Sarah Phelps and John Kryczka

Principal, First Annapolis Consulting, Inc
Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP

Session: Loyalty Program Economics: Managing a Profitable Loyalty Program

Sarah Phelps:

Sarah Phelps is a Principal of First Annapolis Consulting, Inc. and leads the firm’s Loyalty Program Support practice. She has 18 years of client service experience, nearly 10 of which have been at First Annapolis Consulting.

Since joining the firm, she has collaborated with clients across a diverse set of strategic and tactical initiatives. Sarah’s clients are banks, retailers and travel organizations. Her areas of expertise include payment card and tender-neutral program strategies, and financial modeling and forecasting. The clients that she has assisted include some of the nation’s leading brands such as Merrill Lynch, Wachovia Bank, Lord & Taylor, RCI International and Aetna.

She is frequently recognized as a thought leader in the loyalty industry including speaking engagements at the Loyalty Expo and Cards and Payments Loyalty and publications at Loyalty Management, Cards and Payments Magazine, the American Banker and First Annapolis Navigator. Sarah earned her M.B.A. in Finance from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Before joining First Annapolis, Sarah was with the corporate practice of Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC.

John Kryczka:

John Kryczka is a Director in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Actuarial Insurance Management Solutions Practice in Chicago. He has over seventeen years experience providing consulting services to the Property / Casualty Insurance industry and to self insured entities.

John started PricewaterhouseCoopers' customer loyalty actuarial practice back in the mid 1990's. His clientele include some of the world's premier airline, credit card, and hospitality loyalty programs. He has advised marketing managers on best practice strategies to optimize profitability by developing an understanding of the levers impacting customer behavior and breakage. He has also advised finance managers on quantification of the costs of its loyalty program along with measuring the impact of future program changes. John partners with the PwC Hospitality and PwC Banking practices to ensure alignment of actuarial processes and methodologies with applicable accounting principles.

Mr. Kryczka graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from Queen's University. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS), a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA), and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).

Mobile Commerce Solutions Manager, Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Solutions
President and CEO, Impact Mobile
CEO, Gold Mobile; Senior Vice President, Waterfall Mobile

Keep Your Brand Top of Mind and in the Hands of Your Customers

Dana Warszona:

Dana Warszona is the Mobile Commerce Solutions Manager for Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions (EMS) business, with experience in marketing and the mobile device industry. In this role, Dana oversees the development and execution of the M-Commerce Strategy for EMS, including the construction and management of a solution partner ecosystem.

Dana first joined Motorola in 2004 and was a product manager within the Enterprise business. She has since held roles in global marketing and business development under Motorola’s Mobile Device business in the U.S., Singapore, and Australia. Prior to joining Motorola, Dana was an industry analyst with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Frankfurt, Germany.

Dana earned a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University, with concentrations in International Business and Marketing, and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Dana is also a member of the Chicago advisory board for World Vision, a global humanitarian organization.

Gary Schwartz:

Gary Schwartz founded Impact Mobile in 2002 having worked in the IT and telecommunications industry for over 20 years. Over the past eight years, Gary has played a leadership role in the mobile industry, running the first cross-carrier short code campaign in North America, and founding the CWTA Mobile Content Committee to establish policies and increase awareness to promote standards and adoption.

Gary is the founder and co-chair of the Mobile Marketing Committee for the US Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and is a director on the board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF).

Presently, Gary is working actively with the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) to drive a joint task force on retail with a vision to build a "Mobile Store of the Future".

Gary is an honors graduate from Columbia University and the Stanford University Center in Tokyo. He is the recipient of the Macromedia People Choice Award as well as the Dodge Foundation award for innovation.

Impact Mobile has been an industry leader in North America promoting mobile as a media channel. Impact Mobile provides carriers, global agencies and brands managed and self-service marketing platforms for any aspect of their mobile marketing needs. In addition to connecting through national carriers to all mobile subscribers, Impact Mobile activates traditional and digital media and helps drive consumers to high-ROI destinations such as retail point of sale, live event gate, lead generation engine, etc.

Bob Gold:

Bob is a rare combination of business entrepreneur, strategic visionary and technologist. Bob has over 15 years of research and expertise in “digital-to-human persuasion and intimacy” that has resulted in changing behaviors. Bob is currently CEO of Gold Mobile, and has used his behavioral knowledge to create a robust mobile CRM platform and behavioral methodologies that drive consumer engagement and loyalty.

Recently, Gold Mobile introduced a mobile loyalty platform that delivers real-time wireless carrier commerce and communications functionality for retail, hospitality, and corporate/brand loyalty and reward programs.

Matthew Silk:

Matthew Silk is Senior Vice President for Waterfall Mobile, Inc., responsible for corporate development, strategic partnerships, and client services. He leads the marketing and media efforts for the company's West coast operations as general manager of Waterfall's Austin office.

Prior to joining Waterfall Mobile, Silk held a number of senior positions with E*TRADE Financial. As Director, Retail Product Management, he was responsible for all web brokerage and core user experience products. He integrated and led the product steering committee and delivered one of the largest trading initiatives in the company's history. Over his tenure he led several site re-designs, launched an in-house charting system, and re-engineered their content architecture and aggregation strategies.

He also worked at Xircom, Inc., acquired by Intel, as a Business Analyst managing all primary and secondary research for product planning and industry tracking purposes. He began his career as a business consultant for the Wharton Small Business Development Center where he managed a portfolio of clients providing one-on-one management consulting to entrepreneurs in the Philadelphia region.

Silk received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania .

Senior Director, Loyalty and Credit Marketing, Saks Fifth Avenue
Consultant, LoyaltyOne Consulting

Loyalty as a Listening Device: Saks and LoyaltyOne Use Data to Indulge the Customer

Andrew Pyper:

Andrew Pyper is Senior Director of Loyalty and Credit Marketing at Saks Fifth Avenue. In this role, Andrew leads a team with responsibility for the Saks’ loyalty program SAKSFIRST, marketing and acquisition of the Saks Fifth Avenue World Elite MasterCard^® and Saks Private Label Credit Card, the Saks Fifth Avenue Gift Card program and new customer acquisition efforts. Throughout these various responsibilities, Andrew’s team is focused on leveraging different payment types to drive customer loyalty and differentiate Saks Fifth Avenue in the competitive luxury retail market.

Prior to joining Saks, Andrew spent seven years at American Express in the Establishment Services division in a variety of roles. Most recently, he was Director of Client Development in the Strategic Relationship Group leading a team of Client Managers responsible for the American Express relationship with major supermarket and drug store retailers in the US.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

Guy Dilger:

As a LoyaltyOne consultant, Guy advises on best practices in all areas of loyalty marketing, including program development and implementation, relationship marketing strategy and tactical planning and execution. He draws on a wealth of experience in creating loyalty solutions for high-profile brands, with a particular expertise in supporting strategic marketing goals with innovative tactics designed to drive revenue and market share. He is part of a team of senior consultants who work with many well-known consumer-focused companies, including Walgreens, Target, Canadian Tire and Ulta Cosmetics.

Prior to joining LoyaltyOne, Guy held a senior position with Sears Holdings, where he managed national customer-centric loyalty initiatives for Sears and Kmart. Previously he was part of the management team at Limited Brands, where his loyalty marketing work in support of the Express brand included CRM, email/web-based programs and the redesign and relaunch of a private-label credit card. He began his career in information systems with AT&T and subsequently progressed through a series of product management and brand/customer marketing roles with Sabre Holdings.

Based in Chicago, Guy has an MBA and a B.S. in Economics from Southern Methodist University. He also completed a graduate exchange program in international marketing at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain..

President, The Daniel Group
Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Whayne Supply

Strengthening the Engagement Between Industrial Customers and Employees - Little Things Matter

Lynn Daniel:

With over 30 years of experience with industrial companies, Lynn has earned the role of expert in B2B customer service and loyalty. His background includes management consulting with turnaround firm Norelli & Company, corporate planning and new product management with manufacturer Rexam Corporation, and sales management with Eli Lilly & Company.

In 1989, he started The Daniel Group as a consulting firm focused primarily on manufacturers and companies who operate in the B2B space. After identifying the need for B2B corporations to truly measure, manage and improve the level of service they offer their customers, Lynn launched the ServicePerformance program in 2005. This program with it's unique focus on providing industrials with actionable short-term data and long-term change management data has grown into several national markets, especially among large construction equipment dealers and material handling distributors.

Lynn has written articles that have appeared in Long Range Planning, The Journal of Business Strategy, and The Business Journal. He has been quoted in the New York Times, Business NC, CBS MarketWatch, and INC, among others. He is the president of the board of trustees of the North Carolina State University Alumni Association. His education includes a BA from North Carolina State University and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

Richard Scott:

Richard M. Scott is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Whayne Supply based in Louisville, KY. Originally from Atlanta, Richard graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial Management.

Richard's 30+ years of experience working in the forest product and large equipment dealer industries included opportunities in finance, sales management and operations. Whayne Supply is one of the top performing Caterpillar dealers in the U.S. adding supperior value to its clients through a comprehensive product line and quality service reputation.

Blessed with a wonderful wife and five children, Richard's and his entire family are avid Georgia Tech football fans.

President, Insight and Communicatons, LMG North America
Global Vice President, Loyalty, Carlson Marketing Worldwide

Workshop: The Loyalty Journey: Moving from the 'Little L' to the 'Big L'

Mike Blyth:

Mike has been involved in the Customer Centric Retailing and Shopper Marketing arenas for the last 15 years. He has held a number of senior management roles with Groupe Aeroplan’s Loyalty Management Group, Information Resources, Inc., 121eMarketing and Nielsen’s Spectra Marketing Systems.

He has developed customer strategies, execution roadmaps, analytics and CRM platforms and implementation plans for Grocery, Drug, Convenience, Dollar, Mass and Club retailers and their Supplier Partners. He has had experiences in the Consumer Package Industry in several line roles with Kraft Foods and with CPG LBOs.

Mike holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a Master in Food Chemistry from Reading University in the United Kingdom.

Luc Bondar:

Luc Bondar is responsible for leading the global Loyalty Marketing team to design and implement powerful customer loyalty programs that recognize valuable customers and reward their loyal behavior.

Luc builds on Carlson’s deep roots in loyalty marketing (Gold Bond Stamps in 1938) with an eye toward current day research and full integration with other marketing services. In a time where so many companies are offering basic loyalty programs, it’s more important than ever that programs focus on long-term customer retention. Carlson Marketing uses loyalty programs not as an end in itself, but as a stepping stone to better understand the customer (or employee or vendor). That knowledge creates the ability to build a better strategy to delight, and keep, the customer.

Most recently, Luc was Planning & Business Development Director, Carlson Marketing Asia Pacific. He helped build customer loyalty programs into a specialty for Carlson Marketing Australia, which helped propel that office as the fasting growing for Carlson Marketing globally for over five years. Luc joined Carlson Marketing in 1999 working in the UK and Australia, with a brief, two-year stint at Leo Burnett as Account Director. He successfully managed a portfolio of clients that included BATA, Toyota, Eurotunnel and Budget Rent-a-Car, as well as executing consulting assignments for Visa International, Woolworths and Westfield.

Luc holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in international marketing, information systems and a Bachelor of Arts degree in southeast Asian history, international politics from the University of Adelaide, south Australia. He also holds a postgraduate certificate in management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management and is working toward his MBA.

Vice President, Enterprise Marketing Management Solutions, Comarch

Workshop: Look Beyond the Superficial: Find Your Perfect Loyalty Partner

Marcin Kosciak:

Marcin Kosciak leads the team responsible for research and development of loyalty and reward programs built and implemented worldwide. From the very beginning of his career at Comarch, Mr. Kosciak has initiated and formulated many innovative solutions that have made their way into Comarch Loyalty Management, one of the world’s most advanced loyalty management systems.

His duties also encompass consulting/concept development, the creation of business plans as well as project management. Mr. Kosciak worked in Europe as Product Manager of Comarch Loyalty Management system and Director of Loyalty Solution Consulting Department at Comarch SA.

Involved in several projects intended for coalition loyalty programs, finance and banking, retail, airlines and hospitality, telecommunication operators industries. Mr. Kosciak graduated with his Master’s in Management from the University of Economics in Cracow and in Education from the Resovia University. Lecturer of project management related subjects.

President, Fairlane Group
Founder, Chairman, & CEO, edo Interactive
Director, Strategic Solutions, ePrize, CEO, Circles

Session: Success in Loyalty comes down to Survival of the Fittest

Bruce Silcoff:

Bruce Silcoff holds an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship and is widely recognized as being one of the world’s foremost experts on loyalty. Bruce taught a course on Organizational Behavior at McGill University, in Montreal from 1986-1988.

Bruce founded The Fairlane Group of Companies in 1991 following successful marketing stints at Procter & Gamble and Kraft General Foods. Today, The Fairlane Group is a global leader in the development and execution of loyalty programs with 9 offices around the world.

Bruce considers himself to be the Walt Disney of loyalty. He dares to be a visionary and has the ability to make future dreams a reality. Bruce’s passion around loyalty is contagious and he is often approached to give lectures on the subject. Most recently, Bruce was a featured speaker at the 2009 Motivation Show in Chicago. His topic was, “Optimizing customer loyalty: Learn how to talk to their listening”.

Ed Braswell:

Mr. Braswell is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of edo Interactive, founded in June of 2007. Prior to edo Interactive, Mr. Braswell was President and CEO of LINK2GOV Corporation, a Metavante company. Metavante acquired LINK2GOV in November of 2005. Mr. Braswell was appointed President in 2003 and became President and CEO in 2005.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Braswell held the position of Executive Vice President of Sales and Business Development. He was with L2G for over seven years. Mr. Braswell served on LINK2GOV’s five member Board of Directors.

Prior to L2G, he served as Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Premiere Technologies (NASDAQ-PTEK) where he managed a worldwide sales organization. Mr. Braswell's professional experience also includes executive level sales management with Centigram Communications Corp. (NASDAQ-CGRM) and ROLM, an IBM Telecommunications subsidiary.

Mr. Braswell currently serves on the Boards of FactorTrust based out of Atlanta, GA and MyPaynet located in California.

Kimberley Brennan:

Kimberley Brennan is a Director of Strategic Services at ePrize. Heading into her 4th year at ePrize, she's been an integral part of ePrize's loyalty business, working with some of the top brands across multiple verticals to design, deliver and implement comprehensive program strategies and performance analysis.

Brennan's 10+ years of focusing on CRM and retention marketing in both the US & Canadian markets have made her a truly balanced advocate of the consumer and the bottom line. She previously served in marketing roles at Weight Watchers and Bell Mobility. Brennan earned her B.A. at Carleton University and an Advertising Honors degree at Canada's Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology.

Michael Breault:

Michael Breault is CEO of Circles, the world’s largest concierge provider. A seven-year company veteran, Breault was named President of Circles at the completion of its acquisition by Sodexo in October 2007, and became CEO in 2009.

Over the past few years, Breault has led the company’s global expansion into the United Kingdom, France, Brussels, Luxembourg, and Sweden and continues to spearhead its international growth. Driven by Breault’s unwavering commitment to creating a global concierge platform that will deliver consistent and familiar service to clients’ customers worldwide, Circles’ acquisition and integration of new business models keeps concierge on the forefront of innovation.

Breault is also the driving force behind the firm’s proprietary knowledge management initiative, which is uniquely designed to reinforce the link between emerging technology, superior customer experience and local expertise. By continuously developing its technology, Circles creates interfaces that dynamically redefine the interactions between a client and their customers and employees - ultimately driving brand advocacy.

Prior to joining Circles, Michael served as Director, Vice President - Global Cross Marketing at Citigroup. He was responsible for identifying new revenue opportunities for Citigroup's business units by leveraging the existing customer base. Previously, he was the North American Brand Manager for British Airway’s Concorde, First and Business Class and led their loyalty program, British Airways Executive Club. Prior to British Airways, Michael worked for Young & Rubicam.

CEO and Founder, Geehan Group
Vice President and Head of Law School Business Unit, LexisNexis

Keys to Successful Loyalty & Reward Programs for B2B Firms

Sean Geehan:

Sean Geehan is CEO and Founder of Geehan Group, the leader in guiding B2B executives to building sustainable, predictable, profitable growth. His book, The B2B Executive Playbook, will be available in June 2010.

Sean started his career and EF McDonald and Carlson Marketing, then worked for a incentive product manufacturer as the VP of Sales and Marketing. After that he was a consultant to the Incentive and loyalty industry for another decade.

Sean has more than 20 years experience in the area of B2B consulting services and is the recognized expert on driving loyalty, revenue and earnings predictability in B2B organizations. Geehan’s system has been applied to market leaders such as Microsoft, Standard Register, Harris, LexisNexis, NCR, Cintas, Quest Diagnostics, Dell, Interwoven, Xerox and Intel.

Sean received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002 and since has been inducted into the E&Y National Hall of Fame. He holds a BA in Marketing/Finance and an MBA from the University of Dayton. He has also attended executive programs at Columbia, Northwestern and Harvard.

Scott Collins:

Scott Collins is Vice President and head of law school business unit at LexisNexis. He has responsibility for driving transformation strategy to increase preference in law schools and publishing revenue in law schools. He is also tasked with establishing connections between the law school business and commercial business. His team also oversees a significant incentive and loyalty program for this segment.

Prior to LexisNexis, Scott built a strong reputation for being a results-oriented leader by achieving quantifiable success in sales, marketing, operations and general management areas. Scott came to LexisNexis from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt where he was Senior Vice President of National Sales for a $300 million division.

Previously, he was Vice President of Global Sales Enablement at Sterling Commerce, a division of AT&T. During 14 years prior to that, Scott held increasing levels of responsibility at Reynolds & Reynolds, most recently as Vice President of Marketing & Strategy. He began his career in pricing and financial analysis at NCR Corporation. Scott holds a BA in business and economics from Wittenberg University and an MBA in marketing from University of Notre Dame.

President & CEO, First Vice President, Loyalty & Rewards
Managing Principal, Strategic Affinity, Director Loyalty & Retention

Employee Training Panel - Brand Ambassadors

Jim Menadier:

As President of Maritz Loyalty & Motivation, Menadier is responsible for the strategic direction and management of sales and operations business units of Maritz Loyalty & Motivation. Prior to joining Maritz, Menadier was general manager and chief operating officer at AEIS (American Express Incentive Services), and was with AEIS for thirteen years in various positions.

Menadier joined AEIS as chief financial officer at the company's inception in 1997, and also held numerous financial/analytical positions with the American Express parent company in New York City and in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Menadier earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from Rutgers University, Newark College of Arts and Sciences and an M.B.A. in finance from Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Stef Anderson:

Stef Anderson is the First Vice President for Loyalty and Rewards at SunTrust Bank. In this role, he oversees the Bank’s consumer and small business rewards program, SunTrust Rewards, and is responsible for expansion of this program beyond the card product set. Prior to joining SunTrust, Stef managed Bank of America’s Corporate Travel Card product in the Bank’s Treasury Product division, during which time he led the Bank’s effort to expand the Bank’s large corporate card offering outside of North America. Prior to joining Bank of America, Stef managed various aspects of the Consumer Card Rewards Program at Merrill Lynch.

Stef received his M.B.A. in Finance and International Business from New York University’s Stern School and his B.A. from Connecticut College.

Adam Bashe:

Adam Bashe has over 20 years of experience in developing loyalty and affinity partnerships. Currently, Adam is Managing Principal for Strategic Affinity, a consulting firm assisting clients in the creation of customer loyalty strategies.

Previously, Adam was a Managing Director at Destination Maternity Corporation where he developed the Futuretrust college savings program. Prior to joining Destination Maternity, Adam also spent time at Upromise as Director of Business Development and was responsible for the development of the member value proposition during the pre-launch and launch periods.

Adam was introduced to the field of loyalty as a senior executive at Kessler Financial Services where he was responsible for the establishment of more than 450 affinity and co-branded credit card partnership programs on behalf of MBNA America. Partners included Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, and sports related properties.

Samuel Schwalb:

Samuel is a marketing and business development executive in Atlanta, GA with broad experience in loyalty and retention marketing, customer service, account management and product marketing.

Samuel led the development of a loyalty group at Sprint/Nextel for a five year period, and most recently was named Director of Loyalty and Retention at Kaiser Permanente Health Plan. He started his career in banking with NationsBank in Charlotte, where he also earned an MBA in Marketing. Samuel resides in Atlanta with his wife (and cat!).

Samuel has a particular affinity for B2B loyalty marketing and the science of proactive customer retention modeling.

Dave Sims:

Dave Sims is Vice President, Direct Marketing at GNC (General Nutrition Centers.)

With an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati, Dave served 8 years in the U.S. Navy onboard nuclear submarines, where he was also a Navy Diver. Following that he spent 7 years at Procter & Gamble in various Information Technology roles in Manufacturing, Interactive Marketing, E-Commerce, and Business Intelligence. He joined Retail Ventures, Inc. in August 2003 to deliver an in-house CRM solution for Value City Department Stores, Filene’s Basement and DSW. In November 2005 Dave became Director of Customer Marketing for DSW where he ran the award-winning DSW Rewards program. In December 2007 Dave moved to Toys R Us/Babies R Us to assume role of Director of Gift Registry and Customer loyalty. In this role he launched the Rewards R Us loyalty program in September 2008. In February 2009 he assumed his current role at GNC, where he owns the Gold Card program, and has responsibility for customer communications as well as Digital Marketing.

Dave is a 2-time Hawaii Ironman finisher, but now prefers to channel his competitive spirit into coaching his daughter’s U-6 soccer team (even though we don’t keep score!)

Hanifin Loyalty, LLC
Groupon, The Coca-Cola Company
Boire Filler Group, Tasti D-Lite

Nurturing Loyalty Through Social Media

Bill Hanifin:

Bill Hanifin is Managing Director of Hanifin Loyalty LLC, a marketing services firm focused on the preparation and delivery of custom measurable marketing programs designed to create profitability for its clients.

With over 25 years experience encompassing data driven marketing, payment systems, and financial services, Bill has designed and successfully executed Customer Strategies for leading organizations around the world. These solutions address a range of client business objectives from customer engagement, account acquisition, customer retention, sales & channel performance improvement, and new product launches.

Hanifin Loyalty has worked with companies in the airline, banking, hotel, retail, telecom, and business services sectors providing a range of services including strategic market plan design, implementation and support services, financial models to support Customer Strategy execution and measurement plans to support business case and ongoing strategy evaluation.

A partial Client list includes BBVA Bancomer, FirstCaribbean Int’l Bank, JM Associates Federal Credit Union, Scotiabank, Visa, and Vitacost.com.

Bill serves as North American Contributing Editor – The Wise Marketer, is a member of the Retail Wire Brain Trust, and publishes thoughts on customer centric marketing via his Loyalty Truth blog www.LoyaltyTruth.com. He is a Founding Member of the Customer Strategy Network (http://www.CustomerStrategyNetwork.com). Complete information may be found at www.HanifinLoyalty.com

John Becvar:

John is the Director of Loyalty Marketing at Groupon - http://www.groupon.com where he leads CRM and their rewards and recognition programs. Groupon is a social buying site featuring daily deals on the best stuff to do, eat, see and buy in more than 50 cities across the US and in Canada.

Prior to Groupon, John spent the last 15 years working in loyalty and strategic marketing positions at Citibank, United Mileage Plus®, iDine Rewards Network and Sears Holdings. John has an extensive background in interactive marketing, partnering with other companies to achieve acquisition and engagement goals, creating new business ventures, launching products and services and reinventing marketing programs using web and social networking.

Michael La Kier:

Michael La Kier is a Marketing Director at The Coca-Cola Company, currently on special assignment with a critical grocery store partner where is lending his expertise to build marketing strategies and capabilities. He has been with Coca-Cola for over thirteen years in a variety of roles including, promotional marketing, innovation, interactive and brand management.

Prior to his current role, Michael served as strategic head and general manager for MY COKE REWARDS where he created an award-winning program that grew by over 200% and became the premiere consumer loyalty platform among CPG companies. Michael previously was responsible for the POWERADE business in the United States; under his leadership the brand doubled in size and became a billion dollar brand.

Before his career at Coca-Cola, Michael worked in the advertising and direct marketing industries for such clients as Save the Children, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and Ford Motor Company. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising from the University of Texas and an MBA from Georgia State University. He also serves on the Board of Directors of The Coca-Cola Family Federal Credit Union where he led the creation of a new brand positioning and marketing direction to better serve its member-owners.

Larry Filler:

Larry is a partner with the Boire Filler Group (BFG), a company he co-founded in 1999. BFG specializes in Predictive Analytics, Data Management, Business Intelligence Reporting, and Customer Value Management. BFG’s solutions are delivered to Fortune 500 organizations across almost all business sectors.

With more than 20 years of relationship and database marketing experience Larry has developed the ability to bridge the gap between complex mathematical & data mining techniques and the need to build more effective marketing/business solutions.

Larry’s marketing career includes six years with American Express. Three years at LoyaltyOne, advising retail clients on how to leverage Canada’s largest consumer rewards program. Prior to starting BFG, he spent three years in Advertising at MacLaren McCann Relationship Marketing where his main client was General Motors.

Larry has a BSc. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, and an MBA in Marketing from York University. Larry also shares his expertise at seminars and lectures held numerous organizations including, the Canadian Marketing Association, DM News, Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing, George Brown College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He is currently a member of The Customer Strategy Network, A professional organization linking independent relationship and loyalty marketing practitioners from around the world.

BJ Emerson:

BJ Emerson brings a strong blend of technical and creative abilities to his role as Social Technology Officer for Tasti D-Lite. In his 12 years of experience, BJ has overseen the rapid expansion of technologies to include providing hosted applications for entire franchise networks.

In 2005, BJ led the deployment of a $2M Corporate and Franchise Enterprise technology platform which won a Microsoft Pinnacle award for Excellence in 2006.
Featured in Twitter’s Business 101 Case Studies, BJ has spearheaded the integration of the Tasti D-Lite brand experience with online communities by engaging customers and working with franchisees to expand the brand through social media.

Recently, BJ led the development of the first ever loyalty program to feature a full POS integration with social networks Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

President, Affinion Loyalty Group; President, Young America
Vice President, Loyalty Programs, Delta Air Lines, Inc; Vice President, Behavioral Economist, Mintel International Group
Marketing Division Lead, Loyalty & Product Design, Barclaycard

New Economy, New Consumer: Engaging the Post Recession Consumer

Marti Beller:

Marti Beller, President of Affinion Loyalty Group (ALG), is a veteran in the loyalty industry with more than 14 years of experience developing and managing loyalty programs for some of most recognizable brands.

Prior to becoming President in 2001, Marti led the IT organization for ALG and subsequently was the Chief Operating Officer. Considered a visionary throughout Affinion, as well as the industry, Marti has led the company from a small niche player to a relied upon market leader.

In 2003, Marti was invited to participate in the Washington, DC chapter of Young Presidents’ Organization, where she remains an active member and contributor. In addition to her professional activities and accomplishments, Marti has served on the Make-A-Wish board for the past 6 years and continues to donate her time and resources to the organization she cares deeply about.

Mark Shipley:

As President of Young America, Mark Shipley is responsible for strategy and overall performance of the country’s leading provider of Engagement Marketing Solutions. From Young America’s headquarters in Edina, MN Shipley leads an organization that assist clients in the areas of customer acquisition, growth and retention by delivering solutions including consumer loyalty, employee incentives, rebates, cause marketing, sampling and sweepstakes to an expanding portfolio of Fortune 500 companies.

A pioneer in the area of customer loyalty, Shipley has held senior management positions with Affinion Loyalty Group, MasterCard and Maritz Loyalty Marketing where he was the founder and chief architect of Maritz entry into the loyalty marketing space. In his current and prior positions, Shipley’s innovations have sparked dramatic growth for clients. He is active as a speaker and has been published in numerous business publications.

Shipley possess sixteen years of loyalty marketing and corporate management expertise and an additional fifteen years of sales management and training. Mark holds a Master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, MO and a Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University.

Jeff Robertson:

Jeff Robertson is currently Vice President of the SkyMiles Program at Delta. He leads a team of 50+ employees who are responsible for managing the largest loyalty program in the world. His responsibilities include all domestic and international frequent flier alliances, all non-transportation partnerships – including car, hotel and credit card partners, the elite program, elite benefits, award travel and all SkyMiles technology.

Prior to this, Jeff was Director of the Customer Insight and Analytics team, where he was responsible for corporate CRM objectives, Marketing Research and Customer Analytics.

Prior to joining Delta, Jeff was a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company. He spent two years in McKinsey’s Atlanta Office where he worked throughout the U.S. on clients in the airline, telecommunications, media, retail and high-tech industries.

Throughout most of the 1990’s, Jeff worked with American Airlines in Dallas-Forth Worth, where he held various positions in Revenue Management, New Product Development and in the AAdvantage frequent flier program. While at American, he led the planning, design and implementation of American’s $430 million fleet refurbishment effort, one of the largest capital efforts for the company outside of new aircraft purchases.

Jeff holds an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame. Jeff is also a Certified Public Accountant and worked for two years with Price Waterhouse Coopers between undergraduate and graduate school.

Jeff resides in downtown Atlanta with his two chocolate labs, and is an avid tennis player. He is a member of both the U.S. Tennis Association and the Atlanta Lawn and Tennis Association, where he captains multiple Men’s and Mixed teams.

Susan Menke:

Susan Menke is currently Vice President, Behavioral Economist at Mintel International Group in Chicago Illinois. Susan joined Mintel in October 2005 and is responsible for analyzing market trends, as well as editing Mintel’s Financial Services Industry reports, an in-depth market research series focused on the consumers’ perspective. Her role involves extensive analysis of developments in the insurance, investments and banking sectors, and developing reports that are tailored to the needs of these industries. As an industry expert, Susan has appeared on television and radio, including interviews on Fox Business News and NPR radio, and has been quoted extensively in a number of publications, such as American Banker, U.S. News and World Report, Money Management Executive, Cards & Payments, and others.

Susan has been in market research and financial services for more than twenty years. Before joining Mintel, she held positions in marketing at Fidelity Investments and other companies in the industry, and taught International Finance at Boston College. Susan has a Masters Degree in Finance and a Ph.D. in Economic Anthropology from the Ohio State University. Her primary areas of research have been Consumer Behavior and Financial Markets.

Mintel (www.mintel.com) is a worldwide leader of competitive media, product and consumer intelligence. For more than 30 years, Mintel has provided key insight into leading global trends. Its subsidiary, Comperemedia (http://www.comperemedia.com), is the premier database for direct mail and print advertising in the US and Canada, which tracks trends and competitive strategy across industries including credit cards, telecom, banking, insurance, travel, and investments.

Geri Green:

Geri joined Barclaycard US in June of 2002 and is responsible for the development and oversight of Barclaycard US custom loyalty strategies and product design. Geri has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry focused on marketing strategy including new product development, acquisition, customer management and business development.

Prior to joining Barclays, Geri spent over 10 years with Providian and 5 years at Fleet Bank. Geri’s career at Providian included 3 years as Vice President of New Product Development where she launched and expanded a new direct consumer business line.

In her 8 years with Barclays, Geri has been instrumental in delivering custom loyalty programs as diverse as Barnes & Noble, Princess Cruises and UBS. Geri holds bank patents for loyalty design and is an active participant in financial services forums focused on loyalty.

Geri holds a B.A. from the St. Joseph ’s University.

President and Founder, VeraCentra
Managing Partner, The Whetstone Edge
Corporate Vice President, Women's Market, New York Life Insurance

Winning Profitable Customer Relationships

Connie Hill:

Connie Hill, President and Founder of VeraCentra, brings more than twenty five years experience delivering strategy and execution services to the marketing community. Ms. Hill’s passion for technology and process drives VeraCentra to innovate new platforms that help marketers manage the complexities of data driven, customer relevant programs and campaigns.

As President, Ms. Hill is responsible for charting VeraCentra’s long term strategic direction and driving daily business operations. Under Ms. Hill’s leadership the company has grown from a boot strap start up to a multi-million dollar industry leader, delivering on the promise of relevant communication, at a price today’s ROI-conscious marketers can afford.

Dr. John Todor:

Dr. Todor is a psychologist and business strategy consultant who looks at the world from the customers’ perspective. He analyzes how changes in technology, the marketplace and society impact what customers’ value and how they make decisions. Based on these insights he helps clients create programs that lead to sustainable and profitable, win-win relationships.

Barbara Cerf:

Barbara joined New York Life Insurance in April, 2006, after working in Fortune 500 companies such as IBM where she was director of Marketing for the 1996 Olympics and later became Director of Marketing for ibm.com. She has also worked in management at Metropolitan Life, McGraw-Hill and Pitney Bowes. She co-founded and was CMO for a B2B dotcom and ran her own marketing consulting firm with clients ranging from IBM, Starwood Hotels, GE, to Air France, Descente America, and women’s travel companies. She began her career as a journalist and then was involved in government in Boston and on the Mayor’s Committee to improve the status of women.

She is a baby boomer, caught in the sandwich generation, and a gourmet cook. Barbara is married to her husband Pete and has two grown children; Jarod, a writer, and Jordan, a young autistic adult. She is on the core leadership team of New York Life’s Women’s Leadership Program, and is also on the board of directors for Events of the Heart, an organization dedicated to making women heart healthy.

Barbara is a life coach and mentors families with special needs children. She is also an advocate for programs for young adults with autism.

Chief Community Officer, Lithium Technologies
Community Manager, Best Buy

Driving Retail Consumer Loyalty and Engagement Through Community

Joe Cothrel:

Widely recognized for his pioneering work in online communities in business, Joe serves as Lithium's Chief Community Officer. In this role, Joe is responsible for thought-leadership, research, and innovations that will drive the next generation of successful enterprise customer communities and networks.

Joe's work with online communities began in 1996, when he conducted the first comprehensive research study into successful practices for managing online communities. Since that time, he has worked as a consultant and researcher with nearly 300 companies using online communities to create more productive relationships with customers, partners, and employees.

While at Lithium, Joe has played a key role in launching successful communities for large, enterprise companies such as Barnes & Noble, Comcast, Juniper Networks, Linksys, PayPal, Symantec, and many others. Joe's previous roles include Vice President of Community Management Services at Lithium and Vice President of Research at Participate Systems.

Prior to that, Joe worked as a senior researcher in the Global Best Practices Group, now part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on collaborative technologies, corporate performance measurement, and business process improvement. He began his career in a utilities and telecommunications consulting practice at Ernst & Young.

Gina Debogovich:

Gina Debogovich is the Best Buy Community Manager and provides strategic direction for the enterprise's online community engagements. Her team of Community Connectors moderate Best Buy's bilingual community forum - http://forums.bestbuy.com.

She engages directly with customers on Twitter; appears in Best Buy's vlogs; and writes “Best Living,” one of Best Buy's blogs http://tinyurl.com/Gina-BBY. Through these engagements, Gina aims to showcase Best Buy as a concerned and connected retailer; bring the power of Best Buy’s people to customers in need and create meaningful communication in a virtual world.

Gina has worked with online communication for over a decade and holds two graduate degrees, one in psychology and the other in IT.

Chief Marketing Officer, Vesdia Corporation
Vice President, National Sales, AMC Theatres
Manager, Partner Marketing, Hawaiian Airlines

We're In This Together and Together We Are Strong!

Lars Holmquist:

Lars is responsible for business development, specifically optimizing the growing demand for Vesdia's turnkey merchant-funded reward solutions within the financial services industry. Holmquist brings a wealth of experience to his role. He was formerly President of TSYS Loyalty, where he led the company's growth in their end-to-end loyalty services and successfully developed and expanded relationships with many of the nation's top card issuing financial institutions.

Prior to TSYS, Mr. Holmquist was the vice president of Loyalty Consulting Services for MasterCard International. His responsibilities included their U.S. business development and client management areas, where he again successfully partnered with financial institutions to maximize the growing demand for customer loyalty solutions. Holmquist also spent two years with Brierley & Partners, a targeted marketing and loyalty agency, and nearly nine years with American Express, in both Sweden and the U.S. Mr. Holmquist has an M.B.A. in marketing and international business from New York University and a B.A. from Colgate University.

Scott Wall:

Scott Wall is Vice President of National Sales for AMC Theatres, a leading movie theatre exhibition company. Since joining AMC in October 2007, Scott has led the growth of the organization’s ancillary revenue products including the gift card and discounted movie ticket products through various sales channels.

Scott also has played an active role in developing new partnerships and marketing initiatives to build brand differentiation and create share shift opportunities. Prior to joining AMC, Scott worked with other consumer brands including Capital One, Sprint and Bushnell Performance Optics. Scott is a graduate of the University of Missouri.

Lori Joy Watanabe:

Ms. Watanabe manages the ground earnings channel of HawaiianMiles, Hawaiian Airlines’ loyalty program. She oversees new business partner development, and spearheads email, social media, on-site and online promotions and communications that reward HawaiianMiles members and drive business for channel partners.

Hawaiian Airlines is the State of Hawaii’s biggest and longest-serving airline, and the largest provider of passenger air service to Hawaii from 10 gateways cities on the continental U.S., as well as service to the Philippines, Australia, American Samoa, and Tahiti. Hawaiian also provides more than 150 daily jet flights between the Hawaiian Islands.

CEO & President, rDialogue
Vice President, Customer Marketing and Relationships, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants

Brand-Driven Engagement: Strategies, Real World Examples and Measures via Loyalty Marketing and Beyond

Phil Rubin:

Phil has nearly 20 years of strategic marketing experience with an emphasis on loyalty and relationship marketing, integrated communications, partnership development, promotions and program development.

He founded the loyalty practice at Loyaltyworks and led the spin-off in to rDialogue, where he was worked with clients including Sprint, Leading Hotels of the World, Kimpton Hotels, Caribou Coffee, Palm Restaurants, Merial and several famous companies that can’t be named publicly (e.g., a legendary customer-centric department store and a large global shipping company).

Natalie White:

Natalie White oversees hotel and restaurant customer marketing. Her career began in hotel operations in 1994, working in all departments within the hotel. She joined Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants in May of 2007.

She oversees the loyalty program, Kimpton InTouch and the Women InTouch program. She is responsible for all database marketing and has increased customer perception and revenue by working closely with the revenue and sales teams.

She is focused on awareness for Kimpton Restaurants and strategies for the future. She is expanding the needs for the interests of customers and concentrating on delivering value on that promise with Pet Friendly, LGBT, Women InTouch, Food and Wine, Earth care, and Romance.

She graduated from New Mexico State University with degrees in Marketing and Hotel Management. She is originally from North Dakota.

Division Manager, Loyalty Solutions, First Data
Director, Marketing Communications, Compass Group

A New Recipe for Loyalty Programs

Stuart Kiefer:

Stuart Kiefer is responsible the strategic focus, new product development and innovation for Loyalty and Personalized Marketing at First Data. Kiefer has more than 10 years of experience in creating, launching and managing loyalty-marketing programs.

Prior to his current role, Stuart managed large direct/database marketing relationships on behalf of First Data’s Donnelley Marketing Group. These efforts focused on the acquisition, retention and profitability of various credit card portfolios as well as the cross-sell efforts of partnering financial institutions. Also under Kiefer’s direction with the Donnelley group was First Data’s initial entry into the database management arena.

Before joining First Data, Kiefer spent more than seven years with America Online (AOL) developing and managing the company’s loyalty and reward programs. These programs were designed to acquire new customers, retain existing customers and drive specific consumer behavior on the AOL network. Kiefer also managed joint-venture programs with the American Airlines AAdvantage program and the Upromise College Savings program.

Stuart received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Beth Simpson:

As Director of Marketing Communications for the Compass Group Systems and Technology Department, Beth Simpson provides leadership to the Field Systems Marketing and Sales team and partners with the Compass Group Business Excellence team to identify and bring to market customer facing technology and innovations.

She is responsible for setting the strategic goals, policies and procedures and enhancing the contribution marketing and communications makes to the success of Compass’s customer facing technology strategy. In her current position, she has taken the lead in the research, design, development and deployment of the Compass Group loyalty solutions.

Beth has been involved in information services for the past 25 years, serving in roles ranging from software development, to business analysis, project management and technology sales and marketing. She graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and currently resides in Concord, North Carolina.

President, Kobie Marketing
Vice President, Hampton Brand Marketing, Hilton Worldwide

The Best of the Best! Best Customer Experience, Best Examples in the Marketplace

Michael Hemsey:

As President of Kobie Marketing, Michael is responsible for leading all facets of the loyalty marketing organization including business development, IT initiatives, client services, as well as the overall direction of the Kobie brand. For fifteen years, Michael has cultivated a rich background in client services, product development, marketing, technology and operations through several key posts.

Prior to Kobie Marketing, Michael was Executive Vice President of TSYS Loyalty (formerly ESC Loyalty) and led the loyalty implementation and relationship management teams serving the world's largest issuers and retailers. Michael served as Director of Product Management at Broadvision, a worldwide enterprise software company, where he was responsible for developing the company's employee portal platform offering. In addition, he has held client relations and marketing leadership positions at Consumer Financial Network, an e-commerce platform of insurance and financial service providers, and Mutual of New York (MONY).

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts in Government, Mr. Hemsey has served on the Board of Notre Dame Alumni, NJ; and held board member posts at DataComm Electronics, based in Atlanta GA; and Loeffler Randall Inc, based in Brooklyn, NY.

Judy Christa-Cathey:

Judy Christa-Cathey is the Vice President, Hampton Brand Marketing for Hilton Worldwide. She is responsible for the development and execution of all global Hampton branding strategies including brand positioning, advertising, interactive relationship strategies, promotions and public relations.

Judy also co-created the Hampton Save-A-Landmark community program which was awarded a US Presidential Award for Preservation- the first time a hotel was ever given this recognition and an award from the Smithsonian museum for the program.

Her prior travel industry experience includes market planning, direct marketing, promotions and public relations with Southwest Airlines. She was Vice President of Marketing for Adventure Tours USA (an international charter and tour operator), and Vice President/Account Executive for Roth Graham, a leading travel industry and targeted marketing agency.

Christa-Cathey received her MBA from the University of Dallas and BA in communications from Western Illinois University. She is also on the board of directors for The Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis (WFGM) and was Co-Chair for the 2008 National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Awards, honoring Al Gore and Diane Nash.

Vice President, Group Account Director, Carlson Marketing Worldwide
Assistant Brand Manager, Baby Care, Procter & Gamble

The Ultimate Integrated Marketing: Bridging the Gap between Brand, Digital and In-Store

Suzy Cox:

Suzy manages a portfolio of accounts that includes companies in the retail, consumer packaged goods, food service and biotechnology industries. Her primary responsibilities include ensuring that each of her clients receives the full benefit of Carlson Marketing’s complement of relationship marketing capabilities – from strategy planning to data analysis to creative services and more.

In addition, she is responsible for developing new client relationships and strategies for the Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail sectors. Suzy’s background is steeped in relationship and loyalty marketing.

For over 15 years Suzy has helped companies build better relationships with their customers. She has helped Northwest Airlines improve their WorldPerks program; Borders and Waldenbooks design their loyalty programs; BellSouth (now AT&T) design and launch their small business loyalty program; Visa USA design and launch their Visa Extras program; ExxonMobil, StarHub, DBS Bank and NTUCLink design their coalition loyalty program in Singapore; and has designed loyalty solutions for a host of other Fortune 1000 companies including Microsoft, Burger King, Safeway, McDonald’s, and more.

Suzy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and French from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has also completed coursework toward her MBA at the University of Minnesota.

Abbey Dryden:

Abbey Dryden is an Assistant Brand Manager for Baby Care at Procter & Gamble. Abbey brings three years of loyalty program experience to her current position in Baby Care. Since 2008, Abbey focuses most of her time building Pampers Relationship Marketing programs, including the Pampers Gifts to Grow loyalty program where she has delivered strong results including growing ROI, volume and share ahead of most Pampers marketing vehicles.

In addition, Abbey manages content for Pampers.com including the video series, “A Parent is Born”. She leads Pampers partnership marketing, is creating long-term social media strategies and is one of the brand personalities you can find on www.Twitter.com/pampersvillage.

Prior to working for Procter & Gamble, Abbey worked for Weyerhaeuser Specialty Products in inside sales and customer service. She began at Procter & Gamble in the Professional Group in 2004. She is a graduate of Thomas More College in Kentucky and holds a masters degree in Business Administration. Abbey is a Kentucky native, born and raised in Northern Kentucky. She currently lives in Walton, Kentucky, with her husband and three children.

Jake Sterling, Maritz Real-Time Rewards; Philippe Bontemps, Welcome Real-Time
Jonathan Silver, Affinity Solutions; Sandra Gudat, Customer Communications Group
Martha Kanner, Alpha Bank Greece; Ann Schmitt, Retail Financial Solutions

Point-of-Sale Loyalty: "The Last Mile in Loyalty"

Jake Sterling:

Jake is responsible for point-of-sale and partner strategy for Maritz Real-Time Rewards. Prior to this position, he was division vice president of products and services for Maritz Loyalty Marketing, a division of Maritz that manages loyalty and rewards programs for several of the top 10 financial institutions in the US, including Capital One, US Bank, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.

Jake has been a strategist, systems architect and product management executive for transaction-processing technologies for merchants, processors and acquirer banks for 15 years. Most recently at First Data Corporation, he was responsible for setting global product strategy for a suite of payment applications used by over 250,000 retailers with over $30 billion in annual processing volume. He has designed, built and brought to market financial platforms in the US and abroad, and has delivered partner solutions with IBM, Microsoft, 3M, SAP, and others. He is the inventor of patents pending in the loyalty, multi-currency, electronic couponing and financial services arenas.

Jake holds bachelor's and master's degrees in foreign languages and engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

Philippe Bontemps:

Philippe is the Vice President Business Development, Welcome Real-time. He has over 20 years of experience in the banking, smart card, payment and software solutions businesses. He held various consulting, management and business development positions at Bull Smart Cards & Terminals in Spain and the US, at Genuity (Verizon Communication Group subsidiary) and software providers.In particular, he participated as consultant to the first nationwide smartcard program with the GIE Cartes Bancaires in France before moving to the Management of International Sales and Business Development programs with Bull and Genuity including the set up of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships in sectors like Information Systems, Telecommunications, Internet, Security, Software and Services.

Philippe joined Welcome Real-time in 2005 as Sales Director EMEA and moved on to the position of Vice President Business Development in 2008 to take care of all the Welcome Real-time’s key accounts and partners worldwide.

Jonathan Silver:

Having built the first membership organization for new parents, Jonathan saw the power of tailoring benefits to a consumer's life stage and lifestyle segment. He also understood that the traditional paradigm of loyalty programs could be significantly improved by retail partners willing to fund additional rewards.

Jonathan worked in the Chicago office of McKinsey & Company, and subsequently started a marketing consultancy practice specializing in helping small to mid-size companies with their sales and marketing functions, with a focus on enhancing client revenues through market segmentation. He launched two companies specializing in marketing gift, juvenile and natural foods products.

Jonathan is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science — and briefly attended Harvard Business School before starting his entrepreneurial career.

Sandra Gudat:

Sandra Gudat is President/CEO of Customer Communications Group (CCG) in Denver. Sandra and her team work with a Fortune 2000 clientele to design and execute unique data-driven customer development marketing programs that help clients build and retain loyal customer relationships. Clients include Petco, Kohl’s, Talbots, Pier 1 Imports, and Nordstrom. She brings a fresh perspective of best practices in customer loyalty across many industries and is a sought after speaker at dozens of national conferences in the United States on Canada on the topics of how companies can become more customer centric to build loyalty, retention, sales and profits.

She has been quoted and written articles for numerous publications including: STORES Magazine, TARGET MARKETING, DIRECT, DM NEWS, BANK MARKETING Magazine and AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS. She currently is the Chairman of the Direct Marketing Association’s Agency Council and also serves as a final round judge for the DMA's International Echo Awards. She also publishes the website: www.customer.com. Sandra personally assisted Talbots in the development and design of the new Classic Awards program.

Martha Kanner:

Martha is currently the Point of Sale Loyalty Product Manager for Alpha Bank Greece. She overviews Bonus card products & Bonus cards portfolio and the Bonus Loyalty scheme (Alpha Bank Bonus cards and co-branded Bonus products. Martha received her degree from National & Kapodistrian University of Athens: Faculty of Economics. She currently lives in Greece.

Ann Schmitt:

Ann brings 25 years experience in financial services and payments, specializing in payment card issuing (private label and credit), debit, merchant acquiring, payments processing and consumer lending.Ann’s career includes senior roles at leading financial companies, including Citibank, US Bank, and MasterCard Worldwide. She has led the turnaround and repositioning of underperforming units as President / CEO of two specialty finance companies serving the retail / consumer industry.Ann has an MBA from University of Colorado and a BS from South Dakota State.

Founder and President, Brand Keys
CEO, Office Media Network

Contemporary Engagement Measurement - Using Engagement to Measure Cross-Media Marketing

Robert Passikoff:

Robert is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on engagement and loyalty. Dr. Passikoff has 35 years of experience in strategic brand planning for a wide variety of B2B and B2C product and service categories. He has pioneered work in the area of loyalty and engagement, creating the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Indexâ, the Brandweek Loyalty Leaders List, the Sports Fan Loyalty Indexâ, and the Women’s Wear Daily Fashion Brand Engagement Indexâ.

Jim Harris:

Mr. Harris brings a 20-year track record of achievement in consulting, strategy, planning, product development, brand management, integrated marketing, and market research to OMN. He is also the principal and founder of Thoughtstep, a Chicago-based strategic marketing consultancy serving leading traditional and new economy companies.

Director, Customer Insights and Analytics
Farmers Insurance Group

How To Tell When The Customer Is Just Not That Into You - Developing a Platform for Optimization of Your Engagement Strategy

In his present role as Director – Customer Insights and Analytics with Farmers Insurance, Shiv Gupta leads the development of analytically driven customer strategies. One of his major responsibilities is leading efforts to identify high lifetime value (LTV) customers and develop analytically supported strategies to acquire and retain them. The LTV practice created by Shiv’s team was recently identified as a “Growth Best Practice” by Frost & Sullivan in 2009.

To his present role, Shiv brings over 9 years of experience in data driven strategic knowledge, including expertise in the areas of marketing analytics and ROI, pricing and business forecasting. He has also developed an understanding of the unique challenges surrounding data driven strategic change.

Shiv Gupta has experience in the Insurance, Energy, Retail and CPG Industries and is an MBA graduate of the University of Chicago- Booth School of Business. A native of Chicago, he currently resides in Los Angeles.

Director, Loyalty Strategy
Maritz

Workshop: Irrationally Loyal: The Neuroscience of Engagement

As the Director of Loyalty Strategy for Maritz, Barry Kirk assists clients in identifying and refining their customer engagement objectives, as well as defining solutions to drive customer retention and loyalty.

A self-described “geek marketer”, Barry brings his two passions --- marketing and technology – together in his work in the loyalty space. His background includes seven years in the consumer e-commerce field where he specialized in web business strategy, usability, and the development of high impact customer experiences. As a loyalty marketing expert, Barry's focus is in the area of integrated communications strategies that drive both brand engagement and increased customer lifetime value, as well as the application of emerging social media tools to loyalty strategies. He has over 10 years of experience with Maritz driving solutions for clients in the financial services, automotive, and technology sectors.

Barry is a graduate of the University of Missouri- Columbia School of Journalism. You can follow Barry’s ongoing thoughts on loyalty marketing on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rocketsummer.

Chief Rewards Officer
RecycleBank

Doing Well By Doing Good

Morley leads the Rewards Team and has global responsibility for developing and executing The RecycleBank Rewards Program. The Rewards Team is responsible for evangelizing and enhancing the core rewards program; establishing key national, regional and local reward partnerships in all territories; development of Gconomy™ and related partnerships; analysis and, ultimately, ensuring that RecycleBank Members always access to an aspiring mix of redemption options that motivate engagement.

Morley is an experienced entrepreneur and loyalty program marketplace expert, specializing in strategy, business development, management and operations within rapid growth business environments. Previously, Ivers acted in the capacity of GM for Air Incentives – a loyalty incentive program fuelled by frequent flyer miles whereby clients could provide their customers with a choice of airline miles as an incentive for utilizing their services; and as Vice President of Business Strategy for Points International – a publicly traded corporation that develops proprietary solutions to the loyalty industry and operates Points.com, the world's leading reward-program management portal.

Morley was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and relocated his family to New York so that he could apply his passion for loyalty and reward programs, at RecycleBank, to better the world for his son, Hudson. Morley is a Dean’s Honor List graduate of The Richard Ivey School of Business.

Managing Partner
Customer Bliss

2010 Keynote: Five Decisions of Beloved and Prosperous Companies

Jeanne Bliss is not an evangelist or observer of companies. She’s been inside them for twenty-five years, arm wrestling them on behalf of their customer! As “Chief Customer Zealot” for five large U.S. market leaders, Jeanne’s fought valiantly to get the customer on the strategic agenda, redirecting priorities and creating transformational changes to the brands’ customer experience. She has driven achievement of 95 percent loyalty rates, changing customer experiences across 50,000-person organizations…convincing even the staunchest curmudgeons to help push the customer rock up the hill.

Jeanne has been at the apex of remarkable customer creations and has driven achievements inside large corporate machines. Jeanne’s vim and vigor and passion for customers is the result of the collision of her Italian heritage and the serendipitous circumstances which brought her to the Wisconsin farmlands in 1983.

She developed her passion for the customer at Lands’ End, Inc., where she reported to the company’s founder and executive committee as leader for the Lands’ End customer experience. She was Senior Vice President of Franchise Services for Coldwell Banker Corporation. Jeanne served Allstate Corporation as its chief officer for customer satisfaction & retention. She was Microsoft Corporation’s General Manager of Worldwide Customer & Partner Loyalty. At Mazda Motor of America she initiated the brand’s retention effort as senior manager, customer satisfaction.

Now managing partner of Customer Bliss, Jeanne coaches leaders on how to wrap their company’s focus around customer profits. She is a worldwide keynote speaker on sustaining the energy and effort required to keep pushing that customer rock up the hill. Jeanne’s second book, “I LOVE YOU MORE THAN MY DOG” Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad is due out on October 15, 2009.