The CX50 2019 revealed: Our list of the top 50 customer experience professionals
Marketing Week announces our second annual CX50 list in partnership with Zone and Cognizant, celebrating the individuals excelling at customer experience, demonstrating innovation, influence and impact.
Customer experience is a topic that is earning ever-increasing attention, not only from marketers but colleagues across their businesses and in company boardrooms.
Far from being a buzzword, CX is constantly gaining traction as a key differentiator for businesses in all sectors, which is why Marketing Week, Zone and Cognizant have partnered for the second successive year to announce the new members of the CX50.
This list celebrates the 50 professionals currently doing the most to foreground customer experience and fulfil its potential – both in their brands and across the UK’s consumer marketplace today. The individuals we have identified come from a variety of industry sectors and occupy roles as diverse as chief marketing officers, startup founders, chief technology officers and general managers. The full list of 50 names can be found in the table below.
Methodology
In order to compile the CX50, Marketing Week, Zone and its parent company Cognizant used their combined editorial and professional expertise, as well as a number of publicly available information sources, to generate a shortlist of companies with impressive CX achievements in the past year. We identified the individual CX leaders working for them, and also included individuals known to have been at the forefront of CX delivery for a number of years.
We then used three key criteria to whittle this shortlist down to the final 50: innovation (adopting new processes, technologies and ideas to deliver best-in-class CX); influence (successfully making the case for CX in their businesses and beyond); and impact (the tangible results of their efforts in terms of financial and brand measures, as well as evidence of business transformation). We assessed all individuals based on the totality of their achievements across these three metrics.
Reflecting the many different faces of CX and the collaboration needed to achieve progress, we looked at a range of industry sectors and job functions to find those excelling in the field. The variety of job titles present in the CX50 demonstrates that this is not just a concern for marketers, but also technologists, digital specialists, CEOs and company founders.
READ MORE: How customer experience is building brands and businesses
The CX50 in full
| Mark Anderson | CEO | Connect Airways |
| Reza Attar-Zadeh | Head of customer interactions | Santander UK |
| Anna Bateson | Chief customer officer |
Guardian News & Media
|
| Stuart Beamish | Group chief customer officer | Saga |
| Alessandra Bellini | Chief customer officer | Tesco |
| Sarah Bentley | Chief customer officer | Severn Trent |
| Helen Bierton | Head of Banking | Starling Bank |
| Tom Blomfield | CEO | Monzo |
| Liv Marit Brahin | Head of group marketing and communication services | UBS |
| Kerris Bright | Chief customer officer | BBC |
| Tom Broughton | Founder | Cubitts |
| Chris Carter | Director of marketing | Specsavers |
| Jack Constantine | Chief digital officer | Lush |
| Peter Duffy | Interim CEO | Just Eat |
| Rob Edmundson | Transformation and marketing director, UK | Bupa |
| Kim Faura | Chief commercial officer | Giffgaff |
| Joseph Gordon | Head of First Direct | HSBC |
| Sinead Greenaway | Chief technology and operations officer | UKTV |
| Justin Haines | Customer services director | Ovo Energy |
| Hugh Hessing | Chief operating officer | Aviva |
| Craig Inglis | Customer director | John Lewis |
| Russell James | Digital engagement director | The FA |
| Richard Jewsbury | Divisional vice-president, UK | Emirates |
| Margaret Jobling | Chief marketing officer | Centrica |
| James Keegan | Vice-president of customer services and experience, Europe | QVC |
| Chris Larmer | Director of customer experience | The Co-operative Bank |
| Phil Lewis | Director of digital transformation | Boden |
| Carolina Martinoli | Director of brand and customer experience | British Airways |
| Belinda Moore | Director of marketing and communications | E.ON |
| Simon Morris | Vice-president of global creative | Amazon |
| Bec Mortimer | Director of marketing | Netflix |
| Simon Mottram | CEO | Rapha |
| Emilie Mouquot | Customer and growth director |
Notonthehighstreet
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| Sally-Anne Newson | Director of customer experience and digital product | Shop Direct |
| Jeremy Pee | Chief digital and data officer |
Marks & Spencer
|
| Stephanie Peterson | Vice-president of digital planning and activation | Adidas |
| Scott Petty | Chief technology officer, UK | Vodafone |
| Chris Rhodes | Chief products and propositions officer | Nationwide |
| Michelle Roberts | Group marketing director | BMW UK |
| Heather Smith | Managing director, direct | LV |
| Ben Sutherland | Chief digital officer | Diageo |
| Regine Tan | Director of customer experience optimisation |
American Express
|
| Simon Thompson | Chief product officer | Ocado |
| George Turner | Chief commercial and technology officer |
InterContinental Hotels Group
|
| Inés Ures | Chief marketing officer | Deliveroo |
| Shashi Verma | Chief technology officer and director of customer experience |
Transport for London
|
| Claudia Vernon | Group marketing director | Richer Sounds |
| Eve Williams | Brand experience director | Asos |
| Harriet Williams | Chief digital officer | The Body Shop |
| David Young | Director of customer experience | Metro Bank |
