Aarthi Murali, Customer Experience and Transformation Leader
Enjoy a highlight clip from this session:
Creating Value Through Interconnected Experiences
Aarthi Murali, Customer Experience and Transformation Leader
In today’s rapidly changing world, delivering excellent customer experiences requires more than front-line excellence; it demands an organization-wide approach that connects every part of the business. In this session, Aarthi Murali will share how interconnected experiences can create meaningful value for customers, employees, and communities alike. She will explore how breaking down silos, democratizing data, and aligning teams around a shared purpose builds a strong customer-centric culture. Participants will hear how empowering employees with real-time insights cultivates empathy and drives decisions that positively impact customers. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for unifying their organizations to create seamless, human-centered experiences. Join this session to learn practical strategies for weaving interconnected experiences into the fabric of your business.
Key session takeaways
Interconnected experiences unify customer, employee, and community value into one strategy.
Democratizing customer data empowers employees to act with empathy and purpose.
Breaking down silos builds a customer-first culture across every touchpoint.
Aarthi Murali
Customer Experience and Transformation Leader
Aarthi Murali is an award-winning customer experience executive. As EVP at Holman, a leading automotive and fleet management provider, she shaped their customer engagement strategy and led transformation across its fleet businesses.
With 20+ years in the financial sector, Aarthi previously served as M&T Bank’s first Chief Customer Experience Officer, overseeing Experience Design, Voice of Customer/Employee, Experience Engineering, and Journey programs. She also spent nearly 18 years at JPMorgan Chase, most recently leading Customer Experience for the Global Commercial Bank, where she championed human-centered transformation. Aarthi’s impact has earned her numerous honors, including American Banker’s “Most Powerful Women in Banking” (2022, 2023), Forrester’s Customer-Obsessed Leadership Award (2023), and inclusion in the CX Network’s Top 50 CX Influencers (2024). At Holman, she fostered a culture of service excellence rooted in empathy, innovation, technology, and AI, while addressing today’s customer needs and anticipating tomorrows.
Leveraging The Four Workarounds in Customer Service
Paulo Savaget, Entrepreneurial Engineer, Author of The Four Workarounds, and Professor at Oxford
Enjoy a short highlight from Paulo’s session:
Leveraging The Four Workarounds in Customer Service
Paulo Savaget, Entrepreneurial Engineer, Author of The Four Workarounds, and Professor at Oxford
We constantly encounter complex problems at home, in our places of work, and in society at large. Even if we had all the time and money in the world, sometimes no good solution can be found. So, what should we do, especially when we can’t wait? The answer: a workaround.
For ages, global corporations have been lecturing small organizations on how to get things done. As it turns out, it should have been the other way around. In this presentation, award-winning researcher Paulo Savaget will show how the most valuable lessons about problem-solving can be learned from the scrappiest groups.
Savaget will draw most of his examples from small organizations that have proved themselves adept at achieving massive wins with minimal resources. Through his research, Savaget identified the four workarounds that these groups commonly employ: the piggyback, the loophole, the roundabout, and the next best. With vivid and fascinating examples, he will demonstrate how each one works and how to know which one to use when. These lessons can revolutionize the ways we approach the challenges we encounter every day.
Key Takeaways:
Learn how to achieve major impact by creatively navigating obstacles with limited resources.
Understand the Four Workarounds, and when to apply each effectively.
Rethink Problem Ownership by understanding why innovation and agility often flourish in scrappy environments.
Paulo Savaget
Entrepreneurial Engineer, Author of The Four Workarounds, and Professor
Oxford
Paulo Savaget is an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, jointly appointed to the Department of Engineering Science and the Saïd Business School. His work focuses on entrepreneurship, systems change, and innovation management, particularly in addressing complex sustainability challenges such as poverty, climate change, and global value chains. With a PhD from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar, Paulo brings a systems-thinking approach to transforming unjust and unsustainable systems, especially under conditions of urgency and resource scarcity. He previously held roles as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Assistant Professor at Durham University.
Beyond academia, Paulo has worked as an entrepreneur and consultant for corporations, governments, and international organizations. He is the author of the award-winning book The Four Workarounds and has received numerous accolades, including the IBM Business of Government Award and the Green Talents Award. Passionate about bridging theory and practice, Paulo actively collaborates with practitioners to co-develop solutions that drive real-world impact.
Winning Through Influence: The CX Capability That Changes Everything
Zack Hamilton, Founder, Host, and Strategic CX Advisor, Unf*cking Your CX
Enjoy a highlight clip from Zack’s session:
Winning Through Influence: The CX Capability That Changes Everything
Zack Hamilton, Founder, Host, and Strategic CX Advisor, Unf*cking Your CX
In today’s experience economy, data is everywhere, but action is rare. That’s because the most essential CX capability isn’t taught in universities, and it isn’t tracked on dashboards. It’s influence.
In this provocative and practical session, Zack Hamilton, creator of The Experience Performance System™ and The CX Case Maker™, unpacks the single most important skill every CX leader must master to drive real business change: the ability to influence cross-functional partners to own customer friction.
You’ll learn how to shift from reporting insights to mobilizing action, using a simple but powerful tool (the 1-page business case) to reframe customer pain as a business priority. This session will help you stop chasing “buy-in” and start earning strategic alignment by translating CX into P&L impact.
Key takeaways:
Why influence, not insights, is the real unlock for CX leaders.
How to turn customer friction into a business case executives can’t ignore.
A proven structure to build cross-functional champions and accelerate action.
Zack Hamilton
Founder, Host, and Strategic CX Advisor
Unf*cking Your CX
Zack Hamilton is a leading voice in customer experience (CX) innovation and go-to-market (GTM) transformation. As the creator of the Experience Performance System™, Zack helps high-growth SaaS companies and enterprise brands achieve 7x sales velocity, scale cross-functional execution, and drive Customer Lifetime Value through buyer-led, frictionless GTM systems. With over 20 years of experience as a CXO, SaaS growth leader, and retail strategist, he has advised more than 200 global brands—including Walmart, Macy’s, and SEPHORA—on integrating CX, EX, and post-purchase experience into cohesive total experience strategies. A member of the Forbes Business Council and Fast Company Executive Board, Zack is also the host of Un*fcking Your CX, a platform challenging legacy thinking and elevating CX leaders into strategic business drivers, and author of the forthcoming book The Experience Performance System, on driving revenue, retention, and results through CX performance, available this Fall.
Practical Strategies for Sustainable Customer Experience Impact with AI
Sara Taheri, Strategic AI Enablement, PolyAI Innovative Leader in AI, Northwestern Mutual
Enjoy a highlight clip from this session:
Practical Strategies for Sustainable Customer Experience Impact with AI
Sara Taheri, Strategic AI Enablement, PolyAI Innovative Leader in AI, Northwestern Mutual
This session provides participants with a practical roadmap for leveraging AI to revolutionize customer experience and service. Sara Taheri will share how AI impacts the world around us, when to leverage classical vs. generative AI, operationalize AI concepts in financial services & customer experience, specific applications of AI, and pitfalls to be on the lookout for as you introduce this technology and continue to mature in this journey.
Key Takeaways:
Distinguishing AI types
Adopting a problem-solving mindset
Implementing key operational strategies with the customer in mind
Guiding participants towards sustainable growth and exceptional customer interactions.
Sara Taheri
Strategic AI Enablement, PolyAI Innovative Leader in AI
Northwestern Mutual
Sara Taheri is a recognized leader in AI-driven business transformation with deep expertise in customer experience, digital innovation, and operational efficiency. Named one of the Top 100 Women in Conversational AI by Project Voice and a Top 100 CX Leader by Poly.AI, she guides organizations in shaping AI strategy, crafting visionary product roadmaps, and executing high-impact programs. Sara has led transformative initiatives across contact center modernization, RPA, accelerated and fluid less underwriting, and electronic health data integration, while fostering inclusive, high-performing teams that turn insights into strategic action.
Steering Committee
Tony Caravella
Position title: Vice President, Learning and Quality Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
Amanda Frantz
Position title: VP of Customer Service Springs Window Fashions
Matthew Cone leads the UWEBC’s Customer Service practice area. Matthew has spent his career working with teams to deliver amazing customer experiences with a focus on collaboration and the strength of diversity. Matthew comes most recently from 15 years with Apple, supporting teams in both B2B and B2C sales, and technical services in the technology industry. Matthew has also leveraged skills in training, coaching, and development, all necessary competencies that resonate with many of our member companies in the current CX landscape. Matthew graduated with a BS in Management from Cardinal Stritch University.
Highlights from last year's Customer Service Track
Here are a few highlights from last year’s Customer Service track:
Creating Value Through Interconnected Experiences 
Leveraging The Four Workarounds in Customer Service 
Paulo Savaget is an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, jointly appointed to the Department of Engineering Science and the Saïd Business School. His work focuses on entrepreneurship, systems change, and innovation management, particularly in addressing complex sustainability challenges such as poverty, climate change, and global value chains. With a PhD from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar, Paulo brings a systems-thinking approach to transforming unjust and unsustainable systems, especially under conditions of urgency and resource scarcity. He previously held roles as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Assistant Professor at Durham University.
Winning Through Influence: The CX Capability That Changes Everything
Zack Hamilton is a leading voice in customer experience (CX) innovation and go-to-market (GTM) transformation. As the creator of the Experience Performance System™, Zack helps high-growth SaaS companies and enterprise brands achieve 7x sales velocity, scale cross-functional execution, and drive Customer Lifetime Value through buyer-led, frictionless GTM systems. With over 20 years of experience as a CXO, SaaS growth leader, and retail strategist, he has advised more than 200 global brands—including Walmart, Macy’s, and SEPHORA—on integrating CX, EX, and post-purchase experience into cohesive total experience strategies. A member of the Forbes Business Council and Fast Company Executive Board, Zack is also the host of Un*fcking Your CX, a platform challenging legacy thinking and elevating CX leaders into strategic business drivers, and author of the forthcoming book The Experience Performance System, on driving revenue, retention, and results through CX performance, available this Fall.
Practical Strategies for Sustainable Customer Experience Impact with AI
