ICMI Consultants and Seminar Leaders
Brad Cleveland
President, CEO, Publisher
As President and CEO of ICMI, and Publisher of Call Center Management Review , Brad is dedicated to promoting the contact center environment and helping centers to reach their maximum potential. His enthusiasm and leadership set the standards for success that drive the entire organization. Brad has an extensive background in the global contact center market ¡ª he has worked in more than 30 countries, and his clients have ranged from small startups to national governments and multinational corporations.
Brad is committed to providing the highest quality services available. He is author of , co-author of (which won an Amazon.com best-selling award), and co-editor of ICMI's handbook/study guide series on call center management. He is also a popular keynote speaker and a dynamic seminar leader.
Brad adamantly believes that, as communications capabilities continue to develop and proliferate, the contact center industry stands poised at a critical, exciting juncture. His passion on the topic has made him a much-sought-out expert source for interviews on major television networks ( ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX, CNBC ) and the in-flight programs of several airlines, as well as in publications ranging from US News and World Report to The Washington Post . Brad has been recognized as an industry trail-blazer by Call Center Magazine (as a recipient of its Pioneer and Hall of Fame awards), and was nominated for a ComputerWorld Smithsonian 21st Century Pioneering award. He has received honorary membership in call center management associations around the world.
Jay Minnucci
Vice President of Consulting Services
Jay is ICMI'S Vice President of Consulting Services. Jay brings a breadth of industry knowledge to his consulting assignments. His experience managing mission-critical call centers and customer service operations, plus numerous consulting projects throughout North America and abroad, spans more than 15 years. Recent clients include the Gartner Group, Kaiser Permanente, the American Diabetes Association, Wells Fargo, Cinergy, Centrelink Australia , Discover Financial, and others.
Jay's easy-going, personable style allows him to present material in a straightforward, engaging manner, whether he's speaking at a conference or seminar, or writing an article for Call Center Management Review or other trade publications, such as Business Communications Review . As ICMI's Strategy and Leadership Professional Interest Area Advisor, Jay spearheads the special issues and reports developed for the group, and also writes a regular column for ICMI's Web site (). He is a popular speaker, and has presented at the 2003 International Call Center Management Conference and Exhibition (ICCM), Call Center West 2003, The 2003 Forecasting Summit, The ICMI Knowledge Exchange, and other events.
Some of Jay's recent projects have involved business strategy development, operational process reviews, forecasting and scheduling improvements, quality service assessments, wellness checks and IVR routing enhancements. Jay is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Temple University.
Marilyn Saulnier
Senior Consultant
Marilyn is a Senior Consultant with ICMI, bringing more than 20 years' experience in call center operations and consulting to her projects. In her words, she "thrives on working with companies to help them reach their goals," and she has a proven track record of successfully applying her extensive knowledge and experience to meet the specific needs of her clients.
One of Marilyn's strengths is her hands-on call center management experience with organizations such as Potpourri Collection, Chadwick's of Boston and Eastern Airlines. She has managed call centers, order processing, product inquiry and customer correspondence. Her background also includes forecasting and budgeting, workforce management, workflow process reengineering, and instilling a commitment to customer satisfaction. Some of Marilyn's call center consulting clients include Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, BancorpSouth and CIBC.
Marilyn is a native of New England . She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from Northeastern University in Boston , and has served on the Board of Directors for the New England Telecommunications Association for the past several years.
Lesley Vereen
Senior Consultant
Lesley Vereen is a Senior Consultant with ICMI. In the past fifteen years, she expanded her enthusiasm for teaching into a 15 year business career, combining management, training and consulting in multiple industries on both a national and international level. During eight years with UnitedHealthcare, one of the country's largest managed health care companies, she provided strategic business leadership throughout the call center. Her guidance led to improvements in customer access and satisfaction through simplification of call routing and scripting, standardization of improved call handling procedures across a national service network, establishment of quality standards, and implementation of a large multi-site quality monitoring and coaching program.
Lesley's extensive domestic and international consulting experience includes working with clients to establish performance standards, develop quality assurance programs, implement training programs, improve operational processes, analyze transaction workflows, build customer relationship processes, and mentor management teams. Her international experience includes extensive work with the Philippine Long Distance Phone Company, the largest telephone company in the Philippines, Banorte Bank in Mexico, and business development experience with a fast growing off shore outsourcer in the Philippines. Some of her domestic based clients include Porsche, Time Warner, Blockbuster, USAir, Delaware North Companies, Dacor, Georgia Power, BancorpSouth, Citizens Bank, Colonial Bank, and Log on America.
Lesley earned a Bachelor of Science degree from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Lesley served as president and an executive board member for three years in a quality monitoring industry organization and is a member of the American Society for Training and Development ¨C North Carolina Research Triangle Area Chapter.
Dan Rickwalder
Forecasting Consultant
As Forecasting Consultant, Dan's main responsibility is to develop and manage the daily operations of the Bull's-Eye Forecasting Service. In this role, Dan is instrumental in implementing the forecasting methodology and analytical tools used in this service. Dan also brings over 10 years customer service management experience to ICMI. Over the last seven years, he has focused on forecasting and data analysis for call center service providers. His experience includes budget and staffing forecasting and performance reporting development for inbound and outbound contact centers in North America and the United Kingdom.
Rebecca Gibson
Performance and Education Consultant
Rebecca Gibson has a long history in a wide variety of call centers with an emphasis on performance management issues. During six years with one of the largest call center outsourcers in the country she consulted with clients in the pharmaceutical, insurance, healthcare, financial services and high-tech industries on issues surrounding best practice hiring strategies, results-driven quality monitoring and coaching programs, and high impact agent motivation and incentives. As ICMI's resident "people management" expert spends her time and her energy in educational seminars and consulting projects communicating to managers their ability to markedly impact agents' attitudes and their performance. Rebecca presents ICMI's acclaimed 2-day seminar, "Monitoring and Coaching for Improved Call Center Performance", leads web seminars on topics such as call center monitoring, coaching and hiring, and serves as the People Management Advisor to ICMI's Membership community. Rebecca is a CIAC certified call center consultant and is working towards a Master's Degree in Instructional Systems Development at the University of Maryland.
Laurie Solomon
Certified Associate of ICMI
Laurie Solomon is a Certified Associate of ICMI and Founder/President of Chicago-based LKS Training Solutions, an inbound call center management training and consulting firm. Her background includes eighteen years of hands-on call center management including nine years as Vice-President of Reservation Sales/Operations for one of the leisure travel industry's largest outsource providers.
Laurie is an expert in the field of adult learning with extensive experience in establishing effective monitoring and coaching programs, leadership and communication skills development, train-the-trainer and technology-based learning alternatives. She is a regular speaker at industry gatherings throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand. Some 10,000 call center professionals have attended Laurie's classes and consistently rated them to be of the highest caliber. Laurie is an active member in several business associations and her articles have been published in Call Center Management Review and elsewhere.
Lori Bocklund
ICMI Seminar Facilitator
Lori Bocklund is President of independent consulting firm Strategic Contact and the advisor for ICMI Members in the Technology Management Professional Interest Area. She has over sixteen years of experience helping companies successfully apply call center technologies to business needs. She is a sought-after speaker for industry events, and writes articles on technology and operations for a variety of call center publications. Lori has presented seminars and tutorials to thousands of call center professionals in the U.S. , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , South Africa , and Ireland . Lori is co-author of (Call Center Press, 2002). Attendees of Lori's courses appreciate her enthusiasm, energy, and humor. She has a great ability to use her technical and industry knowledge, along with her excellent communication skills, to make today's complex technology environment more readily understood.
Rose Polchin
Certified Associate of ICMI
Rose is President of Rose Polchin Consulting and Training, a training and consulting firm focused on call center management. Rose has more than 15 years of practical experience in various management positions related to customer service, call center operations and consulting. Some of her key focus areas include call center operations, coaching, call monitoring and contact solutions.
Rose's successful approach and commitment to call center education and improvement initiatives is the result of proven frontline experience, research and developing partnerships with customers. Attendees of her seminars praise her energy, knowledge and commitment to helping individuals advance their careers and the success of their organizations.
Rose is a member of the International Customer Service Association and the American Society of Training and Development. She is a popular speaker at industry seminars and conferences throughout the United States , United Kingdom , Australia and New Zealand , and has authored articles on key industry topics for Call Center Management Review.
George Nichols
Certified Associate of ICMI
George is President of Career II Marketing Inc., which specializes in strategic business planning and call center analysis (operational assessments) specifically targeted at the "human ware" side of the business. He has more than 25 years of experience in various management positions related to sales, marketing and call center consulting. George's down-to-earth professionalism has won the praise of seminar attendees from British Columbia to United Arab Emirates .
George's approach to call center analysis was developed through extensive research, analysis and frontline experience gained by partnering with more than 100 successful call center operations. The key areas targeted for analysis include: strategic planning, processes, service quality, ergonomics, performance measurements, competency assessment, coaching, call monitoring and evaluation, and training programs.
George assists Niagara College as an active member of its Program Advisory Committee. He has an active interest in helping universities reach students with the best educational offerings, and has advised ICMI on content and program design.
Jean Bave-Kerwin
Certified Associate of ICMI
Jean is President of JBK Consulting, a firm that focuses on the needs and challenges of call centers in the government and non-profit sectors. Jean has experience managing multiple call centers with responsibilities ranging from technology implementation to hiring and training. Her extensive background includes work with organizational development, performance measurement, leadership development and the delivery of customer service training programs.
Jean has spent much of her career elevating the performance of call centers through customer satisfaction measures and incentive programs. She is dedicated to seeing organizations ¡ª especially those in the governmental and non-profit sectors ¡ª create more valuable services, and is a champion of how call centers can improve organizationwide performance.
Jean is president of the Call Center Management Association of New York State, and has spoken at a wide variety of industry conferences. She writes regularly for Call Center Management Review , and other industry publications.
Becky Simpson
Certified Associate of ICMI
Becky is Managing Director of Improvement Solutions, a UK-based call center consulting company. She is a highly motivated and experienced consultant and seminar facilitator, with a well-proven record of achievement in the call and communication center environment, including call center management, training and development, process reengineering and the optimization of operations through people.
Becky is an enthusiastic, confident and flexible individual who brings to her projects a wealth of experience built over 13 years of practical experience at all levels of inbound and outbound call center operations across many industry sectors in the United Kingdom, Mainland Europe and Africa. She specializes in human resources and training consultancy, operational development and interim management in call and communication centers.
Becky has worked with numerous organizations to develop call center standards and qualifications. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of CMP's Customer Contact Solutions and UK-based Contact Centre Recruitment and Training. She has facilitated numerous seminars and has spoken at many call center industry conferences.
Laura Grimes
Certified Associate of ICMI
Laura is CEO of Harrington Consulting Group Inc. She is an experienced consultant with over 20 years of successful business planning, project management, traffic engineering and resource management.
Laura draws on her dynamic and innovative background in service and manufacturing operations with high-growth industry leaders. She has developed unique operational solutions for companies facing the challenges of managing multiple skills in multiple centers, including site selection and facility design. She is deft at developing customer relationship strategies and drilling those strategies down to operational plans. She has taught and lectured at several universities and has written many.
Laura is on the faculty for the University of Phoenix. She is a frequent speaker at call center industry events and has written many articles for call center publications including Call Center Management Review and industry development publications.
Gerardo Tablas
Certified Associate of ICMI
To say that Gerardo is a versatile instructor and consultant for ICMI would be a severe understatement. Gerardo is fluent in seven languages, and his background includes a wide range of experiences, working with governments and organizations around the world. He has facilitated ICMI seminars across the Americas and in Europe . Gerardo's passion to see that professionals become all they can be is highly contagious.
As an independent consultant in the development of call centers in Latin America , Gerardo has advised international and local investors on the establishment of call centers to provide services to multinational corporations with operations in Latin America . Gerardo has worked as a consultant for the Government of El Salvador to implement strategies oriented toward attracting call-handling for international companies with Spanish-speaking clients in the United States to El Salvador .
Gerardo has participated in many customer service conferences as an invited speaker, including the Latin American Conference on Call Centers in Buenos Aires , Argentina and Sao Paulo , Brazil . He has conducted site visits to call centers in the United States and several European countries for the purpose of developing an effective call center model that is applicable to Latin America.
Wanda Sitzer
ICMI Seminar Facilitator
Wanda takes a decidedly enlightened approach to consulting. With more than 15 years in the industry, she's witnessed the trends, promises and turnover. But Wanda believes that the one constant that keeps customer service and sales alive is the human spirit. She applies universal life principles to hard-core call center issues to offer real solutions that work on the floor.
Wanda is a top-notch instructor with an engaging presentation style that agents and directors love. She approaches each seminar with the belief that there's more to a call than selling, servicing, quality or quantity ¡ª there's an essence to every interaction, a meaning to every connection ¡ª even 800-number calls, email exchanges and Web chat sessions!
Prior to freelancing (so she could have more time with her kids), Wanda was Cofounder of Initiatives Three Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to elevating the performance of call centers. She and her partner pioneered the first training program, Elements, to teach agents how to serve and sell in the new email medium. Wanda has also managed the consulting division for a worldwide outsourcing company and managed a call center for IBM increasing revenue by 120 percent.
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