CX1 WORLD CONFERENCE 2021

Christina heads Customer Experience at the XXXLutz Group, one of the world’s leading furniture retailers. She and her team are working on the design of customer-centric and cross-channel processes that place a clear focus on end-to-end experiences and customer satisfaction. This is based on intensive customer research, which makes it possible to understand the customer’s needs and inhibition thresholds along the entire journey. Before joining XXXLutz, Christina Böchheimer worked in leading positions in the agency and service sector with a focus on strategic and customer-oriented consulting for a wide range of industries and companies.

Effective 1 January 2021 the Lufthansa Group has appointed Heike Birlenbach as Senior Vice President Customer Experience. In that context she is acting as the top customer ambassador within Lufthansa Group designing and being responsible for the overall customer experience. This includes Customer Strategy, Experience Design, Customer Servicing and Digital Interaction, moreover all product developments such as aircraft cabin or lounges worldwide. She leads a team of over 2500 employees around the globe. Before her move to Customer Experience Heike acted as SVP responsible for worldwide sales for Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Brussels Airlines and partly Eurowings with a total of 2000 employees on all continents around the world. In addition she was Chief Commercial Officer of Lufthansa Airline. Heike Birlenbach started her career with Lufthansa in 1990 and held a variety of Management positions in commercial, customer and operations roles in London, Amsterdam, Milan, Munich and at Lufthansa headquarters in Frankfurt. She holds a Master of Management from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Profile

• 40 years of professional experience in premium retail
• 25 years as a member of the board of directors in globally active and listed companies
• Employee responsibility <1. 000
• Sales & Budget Responsibility: € 500 million to € 2 billion

Core competences:

• Global brand management with wholesale and retail activities
• Management of retail chains and department store groups
• Development and implementation of new business concepts
• Refurbishment of Department Stores and Development new flagship stores

Executive Experience

• The KaDeWe Group, Berlin, Germany (2014 – today)
• Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH, Germany (2012 – 2013)
• Charles Vögele Group, Switzerland (2009 – 2011)
• Hugo Boss AG, Germany (2004 – 2008)
• S. Oliver Group, Germany (2002 – 2003)
• Harrods Ltd, Knightsbridge, London, UK (1995 – 2001)

Supervisory bodies

• IGDS – Intercontinental Group of Department Stores (2018 – today)
• Magazine zum Globus AG, Switzerland (2020 – today)
• Zino Davidoff Trading AG, Switzerland (2013 – today)

Caro has been the Executive Director of the non-profit association Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V. for 3 years. The association is an international network of people and organisations working for clean drinking water and social transformation. The Viva con Agua trademark: Unconventional, explorative work and a logic of thought and action that enables agile working. Together with our partner networks, we succeed in setting new accents across sectors. These often leads to positive transformation: A bottled water that calls on people to drink tap water or a football stadium as an art gallery – and economically successful. After her studies, Caro already managed a facility in inpatient youth welfare in Dithmarschen for 4 years at the age of 24. After a short detour into management consultancy, she has been working for Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V. since September 2018.

Peer is a global leader with more than 20 years of experience in the video communications, software and consulting industries, including extensive knowledge of software-as-a-service. He is known for innovative, highly successful sales and go-to-market strategies. Under his leadership, team members grow and develop to their full potential. As Head of DACH at Zoom Video Communications, Peer is responsible for the business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Previously, Peer was Managing Director of Webex in Germany since 2003. The company was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007. At the time, Eric Yuan, now Zoom’s CEO, was vice president of engineering at Webex. Yuan founded Zoom in 2011, and Zoom went public in 2019.

From October 1, 2020, Sebastian Walter will be responsible for the newly created “Digital and Consulting” division as Vice President and will report directly to Sebastian Klauke, Group Executive Board Member for E-Commerce, Technology, Business Intelligence and Corporate Ventures. The merger of the “Digital Excellence” (EC-DX) and “Otto Group Consulting” (VV-OC) divisions is intended to strengthen the holding company’s consulting function in order to better meet the challenges of digital transformation in the future. The 45-year-old lawyer has more than 15 years of professional experience in consulting and industry – most recently as Expert Vice President and Head of Digital Solutions at the strategic management consultancy Bain & Company in Berlin and previously in sales and marketing management at Unilever and Olympus Optical. As an expert in the consumer goods, healthcare and retail industries, he has helped clients find and implement digital solutions to, for example, improve the customer experience, optimize internal efficiency or develop new business areas. He has supported design thinking, user analysis, and the creation and optimization of prototypes and digital products such as apps, data-driven management systems, and omnichannel customer journeys.

As Vice President Customer Experience Int. Gregor is responsible for Customer Experience, Customer Data Strategy, CRM and Customer Insights and Research at Miele. In this function, the interests of customers are perceived centrally across functions and transported to the various divisions. True to Miele’s motto “Always Better,” we consistently align all our activities with the needs and wishes of our customers. Before joining Miele, Gregor managed the European Amazon business at Canon and worked for various other international companies in the FMCG environment.

Fabian is a digital marketing and brand management leader with long-standing experience at both C-suite and Board-level. His career has seen him at the forefront of innovation in the digital marketing space, heading up the marketing functions of leading online companies spanning industries including telcos, tech and travel. Prior to joining Scout24 Schweiz AG as Chief Marketing Officer, he was Head of Online Marketing & Social Media at Swisscom, where his responsibilities also included the online marketing activities of their sub-brands Wingo and SimplyMobile. Other former roles included Head of eMarketing at Kuoni Travel Group and Director Online Marketing & Sales at UPC Broadband The ability to thrive in complex environments, his experience, creativity and problem-solving skills put Fabian at the very top of his profession. He is currently responsible for the marketing activities across all Scout24 brands (AutoScout24, ImmoScout24, FinanceScout24, MotoScout24 and anibis.ch). He presently lives in Aarau and has two children.