global manufacturers in the computer industry. He is fluent in Japanese

Jonathan is a founding member of Japan's Persona & Customer Experience Association (formerly Persona Consortium), a nonprofit organization that researches the use of personas. He has delivered presentations on customer experience topics in London; Nagoya and Osaka, Japan; and Tokyo. In November 2006, he delivered a keynote presentation on the future of Social Computing at the Business Blog & SNS World forum in Tokyo. In March 2008, he delivered a keynote presentation on marketing strategy and trends in globalization of organizations at the CMO Summit in Tokyo.

Jonathan has been cited in publications including Forbes, The Economic Times (India), Nikkei BP, and thisismoney.co.uk. He has written articles for Nikkei Information Strategy magazine, Web Tantosha (Web Manager) magazine, and he has presented a series of videos on the Softbank Business + IT Web site.

Ken Scott

Director of Delivery, SynGro

Ken is a highly experienced consultancy lead, designing and driving complex change projects across both the private and public sectors. Responsible for delivering SynGro consultancy projects, Ken ensures programmes deliver a ‘step change’ in clients’ customer experience and satisfaction metrics. Ken's ..

Ken Scott

Director of Delivery, SynGro

Ken is a highly experienced consultancy lead, designing and driving complex change projects across both the private and public sectors. Responsible for delivering SynGro consultancy projects, Ken ensures programmes deliver a ‘step change’ in clients’ customer experience and satisfaction metrics.

Ken's attention to detail and passion for driving excellence in customer experience has been instrumental in creating success for major clients such as Royal Sun Alliance (Financial Services company with 20 million customers) who increased customer satisfaction to 70% and generated a 53% rise in written premiums. Ken has achieved similar results with other major organisations such as Pernod Ricard, British Life, Bank of Scotland, Scottish National Health Service (NHS), Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Power.

Kenneth Refsgaard

Team Lead Online Support and Community Manager, TomTom

Kenneth’s career has encompassed support, technical writing, content management, project management and community management. Most recently, he was responsible for re-vamping TomTom’s online self-care platforms and was the driving force behind the launch of the TomTom support community. As a keen community advocate he is ..

Kenneth Refsgaard

Team Lead Online Support and Community Manager, TomTom
Kenneth’s career has encompassed support, technical writing, content management, project management and community management. Most recently, he was responsible for re-vamping TomTom’s online self-care platforms and was the driving force behind the launch of the TomTom support community. As a keen community advocate he is deeply interested in the best practices behind successful communities.

Maggie Wheeler

Director, The Focus Group Ltd

I come from a background building / managing sales forces promoting sponsorship in the pharmaceuticals / telcos / financial services / HR sectors. My last role as an employee was as Divisional Director at IIR. My experiences during this time made me feel that there was a lack of joined-up thinking in the corporate events being ru..

Maggie Wheeler

Director, The Focus Group Ltd

I come from a background building / managing sales forces promoting sponsorship in the pharmaceuticals / telcos / financial services / HR sectors. My last role as an employee was as Divisional Director at IIR. My experiences during this time made me feel that there was a lack of joined-up thinking in the corporate events being run in this field; too often there was little if any overlap between sponsors and the content of the event, also the events were failing to bridge the gap between theory and practise.

I founded the Focus Group in 2001, and since then have been running corporate events dedicated to increasing commercial awareness of HR / Customer Engagement and Experience. We now run events each year which attract delegates, sponsors and speakers from organisations such as BT, Unilever, Disney, Virgin, Coca-Cola, Fiat, O2, Symantec, LoveFILM, Yahoo !, RBS Group and Deutsche Bank. Most importantly, we have significant numbers of repeat attendees who value the practical advice offered at our events which they can take back to the workplace.

Mick Martin

Customer Service Director, Royal Mail

Mick was Customer Services Director at Royal Mail for eight years, transforming service experience, profile and costs. He was accountable for service policy, strategy and delivery to a £7Bn customer base that included every UK citizen and business. He led a team of 3500 employees, including 300 Fieldforce. During this time Serv..

Mick Martin

Customer Service Director, Royal Mail
Mick was Customer Services Director at Royal Mail for eight years, transforming service experience, profile and costs. He was accountable for service policy, strategy and delivery to a £7Bn customer base that included every UK citizen and business. He led a team of 3500 employees, including 300 Fieldforce. During this time Service provision moved from 120 sites to 12, service based sales doubled to £300M and service moved to embrace digital channels. Mick holds several Non-Executive Director positions and is a partner at Data Advance, a specialist consulting/services business which works with organisations such as Sky Group, Experian Plc, the Cabinet Office, local government and the World Bank.

Mike Wittenstein

CEO, storyminers

Mike Wittenstein is the founder of Storyminers, an experience design consultancy that shows brands how to create customer experiences that delight. Mike started designing customer experiences when he was hired by IBM to serve as their e-Visionary for Global Services. His team launched experiences for brands like Air Canada, Best Buy,..

Mike Wittenstein

CEO, storyminers
Mike Wittenstein is the founder of Storyminers, an experience design consultancy that shows brands how to create customer experiences that delight. Mike started designing customer experiences when he was hired by IBM to serve as their e-Visionary for Global Services. His team launched experiences for brands like Air Canada, Best Buy, and McDonald’s. 

Mike is a recognized expert on customer experience design. He works as a consultant, designer, and speaker. The Apple-ization of Retail is his latest keynote. Mike has successfully adapted the methodology that he uses at global brands to work with mid-market service brands seeking to differentiate themselves. He earned his MBA in services marketing from The Thunderbird School of Global Management. Mike lives in Atlanta and is a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. 

www.MikeWittenstein.com.

Myles Rose

Head of Travel and Media, eGain

Myles Rose heads up the Travel and Media business at eGain. With extensive experience in a number of industries and geographies, Myles joined eGain to focus on developing the rapid growth into these markets. He brings 20 years of Contact Centre expertise in Customer experience analytics, Knowledge management, CRM and Call centre ..

Myles Rose

Head of Travel and Media, eGain

Myles Rose heads up the Travel and Media business at eGain. With extensive experience in a number of industries and geographies, Myles joined eGain to focus on developing the rapid growth into these markets. He brings 20 years of Contact Centre expertise in Customer experience analytics, Knowledge management, CRM and Call centre technologies.

Paul Allen

Head of NPS & Insights, Vodafone

Paul Allen is responsible for driving customer centricity in Vodafone and transforming the customer experience across multiple touchpoints. Through Paul’s leadership, Vodafone now have a holistic vision and approach to driving customer advocacy. The result of which, is a business that consistently strives to meet and exceed cus..

Paul Allen

Head of NPS & Insights, Vodafone
Paul Allen is responsible for driving customer centricity in Vodafone and transforming the customer experience across multiple touchpoints. Through Paul’s leadership, Vodafone now have a holistic vision and approach to driving customer advocacy. The result of which, is a business that consistently strives to meet and exceed customers needs, while achieving tactical revenue, cost reduction, customer satisfaction and retention objectives. 

With over 15 years of corporate and consulting experience and a hybrid skill set of marketing, research and analytics, Paul is a passionate advocate of the power of the Voice of the Customer and its ability to change the way businesses operate. His understanding of customer needs and behaviours, what this means to the service delivery process has enabled Paul to deploy solutions across private and public sector companies, which have proved to deliver both enhanced customer and employee experiences and ultimately delivered improved commercial returns.

Paul Sands

Head of Design & Head of Customer Experience, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd

Paul Sands is Head of Customer Experience Management for Virgin Atlantic. Paul leads the team responsible for overseeing all aspects of the airline’s product and service, from seats, cabins and onboard product, through to the airport experience, check in, lounges, cabin crew, catering, and in-flight entertainment, as well ..

Paul Sands

Head of Design & Head of Customer Experience, Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd

Paul Sands is Head of Customer Experience Management for Virgin Atlantic.  Paul leads the team responsible for overseeing all aspects of the airline’s product and service, from seats, cabins and onboard product, through to the airport experience, check in, lounges, cabin crew, catering, and in-flight entertainment, as well as pre- and post- journey components such as interaction with contact centres.

Prior to this role Paul was a Country Manager, firstly in Japan from Sept 2006 – Feb 2010 and then in Hong Kong from Feb 2010 – Jan 2011, responsible for all aspects of the airline’s business in those markets.  Paul first joined Virgin Atlantic in 1997 as a Commercial Analyst.

Paul has also held a number of travel-related roles outside of Virgin Atlantic including Director of Airlines for Hutchison-Priceline.com, and a management role for the Council on International Educational Exchange.  He holds an MBA with Distinction from Durham University and a PhD focussing on Sustainable Aviation from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Peter Crayfourd

Group Head Customer Lifecycle Experience, Orange

Peter joined Orange Group in December 2007, responsible for developing a group wide customer engagement and business transformation strategy. Orange needed a strategic vision for the way they “engage” with their customers and “prioritise” transversal business change, to help unify the business and deliver ..

Peter Crayfourd

Group Head Customer Lifecycle Experience, Orange

Peter joined Orange Group in December 2007, responsible for developing a group wide customer engagement and business transformation strategy. Orange needed a strategic vision for the way they “engage” with their customers and “prioritise” transversal business change, to help unify the business and deliver an “industrialised” customer centric approach.

With Peter’s leadership, Orange now has an innovative customer engagement vision & delivery methodology called “Mood”. The result of which, is a business that consistently strives to meets and exceeds customers expectations, while achieving tactical revenue, cost reduction and retention objectives via a transversal transformation approach.

Prior to the role at Orange, Peter spent 7 years with 3 in the UK, focused on customer engagement strategy and proposition development, as well as delivering industry leading traditional and handset based, digital customer communications. In his role as Head of Customer Engagement and Development, his remit was to understand what 3 needed to know about their customer’s needs and develop the contact strategy to ensure 3 interacted with each customer in a relevant & timely fashion through the customers preferred channel.

Peter Sinden

Director of Sales & Service, Liverpool Victoria

Peter is an experienced Leader who is passionate about his colleagues and customers. In the last 5 of his 25 yrs at Lloyds TSB he ran the highly successful Insure Direct business, then followed his enthusiasm for developing Customer experience in the Insurance sector took a role running sales for LV= in 2005. This role expanded a..

Peter Sinden

Director of Sales & Service, Liverpool Victoria

Peter is an experienced Leader who is passionate about his colleagues and customers. In the last 5 of his 25 yrs at Lloyds TSB he ran the highly successful Insure Direct business, then followed his enthusiasm for developing Customer experience in the Insurance sector took a role running sales for LV= in 2005. This role expanded as the company transformed from being a ‘sleepy mutual’ into the vibrant modern brand it is today and Peter is now the Director of Sales & Service, leading 1000 staff across 4 sites.

Peter has lead his team to many successes in the last 6 years, as LV= has shot from 12th to become the UK’s fourth largest car insurer. Among the high points have been winning the much prized National Customer Service award for ‘Customer Service Contact Centre of the Year’ back to back – the first time any company has won it twice.

Peter passionately believes in LV’s ‘Virtuous circle’: By putting Colleagues first, Customer satisfaction soars and with loyal customers profits flow. This winning formula has collected 13 additions to his trophy cabinet in the last 12 months as the ‘sharp with a heart mutual’ has returned to healthy profits.

Prelini Udayan-Chiechi

Director, EMEA Marketing, Lithium

As Director of EMEA Marketing at Lithium Technologies, Prelini is responsible for leading the European marketing efforts in one of the most dynamic social communities software companies in the world. With over 16 years marketing experience, Prelini has led marketing initiatives for major blue chip companies such as Lotus Software, IB..

Prelini Udayan-Chiechi

Director, EMEA Marketing, Lithium
As Director of EMEA Marketing at Lithium Technologies, Prelini is responsible for leading the European marketing efforts in one of the most dynamic social communities software companies in the world. With over 16 years marketing experience, Prelini has led marketing initiatives for major blue chip companies such as Lotus Software, IBM, Zurich Financial Services, COLT Telecom and Adobe. Prelini holds a Masters of Science (in marketing) specialising her dissertation research in Customer Experience Management. Joining Lithium in January 2012, Lithium is helping companies change and infuse behaviours of engagement with their customers across all interaction points. With over 300 customers globally and 30+ million users, Lithium continues to be the community software platform of choice. 

Przemek Bukato

Przemek Bukato, Play

Przemek Bukato is a 37-year old graduate from the Warsaw School of Economics. For the last 12 years he has worked in the telecommunications industry, currently in conjunction with Play, the fastest growing mobile operator in Central & Eastern Europe. Before this, Bukato was involved in Polish internet development as a represe..

Przemek Bukato

Przemek Bukato, Play

Przemek Bukato is a 37-year old graduate from the Warsaw School of Economics. For the last 12 years he has worked in the telecommunications industry, currently in conjunction with Play, the fastest growing mobile operator in Central & Eastern Europe. Before this, Bukato was involved in Polish internet development as a representative of worldwide IT industry giants IBM.

At Play, he is tasked with leading special programs and initiatives. As Head of “Rent-A-Smartphone” Project, the first massive smartphone rental project in Europe, together with his team, he has brought to thousands of Poles the ability to use advanced mobile technologies for the first time. Bukato is an expert on mobile internet tools usability, implementation and maintenance costs optimisation.

Przemek Bukato is a pragmatist, an a strong advocate of public technology evolution, industry design and functionality combined with minimalism. 

Richard Watmaugh

Research Manager, BSI

Richard Watmough is Research Manager at BSI. In this role he focuses on understanding the motivations and behaviours of customers and analysing market dynamics and trends. This includes the provision of insight into BSI’s customer satisfaction surveys, including leading the current transition to a new group wide survey. Ric..

Richard Watmaugh

Research Manager, BSI

Richard Watmough is Research Manager at BSI. In this role he focuses on understanding the motivations and behaviours of customers and analysing market dynamics and trends. This includes the provision of insight into BSI’s customer satisfaction surveys, including leading the current transition to a new group wide survey. Richard has a strong commitment to developing and enhancing BSI’s understanding of its customers through effective research and analysis.

Robyn Weeda Stephenson

Director, Worldwide Program Management Office for Support and Customer Experience, Norton

With Symantec for over 10 years, Robyn is currently Director, Worldwide Program Management Office for Support and Customer Experience. Based in Northern California, she has lived and worked on three continents and four countries – South Africa, the U.K., the Netherlands and the United States. Robyn has an extensive Part..

Robyn Weeda Stephenson

Director, Worldwide Program Management Office for Support and Customer Experience, Norton

With Symantec for over 10 years, Robyn is currently Director, Worldwide Program Management Office for Support and Customer Experience. Based in Northern California, she has lived and worked on three continents and four countries – South Africa, the U.K., the Netherlands and the United States.

Robyn has an extensive Partner, Marketing and Program Management background that she is currently applying to driving improvements in Customer Experience globally at Symantec in the Consumer Business Unit (Norton). She has led the team in delivering key improvements in customer support such as a ‘virtual agent’ solution and do-it-yourself options that empower customers. These improvements, combined with a Voice of the Customer program, have increased Symantec’s overall Net Promoter from 35 to 47.

Robyn graduated from the Institute of Marketing Management in Johannesburg, South Africa and has a Net Promoter Customer Loyalty Certification.

Rod Butcher

Head of Customer Experience and Insight, Aviva

Rod joined Commercial Union in 1987. In the early stages of his career he served in various roles in the marketing and product development. More recently he worked in the Group’s Corporate Office in a number of areas such as business development and corporate strategy as well as helping set up two internet ventures for the Grou..

Rod Butcher

Head of Customer Experience and Insight, Aviva
Rod joined Commercial Union in 1987. In the early stages of his career he served in various roles in the marketing and product development. More recently he worked in the Group’s Corporate Office in a number of areas such as business development and corporate strategy as well as helping set up two internet ventures for the Group. 

Rod leads the Customer Experience and Insight team in the global Head Office. Their focus is on building the differentiated Aviva experience, driven through the use of disciplines such as Net Promoter Score (since 2006) and customer journey mapping. His team is also responsible for embedding customer focus into the rhythm of the Group’s risk management and performance monitoring processes.

Royston Guest

CEO, Pti Worldwide

Royston Guest is CEO of Pti Worldwide, a global consultancy and training organisation with a proven track record in delivering business growth, people transformation and peak performance. Driving sustainable business growth - fast, and unlocking the real potential of individuals are Royston’s two professional missions in life. ..

Royston Guest

CEO, Pti Worldwide
Royston Guest is CEO of Pti Worldwide, a global consultancy and training organisation with a proven track record in delivering business growth, people transformation and peak performance. Driving sustainable business growth - fast, and unlocking the real potential of individuals are Royston’s two professional missions in life. 

His fresh, passionate, results-driven style challenges the status quo of both companies and individuals alike. He leaves them inspired, motivated, and energised with ‘real world’ ideas, strategies and methods to achieve their goals – providing a genuine competitive edge, critical in today’s environment. 

As well as being an accomplished Strategist and Consultant, focusing specifically on business growth strategies, sales, leadership and culture, he is also an acclaimed Conference Speaker. Invited to 110 events last year, he inspired over 30,000 people with his ‘fun with a serious intent’ approach, sharing real life stories and practical, down-to-earth tips and techniques for increased personal and professional success.

Rupert Wills

Solution Engineer, Lithium

Rupert Wills has spent over 13 years working within the software industry focusing on application and user experience optimisation. Rupert has had exposure to a broad range of industries including Telecoms, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, Media and Government across Europe. At Lithium, Rupert works with organisations tha..

Rupert Wills

Solution Engineer, Lithium

Rupert Wills has spent over 13 years working within the software industry focusing on application and user experience optimisation. Rupert has had exposure to a broad range of industries including Telecoms, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, Media and Government across Europe.

At Lithium, Rupert works with organisations that want to build engaged communities and assists them in identify how social interaction can help to drive brand loyalty, grow revenues and reduce service costs.

Simon Rainbow

Account Director , eGain

Simon Rainbow joined eGain As an Account Director in the Financial Services Sector for Northern Europe. Simon has a 25 year track record of helping organisations develop customer service/sales initiatives and has worked with brands such as Lloyds, Virgin Media, Sony, Dell and Barclays Bank. Simon is based in eGain’s Slough ..

Simon Rainbow

Account Director , eGain

Simon Rainbow joined eGain As an Account Director in the Financial Services Sector for Northern Europe. Simon has a 25 year track record of helping organisations develop customer service/sales initiatives and has worked with brands such as Lloyds, Virgin Media, Sony, Dell and Barclays Bank. Simon is based in eGain’s Slough office.

Terry Burns

MC,

Terry Burns Trained as an actor at The Central School of Speech & Drama and has worked extensively ever since in TV, theatre, film and for corporate functions. His biggest TV role was as, regular character; Josh Matthews in the Channel 5 soap ‘Family Affairs’, which he played for 2 years...

Terry Burns

MC,
Terry Burns Trained as an actor at The Central School of Speech & Drama and has worked extensively ever since in TV, theatre, film and for corporate functions. His biggest TV role was as, regular character; Josh Matthews in the Channel 5 soap ‘Family Affairs’, which he played for 2 years.

Wendy Schratz

e Experience Director, Sky

Wendy is Director of e Experience at BSkyB, where she has worked for the past two years. Previous to her current role, she worked for HSBC, Egg and the financial services company, Citi, where she was UK Head of Client Care and Direct Sales. Wendy has a degree in Psychology from the University of Exeter...

Wendy Schratz

e Experience Director, Sky

Wendy is Director of e Experience at BSkyB, where she has worked for the past two years. Previous to her current role, she worked for HSBC, Egg and the financial services company, Citi, where she was UK Head of Client Care and Direct Sales.

Wendy has a degree in Psychology from the University of Exeter.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

Founder , The Black Farmer

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was born in Jamaica and came to the UK at the age of four and was raised in inner city Birmingham. He attended a secondary modern school, which he left without gaining any qualifications. In 1994 he founded a food and drink marketing agency in London which ran campaigns for Loyd Grossman sauces, KETTLE..

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

Founder , The Black Farmer

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was born in Jamaica and came to the UK at the age of four and was raised in inner city Birmingham.  He attended a secondary modern school, which he left without gaining any qualifications.

In 1994 he founded a food and drink marketing agency in London which ran campaigns for Loyd Grossman sauces, KETTLE Chips, Plymouth Gin, Cobra Beer and other brands.

In 2000 Wilfred bought a small farm in Devon, and seven years ago launched The Black Farmer food brand whose products are now available in all major multiple retailers.

Last year Wilfred launched the Black Farmer range of rural clothing internet business.

One ofWilfred’s driving forces is to give young people more opportunity. In 2005 he launched a young city farmers scheme through which young people from inner city communities are given the opportunity to experience what it is really like to live and work in the rural community. Young City Farmers is run annually with the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.

In 2011 The University of Plymouth awarded Wilfred an honorary doctorate in business.  He is President of the Meat Training Council, and a member of the Government’s Entrepreneurs forum. Wilfred tours the country giving inspirational talks to entrepreneurs and people starting up businesses.He also mentors young entrepreneurs.

Will McInnes

Managing Director, NixonMcInnes

Will is a founder and Managing Director of NixonMcInnes, a pioneering social business consultancy that works with major organisations that want to use the social web in new and inventive ways, and author of Culture Shock which provides an inspirational guide for better ways to do business in the 21st century (published August 201..

Will McInnes

Managing Director, NixonMcInnes

Will is a founder and Managing Director of NixonMcInnes, a pioneering social business consultancy that works with major organisations that want to use the social web in new and inventive ways, and author of Culture Shock which provides an inspirational guide for better ways to do business in the 21st century (published August 2012). NixonMcInnes itself is constantly experimenting with its own radical management practices and has been recognised by WorldBlu as one of the most democratic workplaces in the world.

Will is a non-executive director of Wired Sussex, which supports the development of the digital business community in Brighton. Will is married with two energetic young boys, is a mountain biking geek, loves camping and eating far too much curry.

Zbigniew Nowicki

CEO and Founder, opiniac.com

Zbigniew Nowicki is an experienced manager in the area of Internet solutions, where making web opportunities make business sense is his objective. He deeply believes in the synergy of on-line and off-line actions, and takes a challenging approach to both of them. For the last few years he has focused on concepts such as use of se..

Zbigniew Nowicki

CEO and Founder, opiniac.com

Zbigniew Nowicki is an experienced manager in the area of Internet solutions, where making web opportunities make business sense is his objective. He deeply believes in the synergy of on-line and off-line actions, and takes a challenging approach to both of them. For the last few years he has focused on concepts such as use of search engines / social media and e-commerce, concentrating on the approach of major players such as Google who are aiming to unify all three.

Zbigniew has been working with interactive solutions for more than 15 years, since the web was in its infancy. He is the founder of the customer platform organisation opiniac.com and a partner in bluerank.com, both of which operate worldwide. Outside of his work, Zbigniew is a keen mountain biker, squash player, a happy father of two, and fan of hard rock and Labrador Retrievers.