Biography

Biography

Klaus Rieger has a long experience with the finance sector and consulting business. The graduate computer scientist has been working at Baloise Insurance since 2016. Initially, he was Project Lead for the Baloise BI Transformation before becoming Head of Data Lab  & Governance in 2019. He is now responsible for Here he drives the implementation of data governance and the use of advanced analytics in the organization.

Biography

Michael Gaspar, Head of the CX Customer Office, SAP CX works to ensure a remarkable experience for customers.  Michael comes to SAP with a unique combination of experience including military aviation with the USAF and leadership/sales excellence with Cisco, NTT, Salesforce, and Tesla.  Michael’s experience has honed his ability to execute results in high-speed environments and with operational discipline – and he does so with conspicuous energy and optimism

Biography

Dr. Ziaee has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare operations audit, analysis, improvement, redesign, and consulting.  He has published and presented on healthcare operations redesign, process analysis, improvement, and value engineering.  He has a strong methodological background in both qualitative and quantitative process improvement and has successfully conducted analyses with scores of hospitals, health systems.   

Dr. Ziaee is the coauthor of “Preparing for Continuous Quality Improvement for Healthcare, Sustainability through FTS” published by CRC Press - Taylor and Francis Group, ISBN 13:978-1-4665-6770-2 with James Bologna in 2015.

His academic qualifications include a PhD with a concentration in Applied Statistics and Quality Engineering from Wayne State University, an MSE in Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MA in Economics from The University of Detroit.  Reza has also obtained the highest level of certification in Lean and is a Six-Sigma Black Belt.

He was an adjunct professor for four years in the MBA program at the Roseman University of Health Sciences, University of Phoenix, and University of Michigan, teaching Healthcare Economics, Management Operations, Macro Economics, and Engineering Economics.

His past experience includes work with Oakwood Healthcare System, Henry Ford Health System, Banner Health System, BCBS of Michigan, Western Medical Health System, Renown Health, Dignity Health, and Antelope Valley Hospital.

Biography

Brad Beumer is the Customer Experience Automation (Cx-A) lead at UiPath. Brad helps UiPath's clients and partners envision the role of automation in their end-to-end customer experience and contact center journeys. Brad has been delivering customer experience automation and contact center solutions for over 20 years.

Biography

Richard Rabin is the Product Marketing Manager for Process Intelligence at ABBYY, a Digital Intelligence company. He works closely with global enterprises to help them better understand and optimize their business process workflows, bottlenecks, and how to select the initiatives that will yield the most business value with intelligent automation, and how they will impact overall operational excellence. Richard has a remarkable academic background in Computer and Information Science and AI and has more than 35 years of software engineering expertise. He previously worked as a Senior Solutions Consultant at Appian, where he led sales of Appian’s digital transformation platform primarily in the pharma and financial services industries. Before that, he led his own consultant business, where he provided services for Kofax Insight in the areas of business intelligence, process intelligence, and behavior-based analytics.   

Biography

Devon Bunyan has worked for Rogers for over 10 years within the Customer Contact Centre before moving over to the Robotics team. Devon is responsible for the automation pipeline within Rogers and has a passion for using RPA to improve the customer and agent experience in the Contact Centre.

Biography

Mladen Milanovic is Vice President of Engineering responsible for Presidio’s Global RPA Program. Mladen has 20+ years of experience in contact center industry leading presales, post-sales, project management, and custom application development groups. In recent years Mladen is focused on workforce transformation and automation.

Biography

An accomplished healthcare leader, Jason has vast experience in medical group management, operational and financial performance improvement, leadership development, and workforce engagement. In his current role as Director of Patient and Provider Experience at Tandigm Health, Jason is accountable for designing and delivering on the overall experience improvement strategy through workforce development and provider engagement.

Prior to joining Tandigm Health, Jason worked in world-class organizations such as Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, Studer Group, Baird Group, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Guthrie Clinic. Apart from his daily activities, Jason is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Kindness For Karen Foundation; a not-for-profit organization that offers programs and services to support women and their families affected by lung cancer in underserved communities.  Jason is currently pursuing his second master’s degree in Clinical Psychology focusing on clinical mental health counseling and substance use disorders.

Throughout his career, Jason has consistently institutionalized a culture of service excellence, quality and ownership in his practices. His accomplishments come by hardwiring systems of accountability for leaders, physicians, and employees. This has proven successful in engaging these groups to own their part in achieving excellent patient experience and clinical outcomes.

Biography

Jennifer is a fierce advocate for connecting things, concepts and people, seen and unseen, that positively move the patient experience forward. Before joining The Institute for Healthcare Excellence in 2016,  her obsession with the voice of the patient and family helped several health systems in Minnesota achieve and sustain remarkable patient experience performance. Jennifer also worked to help organizations generate revenue, inspire engagement and drive positivechange.

Jennifer, often described as a social chemist, believes that kindness and thoughtfulness is a key ingredient for creating meaningful relationships while still being focused on generating growth and loyalty for the organization. Her ability to lead, inspire, manage and mentor employees, providers and community made her a perfect fit for Chief Experience Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Excellence.   While Jennifer takes great pride in her work, her true north remains her family, friends and relationships she develops. A graduate of the College of St. Benedict, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies/Communications.

Biography

Jim de Vries is a skilled thought leader with more than 30 years of experience helping clients achieve their desired outcomes through his ability to facilitate teams and drive improvement. His experience encompasses financial, commercial, CRM, services, IT, call centers, security, transportation, automotive, power systems, oil and gas, nuclear energy, research and development, government, and electronics industries.

Biography

Joe Nieto is director of customer engagement for healthcare at Element Blue, located minutes from the renowned Texas Medical Center in Houston. Joe’s clients include Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston Methodist, Baylor College of Medicine, Memorial Hermann Health System, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Biography

William J. Maples, M.D. - Dr. Maples is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Excellence, a national organization supporting care redesign and cultural transformation in delivery systems across the United States. 

Dr. Maples earned his undergraduate, Masters in Oncology, and medical degrees at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He completed his residency and fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Maples practiced Medical Oncology for 25 years at Mayo Clinic and helped lead the Mayo Clinic quality, safety, and experience journey.

He then served as Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Mission Health in Asheville, North Carolina where he helped Mission Health navigate cultural transformation and become a leading healthcare organization recognized for its impeccable quality and safety. Dr. Maples more recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Professional Research Consultants, Inc. Dr. Maples is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the Mayo College of Medicine and a Clinical Professor at Brooks College of Health at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Biography

Experienced Assistant Executive Director with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Skilled in Strategic Planning, Go-to-market Strategy, Organizational Development, Sales Management, and Business Strategy. Strong business development professional with a Master's degree focused in Msc. Project Management from University of Adelaide.

Biography

Biography

My goal is to enable organizations to thrive in the digital age. This requires that organizations be successful at creating customer journeys, smart processes, and bots built for change.

Specialties: Event Management, Process Management, AI in Decision Optimization, Business Intelligence in Automation Efforts, and Scenarios in Policy Management.

I also try to entertain people with my art and music. I paint, create fractals and do digital art. 

Biography

James Feldman is a globally recognized business advisor, mentor, innovation Sherpa, author, speaker, and serial entrepreneur, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He advises companies on building strong customer-concentric, innovative organizations that deliver transformational growth to achieve goals, overcome challenges, and think ‘inside the box’ to solve problems.

The robust result of his real-world information is that attendees become more enlightened to influence their behavior and competitive differentiation. He delivers a strong, entertaining, thought-provoking presentation that will demonstrate 'shifts’ based on a series of interrelated actions with a focus on obsessive intimacy and attendee engagement.

James delivers proven real-world strategies that target and transform challenges into opportunities! It’s about how to think, not what to think. Leveraging extensive experience developing and implementing effective strategies to drive business improvements for both non-and for-profit organizations, h

Utilizing licensed movie and television scenes attendees will be simultaneously entertained and educated.

His presentation is applicable to brand development, hospitality innovation, business transformation, leadership development, creative problem solving, new business development, B2B/B2C marketing, innovative problem solving and strategic planning.

Throughout his executive career, he founded several performance improvement companies. He has been responsible for facilitating Toyota’s launch of new products, spearheading the introduction of breakfast at McDonald’s, raising $450M for the Y-ME Breast Cancer Organization, and improving Hewlett-Packards go-to-market strategies. James’ clients have included leading organizations such as AT&T, Carnival Cruise Lines, Apple, Verizon, US Department of Defense, Hyatt, Walt Disney, Ritz Carlton, Microsoft, MGM Casinos and Resorts, MGM, Walt Disney, American Dairy Association, Cremation Association of N.A. Ford, the March of Dimes, and the American Dental Association.

A highly respected Thought Leader he is the author of several books. They include "D-A-T-I-N-G Your Customer®," "Shift Happens!®",  “Thriving on Change in Organizations” and “Celebrate Customer Service – Insider Secrets,” and has written for publications including Adweek, Advertising Age, Investors Business Daily, and Business Travel News. Named one of the Most Innovative People in the 21st Century by Incentive Magazine.

James has earned more professional certifications than almost any other speaker including Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), Certified Incentive and Travel Expert (CITE), Certified Professional of Incentive Marketing (CPIM), Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), Master Incentive Professional (MIP), Platform Certified Speaker (PCS), Certified Underwater Photography Instructor, Private Pilot, and Artisan Chocolatier.

Biography

From managing the logistics of multi-million dollar upgrade programs to solving interpersonal conflicts, the Air Force prepared me to thrive in a multitude of different business environments.

During my tenure in the military, I was immersed in test engineering, logistics, process improvement, compliance management, and leadership initiatives. After transitioning from the Air Force, I've spent time in Project Management, Process Improvement, and Management.

I am currently the Team Lead for the Signavio Customer Success Team in North America organization, ensuring our customers are realizing the most value possible with our Suite. Ever day brings a new adventure, and I look forward to each and every new morning to find out what's in store!

Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.