2011 Chapter Officers of NW SOCAP
Direct At Large, Karen Vaughn
Karen Vaughn, a seasoned call center professional, has been in the industry since the early 90's. She has spent most of her career as an outsourced call center provider and most recently in the Quality and Customer Satisfaction space. For the past 2.5 years she has served as the Vice President of Call Center Mgmt for Guthy-Renker, one of the world's largest direct response television companies. At Guthy-Renker, Karen manages a significant annual call center budget which includes Inbound and Outbound Sales, Customer Service, Consumer Affairs as well as all support services and technology infrastructure; Outsourced Quality Mgmt, Speech Analytics, Outsourced Command Center Support, Hosted ACD call routing solution as well as a hosted IVR. After joining Guthy-Renker, Karen immediately saw an opportunity to leverage technology in a purely outsourced environment with a particular emphasis and interest in the SaaS model. In her opinion, the value and benefit of the SaaS and outsourced model is the ongoing commitment the outsourer firm needs to have to ensure they earn and keep your business every day.
Director At Large, Tom Asher
415-684-9875
Tom Asher is Director of Customer Experience for SunRun, the nation's leading home solar company that owns and maintains thousands of home solar power systems across the country.
Tom joined SOCAP in 1998 and has made many meaningful connections with industry colleagues as a result of his SOCAP affiliation. He served on the board of SOCAP International for 6 years and was Chairman of SOCAP International in 2007.
Tom's prior work experience includes serving as Director of Consumer Relations North America for Levi Strauss & Co., managing Greenpeace's mail order catalog business, serving as national sales manager for Esprit's environmental apparel line "Ecollection", and founding and managing Artventure, a socially responsible apparel and direct sales catalog company.
He has a BA in Sociology from Vassar College and an MBA from Golden Gate University.
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President - Adam Oberweiser
Treasurer - Jack Gaither
VP Membership - Esmeralda Hidalgo
VP Event Marketing - Dianne Christiansen
VP Programs / Portland - Lori Fraser
VP Programs / Bay Area - Heidi Verse
Director at Large - Tom Asher
Director at Large - Karen Vaughn
Immediate Past President - Marie Shubin
Lori Fraser is an enthusiastic contact center leader certified with CIAC as a Contact Center Management Consultant (CCMC) and with Prosci in Change Management methodologies and tools. Her primary focus is on contact center people, processes and the training needed to help them accomplish their strategic goals with the help of technology and sound business processes. Lori has over 25 years experience in leading sales, customer service and technical support contact center teams in the USA, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
Marie Shubin is the Director of Global Consumer Relations at E&J Gallo Winery. The Gallo Consumer Information Center is the Voice of the Consumer at Gallo; providing product information on over 100 wine, spirits and wine-beverage brands. The Consumer Information Center is central to the execution of many CRM and Quality initiatives. Marie has a Bachelor's degree from Arizona State University and an MBA from Western International University. Marie has been an active member of SOCAP since 1993, after attending her first conference in Nashville. From 1995-2000 Marie served a term on the national Board of Directors, chairing the membership committee. In 2005 she was the founding Chair of the Food & Beverage Community. Marie is a conference presenter, a CRM contributor and is serving on the national Board of Directors.
Jack Gaither administers and assumes responsibility for overall financial operation of the NW SOCAP Chapter. Jack founded Astound Technologies in 2003 and is currently the CEO. Primary responsibilities include corporate vision and overseeing marketing, sales, and development. Established to provide a technology leap in the Computer Telephony Integration space, Astound has taken a leading role in the fledgling video ACD marketplace serving healthcare, hospitality, banking, transportation, airlines, insurance, and government markets. Video is bringing back the personal face-to-face communications lost in the last 20 years.
Prior to that, Jack spent more than 14 years with Aristacom (renamed to Line4 in 1999) as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Successfully converted Aristacom from a hardware to a software company and directed the company to a multi-million dollar organization. Premier accounts included MBNA America, Universal Card, Sallie Mae, Navy Federal Credit Union, Potomac Energy and Power Company, and many others.
Previous experience includes 20 years with Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Primary responsibilities included managing western region sales and operations for local and state government lines of business. During his last 3 years, over $500 million was sold in the western region. Premier accounts included California Medicaid (Medi-Cal), California Student Loans, California In-Home Supportive Services, administrative systems for six Los Angeles cities, California legislative bill tracking.
Adam S Oberweiser leads the Clorox Consumer Service Technology and Analysis team. He and his team are responsible for leveraging technology to help Clorox understand how to delight consumers with products and world-class service. He has been a member of SOCAP since 2001 and graduated from UCLA.
The Clorox Company is a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer products with fiscal year 2010 revenues of $5.53 billion. Clorox markets some of consumers' most trusted and recognized brand names, including its namesake bleach and cleaning products, Green Works® naturally derived home care products, Pine-Sol® cleaners, Poett® home care products, Fresh Step® cat litter, Kingsford® charcoal, Hidden Valley® and K C Masterpiece® dressings and sauces, Brita® water-filtration products, Glad® bags and wraps and containers, and Burt's Bees® natural personal care products.
VP Programs - Bay Area, Heidi Verse
Heidi Verse is part of the Clorox Consumer Service Technology and Analysis team. She has a BS degree from Santa Clara University.
The Clorox Company is a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer products with fiscal year 2008 revenues of $5.3 billion. Clorox markets some of consumers' most trusted and recognized brand names, including its namesake bleach and cleaning products, Green Works™ natural cleaners, Armor All® and STP® auto-care products, Fresh Step® and Scoop Away® cat litter, Kingsford® charcoal, Hidden Valley® and K C Masterpiece® dressings and sauces, Brita® water-filtration systems, Glad® bags, wraps and containers, and Burt's Bees® natural personal care products.
VP Membership, Esmeralda Hidalgo
Esmeralda Hidalgo is the Systems Administrator for E. & J. Gallo Winery Consumer Information Center (CIC). E. & J. Gallo Winery is the world's largest family-owned winery and the largest exporter of California wine. As a Systems Administrator, Esmeralda's primary role is to optimize Astute's ePowerCenter system to ensure CIC staff achieves department objectives in call monitoring, case accuracy, case completeness, talk time, contacts per hour, call answered rate and customer satisfaction. Esmeralda also manages RealDialog Agent Assist knowledge base. She work closely with Astute Solutions technical team to establish best practices to optimize agent productivity.
Prior to joining the winery in 2003, Esmeralda spent 15 years at Avery Dennison Corporation, a leading pressure-sensitive adhesives and materials manufacuturer. In 2007, Esmeralda earned her BS in Business Management degree from the University of Phoenix. Esmeralda joined SOCAP in 2009 and volunteered for the VP-Membership position in 2010 to assist in the growth and stability of the NW Chapter.
VP Programs - Portland, Lori Fraser
Ms. Christiansen has over 25 years experience in leadership roles in sales, business development, and marketing promoting business services and solutions to enterprise organizations. For the past decade, Ms. Christiansen has developed expertise in customer care/contact center services with financial management responsibility for engagements, delivering target gross profit and revenue objectives. She is a seasoned relationship manager at the executive level, an experienced public speaker and executive facilitator.