Our Instructors and Leadership

Meet Our Customer Experience Program Instructors and Leadership

​The commitment of our instructors and leadership to build an energetic and collaborative learning environment is what sets the Customer Experience Certificate Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, Leeds School of Business, apart from the rest. Our roster of experienced practitioners and UCB adjunct instructors are experts in their areas of focus. Together, they deliver a unique blend of vision, inspiration, and practical skills to challenge your thinking and present new concepts to help you drive innovation, improve performance and propel your organization to new levels of success. You'll emerge with critical thinking and decision-making skills that you can apply immediately at your organization.

​Carol Buehrens

​As our Lead Instructor, Carol Buehrens is the author of the best-selling customer experience book Happy RAVING Customers!  Carol is a leading customer experience expert and speaker, and has been constructing extraordinary customer experiences for over 30 years for major companies such as Liberty Mutual, Northrop, McDonnell-Douglas, Bechtel, GE, Mercury Marine, and ICW Group Insurance Companies.

Carol’s passion for improving customer experience has resulted in numerous awards, including the prestigious “CX Innovation Award” from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), ICW Group CEO Award, the Liberty Mutual Star Award, and is listed in the World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals.

A Founding Member and Expert Panel Member of the international Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), Carol is also an active member of the San Diego Customer Experience Special Interest Group (CX SIG), and Professor at California State University Fullerton and University of California San Diego.

Michael Truett

Michael is known for creating, improving and executing Collaborative Design Thinking sessions and Customer Experience frameworks across diverse industries (Media, Streaming Services, Ed Tech, Health & Wellness, SaaS, PaaS) at different stages of growth - early-stage start-ups, seasoned companies looking to transform, high growth and declining businesses.

His experience ranges from Professor, Board Member, Keynote Speaker to leading Global Business Transformation (B2B, B2C, B2B2C), Business Development/Launch Strategy, Customer Experience, Customer Success, Customer Engagement, Customer Retention, Customer Service, Lifecycle Management and AI Transformation at companies like Spotify, The New York Times, Dow Jones, Tech start-ups and Telecom providers globally.

Michael’s passion for DT & CX is based upon his adventurous lifestyle where he is always seeing a new experience. He has a love for traveling, experiencing new cultures, surfing, golfing, running ultra marathons, participating in triathlons, and spending time with his friends and family.

Client initiatives Michael supports include: Customer Obsessed Strategic planning, Experience Journey and Persona mapping (customer, employee, process, and product), AI – Artificial Intelligence Transformation, Service CRM/Omni-Channel Transformation, Strategic Business and Product-level Transformation, Operational Best Practices and Centers of Excellence, Mobile/Digital Product and Platform Strategy, Global Experience (LATAM, APAC, EU and BRIC), C-suite Alignment and Change Management.​​

Alixandra Barasch​

Alix Barasch earned her Ph.D. in Marketing from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at New York University and a Visiting Associate Professor at INSEAD. 

Alix studies how new technologies are fundamentally reshaping consumer behavior and well-being. Her research has been published in a variety of top journals in marketing (Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing) and psychology (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science). Her work is regularly featured in global media outlets such as New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, Washington Post, Fast Company, Wired, and NPR. She is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing, and serves on the editorial review board at Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Alix won the Early Career Award from the Association for Consumer Research in 2023, the Erin Anderson Award for an Emerging Female Marketing Scholar and Mentor in 2024, and was selected as a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar in 2021.

Before starting her graduate studies, Alix worked at MDRC, a non-profit dedicated to education policy research. She was also selected as a Fulbright Scholar, and spent a year teaching at the University of Macau and doing research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

​Erich Dietz

Erich Dietz is the Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Accounts for InMoment. He has over 15 years of executive experience spanning consulting, business development, and solutions architecture. Erich joined InMoment in 2003 and primarily works with InMoment’s large, complex client organizations within their B2B, B2B2C, and B2C markets. Erich partners with clients to architect and implement Customer Experience Management (CEM) & Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs that enhance critical business measures including; revenue generation, operational efficiency, cross-channel service alignment, customer retention, base management, loyalty, and brand advocacy. He is also a designated CXPA Expert and regular contributor to the community’s Google+ Hangouts and other events.  
 
Prior to InMoment, Erich was a Management Consultant for several global consulting firms. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers School of Engineering.

​JP Saini

JP Saini is a C-level IT executive for a B2B company with 20 years of in-depth business, technology, operations experience and strong leadership skills. Developed from his portfolio of business, technology and operations experience is his ability to advance the overall strategic direction of information technology in alignment with strategic business plans, growth goals and position IT as a strategic business enabler and partner. His sharp focus on Excellence is driven by his knowledge of client service and performance based metrics.

Mr. Saini has been successfully managing IT business and strategy through the harnessing of technology for business growth and profitability, risk mitigation, and the identification of commercial opportunities.

Instructor Team Contributor

Gerdus Byleveld

I have spent most of my career carefully selecting roles in the industry that gave me experience in all facets of business. CEO, Revenue Generation, Sales as well as Customer Management and Success. I would love to share what I have learnt, and also continue to learn from others.

Cynthia Corne​

With passions for mentorship, DEI, and data, Cynthia's CX journey includes industry-firsts in cloud, manufg, construction and public safety. Global executive roles span brand, product and customer success at Sprint (T-Mobile), Lumen, Intrado, and Johnson Controls as well as Cooper Tea Co. Change practices and budget optimization are emphases. She has a B.A. in Business & History, Coe College; MBA, Univ of Kansas. Holds 2 patents. She serves as Chair, Louisville's Parks Public Landscape Board.