Keynote Speaker

Lior Arussy is an author, visionary, consultant and creative catalyst in the areas of creating delightful customer experiences and executing profitable customer strategies. For his thought leadership and contribution to the industry, Mr. Arussy received CRM Magazine's "2003 Influential Leaders" award and served as a juror on Fast Company's Customer First Awards 2005.

Prior to establishing Strativity Group, Mr. Arussy held executive positions at Hewlett-Packard and other companies.

Mr. Arussy's syndicated column Focus: Customer reaches over 600,000 readers worldwide every month. He is also the author of four books including Excellence Every Day; Make The Daily Choice (Information Today May, 2008) and Passionate & Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to Do Them Right! (Wiley 2005) In addition, he has published over 50 articles in publications around the world including at the Harvard Business Review.

His accomplishments have been recognized by leading press and analysts such as ABC, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Times of London and Gartner. Mr. Arussy completed his undergraduate degree at Case Western Reserve University and received his MBA from Weatherhead School of Management.

Kevin Panozza
Chief Engagement Orator, Engagement Matters

Kevin Panozza founded SalesForce in partnership with advertising agency DDB in 1994. Now the company is Salmat owned.

Kevin’s lifetime of experience and his strong personal convictions about stimulating work environments and empowering cultures has resulted in SalesForce being voted ‘Best Employer in Australia and New Zealand’ in three consecutive Hewitt surveys (2004, 2005 and 2007). In 2007, SalesForce was amongst the top half dozen employers in Asia.

Kevin’s team has achieved very strong revenue growth (in a small, very competitive market), consistent profit growth, organisational stability, and a global reputation for deploying emerging technologies. In addition, they have developed and executed new selling and customer services techniques.
SalesForce provides more than sixty national and international companies with selling and customer service solutions. These companies are typically the leading brand in each market vertical.

Featured Speakers

More than 30 speakers, including top Genesys executives, will be presenting at G-Force Barcelona 2009. Featured speakers and Genesys presenters are noted below. We are continuously adding to this list, so please check back often.

Hatim Badawi
Director, Customer Care, Etisalat

Hatim is currently Customer Care Director for Etisalat Egypt. Prior to his current role Hatim was Vodafone Group Customer Management Program Manager where he managed customer management program across 16 countries and has over 11 years of GSM experience.

Hatim, a telecommunication engineer with an MBA. has 3 GSM launches experience where he played different roles.

He has played several roles ranging from network roll-out, contract management, supply chain, program management, customer care, and commercial strategy across his career.

Merijn te Booij
Genesys

Join us for this general session dedicated to Genesys solution innovation. Merijn te Booij heads the Genesys Product Management team and will share with you the latest Genesys solution direction with updates on real-time performance management for customer service and contact centers, voice self-service and speech applications, and IP and SIP solutions. We’ll provide a special look at Genesys innovation and show you how to engage executive management by delivering added value to your business.

As head of Genesys Product Management, Merijn guides all aspects of the product life cycle. Collaborating extensively with customers and partners, he determines the Genesys product strategy, based on our customer research and analysis, competitive intelligence and emerging technologies. Merijn joined Genesys in 2000 as a sales consultant in our Europe, Middle East and Africa Region. He continued his career in Professional Services and then led the Genesys Business Consulting practice. He brings direct experience managing a contact center for the Dutch Automobile Association.

Bruce Eidsvik
Vice President Strategic Solutions EMEA, Genesys

Currently, Bruce manages the Strategic Solutions for Genesys across EMEA. Prior to Genesys, Bruce was a co-founder of VoiceGenie Technologies and ran the global sales force. Bruce is a pioneer in the VoiceXML marketspace, having worked with AT&T since 1996 in the development of the original VoiceXML phoneweb product. Bruce was also instrumental in securing VoiceGenie’s early lead in the marketplace and devising the focused product strategy that led to early profitability for the company. Prior to VoiceGenie, Bruce worked for several years as VP of Sales and Marketing for Array and as Director of Engineering and Director of Business Development for Sparton of Canada. He received his BSc. with Honours in Engineering Physics in 1985.

Joe Heinen
Genesys

As vice president of corporate marketing, Joseph Heinen is responsible for corporate branding, marketing communications, and public and analyst relations. Prior to this role, Mr. Heinen held positions in the company where he was responsible for strategic sales tools for product marketing to position and demonstrate the value of the overall Genesys product suite; and for vertical marketing where he developed new customers through direct sales and channel partners.

Nicolas de Kouchkovsky
Genesys

Nicolas de Kouchkovsky, President of Genesys, will show you how Genesys is transforming the customer experience though its new vision: Dynamic Customer Engagement. Dynamic Customer Engagement takes customer service to the next level through real-time optimization of resources and enterprise-wide customer processes – across all media channels, as well as assisted and self-service. Nicolas will also provide a unique look at the increasing business impact of customer services and how it is getting the attention of c-level executives and senior management at businesses worldwide.

Nicolas de Kouchkovsky brings more than 20 years of IT and Telecommunications industry experience to his role as President of Genesys. He is responsible for the management of Genesys, driving the company's strategic direction and building the Genesys brand. Nicolas joined Genesys in February 2000 as Vice President of Products and Strategy, overseeing product management, product marketing and strategy, while helping Genesys achieve a market leader position in the contact center software market. He later served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, overseeing key acquisitions for the Genesys portfolio.

Nicolas earned a Masters degree in Math and Physics from Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau. He also holds a Masters in Robotics and Data Processing from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées in Paris.  

Lars Nilsson
CEO, Aditro

Lars Nilsson is CEO of Aditro Customer Services since January 2009, a Group focused on customer services, with primary focus on the Nordic region. The Group is generating about 10MEUR per annum, mainly through outsourcing services. Lars joined Aditro in 2008 as business area mgr from Microsoft, where he has spent the last 10 years in different Services roles on Nordic, Western Europe and EMEA level. Lars started out in the Nordic region as a support manager, pioneering proactive interaction and customer connection for tech support in the early days with high PC penetration and self services on the web. Lars has then worked in different EMEA wide roles, ending up shaping and forming WE Services as a new entitiy. The success in growth and profitability has been at the top within Microsoft Services WW. Before Microsoft Lars worked as mgmt consultant at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting with primary focus at BPR and establishment of Shared Services Centers.

Bill Peer
InterContinental Hotels Group

As an international hotel company with 7 brands and over 160 million stays per year, IHG understands that service is THE key differentiator. Ensuring guests receive outstanding service and memorable experiences is at the heart of their business. Bill will share how IHG is evolving the guest experience and how innovation is leading the way. With the hotel guest experience of the future as a back drop, Bill will share how a consistent guest service across all touch points is being achieved by an orthogonal service centric environment, cloud computing, and a few key technologies.

As Director, Enterprise Architecture, InterContinental Hotels Group, Bill Peer is the chief enterprise architect at IHG. His responsibilities include creating the 1, 3, and 5 year strategic technology roadmap for the company, migration towards a SOA-centric architecture, and enterprise system governance. Bill has spent the past decade focusing exclusively on large scale systems. He has worked in many industries including hospitality, insurance and retail. During his 20 years of professional experience, Bill has worked in every IT capacity and his career even includes time at the National Security Agency. He has conducted numerous presentations around the globe on a wide range of technology topics ranging from Enterprise Architecture to the Internet to System Design. Bill earned his baccalaureate in Physics (Cum Laude) and received a Masters degree in Computer Science.

Paul Segre
Genesys

As CEO of Genesys, Paul will provide his unique global perspective on customer service. Taking a look at the latest trends in consumer communications, Paul will provide his view on how new communications and applications are transforming the way we shop for and buy products, and the impact this will have on the customer experience of the future. Paul will also share how Genesys is more strongly positioned than ever before to accelerate innovation and deliver cutting-edge customer service applications, including advanced network services.

Paul Segre leads the Genesys strategy, technology development and worldwide operations. He also serves as President of Alcatel-Lucent's Applications Software Group. Paul joined Genesys in 2002 as Chief Technology Officer, leading the company's engineering, product management, technical support, and program management organizations. In August 2004, he was named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Genesys, responsible for operational management of worldwide field operations, including sales and services. He became CEO of Genesys in 2007.

His leadership includes over 15 years of management experience in the network management and workforce management industry. Paul holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a Master's degree in Operations Research from Stanford University.  

Frank Verweij
Genesys

A 20-year marketing veteran, Frank Verweij is responsible for Customer and Partner Marketing for Genesys in EMEA, and the host of this year’s G-Force.

Mr. Verweij was a key element in bringing the G-Force event to the EMEA region, and has served as Project Manager of the Athens 2006, London 2007, and Berlin 2008 G-Force events. Previously, he served as Marketing Manager for Northern Europe for Genesys, a role he started in 2003 with the company.

Mr. Verweij’s high-tech marketing experience spans Vignette and World Online. At Philip Morris, he was key event marketing manager leading the company’s Formula One sponsorship series.

Frank has a degree in Hospitality Management from The Hague in The Netherlands.

It’s time to Transform Customer Experience.

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