Speakers

Jill Nowacki

Jill Nowacki

Jill Nowacki started her career with credit unions in 2001. She has taken on leadership roles at credit unions and state and national trade associations, including serving as the President/CEO of the Credit Union League of Connecticut. In 2019, Jill founded Humanidei, a human capital strategies firm that helps credit unions build inclusive cultures that attract, develop, and retain top talent—from the front line through the Board of Directors.

By strategically addressing the value of human capital, credit unions can create environments where people bring their best, authentic selves to work; resulting in diversity in thought, increased innovation, stronger succession planning, and ultimately: Relevant, growing credit unions that expand the economic capacity of the members and communities they serve.

Throughout her career, Jill has worked with credit union leadership across the country to introduce business and human capital strategies that lead to growth. She is a sought-after speaker and thought leader on the topics of leadership, diversity, and strategic planning.

Jill holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Montana and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Public Relations from Carroll College (Helena, Montana). She is a certified International Credit Union Development Educator, a Certified Association Executive (CAE), and a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE).

Dr. Jermaine M. Davis

Dr. Jermaine M. Davis

Before receiving the prestigious College Instructor of the Year Award, Dr. Jermaine M. Davis worked in corporate America for IBM, Keebler Cookies, and Frito-Lay in sales, marketing, and management. Now, he’s an award-winning Professor of Communication Studies at Century College and Organizational Leadership at St. Catherine University in Minnesota. Dr. Jermaine is the best-selling author of 10 books including, Get Up Off Your Butt & Do It NOW, Leading with Greatness, and Leading and Working with an Inclusive Lens.

Dr. Jermaine holds a BA and an MA in Speech Communications, and a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership. He specializes in helping teams and organizations develop healthy work environments so ALL employees can thrive and succeed. As a Hall of Fame Speaker, Dr. Jermaine helps leaders and teams increase employee morale, motivation, and engagement utilizing his popular 3 C’s Framework: Communication, Cooperation, and Collaboration.

Dr. Jermaine is an international speaker, leadership coach, and communication strategist that engages audiences with his unique presentation style known as – EDUTAINMENT – a fun combination of education and entertainment. Prestigious organizations like 3M, Best Buy, Sam’s Club, Lake Area Bank, Prudential, Wells Fargo, Round Bank, West Point Military Academy, John Deere, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Yale University, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car regularly seek out. Dr. Jermaine’s expertise in the areas of increasing employee engagement, leading positive change, thriving as a team, communicating with influence, and overcoming workplace burnout.

Dr. Brandi Stankovic

Dr. Brandi Stankovic

Dr. Brandi Stankovic is an organizational change expert, motivational speaker, artist, and mommy who inspires firms globally with her leadership, engagement, and award-winning education models. Dr. Stankovic is a trusted advisor and strategic planning facilitator who guides CEOs and Boards on risk appetite, organizational health, profitability, and growth. She is the COO of Advisory Solutions and Chief Strategy Officer at CU Solutions Group. Dr. Stankovic is the co-author of The Strategic MVP, a book of 52 growth and leadership tools, and the host of the energizing podcast, The Strategic Hotbox, designed to help executives reach their greatest potential. Dr. Stankovic is a director and co-founder of CU Pride, an industry organization serving LGBTQ+ community and allies. She also serves on the CMN Hospitals Credit Unions for Kids advisory group, HRD Network Board advisor, CUVM Board, and is a Development Educator CUDE and I-CUDE. Dr. Stankovic volunteers for World Young Credit Union Professionals and Global Women’s Leadership Network, World Council of Credit Unions, helping advance young executives and women in leadership across the globe. Dr. Stankovic received her Bachelors in Finance and Economics at the University of Nevada, MBA from the University of San Diego, and Doctorate of Education from Pepperdine University.

Bruce L. Belfiore

Bruce L. Belfiore

Bruce Belfiore is CEO and Senior Research Executive of BenchmarkPortal, custodian of the world’s largest database of contact center metrics, which provides benchmarking, certification, training and consulting services to the contact center sector. Bruce hosts the online podcast CallTalk™, which discusses hot-button issues with industry experts and interacts with a large audience of call center managers.  He is a frequent speaker at industry events in the United States and abroad.

Bruce is the Chancellor of The College of Call Center Excellence, which provides certificated courses to contact center professionals. He has also taught the course “Call Center Management” at Purdue University.

He authored the book Benchmarking At Its Best for Contact Centers, a manual for best practices benchmarking, and has written numerous research papers and best practices studies focused on contact center topics. His writings include the Contact Center Mastery eBook Series, CallTalk Caramels and Contact Center Economics 101.

He is a consultant to call centers in a wide variety of industries and is noted for helping to calculate the financial impact of proposed changes.

Bruce holds both U.S. and Italian nationality and has divided his career between North America and Europe. Before entering the contact center field he held positions in international finance and consulting, including with the Bain & Company group and Credit Suisse First Boston.

Bruce holds A.B., MBA and JD degrees from Harvard University.

Amanda Hillmann

Amanda Hillmann

Amanda Hillman is Sales Engineering Director for Co-op Solutions, which she joined in September 2016. With over 20 years in the payments industry, 15 years in Credit Unions, and 10 years of experience in sales and coaching, Hillman’s sales engineering expertise has allowed her to create innovative solutions that have increased revenue and customer satisfaction.

Buster Hansen

Buster Hansen

Buster Hansen is the Director of Sales Engineering for the Americas, APAC, and Vidyo.  He has over 30 years of experience in contact center and customer experience technologies.

Candy Valadez

Candy Valadez

Candy Valadez began her Credit Union journey when she joined Generations Federal Credit Union as a Teller in 2007. During her tenure, she held a variety of member-facing and back-office positions leading up to Digital Services Manager. In 2016 she obtained her BSBA from the University of the Incarnate Word, and in 2019, joined TekChoice.  She now serves as the Client Experience and Operations Manager which allows her to leverage all the industry knowledge, member service skills and overall understanding of the credit union culture, to help credit unions meet their member’s needs and accomplish strategic goals.

Dave Dalebroux

Dave Dalebroux

 

John Findlay

John Findlay

John is an expert in digital engagement. In 1999 John co-founded Launchfire, a game-based digital promotions company that worked with leading brands like Coca Cola, Time Warner, and Costco to educate consumers and increase sales.

In 2018 John co-founded LemonadeLXP, a digital growth platform for financial institutions and fintechs. LemonadeLXP leverages Launchfire’s deep set of best practices to help FIs and fintechs turn frontline staff into digital experts, support digital customers, and grow their digital banking businesses.

Kathy Sianis

Kathy Sianis

Kathy Sianis is Vice President of FI Strategy at Posh. Kathy has been in the Financial Industry for over 20 years, serving in
senior roles, to include CXO. She has vast experience in retail, contact center, lending, digital services, and operations.
She is CX Certified and is passionate about helping FIs solve for experience and needed efficiencies to include driving
organic growth. Kathy carries both a bachelors and masters degree in business. She thrives in helping strategize on how
to best leverage technology to solve industry-focused pain points, key objectives, and future opportunities.

Meg Stenstrud

Meg Stenstrud

Michael Kropidlowski

Michael Kropidlowski

As SVP of Global Marketing at Kore.ai, Michael leads the global demand

generation team charged with developing leading-edge marketing and

communications programs. Michael also leads the global product marketing

team to effectively promote the value Kore.ai solutions can bring to existing

customer and new logo client organizations. He contributes directly to company

strategy with a view to market trends and product strategy, focusing on

enhanced customer and employee experiences enabled through omnichannel

conversational AI engagement strategies.

 

Additionally, his team is responsible for competitive intelligence, product sales enablement, analyst, and press relations to drive growth and recognition of Kore.ai solutions in the market.

 

Michael has more than 30 years of experience in the customer service and contact center industries. Prior to joining Kore.ai in February 2022, Michael spent 23 years at Alvaria where he initially directed sales and technical channel partner training and then transitioned to lead product marketing for the company’s customer experience and workforce engagement contact center portfolio.

Milind Borkar

Milind Borkar

Dr. Milind Borkar is the Founder and CEO of Illuma, a CUSO specializing in real-time voice authentication and fraud prevention solutions for credit unions. Author of 14 technical publications and inventor on 21 patents, Dr. Borkar launched over 50 hi-tech products during his career with Texas Instruments prior to becoming a FinTech founder. The company’s flagship Illuma ShieldTM platform replaces traditional knowledge-based authentication with an effortless and secure voice biometric solution, delivering an elevated member experience, enhanced security, and improved operational efficiency. Illuma ShieldTM is frequently showcased at Finovate events and has recently won awards from VentureTech, CreditUnions.com, and NACUSO.

Peter Berbee

Peter Berbee

Peter Berbee is a seasoned product development executive who drives innovation within Kore.ai’s financial services offerings. As an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, he blends technology, automation, and digital capabilities to deliver best-in-class digital customer experiences that increase loyalty, repeat business, and revenue growth. Berbee joined Kore with a wide range of experience in financial services, having spent time with Citigroup, Bank of America, and First Bank System Inc.

 

Simon Waldron

Simon Waldron

Ryan Warfield

Ryan Warfield

Ryan Warfield is the Principal Sales Engineer at Posh, with more than 10 years of experience focused in the Financial Industry vertical, and an overall 18+ years in the Contact Center space.  Ryan is enthusiastic to work with clients to provide product demos and perform scoping of projects to validate correct solutions and offerings to fit client needs. Ryan is a native of Colorado, who enjoys taking advantage of the great outdoors with hiking and photography. Ryan also has a passion for traveling the world and exploring new experiences.

Rini Fredette

Rini Fredette

Rini Fredette has served as Senior Vice President, Contact Center Services & Solutions at PSCU since February 2017. In this role, she provides the overall leadership, vision and direction for the company’s contact center operations and strategy. Leveraging innovative technology, industry data and feedback from PSCU’s annual client survey, Rini has led a dramatic transformation of the company’s contact center, delivering a best-in-class experience for both clients and employees.

 

Previously, Rini served as Senior Vice President and Enterprise Risk Officer, spearheading the company’s initiatives to develop processes that effectively manage risk and align with the company’s strategic objectives. In this role, she oversaw the company’s Strategic Risk, Enterprise Risk Management, Internal Audit, Compliance Governance, Vendor Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, and Incident Handling/Investigations teams. Rini joined PSCU in April 2011 as Senior Manager, IT Governance, Compliance and Risk, providing leadership in all aspects of information security and risk management.

 

Prior to joining PSCU, Rini served as Director of IT Security, Compliance and Auditing for Teleperformance, Inc., a global contact center service provider.

 

A passionate advocate for women in business, Rini encourages professional growth through women’s leadership initiatives and mentorship. She serves as an executive leader in PSCU’s Susan Adam Gender Equality (SAGE) business resource group, focusing on moving women forward within the organization. Rini has also been a featured industry speaker on topics of contact center operations and innovation, risk, information technology and leadership.

 

Rini holds a B.A. in Psychology and M.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of South Florida, as well as an M.B.A. from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. She resides in the Tampa Bay area with her husband and their daughter.

Rick DeLisi

Rick DeLisi

Rick DeLisi (Lead Research Analyst) is a researcher/presenter who is best-known as the co-author of the best-selling business book, “The Effortless Experience”, and the new book called “Digital Customer Service” which he co-authored with Glia CEO Dan Michaeli.

Prior to joining Glia, he spent 15 years with Gartner, specializing in Customer Experience, Customer Service, and Communications. He was named a Gartner Fellow based on his research into the connection between employee effort and customer loyalty.

Past experiences also include stints in the airline and hospitality industries, as well as TV and radio broadcasting.

Rick is the co-author (along with Daniel Michaeli), of the upcoming book: Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for An On-Screen World, published by Wiley (release date: August 31st, 2021)

He has appeared at live events in over 25 countries and 100 cities, including New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Johannesburg, and (his guilty favorite) Las Vegas.

Terri Evans

Terri Evans

Terri P Evans is a native of Flint, Michigan. Terri has a Bachelor’s Degree of Science from Ferris State University. Terri embarked upon her financial career in November of 2009. Terri accepted a position at Wells Fargo, in Charlotte, NC as a Phone Banking Inbound Specialist. Terri quickly found a passion for making sure her customers were financially healthy and focused on sales. This led her to becoming a Sales Call Center Agent in November of 2011. Terri at that time was leading her team as an overall top performer for a consecutive 2 years. Terri emerged as a leader among her peers and was appointed as an AVP Virtual Call Center Supervisor, for the remaining 7 years of her tenure. Terri then accepted a position as a Call Center Supervisor for ALLY Bank in 2019. After a year and a half, Terri moved back to Flint to care for her father. It was then she embarked upon an opportunity to work at Dort Financial Credit Union in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Terri was hired as Dort’s Call Center Manager in September of 2021, where she has implemented a healthy work culture, overseeing 43 call center agents, 3 Senior Call Center Representatives and one assistant manager. Terri has improved the overall metrics for the Dort with results such as 57 seconds average wait time, 73% of all calls answered in 30 seconds and 4.7% overall percentage of abandon calls.

Shawn Tanferi

Shawn Tanferi

SVP of Strategic Solutions at Innovis

Jim Lusk

Jim Lusk

Senior Director of Strategic Solutions

Michael DeGraff

Michael DeGraff

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