Loyalty Expo Agenda and Speakers

Wednesday, 10/21

11:00AM - 12:00PM

General Session

Creating Emotional Connections with Customers to Drive Brand Loyalty

AJ Schneider | EVP | Wheaton World Wide Moving | Bekins Van Lines | Stevens Worldwide

Julia Russell | Director of Verizon Up | Verizon

Karen Szarvas | Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships | The Vitamin Shoppe

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Session Description

Wednesday, 10/21 - 11:00AM - 12:00PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Creating Emotional Connections with Customers to Drive Brand Loyalty

We are all familiar with “convenience loyalty,” and brands are getting better at building it. Switching from one brand to another is time consuming, could lead to a mistake, and you could lose loyalty points or rewards that you have worked hard to build up over time. Customers in this group are loyal to their brands, but that does not mean they are connected, engaged advocates – or even satisfied.

The second type of loyalty is emotional, or true loyalty. This type of loyalty is an emotional commitment so strong that a customer would not even consider looking for an alternative. These customers are not interested in a better deal, promotion, or other types of rewards with another company. They are the true, loyal fans.

If these two types of loyalty are so relatable that everyone has experienced both at some point as a customer themselves, why is it so hard for brands to build emotional loyalty?

During this session, Loyalty360 will share findings from its recently published Emotional Loyalty Industry Brief and a panel of brand members will discuss their journeys of building emotional loyalty with customers, including challenges, successes, and the opportunity they see when it comes to building true, long-term loyalty.

AJ Schneider
EVP
Wheaton World Wide Moving | Bekins Van Lines | Stevens Worldwide

A veteran sales, marketing and communications practitioner, Schneider spent nearly 15 years working with a variety of corporations and clients in a host of industries – from technology and engineering to recruiting and state government – building their brands and ensuring that sales and service were aligned. He learned the household goods relocation services industry by developing programs for some of the largest domestic moving companies in the U.S. while working for public relations, marketing communications and branding firms in the Midwest. Schneider entered the relocation services industry full-time in 2007 by going to work for Wheaton Van Lines, Inc., the parent company of Wheaton | Bekins, the fourth largest van line group in the country. In 2014, Schneider became Executive Vice President. Today he’s responsible for Sales and Marketing, Agency Development, Customer Service, the Military and the company’s FF&E division.

Julia Russell
Director of Verizon Up
Verizon

Julia Russell is currently the Director of Loyalty Marketing for the Verizon Up loyalty program, responsible for the overall strategy and operations of the program. Prior to joining Verizon in 2018, Julia held the positions of Senior Director, Customer Engagement & Member Lifecycle and Senior Director, Global Loyalty Strategy & Innovation at Wyndham Hotel Group, where she was responsible for managing the value proposition, operations and global acquisition strategy across all channels for the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program. Prior to joining Wyndham Hotel Group in 2013, Julia worked for American Express for 14 years in a variety of strategy, business development and product marketing roles.

Karen Szarvas
Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships
The Vitamin Shoppe

Karen Szarvas serves as Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty & Partnerships at The Vitamin Shoppe®, an omni-channel specialty retailer and wellness lifestyle company. In her role, Karen oversees the newly redesigned Healthy Awards Loyalty program and is responsible for the development, execution and management of the program, as well as strategies to drive customer awareness, engagement and retention. Karen has more than 19 years of global marketing and loyalty experience and is a highly motivated, customer focused, thought leader. Prior to joining The Vitamin Shoppe, she worked at Wyndham Worldwide and consulted at KMS Marketing Solutions where she specialized in loyalty, branding, customer communications and experiences.

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Tuesday, 10/27

1:00PM - 1:45PM

General Session

Commitment to Customer Loyalty and Furry Friends | Brand Case Study with KONG Company

Brandon Delgrosso | General Manager | KONG Box

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Session Description

Tuesday, 10/27

4:00PM - 4:45PM

General Session

Air Canada Takes Flight Again | Brand Case Study with Air Canada

Elizabeth Quinton | Managing Director | Air Canada

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Session Description

Tuesday, 10/27 - 4:00PM - 4:45PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Air Canada Takes Flight Again | Brand Case Study with Air Canada

Newer planes, better ticket value, and improved customer touchpoints have made flying a much better experience than ever before. Airlines such as Air Canada are working harder to improve on their success, especially with the hit taken in consumer travel with the recent pandemic.

Business transformation has become a larger focus for Canada’s larger domestic carrier in 2020. The brand already had plans to relaunch its Aeroplan program by the end of the year – a loyalty strategy central to the airline’s overall customer loyalty and engagement efforts. Coupled with new guidelines due to COVID-19, the Air Canada team has been hard at work welcome customers back to the skies safely.

During this session, Air Canada's Elizabeth Quinton will share her insight on the importance of listening to customers when making program updates, keeping up with customer expectations, and the brand’s overall business transformation with a focus on superior customer experiences.

Key Takeaways:

- How Air Canada’s business pillars have remained in focus while driving company culture and during transition
- Brand transformation and proactive customer engagement management during COVID-19
- Exceeding expectations and easing concerns as members return to travel

Elizabeth Quinton
Managing Director
Air Canada

As Managing Director of CRM, Customer Analytics and Digital Optimization at Air Canada, Beth Quinton and her team apply a data-driven approach and insight to acquiring and engaging Air Canada’s customers through their marketing communications and offers across their customer and Aeroplan member journeys.

Prior to this, Beth led the integration of Aeroplan integration into Air Canada. Beth brought with her over 10 years of Aeroplan experience in strategy & planning, loyalty product & program development and competitive intelligence. Before becoming the Air Canada/Aeroplan Integration Lead, Beth was the Senior Vice President of Program Strategy & Product at Aimia (Aeroplan’s parent company).

Beth’s structured approach is informed by her five years as a management consultant with Stroud International, based in London UK and early engineering roles; Beth connects the dots between ideas and people.

Beth holds a Bachelor of Applied Science & Electrical Engineering from Queens University in Kingston, as well as an International MBA from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

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Thursday, 10/29

11:00AM - 12:00PM

General Session

Brands Drive Direct Mail Engagement Through Informed Delivery

Fernando Mello | Informed Delivery Program Manager | USPS

Tracy Brooks | SVP | Salem-One

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Session Description

Thursday, 10/29 - 11:00AM - 12:00PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Brands Drive Direct Mail Engagement Through Informed Delivery

It isn't easy to replace the value of having a letter in-hand, but USPS is responding to consumers' increasing desire to interact and communicate digitally with everything, including mail. Informed Delivery enhances the value of physical mail by creating a new touchpoint through digital content, including a custom image and URL. Mailers and recipients can participate in interactive campaigns, providing an integrated approach to meet today's consumer demands.

While Informed Delivery and the brands leveraging it have seen a great deal of success, many are still unaware of its benefits and impacts. During this session, Fernando Mello, Informed Delivery Manager for USPS, and Tracy Brooks, SVP, Salem One, will share an overview of Informed Delivery, specific use cases by industry, and benefits to brands and their customers.

Key Takeaways:

Overview and background on Informed Delivery
Best practices and results of how brands are leveraging Informed Delivery today
What is next for Informed Delivery, with a focus on customer engagement and experience

Fernando Mello
Informed Delivery Program Manager
USPS

Fernando Mello has been the Program Manager for Informed Delivery since March of 2020. In this role, he leads the development of new features and enhancements for the Informed Delivery platform. The program mission is to provide mailers the ability to engage users through an integrated mail and digital marketing campaign that generates additional consumer impressions, interactions, and insights.

Prior to joining Informed Delivery, Fernando was a Project Management Specialist in the Product Innovation Support team for two years. This role involved research and analysis on market trends and emerging technology relating to the shipping industry, with a focus on product returns. Identifying and presenting opportunities for enhancing USPS products and services as well as exploring new ones aligned well with his background in process improvement and engineering.

His postal career began in 2015 as an Operations Industrial Engineer (OIE) at the Dulles Processing & Distribution Center. During his time as an OIE, Fernando led various projects at Dulles P&DC, involving scanning, machine throughput, staffing, and facility layout improvement.

Fernando holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA.

Tracy Brooks
SVP
Salem-One

Tracy Brooks is Senior Vice President at Salem One, Inc. He is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of one of the fastest growing print based corporate communications companies in the U.S.

Tracy is part of a world class team assisting Salem One’s national brand clients in developing and implementing direct marketing strategies that improve their bottom line.

His career in marketing and advertising spans 30 years. He holds numerous certifications including USPS Certified Direct Mail Professional and volunteers his time as a proactive industry advocate.

Tracy is a graduate of Appalachian State University and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the App State Graphics Communications Management Department.

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Thursday, 10/29

1:00PM - 1:45PM

General Session

Customer Loyalty is Much More Than Rewards for Wawa

Todd Miller | Director of Digital Marketing | Wawa

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Session Description

Thursday, 10/29

2:00PM - 3:00PM

Loyalty360 Member (Brand Only) Roundtable Session

Small-Sided Brand Member Meeting | Corporate Social Responsibility

Session Description

Monday, 11/09

1:00PM - 2:00PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Business Transformation

Emily Mikus | Director of Loyalty & Shopper Marketing | The GIANT Company

Jacqueline Harkness | Senior Director of Business Development & Long-Range Product Planning | Air Canada

Jessica Drozd | Marketing Manager - Acquisition & Brand | SCENE

Dena Pizzutti | Sr. Manager of Personalization and Optimization | Wawa

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Session Description

Monday, 11/09 - 1:00PM - 2:00PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Business Transformation

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Business Transformation:

- Air Canada
- SCENE (in partnership with Elemental)
- Wawa
- The GIANT Company

Emily Mikus
Director of Loyalty & Shopper Marketing
The GIANT Company

Emily Mikus serves as the Director of Loyalty and Shopper Marketing at The GIANT Company

In this role, Emily leads the team responsible for all aspects of the company’s loyalty program, GIANT Choice Rewards, including the strategy, management and execution. She also has oversight of the company’s shopper marketing programs.

Emily has 15 years of experience in the grocery industry and has held various positions at The GIANT Company over the years. Prior to her current position, Emily held positions in Strategic Planning and Business Development, Insights, Marketing and Store Operations. Emily’s breadth of experience in providing strategic leadership and consumer research support for multiple disciplines across the business lends to a deep, longitudinal understanding of consumers, brands and competitors, with a customer-minded focus and analytical drive to continually uncover new opportunities and innovate new solutions.

Emily earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Millersville University. She currently serves on the Occupational Advisory Committee for Careers and Technology at the Carlisle Area School District and is a proud mom of two young boys.

Jacqueline Harkness
Senior Director of Business Development & Long-Range Product Planning
Air Canada

Jacqueline is Senior Director, Business Development & Long-Range Product Planning at Air Canada. In this role, Jacqueline leads the development of strategic partner relationships with Air Canada’s loyalty program Aeroplan in key everyday categories with a primary goal of enhancing member engagement, expanding Aeroplan’s relevance, and reinforcing the complexion of the Air Canada brand. She also leads the evaluation, selection and negotiation of sponsorships for both Air Canada and Aeroplan, including but not limited to eight NHL & NBA teams and the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Teams.

Prior to this role, Jacqueline was the Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Sponsorship for Air Canada where she led the in-house Creative Studio, Sponsorships and Brand Activation teams. She was responsible for the strategy and implementation of Air Canada’s brand marketing plans with a focus on building world-class integrated marketing programs that brought the refreshed Air Canada brand to life. She also co-led the thought leadership and creation of the refreshed Aeroplan brand and related Aeroplan co-brand credit cards that were unveiled in August 2020.

Jacqueline started her career at Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner) in Washington, D.C. before returning to Toronto to join the Brand & Sponsorship group at Royal Bank of Canada dedicated to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Games and Torch Relays marketing efforts. After the Games, Jacqueline headed south again to New York City to work with Citi for 6 years on their sponsorship and corporate brand file, inclusive of Citi Field, the New York Mets, the London 2012, Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Jacqueline’s father was a pilot for Air Canada for 35 years and her love of the brand runs deep. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and is the proud mother of a 14-month son who is just learning to point to his feet in both English and French.

Jessica Drozd
Marketing Manager - Acquisition & Brand
SCENE

Jessica Drozd serves as Marketing Manager, Brand & Acquisition for SCENE, Canada’s largest entertainment loyalty program. She’s passionate about creating customer-first experiences and data-driven strategies for business growth. In her role, she leads mass consumer marketing, new member acquisition, and brand management. During her time at SCENE, she’s implemented several award-winning integrated marketing programs with partners such as NBA Canada and Universal Music Group. Prior to this role, she worked for the U.S. Department of State.

Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science from McGill University and recently completed an MBA Certificate at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Dena Pizzutti
Sr. Manager of Personalization and Optimization
Wawa

Dena Pizzutti is the Senior Marketing Manager of Personalization and Optimization for Wawa, a chain of more than 900 convenience retail stores in the Mid-Atlantic and Florida. She currently oversees the Wawa Rewards loyalty program and Customer 360 efforts. Dena has over ten years of experience in loyalty marketing, previously working for CVS on the ExtraCare program. Additionally, Dena holds a Doctorate in Business Administration and has taught marketing courses at West Chester University and St. Joseph’s University.

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Monday, 11/09

5:00PM - 5:40PM

General Session

Shell Adapts its Fuel Rewards | Brand Case Study

Fergie Theriault | General Manager Retail Fuels Marketing Delivery | Shell North America

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Session Description

Tuesday, 11/10

12:00PM - 12:45PM

General Session

Challenges in Assessing Customer Loyalty Partners | Brand-Only Session

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Session Description

Thursday, 11/12

11:00AM - 11:45AM

General Session

Lenovo Brings Loyalty to the PC Industry

Carlo Savino | Executive Director of eCommerce | Lenovo

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Session Description

Thursday, 11/12 - 11:00AM - 11:45AM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Lenovo Brings Loyalty to the PC Industry

One of Lenovo’s biggest challenges in earning customer loyalty will be familiar to those who sell vehicles, mattresses, and other products with a longer purchase cycle: consumers purchase computers infrequently. While this wasn’t a surprise to the Lenovo team, a change was needed to not only keep customers engaged, but also give customers a reason to come back.

The solution? The creation of MyLenovo Rewards launched in September 2019. While the program rewards customers for computer and accessory purchases, it also rewards customers for posting product reviews, referring friends and family, and more.

Join Lenovo’s Carlo Savino as he shares Lenovo’s journey from the initial concept to Lenovo’s loyalty program launch and beyond, including the successes and challenges along the way that anyone who has launched or is looking to launch a customer loyalty strategy can learn from.

Key Takeaways:

- Keeping customers engaged post-purchase and increase repeat business
- Creating a program from the ground up on a shoestring budget
- Expanding a program beyond transactional rewards to better engage customers and build loyalty

Carlo Savino
Executive Director of eCommerce
Lenovo

Carlo Savino is Executive Director of eCommerce for Lenovo. In this role, he leads the vision, strategy, and execution of next generation digital commerce capabilities for Lenovo's online business, including Lenovo.com, mobile commerce, and marketplaces. His team is responsible for sales performance, operations, marketing, merchandising, loyalty, offer creation, pathing & navigation, and content for online consumer & small business transactions.

Carlo has extensive experience in online marketing and eCommerce. Prior to his role at Lenovo, he lead the US Consumer and Small Business online team for dell.com, where he was deeply involved in optimizing the purchase experience, mobile platform, personalization, loyalty and site monetization businesses.

Carlo loves building data-driven organizations that define and deliver to key KPIs while focusing around features and experiences that center around our customers.

Carlo holds a bachelor's degree in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin and is an active volunteer in a variety of animal charities in and around the Raleigh, NC area.

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Thursday, 11/12

1:00PM - 2:00PM

Loyalty360 Member (Brand Only) Roundtable Session

Small-Sided Brand Member Meeting | B2B Customer Loyalty & Partnership Management

Session Description

Thursday, 11/12

2:00PM - 2:45PM

General Session

King Arthur Baking Company Delivers Exceptional Customer Experience During Baking Surge

Bill Tine | VP of Marketing | King Arthur Baking Company

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Session Description

Thursday, 11/12 - 2:00PM - 2:45PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

King Arthur Baking Company Delivers Exceptional Customer Experience During Baking Surge

As quarantine regulations hit the United States, King Arthur noticed business was far from its usual pre-Easter pace. In the span of a few short days as shoppers hit grocery stores and stocked up on essentials, suddenly shelves were without flour. The team found itself receiving and answering more questions on baking than ever before – which is significant, considering the brand’s 200+ year history.

King Arthur understood it needed to quickly pivot on multiple levels. First, how could the brand add resources and innovate to meet the increased demand for retail-sized bags of flour? And second, how could its internal team of experts, including in-house bakers, shift to provide additional live support, educational resources, and tips and techniques as many first-time bakers took to their home kitchens?

During this session, Bill Tine, VP of Marketing for King Arthur Baking Company, will dive into the brand’s history, its customer engagement efforts, and how the brand was able to successfully pivot to answer customer questions and meet the unprecedented spike in demand.

Bill Tine
VP of Marketing
King Arthur Baking Company

Bill Tine joined King Arthur Flour in 2009. In his role as Vice President of Marketing and a member of King Arthur’s Strategy Team, he leads brand management, digital and performance marketing, customer loyalty, insight and analytics, content development, innovation and web development.

Under his guidance, the company’s consumer-centric marketing strategy has evolved to be a leader in content marketing, with a focus on digital. King Arthur’s brand-building efforts have led to significant share growth in the baking category as core products like whole wheat flour, bread flour and the entire Organic flour line are category leaders and new products in their grain-free and gluten-free lines have seen double-digit growth each of the past few years.

Bill is a graduate of Dickinson College with an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is a board member and ESOP trustee of Chelsea Green Publishing, former Chair and Treasurer of the board of the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), and board member for the Friends of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital.

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Thursday, 11/12

3:00PM - 4:00PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | B2B Customer Loyalty

Amy Harrington | Marketing Manager - Auto Marketing | Ally Financial

John Sellers | Head of Rewards | Bank of America

Matt Goldberg | Director PRO Strategy and Loyalty | Floor & Decor 

Sheree Rajan | Vice President of Commercial Marketing | Essilor

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Session Description

Thursday, 11/12 - 3:00PM - 4:00PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | B2B Customer Loyalty

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

B2B Customer Loyalty:

- Floor & Decor (in partnership with Augeo)
- Bank of America
- Essilor Group (in partnership with Brierley)
- Ally Financial

Amy Harrington
Marketing Manager - Auto Marketing
Ally Financial

Amy Harrington is a Marketing Manager on the Auto Marketing Team at Ally Financial, Inc. Over the past 4 ½ years, Amy has helped build the Regional Marketing Team by bringing unique and strategic marketing programs to our 18,000+ auto dealer customers through the Ally Dealer Difference platform. Amy loves having the opportunity to work closely with our field team to help develop new programs that ultimately help build strong business relationships with our dealers and help grow customer loyalty.

John Sellers
Head of Rewards
Bank of America

John Sellers is the executive in charge of Rewards at Bank of America. In this role, John oversees all reward programs; including consumer, wealth management and small business relationship rewards programs and credit card rewards redemption. In 2019 Preferred Rewards for Business was named the ‘Most Innovative Product’ by Barlow’s Monarch Innovation Awards, which recognizes excellence and creativity in business banking

Prior to his current role, John had worked with other products including; Vehicle Lending, Investments, and Credit Card. While in Card, John was the Director of Preferred Products and New Account Acquisition where he was responsible for all mass affluent BofA and Merrill branded products. John is the architect of the award winning Travel Rewards Card and led the effort to bring Chip technology to BofA cards.

Before his product roles, John spent the first half of his career in Credit Risk, where he was the Director of Risk Strategies. In this role, John oversaw existing account management strategies which included; line management, balance stimulation (cash and retail), authorizations (overlimit and delinquent) and other payment related strategies.

John began his career with BofA via the MBNA acquisition. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware where he was a Finance major. He also has an MBA from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business where he graduated with distinction and is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma academic honor society.

John is involved in several community organizations. He is a lifesaver for the Blood Bank of DE and coaches several youth sport teams in Kennett Square, PA where he resides with his wife and three kids.

Matt Goldberg
Director PRO Strategy and Loyalty
Floor & Decor 

Matt Goldberg is the Director of PRO Strategy and Loyalty for Floor & Decor. Over the past 3 years, Matt has managed the growth of the PRO department and developed the loyalty strategy for Floor & Decor, including creating, rolling out and optimizing PRO Premier Rewards, F&D’s Loyalty Program. Matt has loved contributing to the tremendous growth of the company and is passionate about driving loyalty in an industry where there is so much opportunity to gain Wallet Share. Matt is constantly thinking “What’s Next” in the realm of loyalty, and is excited to learn more from other Loyalty360 participants! 

Sheree Rajan
Vice President of Commercial Marketing
Essilor

Sheree Rajan joined the Marketing organization at Essilor of America in 2007. She became Vice President, Marketing in 2017 and currently leads the Commercial Marketing team which is the key partner and bridge between Marketing, Sales and Customers across all channels. Sheree was honored as one of Vision Monday’s Most Influential Women in Optical – Rising Stars in 2017. Prior to Essilor, Sheree worked in the non-profit sector leading marketing, public relations and business development for various organizations including the Special Olympics. She earned both her MBA and bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.

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Friday, 11/13

9:00AM - 9:45AM

General Session

Customer Loyalty Best Practices | A Brand Perspective

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

Chad Nikola | Director of Customer Retention | American Eagle Outfitters

Don Smith | Chief Strategy and Analytics Officer | Brierley

Jason Whiting | Global VIP Program Director | LEGO

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Session Description

Friday, 11/13 - 9:00AM - 9:45AM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Customer Loyalty Best Practices | A Brand Perspective

Creating customer loyalty is a constant work in progress. It is easy to get lost in how brands should be benchmarking, what new trends to follow, and how success is defined. During this session, brands will share best practices around how they set goals, use customer data, and have established their customer focus internally and externally through a program, strategy, initiative, or campaign.

Discussion Topics:

- What is working and/or not working for your program?
- Technologies, metrics, KPI’s brands are using/following?
- How are brands managing data (zero party, first party, third party, CCPA)?
- Challenges and opportunities with redesigning and relaunching a program/strategy
- What is next for customer loyalty/customer experience?

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.

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Friday, 11/13

11:00AM - 11:45AM

General Session

Creating Porsche Passion: Building a Mindset and Culture of Customer Centricity

Andrew Pine | Global Director of excite! | Porsche Cars North America

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Session Description

Friday, 11/13 - 11:00AM - 11:45AM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Creating Porsche Passion: Building a Mindset and Culture of Customer Centricity

The Porsche name has been synonymous with quality-built sports cars for many decades, but several years ago the global brand found itself struggling to overcome customer experience and sales satisfaction issues that worried the company’s top executives. In 2008, the much-revered J.D. Power ranked Porsche 26th out of 33 automotive manufacturers in their customer satisfaction survey of car owners; and when it came to sales satisfaction, Porsche was ranked 13th.

That led the German car company in 2009 to commit to improving its overall customer and sales satisfaction results, starting with hiring Andrew Pine to serve as Vice President, Customer Relations and lead the effort for the brand to become more customer focused.

Porsche initially implemented a process-driven approach to improving its customer experience. The company listened closely to its customers, worked closely with its dealers to identify key areas of concern, and then designed and developed new customer experiences based on the wants and needs its customers expressed.

After a few years of improvement, the company hit a plateau and could not break through the ceiling. Something different needed to be done. That something was a change to the mindset and culture of the organization, and a focus on leadership excellence, employee engagement and customer satisfaction in what ultimately became known as excite!

excite! is the long-term blueprint for developing the essential changes for the future success of the brand and for ensuring that Porsche is known not only for the power and precision they put under the hood, but also for the relationships they build with those behind the wheel. After successful pilots in the United States and South Korea, excite! continues its global rollout to more than a dozen additional countries across Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East with plans for adoption around the world in over 100 countries.

To create excite!, Pine evaluated leading corporate and employee training organizations, eventually partnering the Disney institute to assist with their cultural transformation. The result has been significant: Porsche has gradually improved their J.D. Power survey results, and in 2019 was named the No. 1 automaker in both the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey and in the sales satisfaction survey. Additionally, the brand has doubled its new car loyalty over the last decade.

Pine’s presentation, “Creating Porsche Passion: Building a Mindset and Culture of Customer Centricity,”will detail how Porsche successfully engages and empowers its employees to provide exceptional experiences and emotional connections with its customers to build long-term loyalty and satisfaction.

Specifically, Pine will discuss and provide insight on actions and results from Porsche’s customer satisfaction journey, including:

- Obtaining ‘buy-in’ from a vast, world-wide group of managers, employees and dealerships.
- Making a culture change work successfully on a global stage.
- Working with outside training groups to effect positive changes and outcomes.
- Managing and maintaining high customer satisfaction ratings in a COVID world.

Andrew Pine
Global Director of excite!
Porsche Cars North America

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Friday, 11/13

1:00PM - 1:45PM

General Session

No Card Needed – Hannaford Looks to the Future with All-Digital Grocery Rewards Program

John Giaquinto | Director of Loyalty | Hannaford Supermarkets

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Session Description

Monday, 11/16

11:00AM - 12:15PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Creative Campaign

Cecilie Balfour | Marketing Manager | TELUS

Chad Nikola | Director of Customer Retention | American Eagle Outfitters

Jason Scoggins | Director of Loyalty & CRM | Chipotle

Adam Reynolds | Sr. Manager - Loyalty & Email Marketing | Sleep Number

Susan LeBlanc | Director of Marketing | SCENE

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Session Description

Monday, 11/16 - 11:00AM - 12:15PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Creative Campaign

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Creative Campaign:

- Chipotle
- Sleep Number
- American Eagle Outfitters
- SCENE (in partnership with Elemental)
- TELUS (in partnership with Aimia)

Cecilie Balfour
Marketing Manager
TELUS

Cecilie Balfour is a Marketing Manager at TELUS leading the go-to-market strategy for TELUS Rewards, the only points-based loyalty program offered by a telco in Canada, with over 1.3 million members. In this role, Cecilie focuses on how to build awareness and drive customer engagement with Rewards across all TELUS channels. Prior to TELUS, Cecilie worked in the advertising industry, specializing in brand strategy for financial, insurance, and tourism clients.

Cecilie just recently completed her MBA at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She holds a B.A. from Simon Fraser University and a diploma in Digital Marketing from New York University.

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.

Jason Scoggins
Director of Loyalty & CRM
Chipotle

Adam Reynolds
Sr. Manager - Loyalty & Email Marketing
Sleep Number

Adam has been part of Sleep Number’s CRM team for 4 years, and manages the InnerCircle Rewards loyalty program as well as all Email and SMS marketing. He is passionate about customer-centric direct marketing, and has held related roles at Staples, the BBC, the College of William & Mary, and Schwan’s Home Service. He, his wife, and their 2 daughters live in Minneapolis.

Susan LeBlanc
Director of Marketing
SCENE

Susan LeBlanc is an enthusiastic marketing leader who’s all about connecting science and art through data-driven marketing strategies that create exceptional consumer experiences and happy cross-functional teams. She is currently leading brand, acquisition and mass consumer marketing for SCENE, Canada's #1 Multi-Award Winning Entertainment Loyalty Program. Here she spearheaded the company’s largest-ever brand marketing campaign that activated 15% of the member base on a single day and moved consumer’s perception of the brand to being an instigator of fun, social experiences.

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Monday, 11/16

3:00PM - 3:45PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility

Imani Samuels | Director - Loyalty Marketing | AARP

Cecilie Balfour | Marketing Manager | TELUS

Janna Meneghello | Senior Project Manager | TELUS

Michael O'Brien | Manager - Marketing Products & Innovation | Caesars Entertainment

Valérie Durand | Director of Communications Optimization | Air Canada

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Session Description

Monday, 11/16 - 3:00PM - 3:45PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility:

- AARP (in partnership with Merkle)
- Caesars Entertainment
- TELUS (in partnership with AIMIA)
- Air Canada

Imani Samuels
Director - Loyalty Marketing
AARP

I am Imani Joye Sanders Samuels. I love to listen. I love to serve. I love to ask “why?”

As a digital strategy and marketing leader in the private and non-profit sectors for over 14 years, I’ve had the privilege to advance influential movements during significant moments in history – from the voter education campaign at the Children’s Defense Fund to launching the financial education campaign during the 2008 financial crisis with FDIC.

In my current role as Loyalty Marketing Director at AARP, I co-launched and co-lead AARP Rewards, a loyalty program for the greater good. The digital gamified platform is designed to incentivize and foster behavior change with hundreds of learning opportunities that drive meaningful impact to each individual who engages. Prior to my transition to Loyalty, I was the Member Benefits Communications Director where I led the implementation of the overarching integrated communication strategy for 38 million members, leveraging account and media expertise from my experience at small and large ad agencies like Campbell Mithun, McCann, Porter Novelli and Arnold.

I hold my MA in Public Communication from American University and BA in Journalism, with a concentration in advertising, from Howard University. During my time at Howard, I also studied global citizenship at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. During my tenure at AARP, I was also selected to participate in Georgetown University’s ADEPT program where I received a certificate in leadership. Today, I also have the pleasure of studying Psychology with a concentration in Spirituality Mind Body at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Delightfully married to Philemon, we have two young feminists, Paz and Noire - both who have a great sense of curiosity, purpose and imagination.

Cecilie Balfour
Marketing Manager
TELUS

Cecilie Balfour is a Marketing Manager at TELUS leading the go-to-market strategy for TELUS Rewards, the only points-based loyalty program offered by a telco in Canada, with over 1.3 million members. In this role, Cecilie focuses on how to build awareness and drive customer engagement with Rewards across all TELUS channels. Prior to TELUS, Cecilie worked in the advertising industry, specializing in brand strategy for financial, insurance, and tourism clients.

Cecilie just recently completed her MBA at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She holds a B.A. from Simon Fraser University and a diploma in Digital Marketing from New York University.

Janna Meneghello
Senior Project Manager
TELUS

As a Senior Project Manager in TELUS’ Corporate Citizenship and Communications department, Janna supports TELUS’ social purpose initiatives with a focus on fundraising for the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation, a registered Canadian charity of which TELUS is a founding partner. In 2019, she helped launch and continues to manage, Donate the Change, a program that enables TELUS customers to round up their monthly bills donate 100 of the difference to the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation. Janna also oversees the Foundation’s donation campaigns in TELUS Rewards, helping raise over $200K in donations in the last year.

Janna has 20 years of experience in marketing, communications and project management, coupled with a lifelong volunteer career. She has a Certificate in Project Management and holds a B.A from Simon Fraser University in BC, Canada.

Michael O'Brien
Manager - Marketing Products & Innovation
Caesars Entertainment

Mike has been with Caesars Entertainment for the last two Years, previously working for Citigroup. He holds a BBA, Finance from Texas A&M University and an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business.

With Caesars, his main responsibilities include onboarding new and supporting existing properties on the UrVenue platform, set up, traning, and launch for QLess (Virtual Queing System), onboarding and support for Runtriz (mobile ordering), and advanced analytics and reporting for all mobile and digital platforms.

Valérie Durand
Director of Communications Optimization
Air Canada

Valérie Durand is Director, Communications Optimization for Air Canada. In this role, she leads the corporate sustainability team and the Air Canada Foundation (a registered, not-for-profit charity which focuses on the well-being of children and youth). She is responsible for the communication and promotion of Air Canada's sustainability efforts, and all aspects of the Corporate Sustainability (ESG) Report. She leads the Air Canada Corporate Sustainability Working Group, which is comprised of senior management subject-matter experts from diverse functions, and tasked with the oversight and monitoring of Air Canada’s corporate sustainability initiatives.

Prior to this role, Valérie was Senior Counsel, Commercial & Legal Services Director. She was active in the general management of the Air Canada Legal Department and was responsible for supporting, and championing the effective and efficient delivery of best-in-class legal services to Air Canada and subsidiary client groups. She also provided expert advice to executives and senior management on complex matters involving specialized areas of law and relating to matters of significant strategic importance to Air Canada.
Before joining Air Canada in 2007, Valérie held legal counsel positions with Hydro-Québec and Dessau, and also worked as a flight attendant with Air Canada.

Valérie holds a Civil Law degree from the Université de Montréal, and has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 2003. She is an active board member, including with the Douglas Foundation, and the proud mother of two young girls, aged 7 and 3.

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Tuesday, 11/17

11:00AM - 12:15PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Program Partnership

Matt Goldberg | Director PRO Strategy and Loyalty | Floor & Decor 

Rachel Letellier | Director | Fido XTRA

Catherine Paraan | Manager of Partnership Marketing | Sony Corporation of America

Tammy Lucas | Vice President of Marketing | BWH|Hotel Group

Julia Russell | Director of Verizon Up | Verizon

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Session Description

Tuesday, 11/17 - 11:00AM - 12:15PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Program Partnership

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Program Partnership:

- Verizon (in partnership with The Lacek Group)
- Fido Wireless (in partnership with Prizelogic)
- Floor & Decor (in partnership with Augeo)
- Sony
- Best Western Hotels & Resorts

Matt Goldberg
Director PRO Strategy and Loyalty
Floor & Decor 

Matt Goldberg is the Director of PRO Strategy and Loyalty for Floor & Decor. Over the past 3 years, Matt has managed the growth of the PRO department and developed the loyalty strategy for Floor & Decor, including creating, rolling out and optimizing PRO Premier Rewards, F&D’s Loyalty Program. Matt has loved contributing to the tremendous growth of the company and is passionate about driving loyalty in an industry where there is so much opportunity to gain Wallet Share. Matt is constantly thinking “What’s Next” in the realm of loyalty, and is excited to learn more from other Loyalty360 participants! 

Rachel Letellier
Director
Fido XTRA

As Director of Fido XTRA, Rachel is responsible for leading the overall program strategy as well as all partner relationships and implementation. Rachel has led the Fido XTRA program since its inception, optimizing its evolution over the years by working with internal stakeholders to drive executional efficiencies in order to achieve key success metrics, while also collaborating with brand and agency partners on content and technology initiatives designed to benefit all parties involved. Prior to heading up the Fido XTRA program, Rachel leveraged her agency background in managing global customer-based communications for the Fido brand, building a consistent and effective relationship across their customer life cycle.

Catherine Paraan
Manager of Partnership Marketing
Sony Corporation of America

Catherine Paraan has extensive marketing experience in the entertainment, travel and healthcare industries leading integrated, multi-channel marketing efforts that drive proven business results. She is currently Manager of Partnership Marketing for Sony Rewards, the loyalty program for Sony Corporation of America, responsible for identifying marketing opportunities with Sony business unit partners where they can leverage the loyalty platform, tools and currency to drive and support business objectives and goals.

Tammy Lucas
Vice President of Marketing
BWH|Hotel Group

Tammy Lucas serves as global vice president of marketing for BWH|Hotel Group (Best Western Hotels and Resorts). In her role, Lucas leads the global loyalty, performance marketing, advertising, digital marketing, regional marketing and search teams by setting the strategy and direction for key initiatives that focus on delivering strong business performance to BWH|Hotel Group portfolio of brands.

Since joining the company in 2004, her tenure has been marked with considerable transformation and growth. In 2009, Lucas led the complete overhaul and rebranding of the Best Western Rewards® (BWR®) program. Under her leadership, the program doubled its membership and revenue to member properties in less than five years and continues to be ranked as one of the top five loyalty programs by U.S. News & World Report In 2015, Lucas played an integral role in the brand’s effort to launch a full rebranding initiative, resulting in Best Western’s first new logos in more than 20 years. She has also played an instrument role in the growth of Best Western Hotels and Resorts portfolio of Brands, which includes the newly acquired WorldHotels and the launch of WorldHotels Rewards. She brings substantial loyalty, marketing, sales, performance analytics and operations experience in a variety of different verticals, with a passion for inspiring teams to surpass goals both professionally and personally.

An advocate for women in leadership, Lucas mentors women to help them achieve their career aspirations. She has participated in a variety of women-led panels, including Best Western’s first-ever Today’s Women in Leadership Forum in 2018. In 2020 Lucas was recognized as one of the honorees for Women Leaders in AI.
Lucas also serves on the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Americas Board of Directors. Previously, she served on the HSMAI Foundation Board of Directors from 2014 to 2017. In 2012, Lucas was recognized by HSMAI as one of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing for her tremendous contributions in shaping BWR.

Lucas grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, where she attended the University of Ottawa and earned a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Psychology and minoring in Business. She is also a proud mother of her three amazing children – Kaylen, Kenzie, and Karson.

Julia Russell
Director of Verizon Up
Verizon

Julia Russell is currently the Director of Loyalty Marketing for the Verizon Up loyalty program, responsible for the overall strategy and operations of the program. Prior to joining Verizon in 2018, Julia held the positions of Senior Director, Customer Engagement & Member Lifecycle and Senior Director, Global Loyalty Strategy & Innovation at Wyndham Hotel Group, where she was responsible for managing the value proposition, operations and global acquisition strategy across all channels for the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program. Prior to joining Wyndham Hotel Group in 2013, Julia worked for American Express for 14 years in a variety of strategy, business development and product marketing roles.

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Wednesday, 11/18

11:00AM - 12:15PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Engagement & Advocacy

Rosalyn Fresard | Senior Marketing Manager | Ally Financial

Christine Luongo | Senior Brand Manager | Veggies Made Great

Frank Neumann | Senior Director - Consumer Lifecycle Management | Vans

Jason Scoggins | Director of Loyalty & CRM | Chipotle

Beth Woodruff | Director - Enterprise Marketing | Ally Financial

Tammy Lucas | Vice President of Marketing | BWH|Hotel Group

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Session Description

Wednesday, 11/18 - 11:00AM - 12:15PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Engagement & Advocacy

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Customer Engagement & Advocacy:

- Vans (in partnership with Cheetah Digital)
- Chipotle
- Ally Financial
- Best Western Hotels & Resorts
- Veggies Made Great (in partnership with Vesta)

Rosalyn Fresard
Senior Marketing Manager
Ally Financial

Christine Luongo
Senior Brand Manager
Veggies Made Great

Christine Luongo is a Senior Brand Manager at Veggies Made Great. At Veggies Made Great, Christine and her team are responsible for the entire marketing ecosystem, including email marketing, community management, digital and social strategy, shopper marketing programs, customer service, consumer insights, and data and research analysis. Christine is passionate about Veggies Made Great’s mission: inspiring people to love eating veggies by creating veggie-packed, nutritionally smart, and remarkably delicious foods. Her favorite veggies are brussel sprouts.

Prior to joining Veggies Made Great, Christine was a Digital Strategist for Margaritaville Enterprises and a member of the Investments Marketing team at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. After 10 years of marketing-related roles, both in CPG marketing and services marketing, Christine believes in partnering with brands that have a unique and inspiring story to tell.

Christine has been quoted inThe Shelby Report, Food & Beverage Magazine, and Frozen & Refrigerated Magazine for her insight on the frozen food category. Christine holds a BA in Marketing from the Syracuse University.

Frank Neumann
Senior Director - Consumer Lifecycle Management
Vans

With over 17 years of experience working for enterprise brands such as Proctor & Gamble, Bath & Body Works, and VF Corporation, Frank is an expert in developing in-depth customer understanding and employing advanced data analytics to identify and capitalize upon game-changing business opportunities. In his most recent role as Senior Director of Consumer Lifecycle Management at Vans, Frank is responsible for developing, launching and running Vans' industry-leading loyalty program, globally. His most recent work has been focused on establishing the consumer analytics function within Vans in order to build a holistic view of their customers' lifecycle through data and analytics.

Jason Scoggins
Director of Loyalty & CRM
Chipotle

Beth Woodruff
Director - Enterprise Marketing
Ally Financial

Tammy Lucas
Vice President of Marketing
BWH|Hotel Group

Tammy Lucas serves as global vice president of marketing for BWH|Hotel Group (Best Western Hotels and Resorts). In her role, Lucas leads the global loyalty, performance marketing, advertising, digital marketing, regional marketing and search teams by setting the strategy and direction for key initiatives that focus on delivering strong business performance to BWH|Hotel Group portfolio of brands.

Since joining the company in 2004, her tenure has been marked with considerable transformation and growth. In 2009, Lucas led the complete overhaul and rebranding of the Best Western Rewards® (BWR®) program. Under her leadership, the program doubled its membership and revenue to member properties in less than five years and continues to be ranked as one of the top five loyalty programs by U.S. News & World Report In 2015, Lucas played an integral role in the brand’s effort to launch a full rebranding initiative, resulting in Best Western’s first new logos in more than 20 years. She has also played an instrument role in the growth of Best Western Hotels and Resorts portfolio of Brands, which includes the newly acquired WorldHotels and the launch of WorldHotels Rewards. She brings substantial loyalty, marketing, sales, performance analytics and operations experience in a variety of different verticals, with a passion for inspiring teams to surpass goals both professionally and personally.

An advocate for women in leadership, Lucas mentors women to help them achieve their career aspirations. She has participated in a variety of women-led panels, including Best Western’s first-ever Today’s Women in Leadership Forum in 2018. In 2020 Lucas was recognized as one of the honorees for Women Leaders in AI.
Lucas also serves on the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Americas Board of Directors. Previously, she served on the HSMAI Foundation Board of Directors from 2014 to 2017. In 2012, Lucas was recognized by HSMAI as one of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing for her tremendous contributions in shaping BWR.

Lucas grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, where she attended the University of Ottawa and earned a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Psychology and minoring in Business. She is also a proud mother of her three amazing children – Kaylen, Kenzie, and Karson.

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Wednesday, 11/18

1:00PM - 1:45PM

General Session

Customer Loyalty & Experience in Retail | Brand Perspective

Matt Goldberg | Director PRO Strategy and Loyalty | Floor & Decor 

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard | VP Marketing | Hibbett

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Session Description

Wednesday, 11/18 - 1:00PM - 1:45PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Customer Loyalty & Experience in Retail | Brand Perspective

In this session, we will learn from a panel of industry leaders how they have set the bar in customer loyalty/customer experience, changes they have made to make to their loyalty and experience strategies over the last several months, and how they have developed processes that will enable them to be successful going forward.

Key Focus:

- Managing digital and in-store experiences
- Keeping members engaged and focusing on community
- Opportunities for personalization
- The next “big thing” for customer loyalty/customer experience

Matt Goldberg
Director PRO Strategy and Loyalty
Floor & Decor 

Matt Goldberg is the Director of PRO Strategy and Loyalty for Floor & Decor. Over the past 3 years, Matt has managed the growth of the PRO department and developed the loyalty strategy for Floor & Decor, including creating, rolling out and optimizing PRO Premier Rewards, F&D’s Loyalty Program. Matt has loved contributing to the tremendous growth of the company and is passionate about driving loyalty in an industry where there is so much opportunity to gain Wallet Share. Matt is constantly thinking “What’s Next” in the realm of loyalty, and is excited to learn more from other Loyalty360 participants! 

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard
VP Marketing
Hibbett

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard has been Vice President Marketing for Hibbett Sports since 2013 and manages all aspects of the company’s Marketing efforts including; Mobile, Social Media, Direct Mail, Email, SEO, SEM, Paid Digital, Content Creation and more. In addition to Marketing Programming, she oversees Hibbett’s Customer Loyalty Program, Vendor Relationship Management, Collegiate Partnerships, In-store and Third Party Giftcard Programs and Public Relations efforts. Sharp-Wangaard is responsible for Hibbett’s in-house Marketing Team of seven and more than 20 agency partners nationwide.

Sharp-Wangaard began her dynamic Hibbett career in 2007 and during her tenure has held the positions of; Director, Digital Marketing, Digital Design & Communications Manager, Website Marketing/MVP Rewards Manager and Marketing Assistant. She has made many significant contributions to the organization over the past decade including; the development and launch of the Hibbett Rewards Customer Loyalty Program and the development and launch of the company’s Digital Marketing programs. Additionally, Sharp-Wangaard spearheaded the company’s inaugural Philanthropic partnership with the American Heart Association which began in 2015.

Sharp-Wangaard earned her bachelor of arts degree from Lee University located in her hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee, graduating with honors, Cum Laude. She also played on the Lee University women’s soccer team, the Lady Flames.

Sharp-Wangaard now lives in Gardendale, Alabama on the outskirts of Birmingham with her husband of ten years, Elias and her two daughters Leah and Avery-Kate. Outside of work, she is active as a volunteer with her church, serves on a consumer advisory board for Vibes and Coaches the Gardendale U9 Youth Soccer Team. She enjoys spending any free time she has with her family.

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Wednesday, 11/18

3:00PM - 4:15PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Insight & Metrics

Eduard Checherin | Marketing Director | Black Star Burger

Erin Corrigan | Digital Marketing Manager | Donatos

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard | VP Marketing | Hibbett

Michael O'Brien | Manager - Marketing Products & Innovation | Caesars Entertainment

Sarah Pannacciulli | Director of CRM | Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

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Session Description

Wednesday, 11/18 - 3:00PM - 4:15PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Insight & Metrics

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Customer Insights & Metrics:

- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
- Donatos Pizza (in partnership with Cheetah Digital)
- Caesars Entertainment
- Hibbett Sports

Eduard Checherin
Marketing Director
Black Star Burger

10 years of experience in HoReCa marketing

>100 case studies in marketing strategy development for SMB & enterprise businesses

Ex Marketing Director at Black Star Gaming

Ex Marketing Director at Moskalyan (hookah chain, Russia)

Erin Corrigan
Digital Marketing Manager
Donatos

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard
VP Marketing
Hibbett

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard has been Vice President Marketing for Hibbett Sports since 2013 and manages all aspects of the company’s Marketing efforts including; Mobile, Social Media, Direct Mail, Email, SEO, SEM, Paid Digital, Content Creation and more. In addition to Marketing Programming, she oversees Hibbett’s Customer Loyalty Program, Vendor Relationship Management, Collegiate Partnerships, In-store and Third Party Giftcard Programs and Public Relations efforts. Sharp-Wangaard is responsible for Hibbett’s in-house Marketing Team of seven and more than 20 agency partners nationwide.

Sharp-Wangaard began her dynamic Hibbett career in 2007 and during her tenure has held the positions of; Director, Digital Marketing, Digital Design & Communications Manager, Website Marketing/MVP Rewards Manager and Marketing Assistant. She has made many significant contributions to the organization over the past decade including; the development and launch of the Hibbett Rewards Customer Loyalty Program and the development and launch of the company’s Digital Marketing programs. Additionally, Sharp-Wangaard spearheaded the company’s inaugural Philanthropic partnership with the American Heart Association which began in 2015.

Sharp-Wangaard earned her bachelor of arts degree from Lee University located in her hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee, graduating with honors, Cum Laude. She also played on the Lee University women’s soccer team, the Lady Flames.

Sharp-Wangaard now lives in Gardendale, Alabama on the outskirts of Birmingham with her husband of ten years, Elias and her two daughters Leah and Avery-Kate. Outside of work, she is active as a volunteer with her church, serves on a consumer advisory board for Vibes and Coaches the Gardendale U9 Youth Soccer Team. She enjoys spending any free time she has with her family.

Michael O'Brien
Manager - Marketing Products & Innovation
Caesars Entertainment

Mike has been with Caesars Entertainment for the last two Years, previously working for Citigroup. He holds a BBA, Finance from Texas A&M University and an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business.

With Caesars, his main responsibilities include onboarding new and supporting existing properties on the UrVenue platform, set up, traning, and launch for QLess (Virtual Queing System), onboarding and support for Runtriz (mobile ordering), and advanced analytics and reporting for all mobile and digital platforms.

Sarah Pannacciulli
Director of CRM
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

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Thursday, 11/19

11:00AM - 12:15PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | CX Strategy

Alexandra Lev | UX Designer | 7-Eleven

Vanessa Peña | Program Leader - Digital Experience | Dominos

Doug Speedie | Sr. Partnership Manager - T-Mobile Tuesdays | T-Mobile

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard | VP Marketing | Hibbett

Kathryn Hueffner | Product Manager - 7-Eleven App | 7-Eleven

Phonishia Borsellino | Senior Director - Loyalty Program Management & Innovation | Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

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Session Description

Thursday, 11/19 - 11:00AM - 12:15PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | CX Strategy

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

CX Strategy:

- Domino’s
- T-Mobile (in partnership with The Marketing Store)
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
- 7-Eleven
- Hibbett Sports

Alexandra Lev
UX Designer
7-Eleven

Vanessa Peña
Program Leader - Digital Experience
Dominos

Vanessa Peña is the Digital Experience Program Leader on the Innovation team at Domino’s Pizza. She develops and leads digital experience initiatives and strategies to grow Domino’s eCommerce business. Vanessa works cross-functionally with Advertising, Analytics & Insights, Information Technology and agency partners to ensure program success and primarily focuses on delivering best-in-class digital experiences to support national TV campaigns.

Previously, Vanessa managed digital experiences at retailers including Home Depot, Bluefly, and Barnes & Noble, and earned degrees in marketing and finance from Georgia State University. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and trying to keep up with her high-energy adventure dog, Ranger Danger.

Doug Speedie
Sr. Partnership Manager - T-Mobile Tuesdays
T-Mobile

Doug Speedie leads go-to-market, partner management, program performance and insights for T-Mobile Tuesdays. T-Mobile Tuesdays is a customer appreciation program that thanks customers every week with free stuff, great deals and chances to win epic prizes from brands they love. We partner with brands across Entertainment, Retail, Food & Beverage and CPG, bringing to life campaigns that provide value to our customers, partners and T-Mobile. A graduate of the University of Washington, Doug’s career has spanned across program and product management, operations and marketing.

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard
VP Marketing
Hibbett

Sarah Sharp-Wangaard has been Vice President Marketing for Hibbett Sports since 2013 and manages all aspects of the company’s Marketing efforts including; Mobile, Social Media, Direct Mail, Email, SEO, SEM, Paid Digital, Content Creation and more. In addition to Marketing Programming, she oversees Hibbett’s Customer Loyalty Program, Vendor Relationship Management, Collegiate Partnerships, In-store and Third Party Giftcard Programs and Public Relations efforts. Sharp-Wangaard is responsible for Hibbett’s in-house Marketing Team of seven and more than 20 agency partners nationwide.

Sharp-Wangaard began her dynamic Hibbett career in 2007 and during her tenure has held the positions of; Director, Digital Marketing, Digital Design & Communications Manager, Website Marketing/MVP Rewards Manager and Marketing Assistant. She has made many significant contributions to the organization over the past decade including; the development and launch of the Hibbett Rewards Customer Loyalty Program and the development and launch of the company’s Digital Marketing programs. Additionally, Sharp-Wangaard spearheaded the company’s inaugural Philanthropic partnership with the American Heart Association which began in 2015.

Sharp-Wangaard earned her bachelor of arts degree from Lee University located in her hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee, graduating with honors, Cum Laude. She also played on the Lee University women’s soccer team, the Lady Flames.

Sharp-Wangaard now lives in Gardendale, Alabama on the outskirts of Birmingham with her husband of ten years, Elias and her two daughters Leah and Avery-Kate. Outside of work, she is active as a volunteer with her church, serves on a consumer advisory board for Vibes and Coaches the Gardendale U9 Youth Soccer Team. She enjoys spending any free time she has with her family.

Kathryn Hueffner
Product Manager - 7-Eleven App
7-Eleven

Phonishia Borsellino
Senior Director - Loyalty Program Management & Innovation
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

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Thursday, 11/19

2:00PM - 3:00PM

Loyalty360 Member (Brand Only) Roundtable Session

Small-Sided Brand Member Meeting | Managing Demographic Communication and Expectations for Customer Loyalty Programs

Session Description

Thursday, 11/19

3:00PM - 4:00PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Technology & Trends

Michael Andrade Guzman | Tech Lead - Loyalty | 7-Eleven

Megan Audette | Director - Deposits Marketing Strategy | Ally Financial

Cody Strickland | Manager - API Engineering | 7-Eleven

Kushal Gupta | Tech Lead – Fuel | 7-Eleven

Michael O'Brien | Manager - Marketing Products & Innovation | Caesars Entertainment

Paul Ford | Group Product Manager | Overstock

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Session Description

Thursday, 11/19 - 3:00PM - 4:00PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Technology & Trends

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Technology & Trends Finalists:

- Caesars Entertainment
- Overstock
- 7-Eleven (in partnership with Loyalty Methods)
- Ally Financial

Michael Andrade Guzman
Tech Lead - Loyalty
7-Eleven

Megan Audette
Director - Deposits Marketing Strategy
Ally Financial

Cody Strickland
Manager - API Engineering
7-Eleven

Kushal Gupta
Tech Lead – Fuel
7-Eleven

Michael O'Brien
Manager - Marketing Products & Innovation
Caesars Entertainment

Mike has been with Caesars Entertainment for the last two Years, previously working for Citigroup. He holds a BBA, Finance from Texas A&M University and an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business.

With Caesars, his main responsibilities include onboarding new and supporting existing properties on the UrVenue platform, set up, traning, and launch for QLess (Virtual Queing System), onboarding and support for Runtriz (mobile ordering), and advanced analytics and reporting for all mobile and digital platforms.

Paul Ford
Group Product Manager
Overstock

Paul Ford is the Group Product Manager for Overstock.com’s Customer Organization where he manages the strategy and implementation for the company’s customer-centric product vision. In this role, Ford directly manages a world-class product team. Additionally, he oversees development for customer care, customer experience, user-generated content, customer loyalty, self-service experience, my account, payments, financing options, gift cards, as well as Overstock’s cutting edge CRM and customer identity systems.

Ford joined Overstock’s team two years ago as a product manager in marketing, where he developed technological solutions for push, email, customer identity, and marketing tag management. His 18 years of experience as a business and technology leader resulted in Overstock winning the Braze Customer of the Year award in 2019 as the company reached new heights in marketing tech and customer experience.

As Overstock continues its 21-year success as a tech-focused ecommerce company Ford and his teams will continue to develop and utilize new features, new products, and new customer experiences.

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Friday, 11/20

11:00AM - 12:00PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Employee Engagement & Impact

Dave Trombetta | Senior Marketing Manager - Universities West | Sodexo

Jessica Printy Groves | Manager of Loyalty Strategy | The GIANT Company

Julie Girard | Manager of Customer Loyalty | Hannaford

Adam Reynolds | Sr. Manager - Loyalty & Email Marketing | Sleep Number

Jimmy Budnik | Vice President of Customer Care | Overstock

Amanda Krabbenhoft | Area Marketing Manager - Universities West | Sodexo

Tammy Lucas | Vice President of Marketing | BWH|Hotel Group

Tiffany Darden | Senior Marketing Manager - Universities West | Sodexo

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Session Description

Friday, 11/20

2:00PM - 3:00PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Loyalty Program Design

Ashley Beckman | Global Brand Manager | 19 Crimes

Chanelle Doiron | Product Manager | Atlantic Lottery

Julia Russell | Director of Verizon Up | Verizon

Melanie Butler | Manager of CSM and Loyalty Strategy | Giant Food

Ryan Draude | Director of Loyalty & Digital | Giant Food

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Session Description

Friday, 11/20 - 2:00PM - 3:00PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Loyalty Program Design

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Loyalty Program Design:

- Verizon (in partnership with The Lacek Group)
- Atlantic Lottery Corporation (in partnership with Splash Dot)
- Giant Food
- 19 Crimes Wine (in partnership with Prizelogic)

Ashley Beckman
Global Brand Manager
19 Crimes

As Global Brand Manager for 19 Crimes wine, Ashley Beckman is involved with all aspects of the business including innovation, digital, sales, promotions, PR, finance and supply. In addition to bringing the Infamous Insiders Loyalty program to life, Ashley led the launch of the largest new item innovation for Treasury Wine Estates, Snoop Cali Red, as well as managed 19 Crimes’ best-in-class Augmented Reality experience.

Chanelle Doiron
Product Manager
Atlantic Lottery

She’s got a big smile, big heart, and bigger goals. Ambitious and determined, Chanelle’s a little firecracker. After working 2 years at an up and coming marketing agency, Chanelle took a position in the marketing department at Atlantic Lottery. Now the Product Manager for Scratch and Breakopen products, Chanelle is responsible for creating prize structures, generating revenue, and breathing life into retail lottery!

Julia Russell
Director of Verizon Up
Verizon

Julia Russell is currently the Director of Loyalty Marketing for the Verizon Up loyalty program, responsible for the overall strategy and operations of the program. Prior to joining Verizon in 2018, Julia held the positions of Senior Director, Customer Engagement & Member Lifecycle and Senior Director, Global Loyalty Strategy & Innovation at Wyndham Hotel Group, where she was responsible for managing the value proposition, operations and global acquisition strategy across all channels for the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program. Prior to joining Wyndham Hotel Group in 2013, Julia worked for American Express for 14 years in a variety of strategy, business development and product marketing roles.

Melanie Butler
Manager of CSM and Loyalty Strategy
Giant Food

Melanie is the Manager of CSM and Loyalty Strategy for Giant Food, a grocery brand that is part of the Ahold Delhaize family of brands, with stores in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Washington D.C. Melanie graduated in 2008 from Millersville University in Pennsylvania with her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and earned her Master’s degree in Business Administration from Elizabethtown College in 2016.

Melanie joined the Ahold USA family of Brands in 2010. She held positions in a variety of functions including Promotion Execution, Health & Wellness Marketing, Fresh Category Marketing and Digital Marketing. In 2018 she moved to Maryland from Pennsylvania to join the Giant Food family and has since held roles in Social and Digital Media Strategy and now manages the strategies and plans for their Loyalty and Customer Specific Marketing programs.

Since beginning her role in 2019, she has had the opportunity to help shape and launch the new Giant Flexible Rewards™ loyalty program. The new program brings Giant shoppers additional opportunities to earn points based on their shopping behaviors, as well as the flexibility to use their points on rewards that make the most sense for their lifestyle – including savings on grocery, gas and free or discounted products. Melanie, along with her team, continue to strive for new ways to amplify their programs, while nurturing the loyalty relationships with their shoppers through personalization of offers and communications.

Melanie lives in Southern Maryland with her husband John and son Owen. They enjoy cooking, exploring new cities and spending as much time as possible close to the water, especially with their dog, Winston.

Ryan Draude
Director of Loyalty & Digital
Giant Food

Ryan is the Director of Loyalty & Digital for Giant Food, one of the Mid-Atlantic’s leading grocery chains. In this role, he and his team are responsible for fostering the long-term relationship with Giant’s extensive base of prospective and current shoppers across a variety of brick and mortar and digital channel, and authoring the near and long-term loyalty road map that delivers the benefits, promotions and partnerships within their Giant Flexible Rewards™ program.

Ryan formerly led Choice Privileges, the multi billion-dollar reward program for Choice Hotels, and over a five-year period completely overhauled the program via the scrutiny of member data and advocacy of members needs from a best in class program. The results catapulted the program to its first major Freddie Award and moved the program from #11 in the country to #2 in the US News & World Report’s Best Hotel Reward Program category during his tenure.

Prior, Ryan earned a U.S. patent for his work standing up Sallie Mae’s first in market true-cost college affordability online tool for all families to understand the real education financing. His tenure includes other loyalty and marketing leadership positions with Capital One, Citigroup and Switchfly. Ryan is also an adjunct professor within Georgetown University instructing on Hospitality Loyalty Strategy, where he also earned his MBA. He lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife Despina and four children.

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Monday, 11/23

1:00PM - 2:15PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Loyalty Strategy

Deepu Thomas | Product Manager - Loyalty | 7-Eleven

Andrew Pine | Global Director of excite! | Porsche Cars North America

John Sellers | Head of Rewards | Bank of America

Lauren Strien | Loyalty Marketing - T-Mobile Tuesdays | T-Mobile

Raul Medellin | Strategy | 7-Eleven

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Session Description

Monday, 11/23 - 1:00PM - 2:15PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Loyalty Strategy

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Customer Loyalty Strategy:

- T-Mobile (in partnership with The Marketing Store)
- Porsche
- Bank of America
- 7-Eleven

Deepu Thomas
Product Manager - Loyalty
7-Eleven

Andrew Pine
Global Director of excite!
Porsche Cars North America

John Sellers
Head of Rewards
Bank of America

John Sellers is the executive in charge of Rewards at Bank of America. In this role, John oversees all reward programs; including consumer, wealth management and small business relationship rewards programs and credit card rewards redemption. In 2019 Preferred Rewards for Business was named the ‘Most Innovative Product’ by Barlow’s Monarch Innovation Awards, which recognizes excellence and creativity in business banking

Prior to his current role, John had worked with other products including; Vehicle Lending, Investments, and Credit Card. While in Card, John was the Director of Preferred Products and New Account Acquisition where he was responsible for all mass affluent BofA and Merrill branded products. John is the architect of the award winning Travel Rewards Card and led the effort to bring Chip technology to BofA cards.

Before his product roles, John spent the first half of his career in Credit Risk, where he was the Director of Risk Strategies. In this role, John oversaw existing account management strategies which included; line management, balance stimulation (cash and retail), authorizations (overlimit and delinquent) and other payment related strategies.

John began his career with BofA via the MBNA acquisition. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware where he was a Finance major. He also has an MBA from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business where he graduated with distinction and is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma academic honor society.

John is involved in several community organizations. He is a lifesaver for the Blood Bank of DE and coaches several youth sport teams in Kennett Square, PA where he resides with his wife and three kids.

Lauren Strien
Loyalty Marketing - T-Mobile Tuesdays
T-Mobile

Lauren Strien oversees program strategy and marketing for T-Mobile Tuesdays, a customer appreciation program that thanks customers every week with free stuff, great deals and chances to win epic prizes from brands they love. Lauren is a global loyalty and partnership marketing professional with 15+ years of experience developing loyalty strategy and building strategic partnerships. She has experience working on loyalty programs within a variety of industries, including financial services, hospitality, and telecom, in the US as well as in Europe and Asia Pacific. Lauren has an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BS in Economics from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.

Raul Medellin
Strategy
7-Eleven

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Monday, 11/23

3:00PM - 4:30PM

General Session

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Incentive & Reward Design

Chad Nikola | Director of Customer Retention | American Eagle Outfitters

Frank Neumann | Senior Director - Consumer Lifecycle Management | Vans

Jason Whiting | Global VIP Program Director | LEGO

Karen Szarvas | Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships | The Vitamin Shoppe

Helen Wilson | Loyalty Development Manager | Shell

Alyssa Callahan | Senior Manager - Loyalty Program Management | Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

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Session Description

Monday, 11/23 - 3:00PM - 4:30PM | General Session

All Attendee Session/Event

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Incentive & Reward Design

The finalists competing in the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards will share details of their programs and strategies in fast-paced, 10-15 minute presentations. These presentations give attendees a chance to hear first-hand from the brands that are delivering experiences that set them apart from the competition and create happy, loyal customers.

Each finalist will create a video presentation and all attendees will have the ability to watch videos from all finalists in each category.

As a part of the award process, all registered conference attendees are eligible to vote for platinum, gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention (if applicable) for each category.

Category videos will be posted throughout the virtual event on LoyaltyExpo.com. Once the category video goes live, voting will be open until December 1.

Incentive and Reward Design:

- Vans (in partnership with Cheetah Digital)
- LEGO (in partnership with Oracle)
- American Eagle Outfitters
- Shell (in partnership with Wunderman Thompson)
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
- The Vitamin Shoppe

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.

Frank Neumann
Senior Director - Consumer Lifecycle Management
Vans

With over 17 years of experience working for enterprise brands such as Proctor & Gamble, Bath & Body Works, and VF Corporation, Frank is an expert in developing in-depth customer understanding and employing advanced data analytics to identify and capitalize upon game-changing business opportunities. In his most recent role as Senior Director of Consumer Lifecycle Management at Vans, Frank is responsible for developing, launching and running Vans' industry-leading loyalty program, globally. His most recent work has been focused on establishing the consumer analytics function within Vans in order to build a holistic view of their customers' lifecycle through data and analytics.

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.

Karen Szarvas
Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty and Partnerships
The Vitamin Shoppe

Karen Szarvas serves as Sr. Director of Customer Loyalty & Partnerships at The Vitamin Shoppe®, an omni-channel specialty retailer and wellness lifestyle company. In her role, Karen oversees the newly redesigned Healthy Awards Loyalty program and is responsible for the development, execution and management of the program, as well as strategies to drive customer awareness, engagement and retention. Karen has more than 19 years of global marketing and loyalty experience and is a highly motivated, customer focused, thought leader. Prior to joining The Vitamin Shoppe, she worked at Wyndham Worldwide and consulted at KMS Marketing Solutions where she specialized in loyalty, branding, customer communications and experiences.

Helen Wilson
Loyalty Development Manager
Shell

Helen Wilson is the Loyalty Development Manager for Shell U.S., responsible for leading loyalty strategy development aimed at delivering more loyal customers and commercial value to the U.S. Mobility business.

Helen’s advertising and marketing experience spans across a variety of industries including technology, energy, sports and consumer package goods.

Having spent the first part of her career on the advertising agency side at McCann-Erickson NY and Ogilvy & Mather, where she led the media department for O&M Houston, Helen has leveraged her multi-industry, agency perspective in her subsequent marketing roles at Compaq / HP, Comcast, Comcast SportsNet Houston and Questia.com, a trailblazer Internet start-up in the subscription services industry. Her focus has always been to lead organizations to achieve aggressive marketing goals with customer-focused acquisition and retention strategies rooted in customer insights and marketing innovation.

A native New Yorker, Helen graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, a Minor in the Classics and was a recipient of New York University’s Arts and Science academic scholarship.

Alyssa Callahan
Senior Manager - Loyalty Program Management
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Alyssa Callahan is an avid loyalty professional with over 10 years of experience in program management, marketing, and customer relationship management. Her experience ranges from specialty & big-box retailers like Under Armour, Aéropostale and Toys“R”Us to destination travel & hospitality companies like RCI and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

A self-proclaimed loyalty program aficionado and personal member in every program she can find, Alyssa is passionate innovating better in-person, digital, and people-related loyalty solutions that create greater member lifetime value. She’s equally excited to see rewards programs continue to evolve through loyalty technology advancements, as well as uniquely expand into new industries. A firm believer in the power of strong loyalty program design, Alyssa is pleased to deliver generous & attainable rewards to millions of Wyndham Rewards members in her current role.

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Agenda

Creating Emotional Connections with Customers to Drive Brand Loyalty

Commitment to Customer Loyalty and Furry Friends | Brand Case Study with KONG Company

Air Canada Takes Flight Again | Brand Case Study with Air Canada

Brands Drive Direct Mail Engagement Through Informed Delivery

Customer Loyalty is Much More Than Rewards for Wawa

Small-Sided Brand Member Meeting | Corporate Social Responsibility

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Business Transformation

Shell Adapts its Fuel Rewards | Brand Case Study

Challenges in Assessing Customer Loyalty Partners | Brand-Only Session

Lenovo Brings Loyalty to the PC Industry

Small-Sided Brand Member Meeting | B2B Customer Loyalty & Partnership Management

King Arthur Baking Company Delivers Exceptional Customer Experience During Baking Surge

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | B2B Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty Best Practices | A Brand Perspective

Creating Porsche Passion: Building a Mindset and Culture of Customer Centricity

No Card Needed – Hannaford Looks to the Future with All-Digital Grocery Rewards Program

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Creative Campaign

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Program Partnership

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Engagement & Advocacy

Customer Loyalty & Experience in Retail | Brand Perspective

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Insight & Metrics

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | CX Strategy

Small-Sided Brand Member Meeting | Managing Demographic Communication and Expectations for Customer Loyalty Programs

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Technology & Trends

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Employee Engagement & Impact

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Loyalty Program Design

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Customer Loyalty Strategy

Loyalty360 Awards Presentations | Incentive & Reward Design