Agenda & Speakers

Ana Guzman, Director of Loyalty and Customer Engagement, TGI Fridays

Ana is a digital transformation leader and experienced technology professional with over 10 years of Digital Technology delivery, Loyalty and Customer Engagement strategy, Mobile Commerce, Web technologies expertise.

Chad Nikola, Director of Customer Retention, American Eagle Outfitters

Chad Nikola is a customer first leader with a record of evolving and optimizing loyalty and personalization programs. He is currently serving as the Director of Customer Retention at American Eagle Outfitters where he recently led the complete rebrand and relaunch of AEO’s loyalty program - Real Rewards by American Eagle & Aerie. Chad’s background (Target, CVSHealth, Catalina) has helped shape his unique perspective on Loyalty/CRM programs and his unwavering passion for the customer.
 

Don Smith, Chief Strategy and Analytics Officer, Brierley

Don earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from The Florida State University, and spent 11 years in academia teaching statistics and policy evaluation. Prior to joining Brierley, he was a research director for Dallas County, in charge of database modeling, data mining, and program reporting. He has authored several journal articles and a full-length book. At Brierley, Don leads our strategic program design practice, responsible for engineering solutions which balance compelling value propositions with enhanced member experiences and data-driven customer engagement. An avid theater aficionado, his passion for presentation informs his marketing data analytics, where he eschews the traditional view in favor of a dynamic storytelling model that brings numbers to life through contextualization and the generation of actionable insights.
 

Jason Whiting, Global VIP Program Director, LEGO

Jason is the head of loyalty at the LEGO® Group, where he oversees strategic direction and marketing of LEGO VIP, the company’s loyalty program operating across 30 countries and 22 languages.
 
Jason believes that the success of any loyalty program hinges on understanding your members passions and rooting you program design in strong company values. With these beliefs in mind,  he and his team, set out on a yearlong journey to redesign LEGO VIP to meet the needs of the program’s ever-expanding member base.
 
Prior to this role, Jason headed ecommerce marketing for North America and then EMEA/APAC where he was responsible for strategy and marketing leadership overseeing email, paid search, affiliate, and content marketing supporting the LEGO Group’s ecommerce platform.
 
A 20 year veteran in the marketing industry, Jason has held positions on both the client and agency side. Specializing in online, event, and engagement marketing, he has worked with a wide range of companies in both the B2B and B2C space including; Estee Lauder, AB InBev, the ANDYs, Ricoh/Savin, Honeywell, Tyco, Pfizer, and more.