New chief customer officers at Campbell Soup Co., Samsung, Verizon and more
This is the second in an ongoing look at executive appointments by companies with the intention of putting a greater emphasis on customer experience design. These are your new peers, industry influencers, potential mentors or perhaps clients one day.
Anthony Kyles will join Campbell Soup Co. early next month as chief customer officer for its Meals and Beverages division, where he will be responsible for helping grow its portfolio of brands, the company said.
Kyles will join Campbell from PepsiCo, where he served as vice-president of national accounts for Frito-Lay. In his new role he will report into the Meals and Beverages division’s executive vice-president. Products under his purview will include not only Campbell’s, but Chunky, Pacific Foods, V8, Prego, Pace, Swanson and SpaghettiOs.
Samsung U.K. is welcoming its first chief customer officer with Deborah Honig, the electronics giant announced in January. With a background that includes stints as a McKinsey consultant as well as brands like Nike, Amazon and Starbucks, Samsung said Honig’s responsibilities will span the breadth of its offerings. Besides leading an evolution of the over-arching brand, Samsung added that Honig will be tasked with “helping to define its purpose in the everyday for work, rest and play.”
Verizon said it is making a significant investment in customer experience design and management with the development of a dedicated team and the promotion of Brian Higgins to chief customer officer. Higgins was previously Verizon’s senior vice-president of device marketing and consumer product. Verizon said that in addition to Higgins, it has hired former Walmart executive Dory Butler as its senior vice-president of Customer Experience.
At Atlanta pulp and paper company Georgia Pacific, former senior vice-president of sales Chris Warburton was named chief customer officer for its consumer products group. Warburton is taking the reigns from Ryan Elwart, who GP said has taken a role at another organization.
Kevin Meeks, who led customer success at virtualization software provider VMware, will join LivePerson as its first-ever chief customer officer, the company said. LivePerson, which provides a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform for large businesses, said Meeks will be “responsible for helping customer brands fully realize the value of their investments.”
Business and tech consulting company Slalom is also introducing a chief customer officer function via Amy Loftus. The jobs means an extra title for Loftus, who will also continue to serve as president of the firm’s U.S. East region. Slolom said her mandate will focus on providing a consistent and enriched customer journey across the markets in which it operates.
Keith Stewart will be bringing expertise from working in fintech and healthcare as he joins Digital.ai as its chief customer officer. The company, which provides an AI-based platform to manage development, security and operations, said Stewart will not only oversee customer support but manage its sales engineers and professional services team.
Lithia & Driveway
Medford, Ore-based global automotive manufacturer Lithia & Driveway promoted Adam Chamberlain to Chief Customer Officer. Having joined LAD following stints at Aston Matin NA and Mercedes-Benz USA, Chamberlain will oversee the company’s home-based Driveway Experience service as well as its electric vehicle unit, Greencars.com.
And finally, asset intelligence cybersecurity provider Armis said it had hired former Drift chief customer officer Bart Hammond to join its team in the same role. Hammond will be focused on ensuring every touchpoint provides value to customers, the company said.
