CMAcx Morning Event

Companies that continuously adapt to evolving customer needs to achieve hyper-relevance will benefit from sustainable growth and lasting customer loyalty as they seamlessly move from one growth opportunity to the next. A small group of pioneering CMOs and brands are leading the way. Many companies understand the importance of embracing customer experience - 87% of organizations agree that traditional experiences no longer satisfy their customers - but, they’re struggling to truly transform their businesses and adapt in the face of disruption. Learn more about the first steps to winning at CX and the opportunity for senior marketing leaders to step into the redefined role of marketing and collaboration. The opportunity to create emotive and powerful experiences for customers is out there but only if the CMO Collaborator can inspire customer-centric thinking that resonates with a positive brand experience across all lines of business.

Meet Jennifer Steckel Elliott (Moderator)
Jennifer a passionate executive partner and leader, focused on driving growth through the successful balance of creative business strategy, data insights that deliver results, and execution.   As a Principal Director at Accenture, I am Focused on delivering Data Enabled Customer Experience Transformation strategy and implementation to Financial Services clients across all customer touchpoints - digital, traditional, branch, and Lead our CMO Agenda for Accenture Canada

Meet Brent Chaters (Panelist)
Brent Chaters is Accenture’s Managing Director Digital Customer & Marketing. He has over 20 years of Digital Marketing experience across both client side and consulting side through multiple industries working for some of the largest fortune 500 brands around the globe. He is the author of Mastering Search Analytics and co-author of Multichannel Marketing Ecosystems: Creating Connected Customer Experiences.  He has taught for ISDE & Harvard’s Global Executive Master Digital Business on both Social CRM and Customer Experience.

Meet Sonya Kunkel (Panelist)
Sonya Kunkel is Head, Enterprise Customer Experience at BMO Financial Group. Appointed to this role in October 2017, Sonya is responsible for BMO’s One Bank customer experience strategy, coordinating across lines of business and geographies and informed by customer insights in order to pin point the common needs and expectations of BMO’s target customer segments.

Prior to this most recent appointment, she was Chief Inclusion Officer and Vice President, People Strategies & Insights, BMO Financial Group. She had enterprise-wide responsibility (Canada & U.S.) for key enterprise people strategies, including people strategy planning, diversity and inclusion, and employee insights and engagement.

Sonya joined BMO in 2011 as Director, Diversity and Inclusion, following a decade of research and consulting where she specialized in understanding the experiences of women, visible minorities, and Aboriginal peoples, particularly their experiences in the workplace.

Formerly Vice-President, Public Affairs and Business Development for Environics Research Group, she led Environics Institute’s 2010 Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (uaps.ca).

She served as Senior Director of Catalyst (2001-2007), where she worked with former President Susan Black to build the Catalyst Canada office. Here, she held responsibility for Catalyst Canada’s Advisory Services and key research streams.

Sonya has an undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, an M.A. in Political Economy and an MBA in Strategic Management from the Schulich School of Business.

Meet David Offierski (Panelist)
David is a senior business and product development expert with a proven track record of leading teams and companies through the digital transformation journey. He joined OLG in early 2019 to lead the development of a new department and business functions.

The Customer Experience Strategy and Design Department is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of subject matter experts, service designers as well as user experience and visual designers.

The CX team works collaboratively across the organization to achieve our objectives of delivering world-class gaming entertainment and to build OLG’s capability to create captivating experiences that appeal to the next generation of players.

Meet Sara Clodman
Sara is a mediator and public affairs executive with more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors and association management. Her key skills include a deep understanding of business and communications strategy and execution, stakeholder relations and change management. At the CMA, she directs all public affairs functions – government relations, media relations, corporate communications and reputation management. She interacts with the marketing profession’s thought-leaders to provide strategic insights and tools for Canadian marketers, guides the development of CMA positions on public policy issues, and oversees research planning and projects. Sara has an MBA in finance and is a former Vice-Chair of Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment. She has served on several boards and is active in the community – currently participating in a weekly Out of the Cold program.

How the three mistakes can impact journey performance and what levers your organization can pull to effectively improve your members experiences.

Meet Anne O’Connor
Anne O’Connor is a Senior Managing Consultant at Mastercard Advisors and has worked in consulting for 12 years, specializing in Customer Experience Management, Big Data, and Customer Journey Mapping and Analysis.

You would think that the need to be customer focused would drive strong internal alignment, but often it is the number 1 barrier. In a Canadian study by TMG International and Phase 5, internal alignment was identified by 49% of all Canadian executives as the number one barrier to successfully improving Customer Experience. Why is internal alignment around the customer so difficult to achieve and what needs to be done to improve it to better enable a better Customer Experience?

In this panel discussion we will ask organizations:

1. What do we mean by internal alignment around the customer?
2. How do you identify its current state in an organization? What are its characteristics?
3. What are typical obstacles to internal alignment around the customer and some ways to overcome those?
4. How do you foster internal alignment? What has your organization done to improve it?
5. Provide examples of strong internal alignment and its impact on customer experience.

Meet John Bardawill
John is the Managing Director of TMG where he helps senior leaders translate marketing, customer experience, and change initiatives into meaningful action across the organization; from executives to front-line employees. He has also worked extensively with call center operations around the world to provide highly focused solutions that drive revenues and profits.

“Success in business is about having a deep understanding not only of what is required at a strategic level, but also at an operational level. I help our clients bridge that gap.”

John has 25 years of international marketing and management experience, initially as a vice president for companies like Thomas Cook, Thomson Publishing and Southam Newspapers, and later as a trusted advisor working with Ericsson, Cable & Wireless, Bell Canada, Rogers, and RBC Insurance.

Few people are aware that John has an undergraduate degree in psychology, or that as a student, he earned extra cash singing and playing piano at weddings. He still knows how to work a room, but these days the audience is usually senior executives and the instrument is PowerPoint.

Meet Stephan Sigaud
Stephan is responsible for leading the development of Phase 5’s global growth strategy and implementing it through building the firm’s brand, expanding its suite of offerings and developing relationships with new clients.

Stephan is passionate about partnering with clients to address their business challenges and opportunities around customer centricity. A recognized expert in CX, he has helped leading brands achieve sustainable growth through gains in customer loyalty in all major sectors of the global economy, having worked with clients in Financial Services, Telecom and Technology, Automotive, Hospitality and Retail as well as clients in the non-profit and public sectors.

Stephan has given presentations at conferences and seminars around the globe and is active in both Marketing and Customer Experience communities in Canada.

Meet Carmen Day
With 13+ years in professional sports and entertainment, as well as a 10+ year teaching and coaching career, Carmen Day knows how to build teams, relationships and lead organizational culture change. Working with the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Blue Jays and now Woodbine Entertainment Group, Carmen has worked with many of the top sports and entertainment organizations in North America. Always focused on initiatives that build loyalty, elevate guest satisfaction and increase revenues, her passion for enhancing the Guest Experience is rooted in her ability to develop proven Training programs that deliver results. She has extensive experience with strategic planning and evaluation in Sales, Guest Experience, Stadium Operations, Event Management and Hospitality. Her passion for people is only outdone by her innate ability to develop trust and nurture relationships with corporate and community partners.

Meet Meghan Sherwin
Meghan has 15+ years of experience in the industry, both on the agency and client-side. As Vice President of Marketing at Keilhauer, she leads the portfolio of Brand, Product, Marketing, Textiles, Sustainability, Public Relations, Events, Sponsorship and Showrooms – ensuring the brand experience is integrated and supports the regional and global business goals. Prior to joining Keilhauer, Meghan was Vice President of Strategy at McCann, supporting day-to-day Fortune 100 brands while also being the Global Network Lead in the McCann WorldGroup’s Global Deep Tourism Practice – ensuring brands received integrated networked expertise and deep knowledge support on the industries of Transportation, Accommodation, Destination and Publication. She has been featured by Google, Queen’s University and Rotman School of Business.

Meet Milos Vranesevic
Milos Vranesevic is Senior Vice-President, Chief Marketing Officer at Sun Life Financial, focused on advancing the Sun Life brand globally and delivering on the Sun Life Purpose of helping Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives.

He is responsible for accelerating global brand and marketing; digital and content marketing; client experience, analytics and insights; and global philanthropy and sponsorships.

Milos joined Sun Life Financial in 2018. In his last role, he led Marketing and Communications for Mastercard International’s Latin America and Caribbean region covering 42 countries. Prior to this, Milos held a number of progressively senior positions for high-profile global consumer brands in Canada and the U.S including LoyaltyOne, the world’s leading provider of loyalty marketing programs to global corporations, TWBA Chiat/Day Advertising and the National Hockey League.

Across the industry, he is known for his leadership and collaborative approach to working with teams to deliver strategic, breakthrough, insight-driven campaigns and programs.

Outside of work, Milos enjoys traveling, reading fiction and spending time with his wife, son and family.