BOOST is a variety show from Centrical focused on one thing: helping you elevate your employee engagement and performance.
Hosts Luke Jamieson and Laura Butvinik explore a collection of employee engagement topics, examining trends to know, insights to help you become a better leader, and conversations with peers sure to put a smile on your face
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The definitive podcast on employee engagement
Episode #13: Boost – The best bits of Season 1
In this episode, Luke and Laura reflect on their favourite moments of season 1. From the stuff, they found most insightful through to the downright funny as well as some behind-the-scenes goodies.
Episode #12: Testing the Limits of Work While Traveling the World with Tim Buzza
What does work look like without limits?
Few people know better than Tim Buzza, Chief Customer Officer at Attune. As he travels the world, he’s learned employees have three unique modes of work: Creative, collaborative and concentrated. And that great leaders empower and enable their employees to design each mode how they work best.
Learn how Tim inspires teams to create an employee experience that drives results.
Episode #11: Going to Gemba: To Design the Best Frontline Jobs with Sean McGinn
Gemba is the practice of leaders learning from their frontline employees.
Sean McGinn, founder and director of the Melbourne-based Agile Contact Centre, suggests you adopt the Japanese practice with your teams, too. Interacting more with customers than any other employees, call center teams are uniquely poised to learn about gaps, fix them and adapt. And it starts with leaders giving them the psychological safety and autonomy to do their job effectively.
Sean joins Laura and fellow-Aussie Luke on BOOST to share how to create a healthy and successful frontline employee experience.
Episode #10: Building a Culture of Appreciation with Glen Cathey
Recording a sales call might feel like Big Brother to some employees, but leveraging recording technology can lead to major boosts in performance. How do you balance trust in your employees with the desire to help them improve? Glen Cathey, SVP, Head of Digital Strategy & Innovation at Randstad, joins the show to share how he navigates situations like this.
Episode #9: Creating Frameworks for Sustainable Performance with Lisa Dolan
Lisa Dolan, Senior Vice President of Employee Engagement and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Teleperformance, shares best practices for employee engagement. We discuss the importance of listening to employees, caring for all areas of their wellbeing, and creating frameworks that enable sustainable performance.
Episode #8: The Starring Character: The Business Case for Compassion
As a leader, is it your responsibility to address an employee’s personal trauma? Yemi Penn, TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and author answers this and many other big questions in this episode. She dives into incorporating mindfulness into relationships with employees and the importance of sharing our stories.
Episode #7: Come One, Come All: Enabling Your Employees’ “Rare Breed” Virtues
In this episode, Luke and Laura welcome author Sunny Bonnell to the BOOST stage to share more on her “Rare Breed” movement. Sunny is on a mission to empower leaders to harness the power of their most audacious, obsessed, weird, hypnotic, rebellious employees–all of these being “Rare Breed” traits that will, if fostered correctly, take your organization and its success to the next level.
Episode #6: BONUS: The Key to Engaging Employees of All Ages
On this very special bonus episode, Centrical Founder & CEO Gal Rimon shares his bird’s eye view on employee experience and training trends – from gamification (and how to do it very wrong) to creating multi-generational experiences that will resonate, this is a show you won’t want to miss.
Episode #5: Stories of Impact: The Keys to Impactful Employee Training
In this episode, Renzo Urzua, Global Contact Centre Management Training & Design Lead for Mastercard, joins BOOST to share his insight on helping to manage and train global teams. We discuss the ways language and culture deeply impact training dynamics, and the importance of encouraging each employee’s own personal brand through the training process and beyond.
Episode #4: Moments of Truth: Establishing the foundation of your CX and EX
In this episode, Laura Patterson, President and Co-Founder of VisionEdge Marketing and author of Fast Track Your Business, joins BOOST to share the keys to providing a rockstar employee experience, and why even the littlest moments matter in creating experiences that impact your bottom line. We discuss how CX and EX both affect each other, why culture sets the foundation for business success, and how to progressively empower your employees.
Episode #3: Wow Factor – Creating “edutaining” experiences for your employees
In this episode, influencer and author Dennis Wakabayashi takes to the BOOST stage to share all about how his experience at Expo 2020 Dubai changed the way he thinks about creating experiences for employees. Dennis shares not only his incredible stories from Dubai, but also his tactical takeaways for how you can implement storytelling in your EX strategies, celebrate employees in creative ways, and how corporations can start thinking of “the needs of the few”, first.
Episode #2: EX Excellence – Here’s how to create an employee journey map
In this episode, author Annette Franz takes to the BOOST stage to talk about why (and how) companies should map out their employee experiences just as carefully as their customer experiences. Annette recently authored the book “Built To Win”, which is all about creating a customer-centric culture by putting employees at the heart of everything.
Episode #1: Serotonin show – the chemical proof behind creating a lasting employee experience
In this episode, CX influencer Nate Brown joins Luke and Laura to talk about why he–a CX expert–is so passionate about the employee experience. He shares examples of employee experiences influencing customer experiences, why creating a dopamine-fueled “winning” culture isn’t the best morale booster, and how employee expectations have shifted dramatically over the past few years.
Nate is the Senior Director of Customer Experience at Arise Virtual Solutions and co-founder of the CX Accelerator community.
Trailer:
Create a learning culture. Ensure business agility. Engage, train, and coach talent. Attract and retain employees. Boost performance. No matter how you break it down there is a multitude of imperatives facing enterprises today as they manage modern workforces and just as many opportunities to optimize employee performance.
About the Hosts:
Laura Butvinik
Laura is the Global Manager of Customer Education at Centrical. During her career in training, she’s enabled people and companies around the world.
From public speaking and live workshops to instructional design, she wears many hats – but is always focused on bringing delightful learning experiences to customers and employees alike.
Having studied film production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she loves bringing storytelling into her work to create fun and memorable experiences.
Laura lives in NYC where you’ll find her running in Central Park, watching musicals, baking for her friends and family, and playing board games on the weekend.
Luke Jamieson
Luke is a top global influencer and thought leader on customer and employee engagement. Combining vision, high energy, creativity, and execution, he’s an inspiring and refreshing keynote speaker, podcaster, and blogger.
Luke’s been featured in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal and The Australian.
He studied design thinking at D.school, Stanford University, and is a certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.
His rebellious, unconventional approaches have attracted many coveted awards and his enthusiasm for CX and EX has helped shape some of Australia’s largest organizations customer and employee experience programs.
Gal Rimon
Founder and CEO
Gal founded Centrical (previously GamEffective) in 2013 with a clear vision: helping companies empower their employees and make people the center of business success. Before Centrical, he served as CEO of Gilon Business Insight, a leader in business intelligence. When Gilon was acquired by Ness Technologies (NASDAQ: NSTC) in 2010, Gal joined Ness as Senior Vice President and member of its executive leadership team. Earlier in his career, he served as VP of Customer Relations and Operations at Deloitte Consulting and held roles at EDS and Bashan. Gal holds an MBA in Marketing and Information Technologies from Tel Aviv University.
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Madeleine Freind
VP, Customer Success
Madeleine Freind is a senior Customer Success leader with deep experience building and scaling SaaS and managed services businesses. At Centrical, she leads the Customer Success teams across North and South America, partnering with clients to drive measurable business impact through the platform.
Before joining Centrical, Madeleine was Head of Customer Success at Quantifind, an AI-powered analytics company, where she led strategic relationships with brands like Hershey’s, KFC, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Dunkin’ Brands. Her ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable solutions consistently helped customers achieve their goals.
Earlier in her career, Madeleine spent over a decade on the agency side, managing CRM and digital marketing programs for Fortune 500 companies through smart, data-driven strategies.
Michael Ciancio
CMO
Michael Ciancio serves as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Centrical, bringing decades of experience in marketing and go-to-market strategy. In this role, he leads the company’s global marketing efforts to drive brand growth and market expansion.
Prior to joining Centrical, Michael held marketing leadership positions at notable technology companies, including IntelePeer, Infor, and Vonage. Throughout his career, he has successfully guided teams in scaling products, strengthening brands, and significantly expanding market presence.
Michael’s expertise lies in scaling high-growth software companies, particularly in AI, performance management, and employee engagement solutions for customer experience teams. His strategic vision and leadership continue to be instrumental in advancing Centrical’s mission to transform how organizations engage and motivate their frontline teams.
Michael holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Gettysburg College and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing from Montclair State University.
Natalie Roth VP, Corporate Marketing
Natalie Roth brings over 15 years of experience in brand and product marketing for SaaS solutions. Before joining Centrical, she was Senior Product Marketing Manager at Frontline Education, where she led go-to-market strategies for enterprise K-12 solutions and played a key role in integrating and positioning products following multiple acquisitions.
Previously, Natalie served as Director of Marketing at Accelify Solutions, where she drove marketing strategy, new product launches, and customer communications. She played a pivotal role in business growth, expanding market presence, and deepening client engagement, contributing to the company’s success and eventual acquisition by Frontline Education.
Natalie holds a BA in Creative Writing and Digital Media from New York University, graduating magna cum laude.
Linat Mart
VP, Product Management
Linat Polak Mart has more than 15 years of expertise in managing product strategy and operations in high-volume organizations.Previously, she held the role of Head of Product Experience and Communications for LivePerson, a leading Conversational AI platform, where she played crucial part in delivering significant product innovation and customer growth. Prior to her time at LivePerson, she held multiple senior product roles at NICE, a leading enterprise customer experience (CX) software provider, including Director of Product Portfolio and Director of Product Management.
Linat holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya). She graduated magna cum laude from both institutions.
“CX leaders should stop isolating contact centers from other departments. Customer experience is increasingly cross-functional. In 2025, integrating CX insights across the organization will be critical to delivering seamless and cohesive experiences.”
Tompkins comes to Centrical with more than 25 years of experience in software and hardware sales. Prior to joining his role as Chief Revenue Officer at Centrical, he was CEO at Workspot. He held the position of Chief Revenue Officer at IGEL as well as senior sales leadership positions with Red Hat, Hewlett Packard (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise), and Citrix.
Tompkins holds an MBA in Business Administration and Management from the University of Virginia, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and served in the US Navy as a Nuclear Propulsion Technician.
“To start, give customers a choice: digital or live support. And if they go digital first and can’t get what they want, make it super-easy for them to connect to a live agent.”
“Knowledge Management: It is not exactly underrated but it will be bigger than what it is in 2025. Vendors are likely to boost R&D investment in knowledge management for contact centers in 2025.”
“Human-centered AI, where AI is used not just to automate and drop money to the bottom line, but used to service up insights to support team members and delight customers. I see generative AI with conversational context and tonal analysis as pretty critical here.”
“The future? Goodness, there’s so much, but I really believe 2025 is the year of community. We’re not just taking tickets anymore—folks we’re drawing people in, getting proactive, and co-creating with customers. Community will become a normal service channel, with customer service workers facilitating and adding value.”
“The myth that technology/AI is a quickly implemented CX superpower. Companies will realize that we can’t harness a lot of these gains without quality data that is clean and well-organized.”
“By 2025 the buzzword omnichannel may be on its’ last leg. Customers want their issues resolved quickly and accurately and they would prefer not to need to contact us in multiple channels that we can see at one time.”
“For 2025, the main trend I’m watching is ‘AI agents’—bots powered by AI that are becoming more autonomous. Unlike basic responses, these AI agents can handle end-to-end customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention. Expect significant developments from vendors.”
“Stop talking about AI. It’s like talking about the internet being a thing. It’s here. The better focus is start thinking about how AI enhances the lives of your team. So stop talking about AI and start doing something about it.”
“AI and CX will drive hyper-personalization, using consumer data to segment customers, deliver key messages, and provide fast, accurate responses. Technologies like chatbots and predictive analytics will close the gap between brands and consumers.”
“The blending of CX and EX will accelerate. The days of reducing friction for customers at the expense of employees are over. Indeed, because AI-enabled customer experiences often require AI usage by customer-facing employees, leaders will have to ensure a frictionless work experience to drive AI adoption and deliver value.”
One myth that will be debunked in 2025?: “Customers are on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what you have to say. We need to learn about what’s important to customers by asking more questions.”
Doron is a seasoned R&D professional with a a deep expertise in SaaS and enterprise software. He leads product development at Centrical. Prior to joining the company, he was Director of R&D at Tipalti, where he was part of the team that designed and developed the Tiplati product and the infrastructure it uses. Prior to that he was Director of R&D Sensor Management, which joined from Orsus, which was acquired by Nice Systems. Prior to that he held various R&D positions at Orsus. Doron holds a B.Sc in Computer Science from the Tel Aviv Yafo Academic College and a MBA degree from the University of Tel Aviv.
Daphne Saragosti
Chief Customer Officer
Daphne has over 15 years of experience in Customer Relations and Retention in both B2B and B2C environments. Her area of expertise is leading customer success, consulting and global professional services teams within public and private sector companies. She is focused on leading teams to grow the partnership with our clients.
Prior to Centrical, Daphne worked software and service companies in the online marketing and gaming industry.
Daphne holds MA in Statistics – Specialization in Operations Research and a MBA degree, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ella Davidson
VP Global HR
Ella Davidson is responsible for managing Centrical’s employee relations worldwide, including organizational development, talent management, benefits and recruitment. Ella has more than 18 years of human resources management experience. Prior to joining Centrical she was vice president of human resources at myThings and OpTier – leading SW companies, and consulted numerous entrepreneurs and startups in the Israeli hi-tech industry and Israel and in the US.Ella holds a B.A in Psychology from the Hebrew University and MSc in Organizational Behavior from Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
Ariel Herman
VP Research and Development
Ariel has over 16 years’ experience in a wide variety of R&D leadership roles. He is highly experienced at building R&D teams from the ground up, driving high levels of accountability and ownership and setting up automation infrastructures. For the past 10 years Ariel has managed both in-house and offshore development teams at companies ranging from startups to enterprise organizations.
Prior to joining Centrical, Ariel served as VP of R&D at Worthy.com where his team dramatically improved product stability, quality and execution. Before that, he was VP R&D at Applicaster where he led infrastructure changes from project to product. Ariel has also held various R&D positions at Retalix (later acquired by NCR).
Ariel holds B.sc in Computer science & Math, and MBA degree in Information Technologies, both from Bar Ilan University
Ronen Botzer
CFO
Ronen is a Finance and Business Development executive with 20+ years of leadership experience in startups and global companies across all aspects of management. He has direct experience with companies in the areas of software, services and capital equipment, including fund raising as well as M&As across different continents. Ronen is a CPA and holds an LLM degree from Bar Ilan university and B.A in business administration from the College of Business Management.
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Gal Rimon
Madeleine Freind
Natalie Roth
Linat Mart
Doron Neumann
Daphne Saragosti
Ella Davidson
Ariel Herman
Ronen Botzer