Celebrating the fifth year of the CX50 list, compiled annually by Marketing Week in partnership with Zone and Cognizant Digital Experience, we recognise a new cohort of top customer experience professionals and look back on all those honoured since 2018.
Customer experience (CX) has changed dramatically in the past five years – it has had to.
Since Marketing Week, Zone and Cognizant Digital Experience published our first CX50 list in 2018 celebrating the UK’s top 50 customer experience professionals, there has been a continuing series of shocks and realignments in the national and global economies.
Customers’ expectations, and brands’ ability to meet them, have been in constant flux – due to a combination of Brexit, the Covid pandemic, global supply chain disruption, the ‘great resignation’ and now a cost-of-living crisis. Their consequences have piled on top of one another and left it no clearer what the ‘new normal’ really looks like for customers or brands – or whether we can depend on one at all.
The long-term migration towards ecommerce, accelerated by the pandemic, is far from the only factor. CX has also been heavily influence by fluctuations in product availability, staffing issues and the knock-on effects of rocketing energy costs on pricing and consumer spending.
As we reveal the CX professionals recognised as the UK’s best in 2022, it’s apparent that the challenges they face are varied and unpredictable. What’s clear, therefore, is that making it into the CX50 requires a wide range of skills and capabilities.
Many members of this year’s list draw on their multidisciplinary knowledge. The vast majority can influence not only customer-facing products and services, but also the wider business strategy and the employee experience – all crucial to effective CX delivery. And every one of them will have one eye on the trends affecting customers’ expectations; both today and in the future, within their market and
beyond it.
The 50 people named below have exhibited all these qualities and more, so please join Marketing Week and our partners at Zone and Cognizant Digital Experience in congratulating them.
“Anyone can have a sale. We wanted our customers to know that ours was the biggest and the best. The campaign made that happen.”
Jamie Hewett, B&Q
© MMXXII X—LABS
Remote working has led to greater reliance on technology platforms
the CX50 2022
CX50 2022 METHODOLOGY
Marketing Week, Zone and its parent company Cognizant Digital Experience have compiled the CX50 2022 list based on our usual three criteria of impact, innovation and influence. In assessing these, we considered candidates’ achievements in regard to tangible commercial and business results; their development of groundbreaking products, services and technologies; and their roles in guiding their organisations’ strategies and corporate values, as well as those of their industries more widely.
The final list of 50 was determined by applying these three criteria to a shortlist of leading companies and individual CX professionals, built by consulting a range of data sources alongside first-hand insights from our own combined expertise and networks.
We took into account the records of both the individuals and their organisations, considering their present-day performance and evidence of their recent work, but also informed by their history of long-term CX achievement.
As we first did in 2021, we have also divided the list into five categories of CX leader: Organisational Leaders, Brand Guardians, Disruptors and Challengers, Technologists, and Growth Drivers. The intention is to give readers a picture of what tangible CX excellence looks like in 2022, within a variety of organisational roles and across a range of business sectors.
Read the profiles of all the CX50 2022 members here
CX50 — 2021
Brand guardians
James
Cheryl
Chris
Dan
Sonia
Lis
Heather
Shweta
Simon
Soraya
Rachel
Katie
Margaret
Tamara
Chris
Simon
Claire
Danielle
Laura
Michelle
Rich
Ursula
Rhea
JJ
Rob
Clodagh
Harmeen
Chris
Ash
Roger
Kim
Alex
Hamish
Nick
Heather
Luis
Sebastien
Sten
Anna
Darren
Sophie
Saj
Gary
Marta
Susan
Rachel
Emma
Ann-Marie
Karen
Sara
CEO
CEO
CEO
CEO
Managing Director, Marketing and Digital
CMO
Managing Director, Retail
Global VP, Evian and Volvic
President, EMEA
COO
Chief Customer and Marketing Officer
CMO
CMO
Global Customer Director
Marketing and Ecommerce Director
Chief Creative Officer
Customer Director
VP, EMEA Marketing
Chief Customer Officer
Marketing Director
CIO
Technology Strategy Delivery
Chief Digital Officer
Chief Digital and Technology Officer
Chief Transformation and Operating Officer
Retail and Digital Director
Chief Digital and Innovation Officer
Group Digital Director
CIO
Chief Technologist, Global Connected Consumer Experience
Chief Product Officer
Co-founder and CEO
Co-founder and CEO
Chief Product Officer
VP, Member Engagement Marketing
CMO
Co-founder and CEO
Co-founder and CEO
VP, Brand
Chief Customer Officer
CMO
Chief Commercial Officer
CMO
Head of Group Connected Retail and Distribution
VP, Global Brand
Director of Brand and Marketing
Group Brand, Proposition and Marketing Communications Director
Chief Growth and Brand Officer
Group Commercial and Customer Director
Chief Product and Marketing Officer
Sustainability has to be an agenda item at
C-suite level and someone has to own it.”
The CX50 2022
list in full
Timpson
Calverley
Pitt
Brooke
Sudhakar
Blair
Smith
Harit
Vincent
Scott
Eyre
McAlister
Jobling
Strauss
Carter
Morris
Pointon
Davies
Harricks
Roberts
Corbridge
Dolton
Fox
Van Oosten
Edmundson
Moriarty
Mehta
Holyland
Jokhoo
Court
Faura
Perrin
Grierson
Pleydell-Pearce
Cobb
Lacerda
Vanderlinden
Saar
Greene
Bentley
Wheater
Arshad
Kibble
Sánchez Serrano
O'Brien
Kerrone
Botton
MacKay
Bellairs
Bennison
Timpson Group
Eve
First Direct
Smart Energy UK
Royal Mail
MoneySuperMarket
LV=
Danone
Hilton
Microsoft UK
Morrisons
TUI UK and Ireland
Natwest Group
Premier Inn
Specsavers
Amazon
John Lewis & Partners
Netflix
Ocado
BMW Group UK
Boots
Lloyds Banking Group
Paperchase
Kingfisher
Bupa
Sainsbury's
BT
Pets At Home
Direct Line Group
Ford
Checkatrade.com
Ismybillfair
Thriva
Popsa
Tide
HelloFresh UK
Yumi
Zego
Gousto
Cazoo
Giffgaff
Interative Investor
Wickes
Vodafone Group
Just Eat Takeaway.com
Starling Bank
Tesco
Sky UK
Halfords
Nationwide
Organisational leaders
technologists
Growth drivers
Disruptors and Challengers
Our fifth-anniversary list of the UK’s 50 top customer experience professionals
In this landmark fifth year of the CX50, we also wish to draw special attention to the professionals who have appeared in the previous four lists – including 19 members of the new 2022 list who have featured at least once before.
You can browse the honourees from previous CX50 lists using the links below. Featuring our contemporary analysis of the most salient challenges and best practices for CX professionals of the day, this archive offers a vivid illustration of how CX has evolved over the five years of the CX50.
Browse the CX50 archive
five years
Sophie Wheater, CMO, Giffgaff
Saj Arshad, Chief Commercial Officer, Interative Investor
Gary Kibble, CMO, Wickes
Marta Sánchez Serrano, Head of Group Connected Retail and Distribution, Vodafone Group
Susan O’Brien, VP Global Brand, Just Eat Takeaway.com
Rachel Kerrone, Director of Brand and Marketing, Starling Bank
Emma Botton, Group Brand Proposition and Marketing Communications Director, Tesco
Ann-Marie MacKay, Chief Growth and Brand Officer, Sky UK
Karen Bellairs, Group Commercial and Customer Director, Halfords
Sara Bennison, Chief Product and Marketing Officer, Nationwide
Kim Faura, Chief Product Officer, Checkatrade.com
Alex Perrin, Co-founder and CEO, Ismybillfair
Hamish Grierson, Co-founder and CEO, Thriva
Nick Pleydell-Pearce, Chief Product Officer, Popsa
Heather Cobb, VP Member Engagement Marketing, Tide
Luis Lacerda, CMO, HelloFresh UK
Sebastien Vanderlinden, Co-founder and CEO, Yumi
Sten Saar, Co-founder and CEO, Zego
Anna Greene, VP, Brand, Gousto
Darren Bentley, Chief Customer Officer, Cazoo
Rich Corbridge, CIO, Boots
Ursula Dolton, Technology Strategy Delivery, Lloyds Banking Group
Rhea Fox, Chief Digital Officer, Paperchase
JJ Van Oosten, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Kingfisher
Rob Edmundson, Chief Transformation and Operating Officer, Bupa
Clodagh Moriarty, Retail and Digital Director, Sainsbury’s
Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, BT
Chris Holyland, Group Digital Director, Pets At Home
Ash Jokhoo, CIO, Direct Line Group
Roger Court, Chief Technologist - Global Connected Consumer Experience, Ford
Rachel Eyre, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer, Morrisons
Katie McAlister, CMO, TUI UK and Ireland
Margaret Jobling, Chief Marketing Officer, Natwest Group
Tamara Strauss, Global Customer Director, Premier Inn
Chris Carter, Marketing and Ecommerce Director, Specsavers
Simon Morris, Chief Creative Officer, Amazon
Claire Pointon, Customer Director, John Lewis & Partners
Danielle Davies, VP - EMEA Marketing, Netflix
Laura Harricks, Chief Customer Officer, Ocado
Michelle Roberts, Marketing Director, BMW Group UK