CMSWire Advisory Board
The CMSWire Advisory Board is composed of industry leaders and practitioners in the fields of digital experience, customer experience and digital marketing.
The CMSWire Advisory Board is comprised of industry leaders and practitioners in the fields of digital experience, customer experience and digital marketing. The first board served between September 2015 and December 2016, our second board served between April 2017 and June 2018, our third board served from late 2018 through 2019, our fourth board served from 2020 until June 2021 and our fifth board served in 2021 and all of 2022. The last board served in 2023.
Mission Statement
The Advisory Board's mission is to support CMSWire's commitment to quality content and a vibrant community of business professionals.
Vision Statement
Gain a better understanding of the trends, drivers and priorities shaping our readers’ businesses so we can improve how we report, write and present news for CMSWire.
Introducing Our Advisory Board
The following thought leaders comprise our seventh board, which began in the first quarter of 2024. The board provides input, advice and feedback to the CMSWire Editorial on current trends and topics related to digital customer experience and marketing technologies and strategies.
Amy Shioji
Amy Shioji is senior vice president of Service Operations and the chief experience officer for Strategic Education, Inc (SEI). In this role, Amy oversees strategy and execution of SEI’s core operations and overall customer/student experience, including oversight of financial aid, fiscal operations, billing, revenue operations, records, analytics and compliance. Amy collaborates with leaders, team members and students to efficiently scale and support business operations in transforming the company’s services, reporting and support model for greater student success.
A two-time customer officer, Amy has extensive experience delivering customer-driven growth strategies, and has led CX, customer service/operations, strategy and data science practices for companies such as USA TODAY, Capella University and AARP. Amy also serves as the Board Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association, a global membership association dedicated to advancing the CX profession. In her spare time, Amy enjoys running, coaching, and training for ultra-marathons – though she considers CX her true “endurance” sport.
Sam Stern
Sam Stern is a customer experience expert with more than 20 years in the field. Within CX, he’s been a practitioner, podcaster, teacher, researcher, keynote speaker, thought leader, community builder and consultant. He’s helped hundreds of companies create better customer experiences.
Currently, he is a senior customer experience manager at LinkedIn, leading a team of researchers and experience designers focused on understanding and transforming the customer and member journeys across touchpoints and channels. In addition to his role at LinkedIn, Sam hosts the "CX Patterns Podcast & Newsletter." Twice a month, he shares detailed insights on key customer experience concepts such as trust, anticipation and setting customer expectations.
Sam is also a published LinkedIn Learning Instructor, known for his course: "Customer Experience Strategy: Build a Customer-Centric Culture." He has a new course launching soon. In past roles, Sam started a CX team for the footwear company New Balance and worked in research and consulting roles at Forrester Research. While there, Sam launched Forrester’s ground-breaking CX Certification training curriculum. Holding a master's degree in Human Factors and Information Design, Sam is an expert in most customer experience disciplines, including strategy, design, fostering a customer-centric culture, and enablement/activation. Sam is also a CMSWire Contributor.
Sean Albertson
Sean Albertson, a CX leader for 20+ years at several Fortune 200 companies, has been at the forefront of transforming the customer journey to reduce effort and drive customer loyalty. He has created advanced CX programs leveraging text analytics, operational metrics, journey analytics and survey programs, with artificial intelligence driving real results.
Sean shares his experience from the stage as an international speaker and workshop facilitator, as well as a consultant to CX-leading companies. Sean is the best-selling and award-winning author of the book, 4ROCKS: Reduce Effort, Drive Loyalty, Transform the Customer Journey. See more information on his website, www.cx4rocks.com.
Melissa Henley
Melissa Henley is chief customer officer at KeyShot, the global leader of product design rendering software. Her professional interests include building customer community, change management, leadership and culture and digital transformation. When Melissa’s not in the office, she’s traveling to conferences and customer events helping professionals learn to drive their technology projects forward — for both internal and external customers.
Melissa, an award-winning author, has been named a CMSWire Top Contributor three times. She has over 20 years of experience in customer experience, customer success and branding and communication from a variety of industries, including software, higher education and finance. She is a lifelong reader and writer who wrote her undergrad thesis on romance novels.
That devotion to love has carried over to her career as a customer experience leader, where she focuses on how to show customers they are valued and appreciated. Melissa loves getting out to meet customers, and once traveled for 15 straight days of customer visits on a single carry-on. She is a graduate of Mills College, where she studied political science and women’s studies, and lives in Long Beach, Calif. You can follow Melissa on LinkedIn or on Twitter at @ECM_marketeer.
Ian Truscott
Ian is a tea-drinking B2B technology marketing chap, 3xCMO and independent marketing strategist at Rockstar CMO, where he applies his mantra of creating ART (Awareness, Revenue & Trust) for a portfolio of B2B clients.
Aside from being a columnist here since 2009, Ian also shares his expertise on the Rockstar CMO podcast and his regular Tuesday 2¢ blog. He is also a CMSWire Contributor. Ian writes extensively for CMSWire, focusing on the dynamic fields of digital marketing and customer experience. His articles provide valuable insights and practical advice for marketing leaders, emphasizing the importance of strategic thinking over short-term tactics. He covers a range of topics including organizing martech stacks and evaluating the relevance of current CMS setups. Ian also explores the intricacies of influencer marketing, the creation of effective content marketing hubs and the broader implications of significant industry acquisitions, such as Sitecore's expansion. In addition to these areas, Ian critically examines the complexities of measuring customer experience and questions the necessity of elaborate marketing tools.