2009 Board of Directors
President - Dawn Kirspel
Dawn Kirspel began her career with The Center For Client Retention in 2000 while an undergraduate student at Rutgers University. She progressed from her initial position as a part-time associate to Account Manager upon her graduation. Since November, 2003 Dawn has held the position of Director of Operations. In addition to her responsibilities related to management of internal staff functions, Dawn has been successful in developing and managing consultative relationships with Fortune 500 clients. Dawn was first elected to the NY Metro SOCAP Chapter Board of Directors in 2005 as Assistant Treasurer and has also served as Treasurer, Secretary and Vice President. In 2007, she received the Chapter Star Award at SOCAP’s National Conference for her involvement with the chapter.
President Elect – Andy Frost
Andy Frost is a Senior Account Manager for The Center For Client Retention, a NJ-based market research firm which specializes in measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty for Fortune 100 clientele. Andy joined the staff of TCFCR four years ago as a Market Research Associate, and earned his current position by providing support to all departments within the organization. Last year, he was promoted to the position of Senior Account Manager, and he now coordinates a wide variety of research projects for many of the firm’s clients.
A graduate of Rutgers University, Andy earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000, majoring in Political Science with a Communications minor. Andy was first elected to the NY Metro SOCAP Chapter Board of Directors in 2006 as Assistant Treasurer and has also served as Treasurer.
Vice President Membership – Sam DiLiberto
Sam DiLiberto has worked for 24 years in the customer care arena. A graduate of Rutgers University, Sam started with the Sony Corporation in 1983 opening Sony retail stores all over the country. He migrated into the customer service arena when Sony purchased CBS Records and Columbia Pictures, where he brought the voice of the customer to the table and drove transformational changes to the customer experience.
In 1996, he was recruited by Nobody Beats the Wiz to re-tool the customer service group and rebuilt it from the ground up to a one hundred seat contact center in Carteret, New Jersey, supporting the 1.5 billion dollar retail chain.
After spending 5 years with two mid-size service providers as Vice President of Sales, he founded Premiere Response (www.premiereresponse.com), with his partners, Beth Ziff and CJ Stafford; both highly successful partners in the consumer affairs marketplace. The goal at Premiere Response is to deliver world class service to the consumer at every touch point. Sam has been a active member of SOCAP for 14 years and continues to support the growth of the New York Chapter, with a creative energy within the organization that inspires and drives all the people around him.
Vice President Programs – Holly Beatty
Holly Beatty is an experienced contact center professional with over 20 years experience in operations, client service, business development and marketing. Her focus throughout her career has been the development and delivery of outstanding customer care which results in continued brand loyalty and revenue generation. Honing her skills at American Express as a customer service representative at the start of her career, she has also contributed to TCIM services, Telerx and in her current role as VP, Business Development at AFFINA.
Secretary – Karen Castellano
Karen Castellano, Director of Business and International Sales Service for Tiffany & Company. She has the overall responsibility for customer service and sales functions in support of web and phone customers in Business Sales and store support in the International and Trade channels. The Consumer Affairs professionals who staff the Tiffany contact center work to deliver products of enduring quality and value while providing a level of service that is unparalleled in the industry. Karen has been a member of SOCAP since 2004 and served as NY SOCAP’s Program’s chair for 2006 and 2007.
Treasurer - Mike Dempsey
Mike Dempsey began his career at Consumers Union (CU) in the fall of 1997 as a Customer Relations Representative. Consumers Union is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. In his ten years in the Customer Relations Department, Mike held positions of increasing responsibility, including supervision of both the home office call center and CU’s external vendor. In 2007, Mike moved to the Web Product Management Department where his current responsibilities include product management and support duties for car information products.
A graduate of SUNY Cortland with a degree in Communications, Mike has been a SOCAP member for nine years.
Nominating Chair – Eunice Stern
Eunice Stern worked for Volvo Cars of North America for 21 years in Consumer Affairs, Retailer Support and in 1996 became the Manager of the Customer Care Center for Volvo's North American Market. She represented Volvo in their global arena to align CRM initiatives for systems, quality assurance processes, customer care solutions and to establish a consistent environment in line with a luxury brand and company values. She has been an active member of SOCAP for over 10 years holding board positions of Secretary, Vice President and President Elect. She has served on the Board of Directors for SOCAP International, on the both the National Chapter Relations Committee and Nominating Committee.
Community Relations Committee Chair – Jack Sullivan
Jack Sullivan possesses over 17 years of Consumer Affairs experience within the Consumer Package Goods industry. He currently manages the operations and training functions for Unilever with staff in the US and Canada. Prior to this, he held several positions managing teams focused on leveraging consumer insights and building brand relationships. He has been a member of SOCAP for over ten years and holds a masters degree in Human Resources Education.
Membership Committee member - Diane DeCarlo
Diane is currently the District Sales Manager for UNC, Inc. She is a sales professional with over 25 years experience selling Telecommunications and Information Technology Products and Services in the NYC Metro area. She began her sales career at Wang Laboratories selling word processing and information technology. After 7 years at Wang, she was recruited by Octel Communications. Soon after that, Octel was acquired by Lucent Technologies and 10 years later, the PBX division of Lucent was spun off to Avaya Communications. Diane left Avaya to go to Nuance Communications where she sold Speech related products and was recruited by UCN this past May. UCN is the world’s leading Software as a Service Provider for the Contact Center. UCN will officially be known as InContact, effective January 1, 2009. Diane resides in Monmouth County, NJ.