Professors Institute 2020
Each year, the Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement at SMU Cox invites a select group of faculty peers and experienced marketing practitioners to participate in a rich collaborative environment—an exchange of ideas, insights and practices focused on advancing research agendas, networking and improving how to prepare students for successful careers in marketing, consulting, or business analytics.
This event was held January 5-7, 2020.
Day 1
Welcome: Marci Armstrong, Terri BartlettDay 2
Hal Brierley, Executive-in-Residence, Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement, “A Few Words on Customer Engagement,”
Brock Bayles, Vice President, MFS Product, Marketing & Client Relations, Toyota
Sharif Mityas, Chief Experience Officer, TGI Fridays, “Creating Individual Customer Engagement and Experience through A.I.”
Shelle Santana, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School, “Case Studies on Customer Engagement and Experience”
Charlotte Mason, Terry Chair of Business Administration, University of Georgia, “Teaching Analytics”
Bart Schaller, CMO, Mike Bopp, EVP Analytics, Synchrony Financial, “Synchrony: Data and Decision Optimization,”
John Deighton, Harold M. Brierley Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School
John Deighton, Harold M. Brierley Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School
Hal Brierley and Marci Armstrong, “Brierley Institute Research Questions and Opportunities for Support”
Frank Hamlin, EVP and Chief Customer Officer, GameStop
Day 3
Andrew Boyett, Customer Experience Strategy, Southwest Airlines, 120 Collins
Don Smith, Senior Managing Director, Chief Analytics Officer, Brierley + Partners, “Transforming Marketing Programs Through the Lens of Emotional Loyalty”
Rose Kaur, Managing Partner, Jester&Genius, “The STORY Advantage in Customer Engagement”
Joe DeMiero, CEO, Epsilon Agency + Publicis Hawkeye, “
Speakers and Tour at American Airlines: Kurt Stache, SVP Marketing, Loyalty and Sales Bridget Blaise-Shamai, President of AAdvantage, VP Customer Loyalty and Insights David Bauman, Director, AAdvantage Customer Service Jonathan Pierce, Director of Culture and Change
Presenters
Hal Brierley
CEO of The Brierley Group, LLC and an Executive in Residence at SMU Cox School of Business
A lifelong entrepreneur, Hal has launched three ventures focused on managing customer relationships. As CEO of The Brierley Group, he advises clients on customer engagement strategies. As an Executive in Residence at SMU Cox School of Business, he underwrote the Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement offering MBA candidates a marketing specialization in customer engagement.
He began his career as Founding CEO of Epsilon, a database marketing pioneer, serving as President and CEO for its first eleven years. In 1980, Hal served as the one consultant for the design of American Airlines’ AAdvantage program. In 1982, as Vice President of Pan American World Airways, he launched WorldPass, the first global frequent traveler program, and later served as Senior Vice President Marketing at Continental Airlines.
In 1985, he founded Brierley & Partners, serving as its Chief Loyalty Architect for some 175 major brands, including American Express, AT&T, Ford, Hertz, Hilton, Lufthansa, Neiman Marcus, Office Depot, 7-Eleven, Sony, and United Airlines. He served as CEO through 2006 and Chairman through 2015, when B+P was acquired by Nomura Research Institute, one of Japan’s largest technology services firms.
In 1999, Hal founded e-Rewards, later renamed Research Now, the world’s largest online market research panel over one million members completing surveys each month for 2,500 research firms. Research Now was acquired by Court Square Capital Partners in 2015 and was renamed Dynata in 2018.
Hal serves on Harvard Business School’s Dean’s Advisory Board, the Executive Board of SMU Cox School of Business, the Smithsonian National Board, the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian National Zoo, the Executive Advisory Council of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and the Board’s Executive Committee for The Better Angels Society (supporting Ken Burns’ PBS work). Hal is a member of the Board of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Symphony, the Baylor Health Care System Foundation, the Dallas Arboretum, North Texas Public Broadcasting, and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Foundation.
He graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering with highest honors from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1968 as a Baker Scholar with High Honors where he has endowed a Professor’s Chair in Marketing. Hal and his wife Diane live in Highland Park, Texas.
Brock Bayles
Vice President, Product, Marketing, Operations & Client Relations, Toyota Financial Services – Private Label
Brock Bayles is vice president of product, marketing, operations and dealer relations for Toyota Financial Services (TFS) supporting private label financing solutions. He is responsible for the development of private label finance and insurance products, including related marketing and branding. In this role, Bayles also oversees the operational functions supporting private label customer experiences. Bayles reports to Karen Ideno, group vice president of product and marketing.
Prior to his current role, Bayles was vice president of finance and analytics at TFS. Earlier, he served as general manager of the TFS sales, product and marketing analytics team, leading the creation of the business analytics department. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Toyota Global President’s Award, presented by CEO Akio Toyoda. Bayles was recognized for his work leading a cross-organizational team in creating a new digital analytics tool that provides real-time incentives data across Toyota and Lexus regions.
Bayles serves on the ITOM (Information, Technology and Operations Management) Analytics Advisory Board at Southern Methodist University’s Cox Business School. In 2017, he collaborated with the university’s MBA program to establish a case-study competition sponsored by Toyota, and he has partnered with other local universities to expand learning opportunities for students. Bayles holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Sharif Mityas
Chief Experience Officer
TGI FRIDAYS
Sherif Mityas is the Chief Experience Officer for TGI FRIDAYS with oversight for the Brand’s Strategy, Marketing, Operations, Technology and Digital efforts. Mr. Mityas has more than 20 years’ experience in the retail and hospitality industries in both senior consulting and executive industry roles.
Prior to joining TGI FRIDAYS, Mr. Mityas served as the Managing Partner for JS Consulting and as the Chief Executive Officer for Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery. Mr. Mityas received a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from Boston University, a M.S. in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Shelle M. Santana
Assistant Professor of Business Administration Shelle Santana is an assistant professor of business administration in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School. She currently teaches Creating Brand Value to second-year MBA students after teaching the required Marketing course to first-year students. Before pursuing her academic career, she held a variety of senior marketing roles at American Express Company, ultimately as head of U.S. corporate card marketing and global product strategy.
Charlotte Mason
C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Chair of Business Administration
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
Charlotte Mason is head of the Marketing Department at UGA’s Terry College of Business where she holds the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Chair of Business Administration. She is also Director of the Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies which houses the Master of Marketing Research degree program. Previously she was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Charlotte’s current research focuses on the visual representation of data, data-based marketing, and strategic customer relationship management. Her research has been published in leading journals including Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Strategic Management Journal and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and has garnered over 5700 citations on Google Scholar. Charlotte teaches the MBA Marketing Analytics & Decision-Making and the MMR Database Marketing and Customer Relationship Management courses. In 2017 she received the MBA Outstanding Teacher Award; in 2016 she received the Terry Outstanding Faculty Service Award.
Charlotte is on editorial boards for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Relationship Marketing. Charlotte has served on the AMA Academic Council, and is currently on the Board of Trustees of the Marketing EDGE – a non-profit organization whose mission is to Educate, Develop, Grow, and Employ students in the field of marketing. In 2014 she received the Marketing EDGE's Robert B. Clarke Outstanding Educator Award. Her industry experience includes work for Procter & Gamble, Booz, Allen and Hamilton as well as consulting projects. She received B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering, an M.S. in statistics, and her Ph.D. in business administration from Stanford University.
Bart Schalller
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Bart Schaller is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Synchrony, one of the nation’s premier
consumer financial services companies.
Bart is dedicated to innovation and driving growth for Synchrony through the development of new products,
channels, and value propositions. Bart is responsible for Synchrony’s approach to radically simple, integrated
customer experiences, and compelling, real-time, personalized marketing to drive value for Synchrony’s
partners and customers. Bart co-chairs Synchrony’s Innovation Steering Committee.
Mike Bopp
EVP and Chief Customer Engagement Officer
Synchrony
In the role as Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Engagement Officer, Michael Bopp is responsible for leading Synchrony's customer journey and enterprise analytics teams to enable customer-centric solutions across our platforms.
After receiving B.A. in Psychology from The Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from The University of Connecticut, Mike began his career at Citigroup as a programmer in their cards division and went on to lead various analytics teams across finance and decision management.
Prior to joining Synchrony, Michael was President and Chief Operating Officer at Argus Information and Advisory Services, a global data and analytics company focused on credit card and retail banking segments. At Argus, Michael led products and delivery teams, while also managing operational support functions across finance, legal, and human resources. Prior to his role at Argus, Michael worked at TD Ameritrade as their head of analytics and database management. Michael gained early finance and analytics experience in business development pricing, Dual Card analytics and modeling with GE Capital Retail Card Finance where he became head of analytics and pricing. Mike is married to Stefania, has three children and lives in New Canaan, CT.
John Deighton
Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration Emeritus
Harvard Business School
John Deighton is Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard Business School, where he has taught marketing for 20 years. He has taught Digital Marketing and Big Data in Marketing in Harvard’s MBA program. He will be teaching the latter course in 2018 at Cornell Tech. He co-chairs Harvard’s executive short course titled Competing on Business Analytics and Big Data. His recent research includes ”Rethinking the Profession Formerly Known as Advertising: How Data Science is Disrupting the Work of Agencies,” (Journal of Advertising Research 2017), “Economic Value of the Advertising-Supported Internet Ecosystem,” (2017), “The Value of Data: Consequences for Insight, Innovation, and Efficiency in the U.S. Economy,” published by the DMA 2016, “Adding Bricks to Clicks: The Effects of Store Openings on Sales Through Direct Channels,” published in the Journal of Marketing, and "Interactivity's Unanticipated Consequences for Marketers and Marketing," in Journal of Interactive Marketing. Recent case studies include Oracle: Targeting the CMO, Managing Data at Allstate, WPP: From Mad Men to Math Men, and Target Stores: The Hunt for Unvolunteered Truths. See also his Twitter feed @HBSmktg. He is a past editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Interactive Marketing. He has served as the Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute and is currently a member of the Chair’s Advisory Council of Marketing Edge, and Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He has been a visiting professor at the Duke University, the University of Tokyo, and Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the UK.
Marci Armstrong
As Director and the Brierley Endowed Professor, Marci provides strategic leadership to the Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement, the first academic institute in the nation devoted to the study of customer engagement. The Institute seeks to create a rich collaborative environment – an exchange of ideas, insights and practices – bringing together students, professors and business practitioners to advance knowledge and improve business practice, driven to understand how and why customers engage with brands and how engagement drives customer loyalty and value.
A seven-time teaching award honoree including the 2018 MBA Teacher of the Year Award, Marci teaches SMU Cox BBA, MBA, PMBA, and MS students and is also an experienced consultant and executive education instructor. Her recent work leads companies to understand how to engage customers, drive customer loyalty and create memorable customer experiences. Recent clients include American Airlines, AT&T Performing Arts Center, Cinemark, Essilor, Jack Mason, Kendra Scott, Mission Foods, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Pabst Brewing, Pizza Hut, Southwest Airlines, Small Town Brewery and G6 (Motel6/Studio6).
Marci currently serves on the Board of Marketing EDGE, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to Educate, Develop, Grow, and Employ college students in the field of marketing.Marci served the last 19 years as Associate Dean, Graduate Programs, at SMU Cox where she oversaw admissions, student services, diversity, global programs and career management for
14 graduate programs. Prior to joining SMU, Marci was a member of the faculty and associate dean at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. Marci’s Ph.D. in Management Science (focused on solving marketing problems with quantitative methods) was earned from the University of Texas at Dallas where she studied under renowned professor Frank Bass. In her free time, Marci is passionate about road biking and enjoys snow skiing with her two adult sons, daughter-in-law and new-born granddaughter, who all live in Denver.
Frank Hamlin
Frank Hamlin serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer for GameStop, a role he was appointed to in June of 2019.
As CCO, Frank is responsible for defining and driving the company’s overall customer-centric initiatives as it relates to Marketing, customer loyalty, the omnichannel business, strategy and innovation. He previously served as GameStop’s Chief Marketing Officer, where he oversaw all aspects of strategic marketing, as well as leading cross-functional teams in delivering consumer- and brand-centric strategies, pursuing new business opportunities, and driving new customer acquisitions and brand affinity programs to help make video game culture come to life in every neighborhood. Frank brings more than 25 years in retail marketing, strategy, customer loyalty and e-commerce expertise to GameStop.
Frank returned to GameStop in 2018, after having served as CMO from 2014 to 2016. In the interim, he was Executive Vice President and CMO for Tailored Brands, the parent of Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A Bank, and Joseph Abboud, among others. Prior to GameStop, Frank served in Marketing and Operations leadership roles for other notable organizations, including Guitar Center, E-Miles, LLC, H.E. Butt Grocery, and Brierley & Partners to name a few. Frank is an avid music hobbyist, and presently serves on the Board of Directors of Tuesday Morning, a public upscale retailer that specializes in name-brand closeout merchandise.
Rose Kaur
Managing Partner, Jester&Genius, A Brand Story Company
Rose Kaur is a Brand Strategist with a passion for building meaningful brands that help companies unleash long-term sustainable business growth. After a decade in corporate sector, Rose decided to become an entrepreneur and joined Jester & Genius as a Managing Partner in 2015. Jester&Genius is a BrandStory Consulting company based in Dallas, Texas. They help clients with brand positioning and brand strategy work based on a proprietary STORY-STRATEGY approach. By crafting & activating BrandStories, her clients have not only unleashed long term sustainable growth but found a renewed sense of energy in their teams and a stronger, deeper connection with consumers. Some of her clients include Method, French’s, Lay’s, Einstein Bros Bagels, Ziploc, Glade, Nissan, Zales & Krispy Kreme to name a few.
Don Smith
Brierley and Partners
Don earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from The Florida State University, and spent 11 years in academia teaching statistics and policy evaluation. Prior to joining Brierley and Partners, he was a research director for Dallas County, in charge of database modeling, data mining, and program reporting. He has authored several journal articles and a full-length book. At Brierley, Don specializes in building loyalty programs and CRM solutions, leveraging customer-centric data assets to create predictive models and prescriptive targeting solutions, with an emphasis on marrying customer engagement data to shopping and purchasing patterns. His current client list includes Hertz, GameStop, Express, Pep Boys, Orchard Supply Hardware, Kellogg’s, GAF, PepsiCo, Otterbox and Al Tayer. An avid theater fan, he was the 1990 Saax Bradbury/Amos Abrams fellow to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; his penchant for over-acting informs his current presentation style, which is conservatively characterized as 'overwrought theatrical storytelling’.
Attendees
| Name | University | School | Title |
| Marie Adolphe | Marketing EDGE | Senior Vice President of Program Development | |
| B J Allen | University of Arkansas | Walton College of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Marci Armstrong | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Harold M. Brierley Endowed Professor |
| Terri Bartlett | Marketing EDGE | President | |
| Monique Bell | Fresno State | Craig School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Yashoda Bhagwat | Texas Christian University | Neely School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Hal Brierley | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Executive in Residence |
| Chaoqun Chen | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| John Deighton | Harvard University | Harvard Business School | Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus |
| Jenna Drenten | Loyola University | Quinlan School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Matthew Fisher | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Ed Fox | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Professor and Chair in Marketing Marilyn and Leo Corrigan Research Professor W.R. & Judy Howell Director, JCPenney Center for Retai Excellence |
| Kelli Frias | American University | Kogod School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Krista Hill Cummings | Babson College | Assistant Professor of Marketing | Assistant Professor |
| Joonhwi Joo | UT Dallas | Naveen Jindal School of Management | Assistant Professor |
| Eunice Kim | Pennsylvania State University | Smeal College of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Amit Kumar | University of Texas at Austin | McCombs School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Seoungwoo Lee | Tulane | Freeman School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Chongyu Lu | Pace University | Lubin School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Joy (Tong) Lu | Carnegie Mellon | Tepper School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Charlotte Mason | University of Georgia | Terry College of Business | Department Head C. Herman & Mary Virginia Terry Chair of Business Administration Department of Marketing |
| Milica Mormann | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Simha Mummalaneni | University of Washington | Foster School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Michael O'Donnell | Georgetown University | McDonough School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Brooke Reavey | Dominican University | Brennan School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Federico Rossi | Purdue University | Krannert School of Management | Assistant Professor |
| Shelle Santana | Harvard University | Harvard Business School | Assistant Professor |
| Wyatt Schrock | Michigan State University | Broad College of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Matt Shaner | University of Mississippi | Ole Miss Bussiness | Assistant Professor |
| Amalesh Sharma | Texas A&M University | Mays School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Sharmistha Sikdar | Dartmouth College | Tuck School of Management | Assistant Professor |
| Wayne Taylor | Southern Methodist University | Edwin L Cox School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Minakshi Trivedi | Texas Christian University | Neeley School of Business | Professor and Chair |
| Evan Weingarten | Arizona State University | WP Cary School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Sarah Whitley | University of Georgia | Terry College of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Freeman Wu | Vanderbilt University | Owen Graduate School of Management | Assistant Professor |
| Sonya Wurster | Marketing EDGE | Director of Academic Content & conferences | |
| Cesar Zamudio Michelsen | Virginia Commonwealth University | School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Lingling Zhang | University of Maryland | Robert H Smith School of Business | Assistant Professor |
| Tianxin Zou | University of Florida | Warrington College of Business | Assistant Professor |