DX Heroes
Real leaders. Powerful stories of digital transformation (DX).
The future demands leaders who can transform organizations for whatever digital curveball comes next – bold thinkers who can turn data into actionable insights, improve operational agility, connect people and systems, and create experiences that put relationships first. Our DX Heroes™ awards honor the real-life heroes at the forefront of change.
Vision
As natural innovators, heroes possess the technological vision and analytical prowess to distill complex information into actionable insights.
Communications
Duncan MacDonald
Vice President, Consumer Solutions & Digital Transformation, Liberty Global
Liberty Global is bigger than big. It’s the world’s largest TV and broadband company, to be exact. Spanning 10 countries, the telco giant and its powerful portfolio of brands, including Virgin Media, UPC, and Telenet, impact the daily lives of 21 million customers. But with media titans like Amazon and Netflix changing the rules of the game, Liberty knew it needed to redefine for the future – and fast.
Enter Duncan Macdonald, customer experience champion, creative risk taker, and tech visionary. A tireless advocate for personalized, relevant interactions across the customer journey, Duncan helped unite teams across countries and brands under one shared vision for digital change. “Shifting business culture toward a collaborative mindset is the key to starting a successful digital transformation journey,” says Duncan. “While the right technology and methodologies are important, changing hearts and minds in your organization is the biggest struggle. As a digital leader, your vision set an agenda for pervasive business change.”
Manufacturing
Bob Skinner
Vice President, Digital Strategy & Marketing Technologies, FordDirect
Ford Motor Company has been a household name for more than a century. Building from its already strong reputation, the automotive giant is on a mission to make an even bigger impression on 21st-century drivers, with aspirations to become the world’s most trusted company. Period.
It’s a bold vision, but Bob Skinner and his team at FordDirect are translating it into reality through powerful digital marketing and advertising solutions. With the help of Pega, Bob is paving the way toward smart, connected, and optimized brand experiences. Using AI to analyze millions of consumer interactions, his team is applying data to design radically personalized, omni-channel marketing campaigns. Setting the vision and roadmap for these complex initiatives, Bob brings a clear understanding of new technology and the underlying data needed to drive it. Throughout every stage of every new endeavor, he keeps Ford’s mission front and center, aligning teams and inspiring action.
Organizational change
DX Heroes seek opportunities to reshape the workforce and build the alignment necessary to deliver transformation.
Communications
Moshe Pridan
Senior Vice President, Business Solutions Management, SiriusXM Radio, Inc.
Anyone who’s met Moshe Pridan can see his obsession with high performance. Whether he’s cruising the streets of D.C. on his Ducati or guiding the world’s largest audio entertainment company toward accelerated growth, Moshe brings a passion for speed and efficiency to everything he does.
At Sirius XM, he’s been instrumental in forging new ways of working and collaborating that have resulted in breakthrough business results. By bringing together business and IT leaders across the organization, he’s led others toward solving some of Sirius’ most pressing issues, from maximizing the employee desktop experience to slashing customer churn. With these successes under his belt, Moshe is turning his attention toward his next challenge: navigating the company’s acquisition of Pandora and its 70 million active listeners.
Manufacturing
Rhonda Eller
Warranty Program Manager, Nissan North America
In the auto industry, innovative design and quality engineering go hand-in-hand. Today’s vehicles are more than a means of transportation. They’re high-performance supercomputers on wheels. While these advancements are great for drivers, they lead to more challenging repair processes for technicians. Nissan North America sought to remedy this by embarking on digital transformation journey aimed at reducing how often customers needed to bring cars back in for repair.
Nicknamed “Fix Right the First Time” or “F1,” the initiative was co-directed by Rhonda Eller and her cross-functional team. Combining her love of problem-solving with her background in computer science, Rhonda helped colleagues re-envision stakeholder journeys using design thinking. Business and IT collaborated at every stage, from storyboarding to development, paving the way for organizational buy-in and better outcomes for all involved. In the end, the team developed a platform that translates technical service bulletins into diagnostic tools, offering technicians the best possible recommendations for the repairs. Rhonda’s favorite part of the journey? “I loved watching it all come together with so many people who each had so many different goals – that was very exciting,” she says.
Collaboration
Strong communicators and passionate collaborators, heroes tear down divides between business and IT using new technology as well as organizational and process redesign.
Insurance
Mario Bocca
Group CIO, Unipol
Mario Bocca is a leader who knows what he wants. At Unipol, one of the leading banking and insurance groups in Italy, he brings a crystal-clear vision of where, when, and how to use new technology to drive game-changing business outcomes. Infusing a polite but no-nonsense attitude to everything he does, Mario sets the stage for change and engages teams to the end. No matter how many directions the digital leader is pulled in, he remains deeply involved in every initiative and cares personally about the results.
In partnership with Pega, Mario has helped Unipol deliver industry-disrupting innovation, including a new pet insurance policy that uses pre-paid gift cards to cover veterinary expenses. Using Agile methodology, Unipol massively shortened the new policy’s time to market, delivering the product in an unprecedented two months.
Financial Services
Vaishal Gariwala
Head of IT Lending, ING Bank
Serving 38 million customers around the globe, ING has long been regarded as the most digital bank in the world. In fact, Vaishal Gariwala, Head of IT Lending, jokingly refers to the organization as “an IT company with a banking license.” Today Vaishal is helping ING usher its reputation as a digital front-runner into the future using data and automation.
Always seeking to put people first, Vaishal and his team are committed to changing the way ING employees get work done and customers make transactions, both big and small. With a focus on cross-team collaboration and workforce intelligence, he’s simplified and optimized complicated processes, empowering the organization’s customer loyalty teams to spend more time caring for customers in ways that feel personal, relevant, and timely. Thanks to these efforts, previously burdensome customer transactions now happen with unbelievable efficiency and speed. For example, small- and medium- sized enterprise (SME) loans are processed in all of 10 seconds. The result? More loan approvals, more satisfied employees, and best of all – happier customers.
Empathy
Human outcomes motivate DX Heroes. They deeply empathize with their customers’ and employees’ needs and always strive to do what’s best for others – not just the bottom line.
Government
Phil Andrew
Chief Executive Officer, StepChange Debt Charity
Bad things can happen to good people. It’s this belief that drives Phil Andrew to assist those who’ve fallen on hard economic times. At StepChange, a charity offering free advice to individuals in financial crisis, Phil and his team of 1,500 help more than 600,000 clients per year envision futures without debilitating debt.
But Phil knew that with the right technology and staff support, StepChange could do more for more people. He partnered with Pega to re-envision the entire client service experience, infusing empathy into every conversation. With Pega technology working behind the scenes, support staff can now spend more time listening to vulnerable clients rather than asking basic, repetitive questions. And no matter how or when clients reach out for help, StepChange staff have the background information they need to move client journeys forward quickly and provide the right next steps for every individual – every time.
Healthcare
Shally Pannikode
CIO, WellStar Health System (former VP Information Technology, Anthem)
Every day Shally Pannikode wakes up inspired by technology’s ability to put healthcare back in the hands of consumers. At Anthem (Now Elevance Health), one of the largest health benefits companies in the U.S., Shally worked tirelessly toward one goal: changing the way healthcare is managed for future generations. Equal parts digital visionary and social justice advocate, she fostered an organizational culture dedicated to breaking down barriers and increasing access for more than 40 million Anthem (Now Elevance Health) members.
Overseeing the development of enterprise-wide applications, she encouraged diversity of thought, risk taking, and input from people at all levels. Together she and her team worked collaboratively with business partners across Anthem (Now Elevance Health) to understand key challenges and improve outcomes. In partnership with Pega, Shally delivered digital solutions at speed, with accomplishments ranging from processing 97 percent of health savings plan Rx claims in real time to saving more than $20 million in annual customer service costs. What’s next for Shally? Revolutionizing WellStar Health System, a major non-profit health system serving the citizens of Georgia.
