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Speaker Bios

		Andrew Browne As director of sales technical services, Andrew Browne manages a team of subject matter experts focused on offering overlay support for the company's solutions consultants, account executives and field organizations. Under Andrew's direction, the team provides Aspect Software with the tools and information required for development and enhancing the lifecycle process, including pre-sales product consulting, system configurations and product demonstration tools. Andrew has more than 19 years of contact center industry experience. He has held positions of increasing responsibility at companies like Voice Computer Technology, Davox Corporation and Concerto Software. He has expertise in software services, customer service, product management and global technical sales support. Andrew holds a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from DeVry Institute of Technology.
		Martin Conboy Martin Conboy is the Founder and President of FooBooOnLine.com. His role is overseeing the various functional areas of the organization to ensure the best results related to outsourcing and off shoring of front office and back office activities are delivered to the company's customers. In 1993 Martin started ACA Research, a Sydney based research organization that provides predominantly B2B end-to-end market research services and solutions and specific project based research for local and international businesses. In 2000 he started a sister company to ACA Research called callcentres.net. This was a research based neutral third party business that assembles and disseminates information, and provides products and services relevant to the call centre, CRM (customer relationship management) and BPO (business process outsourcing) industries across the Asia Pacific. Martin sold his interests in both companies in 2005 to concentrate on FooBooOnLine.com. His most recent experience has provided him with an extensive knowledge of Asia Pacific market trends and he is one of the most quoted commentators in the BPO space in the in the Asia Pacific. Martin's experience prior to 1993 includes consulting and management activities in West Africa, Middle East, USA & UK. Martin is based in Sydney.
		Cehra Duval Cehra Duval has more than 10 years of broad based experience in contact centres throughout the region specialising in optimization solutions during the past 6 years. Cehra's career began in Australia within contact centres in a variety of operational roles providing a strong foundation to move into industry training consultancy, developing and delivering contact centre specific training packages. Cehra then progressed to pre and post sales roles with ACDs, IVRs, CTI and as a specialist in Workforce Management. As a Senior Consultant with Open Wave, Cehra expanded her coverage into Asia and subsequently joined Aspect Software as the eWFM Manager for Asia Pacific. She is presently the Regional Optimization Solutions Manager of Aspect Software, Asia Pacific and Middle East.
		Tom Frtunik Tom Frtunik is the General Manager, BT Trading Systems Oceania. He has been with BT since 1997 and in the current role since 2000. Tom is responsible for the BT Consulting and Systems Integration business in Australia and New Zealand. Tom has an MBA from Macquarie University and has an MSc in Computer Science and Electronics Engineering. His prior roles have been with AAP, UB Networks, Coopers and Lybrand, and Digital.
		Sam Haggag Sam Haggag; an engineer by training; joining Manpower in 1999 and was responsible for heading up the Manpower Singapore operation till March 2003. In 2003 Sam was appointed Regional Account Director with the Manpower Asia regional office and has been appointed as Sales Director for ASEAN & Korea in 2006. Sam joined the executive committee of the Call Centre Council of Singapore (CCCS) in 1999 and became chairman in 2002 and led the formation of the Contact Centre Association of Singapore (CCAS) and is its current Chairman. With over 15 years experience in the HR services industry in Europe, the Middle East and Asia; Sam has a wealth of experience in the implementation of HR solutions and best practices gained from working with a wide range of local and multi-national organizations.
		Johanna M. Hetherington Johanna Hetherington is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Intellect Consulting Services (ICS), the leading provider of call and contact centre capability development throughout Australia. Ms. Hetherington has substantial hands-on experience in contact centre management, training, technology implementation, strategy development, business planning and profit centre responsibility across a wide range of industries, government agencies and markets. Prior to establishing ICS in 1995, Ms. Hetherington managed contact centres for Citicorp and Peter's Food (Nestle). In her long-standing commitment to lifting industry standards in contact centre operations and professionalism, Ms. Hetherington pioneered the innovative education models and fully accredited industry qualifications that are today recognised as international standards in contact centre operations. She has worked closely with many industry bodies including the Australian Teleservices Association, the Call Centre Council of Singapore, Australian Direct Marketing Association and similar initiatives in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and India. She has published many articles on training and contact centre management issues and her recently published book, The Compete Guide to Call and Contact Centre Management, is true to its title as well as being the first of its kind for Australasia. Ms. Hetherington is a regular instructor on the Advanced Diploma of Customer Contact Management and is a well-regarded, dynamic conference presenter. She has active involvement in a number of industry and professional associations around the APAC region.
		Peter Borup Jakobsen Peter Jakobsen is Managing Director & Regional Marketing Manager (APAC) of GN Netcom. Peter Borup Jakobsen joined GN Netcom in 2001 and has since held a number of positions at GN Netcom in Asia Pacific including Head of Asia Business Unit, which included the businesses in China, Hong Kong and Singapore overseeing the entire Asia Region. Currently Jakobsen is the Managing Director for South- & Southeast Asia while also overseeing the Asia Pacific Marketing function with staff in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Before joining GN Netcom, Peter Borup Jakobsen was President of Dkweb @sia Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company in the telecommunications industry, of which he was the founder. Dkweb @sia Pte Ltd was acquired in a private deal by GN Netcom in 2001. Prior to that, Peter Borup Jakobsen helped setup a Singapore Representative Office for a Danish Mobilephone distributor. Peter Borup Jakobsen came to Singapore in 1995 as the Export Counsellor at the Royal Danish Embassy under a program where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark bring in private sector assistance for a period of up to three years. Peter Borup Jakobsen is currently the Vice Chairman of the Contact Centre Association of Singapore, where he has been instrumental in bringing out the Telemarketing Guidelines for the Financial Sector in Singapore. He is currently also a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and has completed the Company Directors Course under SID. He holds an Academy Economist Degree from Denmark and has followed executive courses at Insead and NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
		Robert F. Kelly Robert Kelly is Vice President of Performance Optimization Solutions at Aspect Software, Inc. Bob Kelly joined Aspect Software in April 2004 as a result of the acquisition of CenterForce Technologies. Bob is the Vice President of Performance Optimization Solutions focused on the global sales and market development of Aspects Contact Center Performance Optimization product line synchronizing workforce management, performance management and interaction optimization. Bob brings a wealth of contact center industry experience. Bob led CenterForce Technologies from March 1997 as President and CEO developing the industrys first contact center performance optimization application suite. Prior to CenterForce, Bob held senior vice president and general manager positions at EIS International. Before joining the contact center industry, Bob held senior executive roles in sales and marketing at Digital Sound and Intel Corporation, where he led global sales and marketing for Intels systems group.
		TJ Khuny Mr. T.J. Kuhny is the Director of Quality Management Solutions at Aspect Software which he joined in 2006 when Aspect acquired o SophistiCom Technologies. He has 10 years of call center industry experience and 20 years of technology and software development consulting experience including positions at Andersen Consulting and Perot Systems. At SophistiCom, he was responsible for Product Management of the quality management and recording suite. He also managed the Professional Services team responsible for all contact center consulting and integration services. While his current responsibilities focus on sales of Aspect Quality Management worldwide, he also provides product input and direction on all feature development.
		Simon Kriss Simon Kriss is the CEO and President of Sagatori, a Hong Kong based call centre consulting company. Sagatori provides specialised consulting and thought leadership to organisations right across the Asian region. Widely regarded as one of the regions most respected thought leaders and consultants on call centre issues, Simon has over 15 years of experience in the call centre industry. Simon has personal experience in Government, FMCG, IT, Banking, Utilities, Direct Marketing, Police, Hospitality and Telco industries. He has worked with many inbound and outbound centres. Simon has authored numerous whitepapers and is constantly writing articles for industry magazines. The Chinese Government appointed Simon as an official "Overseas Consultant" to the "Committee for Contact Centres" which is a part of the Ministry for Information Industry. The Committee has been tasked with developing the standards of practice for the whole China call centre industry. Simon has personally operated the well-known Asia Pacific Call Centre News (APCCN) service on a complimentary basis for over seven years. Simon launched the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) in Australia and was later honoured as the first inductee to their Hall Of Fame. Simon acts as a trusted advisor to the Call Centre Associations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, China, Taiwan and Malaysia. Simon has seen call centres all around the world in Asia, Europe and the USA, and has appeared on television and radio speaking on the topics involved with call centres and their management. Conferences and Symposiums have seen Simon present on call centre topics in the USA, UK, Australia, and right across Asia from New Delhi to Taipei (and beyond).
		Ravi Kumar S Ravi globally heads the Oracle Apps & CRM practices in Infosys and has over 13+ Yrs of experience in the Enterprise Applications space. He has been instrumental in building the CRM Practice in Infosys from scratch to 1000+ in size and 60 Mn$ of revenues in 2005-06. He also globally drives the Oracle Applications Economy for Infosys. Additionally he is incubating the Microsoft Dynamics and the Billing Practices for Enterprise Solutions. In the past Ravi was instrumental in setting up the Enterprise Solutions University(ESU), a initiative from Infosys to create a Human Supply Chain in the Package Implementation Space. Ravi's core strengths lie in Practice Management, incubating new practices and managing huge Enterprise Applications programs. In the past Ravi has worked as a Global Director in Sapient Corporation where he ran the global SCM & CRM Value Sets team. Prior to that he was associated with Oracle Singapore running a CRM business for the South East Asian Markets. Ravi was instrumental in building the CRM practice for Cambridge Tech Partners(CTP) in India. He pioneered the concept of global delivery models for ERP/CRM implementations during his tenure at CTP. He has also worked as a Program Manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers managing large Management Consulting and Oracle Applications Initiatives. Ravi has been an active member of various ERP/CRM forums and has been sharing his thoughts across speakership slots, publishing articles in "The Economist", The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Gartner, Forrester Surveys etc. His expertise spans across Enterprise applications like Oracle, Peoplesoft, Siebel, Clarify and Microsoft Dynamics. He has also been involved in preparing ROI/Business case exercises, Scoping Studies, Delivery & Solution models across Enterprise Application initiatives for Global Corporations. Ravi has a Bachelors in Engineering, MBA in Finance & Systems from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar and has done an Advanced Mgmt Course from Babsons College, Boston.
		Mitch Locsin Mitch Locsin's field of expertise ranges from business management, to information technology, to political affairs. He earned his degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Management) from the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California, and is currently enrolled at the Ateneo School of Government, where he is taking up his degree in Masters in Public Management. Before being appointed as the Executive Director of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) the umbrella association for the Philippine ITES-BPO Industry, he worked as Consultant for Political Affairs in-charge of NCR and the BPO-ITES industry in the Office of Senator Mar Roxas from for a year. He served as team leader for Senator Roxas's special projects such as jobs generation events, and he was also in-charge of the Senator's IT projects and IT-enabled service industry activities. His experiences as General Manager of the Potenciano Aniceta Larrazabal Corp., in Ormoc City for 2 years, Executive Assistant to the General Manager at Apple Computer, Inc. Manufacturing Division in Fremont, California, for 4 years, and General Manager of Progressive Promotions, a Contact Center/Telemarketing Firm in California that did time share resorts in Lake Tahoe for 2 years, further augmented his knowledge of the corporate world.
		Fausto Marasco Fausto co-founded Premier Technologies in 1986 and, twenty years on, the company enjoys a solid customer base in the banking and finance, superannuation, utilities, telecommunication, health and government sectors. Premier Technologies partners with these organisations to deliver successful multichannel customer interaction solutions that provide value to both the customer and the end user. Fausto's professional interests include strategic business planning, and the commercialisation of new innovative technologies. In 2002, Fausto was nominated for Ernst & Young's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award, where his ability to recognise business potential, commitment and vision secured him a place in Australia's Southern Region semi-finals. He is a highly regarded keynote speaker in the contact centre industry. He is a progressive thought leader in all areas of customer interaction management, analytics, personalisation, e-enablement and VoIP. Fausto has spoken at numerous industry conferences and been invited to address delegates at various trade events, including the Australian Teleservices Association (ATA) and Customer Contact Management Association (CCMA) conferences. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering.
		Steve Michaud Steve Michaud has over 15 years of experience in management, sales and marketing, business development and software development. He is presently the Director of Solutions Marketing for Aspect Software, Asia Pacific. Mr. Michaud has over 10 years experience in the Contact Centre industry in management and consulting roles. He currently spends much of his time in Europe and Asia Pacific advising executives on how maximize their current Contact Centre.s and updating them on current and future trends of the Contact Centre industry.
		Don Perry Don Perry is the Director of Sales Process Consulting for Sales Performance International (SPI). Prior to joining SPI in 2001, Don was with IBM for 26 years in both professional and managerial capacities with responsibilities in the areas of Sales, Marketing, Brand Management, Business Development, among others. At SPI he is responsible for assessing, developing and implementing sales and sales management processes and tools to improve customer loyalty, revenue attainment and sales performance. Don has authored, developed and implemented Sales and Technical Skills Assessment Processes and Systems, and co-authored the design work to re-engineer all of IBMs selling process (SSM). He has been recognized with 17 major awards for selling and sales support excellence.
		Claudia Schlesinger Claudia is a dedicated Contact Centre professional who has over 10 years experience in the industry. She found her niche in HRM and Training Development having worked her way through operations and implementation roles. She has worked across a large number of vertical industry sectors - From finance to insurance, hospitality to consumer products, telecommunications- both mobile & fixed line, technology and government. One of her biggest implementation was a methodology of 'one face to the customer' across 12 sites in four continents for a large blue chip client. Claudia has worked in Europe, the States and many countries in Asia Pacific implementing Call Centre Operations set up, HR strategy and training for various blue chip clients, and is still adding to her wealth of experience within new emerging markets today. She understands that with the many cultural differences within Asia the main synergy is communication. One of the most important things she achieved was the transfer of knowledge and skills so that the local workforce understood how to bring value to the industry. Coupled with processes and technology, Claudia firmly believes that people can drive the development of the Industry and is working to put the industry on the map, and making it a choice of career. She is an advocate of structured training and heightening the profile of the industry and has worked tirelessly with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in the UK to produce the first globally accredited suite of training programmes for the industry. Claudia has a BA degree and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Claudia is a Master Coach with the Coaching Resource Centre and also an executive board member, and Chair for the Industry Awards for the Call Centre Association of Hong Kong and a global advisor for GreaterChinaCRM Portal.
		Anthony Seaegg Anthony Seaegg is the current National Chairman of The Australian Teleservices Association; Anthony has served three terms in that post. (www.ata.asn.au) (Servicing the top 2000 corporations in Australia) He started in the CRM Industry over 20 years ago and in that time has managed and implemented People, Process and Technologies strategies for a number of Multi National Companies. With that exposure to the Industry he has a unique view of not only the Australian Market but also our neighbors in South East Asia and the Pacific. Over the Last 15 Years Anthony has worked for Datacom in Australia as its founding Australian Executive and Currently as a Director for the ICT Group servicing the Asia Pacific region. Networked across Industry silos within the Australian markets Anthony Has Presented to the likes of Geoff Dickson from Qantas, Steve Balmer of Microsoft and others who could effect change and value to the organisations he has served. With over 60 keynote presentations at conferences and trade fairs in Australia and Asia, Anthony has demonstrated the value of increasing corporate awareness as a vehicle to increasing opportunity. Anthony has also served as a board member of Australian National Communications Authority Traineeship (ANCAT) and also serves as an Advisory board member of 2IT, Australia's preeminent IT Human Resources consultancy. During his time at Datacom he was responsible for that organisation been the most awarded company of its type in Australia winning: Call Centre of the Year Nationally NSW Government Employer of the year 2001 Federal Government employer of the year IT&T 2001 Finalist Australian Customer Service awards 1996 Best Support and Service organisation five out of the last 7 years PC Week.
		Jaime Sese As the Regional Workforce Planning Manager for American Express, Jaime heads up the entire Workforce Management function for 1,800 agents in 11 countries across India, South East Asia, Japan and Australia. Jaime leads a team of nine workforce planners located in Sydney, Australia and also has over 20 staff across the JAPAC region focused on intra-day management and call centre performance. Jaime has seven years experience in the Contact Centre industry, six of which he has been specialising in Workforce Management utilising Aspect eWFM. American Express has been using Aspect eWFM globally since 1975.
		Dr Catriona Wallace Dr Wallace is a Director and co-owner of callcentres.net, an on-line publishing and research company and contact centre information portal and ACA Research, a full service market research company. Dr Wallace's qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts Degrees from UNSW as well as a Doctorate in Organisational Behaviour from the Australian Graduate School of Management. Dr Wallace's primary research interests over the last 10 years have been the study of leadership and technology in contact centres in Australia and internationally. Dr Wallace also lectures on the Executive MBA program at the AGSM, in the field of Organisational Behaviour. She has published numerous research reports and articles related to the contact centre industry and she is the author of a book titled, The Complete Guide to Call & Contact Centre Management. Dr Wallace is part of an international team of researchers currently studying the relationship between Human Resource Management practices and performance in contact centres in 20 countries. callcentres.net callcentres.net Pty Ltd is an online publishing, news and research company dedicated to the Asia Pacific and Australian contact centre industries. Established in 1999 and based in Singapore and Sydney, callcentres.net is recognised as the leading regional provider of research and information to the Asia Pacific contact centre industry. callcentres.net is pre-eminent in call centre research throughout Asia Pacific having produced over 60 industry reports. callcentres.net produces the most widely read weekly call centre newsletters in the region. The newsletter, contact news, has over 5,500 subscribers, and the contact news asia newsletter is read by thousands of subscribers in the region. The callcentres.net website is a central hub for the call and contact centre community. The website is a portal to just about any information related to the Asia Pacific and Australian call centre industries. Both The Contact and the callcentres.net website have also proven to be very effective advertising and marketing vehicles for suppliers and vendors to the contact centre industry.
		Brett Williams As senior manager of product management at Aspect Software, Brett Williams is focused on expanding the companys leadership in the performance optimization space. He is responsible for directing the development of the companys Contact Center Performance Optimization Product Line, including coordinating strategy and market research for the workforce management, performance management, quality management and interaction optimization software products. Brett brings 11 years of experience in the contact center industry to Aspect Software. He has held a number of progressively responsible product management, sales, consulting, and support positions with the organization extending back to TCS Management. Brett has a masters of business administration (MBA) from Vanderbilt University.
		Sidney Yuen Sidney is a change-agent across a variety of industries. This track record has been gained over many years through conducting business across Asia. Sidney is CEO of HK Benchmarking Clearinghouse. Prior to this, he held senior management positions with the Swire Group, BAT, American Express and Andersen Business Consulting. His personal drive and results focus are underpinned by an outstanding, demonstrable track record of success that includes chairmanship of a number of professional bodies. Some of these include Chairman of the Sales & Marketing Executive Club, Distinguished Salesperson Award Programme of the HK Management Association, founding chairman of the HKMA Quality Award, Secretary of Management Consultancies Association, Senior Advisor to the Guangzhou Multi-national Corporation Club, Asia Pacific Water Council and The Shanghai University.

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