Advisory Board

Martin Hill-Wilson is a long-standing member of the Customer Engagement community. Over his career, he has launched a series of change initiatives using the dynamic of action-based learning – most recently AI for Non Technical Minds. All are designed to disrupt and reset the ‘art of the possible’ using new operating models re-imagined through foundation user education.

A consumer psychologist and expert in digital media and marketing, possessing the experience to analyse and interpret trends in consumer adoption of technology and develop strategies for customer acquisition and retention through digital and offline channels. 

Nick joined Auto Trader in January 2007 running Business Intelligence and in 2010 built the retailer insight team running master classes and webinars. He also makes short films to evangelise about data and Insight and speaks regularly at conferences in Europe, Canada and North America.

Nick is also a visiting lecturer in consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

After graduating from Loughborough in 1986 , Nick spent years in advertising and planning at Dorlands and Lintas, was a guitarist with Great Northern Electrics, a publisher on HiFi magazines at Petersen/EMAP and a research Director at Media agency Carat/Difiniti responsible for a team of researchers advising a range of Blue-chip clients on the development of their marketing and communications strategies in the Digital arena.

Lucie Child is Head of Customer at Transport for Greater Manchester, where she’s on a mission to make the experience better across every touch point; easier, more inclusive, and more customer-focused. With a background spanning public and private sectors—from retail and financial services to heritage—Lucie brings a fresh perspective to how organisations connect with the people they serve.

She’s passionate about putting customers at the heart of everything, shaping strategy and service to reflect real needs and experiences.

I am fascinated by people and technology.

A dynamic marketing leader with extensive experience in developing and executing marketing, brand and communication campaigns across multiple regions. Results driven, creative and forward thinking, with expertise in analysis and quantitative problem-solving skills, adept at making critical decisions and managing large teams.

Dan O'Sullivan is an award-winning customer engagement and transformation leader specialising in service transformation, commercial innovation and inclusive economic growth. He leads Hackney Council's Markets, Shop Fronts & Street Trading Service, where he has overseen a transformation that has generated millions of pounds in economic and commercial value, supported thousands of businesses, created nationally recognised digital services and built one of the UK's most recognised and awarded local government teams.

Dan's work has received consistent national recognition for customer engagement, service innovation, commercial transformation and leadership, including three Engage Awards, reflecting both the impact of his work and his commitment to creating better outcomes for customers, communities and public services. His work has also been recognised by the Local Government Chronicle, the National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA) and the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) for excellence in leadership, innovation, economic development and public service.

Beyond Hackney, Daniel advises HM Treasury, the Department for Business and Trade, the Mayor of London's Markets Board, the National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA) and local authorities across the UK on customer engagement, regulatory reform, digital transformation and place-based economic development. Bridging local delivery with national policy, he helps shape how governments, councils and organisations think about customer engagement, commercial innovation and inclusive economic growth, while supporting public services to improve outcomes for residents, businesses and communities.

An invited speaker at the 2026 Engage Customer Summit, Daniel believes the future of customer engagement lies in combining commercial thinking with public purpose, demonstrating that organisations create their greatest impact when customer experience, innovation and social value are designed together rather than treated as competing priorities. His work shows how organisations can combine innovation, data, empowered teams and human-centred design to deliver customer experiences that rival the very best private sector organisations while creating lasting social, economic and commercial impact.

Results-oriented Director with 20+ years' experience in service excellence and continuous improvement. Expert in defining service excellence strategies that remove customer friction through AI-tooling, automation, and self-solve solutions. Motivational leader of 300+ staff, skilled in aligning global operations with business OKRs and leading Lean/Six Sigma re-engineering initiatives.

Areas of expertise include:

• AI & Technology Strategy: Defines and implements strategies to replace legacy tooling with AI-Assistance interwoven with human assistance.

• Process Innovation: Uses Lean/Six Sigma to simplify workflows and improve resolution speed

• Global Operations Leadership: Leads global teams including outsourced vendor BPO and in-house resolution and escalation teams

• Stakeholder Influence: Experienced C-level advisor and member of UK Leadership teams directly reporting to C-suite

• Quality Assurance and CSAT: Oversees CSAT and AI and Human-agent QA frameworks to drive Customer-Sentiment.

Helen has over 20 years of Customer Service Leadership experience across a variety of B2B and B2C businesses. As Head of Customer Experience for Landmark Information Group, Helen covers service, support and success across a variety of Landmark brands, building and improving processes to ensure Landmark are easy to do business with, that focus on positive outcomes, that seek and learn from feedback and that look to the ever-evolving needs of customers.
Helen’s passion for making a difference, cascades throughout the CX Teams and has resulted in high engagement scores and as we all know…engaged and happy teams mean engaged and happy customers.
Helen has been named in the CXM Stars Top 25 Professionals 2024 and 2025, Was awarded CX Professional of the Year at the UKCXA23, Customer Service Professional at the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards 2023 and her team won Best B2B Customer Experience at UKCXA24 and Best Use of Customer Insight at the Engage Awards 2024.

 Natalie is CEO of Clarity Environmental, winner of the Engage Great Place to Work Award 2025 and Engage Best Employee Wellbeing Strategy 2025. Named in the FEBE growth 100 list 2 years in a row, an annual ranking highlighting the 100 fastest growing privately owned businesses in the UK, Clarity Environmental celebrates an enviable 99.6% customer retention, demonstrating how forward thinking and futuristic people and culture strategy,
directly transforms customer experience and financial performance.

Natalie is a Great British Entrepreneurial Award Winner, approaching her CEO role from an HR background and will share her case study,
detailing how Clarity’s unique people strategy developed a culture of “People with purpose, finding joy in the job, turning visions into victory.”

As a speaker, Natalie openly shares the core methodologies driving award-winning employee engagement of 97% of employees agreeing they would recommend Clarity as a place to work and how this engagement strategy achieved more than 58% profit growth in 2 years.  

James Vukashin is Head of Commercial Operations at phs Group. With a strong background in commercial leadership, business improvement, and operational performance, he focuses on delivering sustainable growth and enhancing customer experience. James is CMI Level 7 qualified and passionate about developing high-performing teams and commercial excellence.

Kate Philpot is Vice President of Global Sales Enablement at Getty Images, where she leads a global team responsible for onboarding, training and coaching over 550 sales and customer service professionals across three regions. Over more than a decade at Getty Images, Kate has built the sales methodologies, coaching frameworks and go-to-market approaches that shape how the business's frontline teams engage customers — from storytelling and negotiation training to a company-wide coaching practice built on customer call reviews. She has led major initiatives to professionalise customer-facing skills at scale, including business-wide sales methodology rollouts, role-playing-based training programmes, and the systems and content that keep hundreds of reps equipped to build stronger customer relationships. Kate sits on the Board of Central School of Ballet, is a qualified ICF coach, and speaks internationally on sales enablement, commercial transformation and inclusive leadership.

As the Head of Customer Experience at Biffa, Jo has over 25 years’ experience in customer service and CX management across a number of different sectors. Previously working in Financial Services and the Automotive industry, Jo has led customer contact centres across multiple customer segments, implemented and managed voice of customer programmes and TQM initiatives, and as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, has managed multiple continuous improvement projects. In her current role, Jo has led the creation of a CX function within Biffa, establishing a team covering CX Data & Insight, CX Strategy & Communication and CX Business Improvement to change process, culture and behaviour within the company.

Jo Kirkham is Vice President of Fan Experience at Liverpool FC, leading award-winning strategies that enhance fan engagement across digital and physical touchpoints. With 20+ years in sport, retail and hospitality, Jo has driven major transformations at LFC and M&S, improving service, reducing costs, and boosting revenues. She’s a passionate leader, speaker, and community advocate.

Divya’s career and expertise has spread across two very different industries over 15+ years, but always with the common focus of the end customer and their experience. She started at Microsoft working on Xbox and moved to Virgin to define and establish their group wide loyalty scheme Virgin Red. Her global roles and varied experience have established her as a leader within the customer growth and engagement area.

Jessica Ham is an experienced Customer Contact leader, with experience leading digital change within a Customer Service environment as well as managing large operational teams through transformation. In 2023, she was awarded Highly Commended by the CCMA and also received the Gold Award from UKCCF for Head of Contact Centre. She has been a judge for the CCMA for both the UK and European Awards for the past 3 years and in 2026 was recognised as one of the Top 50 CX leaders to follow in 2026.

Talented and experienced customer service professional with over 20 years in the financial sector, leading teams across telephony and digital channels in both UK and offshore operations.

Carl McCartney is the Global Sales Enablement Director at Les Mills International, where he champions the link between customer experience and sales performance. With over a decade of leadership across sales and customer-facing teams, Carl has built a career on helping organisations turn exceptional experiences into lasting commercial results.

He leads global initiatives that equip sales teams to deliver value at every stage of the customer journey, blending data-driven insight with practical enablement. His programmes span sales training, customer success, negotiation, and leadership development — all designed to drive growth while keeping the customer at the heart.

A regular keynote speaker and panel host, Carl is passionate about how innovation and emotional intelligence can enhance both employee and customer experience, shaping the future of high-performing organisations.

Harjeet is a marketer with a technical and business background. He is data-driven and has working experience in the financial software (Fintech), Telecom and Technology verticals. Harjeet currently works as Sr Director looking after global Marketing and Demand Gen Operations. The scope includes the Martech Stack, Strategic change projects, data, reporting and Marketing best practices.

Over his career, Harjeet has worked in various global leadership roles covering B2B End2End Marketing functions like Field, ABM / Operations / Digital / Strategy & Planning across various Go to Market channels. He has also supported C-level executives and the Board on strategic projects, corporate and marketing strategy, and brand development.

Pete Evia-Rhodes is a customer engagement and retention leader with 20 years’ experience helping global brands and scale-ups attract, engage, retain customers and talent. His career spans CRM, lifecycle marketing, loyalty, digital innovation and award-winning AI-powered personalisation, including work with BT, The Times and Workspace. As an Accredited ADHD Coach, Pete is equally passionate about building inclusive working environments where different thinkers can thrive. He combines technology, data and creativity to turn complex challenges into practical strategies that deliver measurable growth, stronger loyalty and better experiences for customers and colleagues.

Naomi Sweeting is an award-winning transformation leader specialising in strategy, service design and customer-led organisational change. With more than 25 years’ experience across housing, financial services B2B and B2C, she helps organisations translate customer insight, behavioural science and regulatory requirements into effective operating models, services and measurable outcomes. Naomi is recognised for her expertise in systems thinking, psychographic segmentation and inclusive service design, bringing together customer voice, performance, governance and delivery to create sustainable transformation and improved customer experiences.

Throughout my career, I have been at the forefront of delivering impact at scale, leveraging cutting-edge technology to resolve today’s business challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) challenges. My passion for customer engagement, digital business, artificial intelligence and customer experience focused leadership have been a consistent theme in my career.

Jo and Marcus are founders of Davies Hickman Partners, set up in 2007. Responsible for one of the longest-running tracker studies of customer contact – The Autonomous Customer – they are market research advisers to the customer experience and contact centre industry, that includes some of the leading customer service associations. In 2023, Davies Hickman Partners were finalists in the Content Marketing Institute awards for research on AI for CX. Jo is on the BSI and ISO committee responsible for developing Contact centre, Customer service excellence and Complaint handling standards.

My career trajectory has been a case study in the power of networking, embracing a growth mindset and broad vision. Moving through various departments, I honed my skills in understanding the bigger picture of business operations. My transformative time at Egg.com cemented my beliefs in leadership, change management, and the profound impact of customer experience.

Gerry Brown, aka The Customer Lifeguard, is on a mission to save the world from bad customer service. He helps businesses save customers at risk of defecting and breathes life into their customer service operations and customer experience strategy. Gerry has provided organizational leadership on people development, business transformation, customer engagement and technology enablement for some of the largest companies in the UK, Canada, and EMEA. These include National Express, Nutricia, The Royal Albert Hall, Endsleigh Insurance, O2, Screwfix, Sage, Sky, Bell Canada and TELUS. He is a frequent speaker, chairperson, panellist and facilitator at conferences, webinars, company events and other business gatherings, where his many years of business and customer service experience provide stimulating, thought-provoking engagement and audience participation. He is also a published author and his new book When a Customer Wins, Nobody Loses is available on Amazon to help business leaders to create winning and memorable customer experiences.

Sabina Onwuka is a multi‑award‑winning customer experience consultant, strategist, international keynote speaker, and industry judge, with 25 years of hands‑on leadership across financial services and the public sector. 

Recognised among the Top 50 Women Shaping the Future of Customer Experience in 2024, a finalist for Women in CX Leader of the Year 2025, recognised amongst top 50 incredible people shaping CX in 2025 and recently recognised amongst top 50 CX leaders 2026 to follow, Sabina has built a reputation as a catalyst for transformative, people‑centric service delivery.

A passionate coach and mentor, Sabina brings creativity, operational rigor, and a genuine desire to exceed expectations. As the role of the manager is changing, Sabina recently launched The Future Ready Manager Masterclass series to help empower operational leaders to use AI effectively while strengthening empathy, ethics, and leadership. And has written an eBook titled “Coaching Mid-level Managers in an AI-Augment World”. Her ethos bridges technology and compassion, making her a standout voice in ethics‑driven CX.

Currently serving as Head Customer Services for the Barking and Dagenham Council, Sabina has led major operational transformations. Her major achievement involved implementing an inclusive speech analytics and AI platform. This innovation dramatically improved support for vulnerable residents, enabling the council to proactively identify individuals in need, respond with empathy and urgency, and enhance overall accessibility. This innovation won bronze at the esteemed European Contact Centre & Customer Services award in 2025 and Gold at the Smarter Working Live Awards in 2024. Sabina’s leadership is defined by combining digital innovation with deep human insight.

She successfully transitioned her service teams from traditional office‑based setups to fully remote, cloud‑enabled operations, while embedding psychological safety, fostering motivation, and empowering employees to elevate customer interactions.

Results-driven professional with 20 years of experience in design, design management and customer experience (CX). Critical thinker and problem solver adept at tackling complex challenges blending a strong foundation in psychology with design thinking. Passionate about fostering collaboration, developing talent and creating meaningful experiences. Highly motivated with a no-nonsense approach and a commitment to high-quality results. Known for being a thought-leader in experience design, a natural people-connector and team leader, a perceptive advisor and an inspiring public speaker.

What happens when the most human moments in your business become your competitive edge?
That question drives my work.

I study the gap between what organizations promise their people and what work delivers. After two decades running contact center operations, leading a global training practice, and advising CX and technology brands, I founded Metric Sherpa to turn that gap into research leaders can act on, and I wrote More Than a Motto to give them a system for closing it.

On stage, I bring this research to life through keynotes that blend data, stories, and immediately usable frameworks. Event planners bring me in when they want a session that resonates across executives, operators, and people leaders, and when they need content that can extend into follow‑up sessions, campaigns, and customer conversations.

For technology companies and solution providers, I serve as an independent voice who helps you tell a sharper story. I lead primary research, co-create reports and narrative frameworks, and develop thought leadership that gives your sellers and marketers credible, insight-rich material instead of product pitches.

If you are responsible for experience, growth, or go‑to‑market and you want research and content that your audience actually reads, remembers, and acts on, let’s connect.

I help public organizations better connect policy, implementation, and citizen perspectives.

My work is situated at the intersection of customer-oriented service delivery, organizational development, governance, and change initiatives.

I thrive particularly in environments where societal ambitions are high, implementation is complex, and the trust of residents, clients, or stakeholders is paramount.

In recent years, I have worked on issues related to public service delivery, CX strategy, process improvement, stakeholder management, and strategic decision-making.

In doing so, I look not only at structures and processes but also at leadership, collaboration, culture, and the capacity of organizations to actually change.

My strength lies in organizing complexity. I bring clarity to challenges, connect perspectives, and translate strategic choices into actionable change agendas. Always with an eye for the administrative context, the human scale, and the quality of service delivery.

I am interested in interim, advisory, and change assignments at the Management Team/Executive Board level within public service providers, municipalities, implementing organizations, and civil society organizations. Themes that occupy me:

public service delivery, customer experience, governance, organizational development, change strategy, execution quality, stakeholder trust, and administrative decision-making.