Faculty & Leadership

Carol Buehrens

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

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

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

JC Quintana

JC is a best-selling author and researcher focused on the psychology and process that leads to quality stakeholder relationships. His impressive career spans over 25 years of leadership guiding Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Channel Alliance efforts for SAGE, ADP, HP, and DXC Technology in Managing Partner, Regional Vice President, and Global Head of Innovation roles.

He holds advanced degrees in Organizational Psychology and dedicates his research to developing corporate cultures that promote genuine relationships with all of its stakeholders. He currently lectures on relationship psychology and human-centered design topics at 11 US universities.

Erich Dietz

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

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

JP Sain

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

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

Donna Peeples

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

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

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

Desirree Madison Biggs

Desirree Madison Biggs leads CX and NPS Programs at Airbnb. She has spent over 15 years as a customer experience and advocacy leader passionate about managing high-performing teams to create global programs designed to drive increased customer loyalty and employee engagement. Working in both small start-up companies and large complex business environments, she has established scalable, actionable listening solutions that provide customer focus and inspire cross-functional improvement initiatives that get results.

Desirree is a frequent featured speaker at conferences and webinars on best practices for voice of the customer programs and is a Certified Net Promoter practitioner, performance coach and customer experience mentor.

Jen Gloss

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

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

Kristin Guthrie

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

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

Jordan Zimmermam

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

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

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

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