Global Speakers

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Antoine Casgrain

Director of Workforce Planning

National Bank of Canada

Antoine spent the last 13 years with the St George and Westpac Contact Centres where he led them to 4 Gold Medals at the World Customer Contact Centre Awards.  He previously held similar Contact Centre Executive roles at AMP and Optus.

Prior to the Contact Centre journey, Antoine spent 14 years with an International Management Consulting firm and was involved with over 115 projects right around in North America, Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Currently the Director of Workforce Planning at the National Bank of Canada, Antoine also extends his time and expertise to various start-ups such as ‘Life in Flight’, the ‘Word Learning Group’ and the Contact Centre Strategy Forum (CCSF).

Antoine has an Industrial Psychology Bachelor’s degree from the University of Montreal and a Masters in Education from the California State University, Sacramento.

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Patrick Nesbitt

Head of Channel Optimisation

Australia Post

An experienced contact center executive and recognized industry contributor throughout a 15+ year career spanning public & private sectors across multiple industries and regions, Patrick most recently led the successful delivery of Australia Post’s $20M Simplification program which encompassed migration to cloud communications, CRM and Insights. Prior to Australia Post, Patrick has worked with global organizations including Barclay Cards, The London Metropolitan Police, Vodafone, Bank of America as well as TNT Italy, Spain & Netherlands.

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Jesper Lowgren

Principal Consultant

Telstra

Jesper Lowgren is a digital thought-leader, published author, and a member of Board of advisors on Enterprise Transformation 2020, a global think-tank that consults to CEOs on digital enterprise transformation. He has developed and implemented customer experience and engagement strategies in Asia and Australia, across a range of industries, including telecommunications, finance, transport & logistics, and automotive.

In his current role with Telstra, Jesper consults to mid-tier corporate CEOs on customer-led enterprise transformation, and how to transform an organisation with the customer in the center. He is also an avid entrepreneur, and has launched three online brands in three markets, each becoming #1 in Australia in terms of online sales and customer engagement.

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Peter Buckmaster

Director of Digital Services

NSW Department of Education

Peter Buckmaster is a digital specialist in strategy and service design, delivering sustainable customer experiences across retail, telecommunications, finance industries and education.

He is currently the Director Digital, managing the Digital Services team, Department of Education (DoE) within the Communications and Engagement Directorate. The role includes delivering the “re-platforming and redevelop” of DoE websites onto a newly supported website publishing platform. This has also included delivery of a strategy, call the Global Experience Framework (Language), to achieve the velocity and speed needed to meet the short timeframes of website redevelopment. The DoE digital platform (website, intranet and portal) supports 2.75 million visits per month.

Most recently, Peter has held roles as User Experience Manager at Woolworths Limited and Production Director at The White Agency. Peter has also worked on digital initiatives for enterprise brands such as Commonwealth Bank, Bluescope Steel, Lion, Lexus and Toyota.

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Jason Flanagan

Head of Digital, Business & Asset Finance, Customer Contact Centres

Westpac

Jason has been involved in customer contact center management since 2004. Leading the BT Financial Group’s Contact Center through a period of prolonged transformational change, he has played a pivotal role in the BT Contact Centre winning CSIA National Contact Centre of the Year award, with himself being awarded National Contact Centre of the Manager of the Year in 2009.

Since November 2014, Jason has been serving as Head of Digital, Business & Asset Finance in customer contact centers at Westpac where he has lead the transformation of contact center services for all brands in the group across these businesses through his experience in general management, customer service, people leadership and HR.

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Ian Aitchison

Chief Executive Officer

COPC Asia Pacific Inc

Ian Aitchison is the CEO of the Asia Pacific (APAC) region of COPC Inc. and has great expertise in Australian and Asian customer experience, contact center and operational strategy, having worked extensively throughout the region. He has more than twenty years of experience in the customer experience and contact center industry, marked by the consistent delivery of quality, service and process improvement that is the hallmark of the COPC® Family of Standards.

In addition to leading COPC Inc. in the Asia Pacific region, Ian provides management training and consulting advice to more than 25% of the world’s top 50 brands. He is a senior auditor for the COPC CSP Standard, is a Six Sigma Black Belt, is the Chairman of the Annual Contact Centres Asia Conference and has been a member of the judging panel for the Malaysian Contact Centre of the Year Awards since 2012.

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John Dardo

Assistant Commissioner Digital Strategy and Design (CS&S)

Australian Taxation Office

John Dardo joined the ATO in 1997 and has spent more than 15 years working as a senior executive in a range of areas including Compliance and Service Delivery. Currently the Assistant Commissioner of Digital Strategy and Design, John leads a range of digital projects aligned to broader Whole-of-Government outcomes, including Identity & Security, Digital by Default and Embedding digital experiences in natural systems .

John holds an MBA and a range of tertiary qualifications in Science and Technology, Human Resources, Change Management and is a Fellow of The Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).

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Ross McDonald

Director

Resilire

Ross McDonald is a digital and customer leader with deep commercial and strategy experience.  A leader at Google Australia for eight years, Ross led the Retail vertical from 2010-2013, playing a pivotal role in getting Australia and New Zealand’s leading retailers online (and transforming Google’s retail revenue 280% from 2010-2013).  More recently, Ross led the Travel & Tourism verticals, returning the business to growth and leading a team developing data marketing strategies for deep customer engagement.

Ross is a senior digital leader and marketing professional with deep specialties in digital channels, retail strategy, consumer marketing, and commercial strategy (linking sales, marketing and customer data).  Ross also represented Google to industry associations, the media and government bodies.

Prior to Google, Ross spent seven years with Nestle in a variety of commercial, sales and strategy roles across Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South East Asia.  Ross has also worked in strategy with Guinness in the United Kingdom and Goodman Fielder in Australia, and commenced his career with LEK Consulting.

He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management (Sydney) and the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (Chicago).

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Roger Christie (TEDx Speaker)

Managing Director

Social2Business Pty Ltd

With a decade’s experience across traditional, social and digital communication strategy, Roger understands the challenge facing many organizations in realizing the full potential of doing business in the digital age. He recognizes the current focus on both the marketing and service aspects of social, and works with organizations to help identify broader business opportunities afforded through customer insight, competitive intelligence and operational improvements.

Over the past ten years, Roger has provided trusted counsel for leading organizations across a multitude of industries including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, IAG, the Australian Taxation Office, International Trade & Investment, First State Super, IBM Australia & New Zealand, Telstra, Austrade, British Airways, CarsGuide, Baptist World Aid Australia and Hitachi.

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Katie Hart

Senior Project Manager, Omni-Channel Contact Centre

Sunsuper

Katie is a seasoned professional with over 20 years’ experience enabling customer service and contact center change in a number of industries. Starting working life in a start-up telecommunications company in London, she specialized in implementing contact center solutions, including project management implementations and consulting on change management. Katie has since worked in a variety of sectors and roles, including Telstra where she passionately led change in the Global Contact Centres and Digital teams, advocating the importance of a customer-centric approach to all technology evolution and change. Katie currently works at Sunsuper, project managing the implementation of their omni-channel Contact Centre.

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Gerard Smith

Senior Manager, eBusiness and Contact Centres

Teachers Mutual Bank

Gerard is responsible for the organization’s banking and communication channels:  website, internet, mobile and telephone banking; contact center, and the company intranet. Gerard provides strategic thought leadership on sourcing and implementing technology and strategies to develop new, or optimize existing business processes and procedures that deliver cost savings, improve member satisfaction, and increase productive capacity and quality.

Gerard has recently overseen the upgrade of Teachers Mutual Bank’s website, managed the brand transition of the Unibank, and led the bank’s Contact Center team to state and national success at the 2014 Auscontact Awards.

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Leigh Price

Social Media Analyst

Amicus Digital

Leigh Price is a Social Media Analyst with over 10 years of experience in digital marketing and analytics. Currently, he leads the social media practice at Amicus Digital, an Australian technology and professional services consultancy.

Prior to joining Amicus Digital, he worked as GE Australia’s in-house Social Media Analyst, where he was responsible for social media insights across GE’s portfolio in Australia and New Zealand.

Leigh has also worked with Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications firm, as their in-house Social Media Analyst. More broadly, his background includes extensive experience with agencies, enterprises and start-ups in a variety of digital marketing and customer experience functions. Having worked with brands as diverse as financial services institutions, online retailers, FMCG brands and more, he has a focus on driving actionable insights for Amicus Digital’s clients.

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Danielle Cerin

Multi-Channel/Digital Manager

Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

Danielle Cerin has over 15 years’ experience leading digital strategy, digital campaigns, web development, and social media for a range of organizations. She currently leads the development of enterprise-level digital capabilities and initiatives to improve the quality and number of channels through which customers can interact with Janssen services and content; embedding digital awareness and skill internally; and providing digital support for Janssen’s therapy brands and broader healthcare solutions.

She has previously delivered the digital strategy, online presence, social media programs and integrated digital campaigns for Telstra Enterprise & Government, as well as development of the online presence and digital communication strategy for Stamford Hotels and Resorts.

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Gaston Guernik

Creative Director and U/X Expert

Guernik

Gaston Guernik is a UX/UI expert with broad experience in app design, product design, service design and brand strategy. Highly passionate about UX excellence, he has a strong belief in designing applications for the human experience and adopts a “end user first” mindset to every project he has been a part of. Throughout his 13 years of experience in the creative industry, he has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Audi, Commonwealth Bank, NSW Government, Schweppes, BMW, Heineken, NSW Rail, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Barcelona Football Club, Nike, Samsung and Telstra.