LAS VEGAS, July 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ibex (NASDAQ: IBEX), a global leader in outsourced business services and AI-powered customer experience solutions, today announced the winners of the 2026 CX Leadership Awards, which honor the top customer experience (CX) innovators, leaders, and pioneers around the world. This year’s winners, who were selected from an exceptionally strong list of CX professionals, were recognized last week at ibex’s Fifth Annual CX Leadership Awards Dinner at Customer Contact Week (CCW) in Las Vegas.
Award recipients were selected based on demonstrated innovation, measurable business impact, leadership excellence, and advancement of customer experience practices within their organizations.
"ibex is delighted to recognize the 2026 CX Leadership Award winners, who are embracing new technologies to raise the bar and elevate their brands," said Julie Casteel, Chief Strategic Accounts Officer and CMO at ibex. "AI is transforming the customer experience, and the leaders we're honoring tonight are at the forefront of that change. At ibex, we share their commitment to combining the best technology with deep CX expertise and insights to architect experiences that drive real outcomes — where intelligence, personalization, and scale create measurable impact for brands and their customers.”
The ibex CX Leadership Awards spotlight the individuals and organizations whose vision and innovation are transforming the customer experience industry. Honorees excel in enabling seamless customer engagement, creating extraordinary customer experiences, and streamlining the customer journey.
Congratulations to the 2026 CX Leadership Award winners:
Kellen Cox, VP of Customer Experience at PetLab Co.: A passionate, animal-loving leader who built a high-performing, highly engaged CX organization by leading with empathy, thoroughness, and a people-first mindset, creating curated experiences for customers and employees that drive lasting loyalty at scale.
Ryan Tacke, CEO of ThrivePass: A benefits industry executive with over 20 years of experience who drives rapid growth by prioritizing relationship ownership over generic SLAs — proven by building personalized spending accounts for clients to control business costs while boosting employee engagement and retention.
Ashley Ross, Chief Client Care Officer at Bank of America: A visionary executive leading the CX strategy for 70 million clients, Ashley achieved all time high client experience performance while driving the expansion of generative AI tools to improve the customer experience, including EricaAssist, which delivers real-time guidance to support client interactions for frontline associates.
Patrick O’Shea, Senior Director of Customer Acquisition at Vistra Corp.: A forward-thinking strategist who views CX as a core brand value multiplier, recently leading the deployment of AI-powered agent assist tools that empower frontline teams with real-time insights to accelerate deeply personalized customer journeys.
Matthew Caron, Director of Support at Owner.com: An operational strategist with 15 years of front-line-to-executive experience who views support as a growth engine, previously redesigning workflows and integrating AI to eliminate backlogs by 80% and secure $2.4 million in annual savings through a culture of intentionality.
Noah Byrd, Senior Leader at KeyCorp: A systems-focused leader who operates at the intersection of operations and intelligent automation to eliminate unnecessary complexity, successfully shifting contact center environments into a data-driven, "Moments Matter" culture where efficiency and empathy reinforce each other.
Virginia Snedeker, Vendor Management Director at Cox Automotive: A 30-year contact center veteran who optimizes global BPO networks, notably partnering to design an automated, cross-channel rules engine that personalized digital self-service journeys while delivering $6.3 million in first-year operational savings.
Jeff Marks, Transformation and Operations Executive at Munich Re: A global transformation executive with over two decades of cross-cultural leadership who specializes in building digitized service models, highlighted by leading a multi-year data journey that transformed the organization into a highly governed data model with true performance transparency.
Lucy Sotelo, Sr. Director of Government Consumer Operations at UnitedHealthcare: A 30-year healthcare operations veteran who blends strict operational discipline with deep empathy to optimize complex Medicaid and DSNP programs, driving major improvements in first contact resolution by scaling global vendor partnerships and leveraging AI to eliminate friction for vulnerable populations.
Michael Stull, Vice President of Operations at Provide A Ride: Military Veteran and operations leader with more than 25 years of experience in transportation, logistics, and service delivery. Michael has played a key role in advancing non-emergency medical transportation operations through his commitment to operational excellence, regulatory compliance, team development, and ensuring reliable access to care for the members and communities served.
Jalal Shawwa, Chief Access Officer, Central Scheduling and Contact Centers at University of Miami Health System: A high-energy global operations executive and certified Six Sigma expert with extensive experience leading large-scale contact centers across healthcare and financial services, known for seamlessly integrating complex insourced and outsourced BPO networks into high-performing, customer-centric teams.
Seamless, End-to-End Customer Journeys from AI Agent to Human Agent
ibex expertly combines cutting-edge AI technology with over 20 years of unparalleled CX expertise to create groundbreaking AI-powered solutions. Many of this year's winners are leveraging AI-powered technologies similar to those deployed through ibex Wave iX to create more personalized, efficient customer experiences. ibex Wave iX solutions refine and elevate customer interactions and ensure a seamless customer journey while accelerating growth, enhancing service delivery, and maximizing impact.
About ibex
ibex is a global leader in outsourced business services and AI-powered customer experience solutions, enabling the world’s best brands to deliver truly differentiated experiences for their customers. Leveraging a global team of more than 36,000 human CX experts – powered by the best AI technology, decades of CX innovation, and deep business insights – ibex engineers seamless, end-to-end customer journeys from AI agents to human agents at scale across retail, e-commerce, healthcare, fintech, utilities, technology, logistics, and more. Discover more at ibex.co and connect with us on LinkedIn.
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