SOCAP's Newly Elected 2010 Board Officers and Directors

SOCAP International is delighted to announce its newly elected Board Officer and Director positions!

The SOCAP membership unanimously elected these outstanding individuals at the Annual Business Meeting during the 2009 Annual Conference in Tucson, Arizona:

OFFICERS:

Susan Baranowsky — Chair
Director, Consumer Affairs
Campbell Soup Company
Susan has served as Director of Campbell’s Consumer Affairs team since 1999. She is responsible for developing global corporate best practices, consumer-relationship building and aligning with key business partners to develop creative solutions that further brand strategy. Susan has been an active member of the Philadelphia Chapter of SOCAP since July 1999. She is currently a member of the Executive and Resource Management Committees and has served in various capacities on SOCAP’s Board of Directors, including terms as Treasurer and Vice Chair.

Cheryl Duwve — Chair Elect
Vice President, Customer Support
Roche Diagnostics
Cheryl Duwve heads the Roche Diagnostic ACCUCHEK ® Customer Care Service Center. The Center provides technical support and customer service for the Diabetes Care and Near Patient Testing divisions. Previously, Cheryl served as the Director of Marketing at St. Vincent Hospitals and was Vice President of Operations at CIGNA, Midwest Region. She has been a speaker at past SOCAP Annual Conferences and currently serves as a member of the SOCAP Resource Management Committee, the Executive Committee and the Executive Community Steering Committee. She is also a past chair of the Membership Committee.

Jeff Hagen — Vice Chair
Director, Consumer Affairs
General Mills, Inc.
Jeff Hagen has served as Director, Consumer Services at General Mills for 13 years. He is responsible for the oversight of three contact centers that respond to inquiries from consumers and food service customers, the technologies employed to support these centers and the reporting/analysis of consumer contact information gathered during these interactions. He is currently the Chair of the SOCAP Resource Management Committee and a member of the Executive Committee.

B.J. McDonald — Treasurer
Senior Director
Continental Airlines
B.J. McDonald is the Senior Director of Continental’s North Houston Center for reservations. He is responsible for Continental’s largest call center and works closely with the Customer Care Team. He and his leadership team manage over 70 independent functions and 1,500 contact center agents. B.J. has over 30 years of airline experience, including 20 years of contact center and customer care experience. He was principle in restarting the Houston Chapter of SOCAP. B.J. has spoken at numerous SOCAP events and offered a keynote presentation at the 2008 Symposium in Boston. He has served on the Board of Directors and is currently the Chair of the Executive Community Steering Committee.

Linnea Johnson — Secretary
Director, Consumer Services
Unilever
As Director of Consumer Services for Unilever, Linnea Johnson is responsible for the strategic leadership of the two Consumer Services contact centers in North America that handle over 2.5 million consumer contacts annually. Linnea has worked for Unilever for over 25 years in various marketing positions, and for the past 15 years has developed and implemented strategies to transition Consumer Services from a cost center to a value-creation center. Additionally, she has consolidated five diverse centers for North America to reduce costs and increase quality of service and has leveraged consumer insight to enhance marketing programs. She is currently a member of the Executive Committee, Board Advisor to the Conference Committee and a member of the SOCAP Board of Directors.

DIRECTORS:

Lorraine Avery
Senior Vice President and Director of Customer Services
Associated Bank
As Senior Vice President and Director of Customer Services at Associated Bank, Lorraine Avery is the senior officer for customer service, call centers and bank assistance for all bank products, assets and liability for the entire Associated Bank Holding Company. Her responsibilities include retail, business banking and wealth/trust assistance service and sales, alternative delivery service, ATMs, voice response, telephone banking, customer service delivery and special customer care. Lorraine is currently Chair of SOCAP’s Member Services Committee.
(Two-year term, expiring December 31, 2011)

Michael D'Alessandro
Vice President, Executive Operations/Chief of Staff
Consumers Union/Consumer Reports
Michael D’Alessandro is the Vice President, Executive Operations and the Chief of Staff at Consumers Union (CU), the publisher of Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org. In his role, Michael is the President’s primary day-to-day interface with the senior management team and the organization’s primary liaison with the CU Board Chair and Board of Directors. He is currently engaged in developing CU’s five year strategic planning process and is responsible for three key service divisions within the organization. Michael has been an active member of the New York Metro Chapter, has participated on conference panels and has provided speakers to both chapter and national events.

Leo Dodds
Director, Customer Communications Center
Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs
As Director of the Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs Customer Communications Center, Leo Dodds leads a diverse team of medical professionals who together manage over 100,000 contacts per year across multiple communication channels. In this role, Leo has led a number of change initiatives geared toward connecting customers with the medical professional team. Leo has acted as a speaker on Scientific Affairs Contact Centers at conferences around the US over the last seven years. He spoke at the 2008 Symposium in Boston and addressed FDA changes impacting the Food & Beverage industry at the 2008 Annual Conference Food & Beverage Community meeting.

Christopher Irving
Assistant Vice President, Consumer, Government & Legal Affairs
Publishers Clearing House
In his capacity as Assistant Vice President of Consumer, Government & Legal Affairs for Publishers Clearing House, Christopher Irving is responsible for directing all consumer and government affairs issues that touch on the company’s multichannel direct marketing business. He currently advises the customer care group on all legal policies and procedures and has made it a company policy for senior management to review customer correspondence and/or speak directly to customers for a designated period each month. Christopher’s initial responsibilities at PCH included directing the Customer Care Center’s handling and response to all consumer contacts received from regulatory/consumer and government offices. Christopher is a member of the SOCAP Executive Community Committee.
(One-year term, expiring December 31, 2010)

Patrick O'Shea
Senior Vice President, Customer Contact Center
Comerica Bank
Patrick O’Shea has more than 20 years of customer care experience operating customer service centers for both Fortune 500 companies and small, privately held companies. He has participated in the Financial Services industry as a public speaker and, most recently, as an author. Patrick has served on the Dallas-Ft. Worth Chapter Board of Directors for three years and has spoken on panels and in breakout sessions at SOCAP national meetings. He is also the current Chair of the Membership committee and served as Vice Chair of the same committee in 2008.

Karen Vaughn
Vice President, Vendor Management
Guthy-Renker
Karen Vaughn has been with Guthy-Renker for the past 2 years, overseeing all call center efforts. She also manages the Consumer Affairs function within Customer Care. In her previous life at HyperQuality, Karen focused on performance of the calls from the customer’s perspective and paid particular interest to improving FCR while bettering the customer’s experience. Karen has filled multiple roles within the Northwest Regional Chapter, including Chapter President for 2 years.

Rita Wood
President/CEO
Network Direct
Rita Wood is an accomplished leader with a strong resume in call center management and strategic business development. Her career includes extensive experience with project management, business management and ownership as well as global contact center operations and customer service. She has spoken at numerous conferences on such topics as personnel management/motivation, customer service delivery, contact center operations, quality management, compensation planning and sales program development. Rita has served as a member of several SOCAP Committees and as Chair of the Business Advisory Council since 2007. She has also served in several officer positions (including President) for the Southwest Regional Chapter.

Current Board Officers and Directors Who Will Continue in 2010:

Peter Edghill
Customer Care Executive

Michael Biondo
Vice President, Customer Operations
Thumbplay

Leo Dodds
Director, Customer Communications Center
Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs

Céline Dumais
Director, Consumer Care Center
L'Oreal Canada

Cheryl Holtzen
Contact Center & Customer Retention Manager
Omaha Steaks

Linnea Johnson
Director, Consumer Services
Unilever Consumer Services, N.A.

Sofie Lorenzo
Senior Information Program Manager
Federal Citizen Information Center

B.J. McDonald
Senior Director
Continental Airlines

Kim McMiller
Associate Director, KNA Consumer Relations
Kraft Foods Global, Inc.

Mike Neeson
Senior Contact Services Manager
Andersen Windows, Inc.

Tom Rocca
President
KPI Group, LLC

Marie Shubin
Director, Global Consumer Relations
E&J Gallo Winery

John Stieger
Associate Director
Procter & Gamble