Top Field Service Management Influencers in 2023
Most field service departments operate in a highly competitive and customer-centric marketplace. Just one negative interaction with a technician can spoil a company’s reputation, so field service management must continuously find ways to meet growing expectations for quicker resolutions, shorter arrival times, and better overall customer experiences. The field service industry is lucky to have several thought leaders who publish their expert views, speak at conferences, and share their philosophy with others in the field. Below is a partial list of field service influencers who challenge the industry to up its game by innovating through technology or process improvements to improve service delivery.
- John Carroll, CEO, Service Council
John Carroll is an entrepreneurial marketing and business development executive with a consistent record of growing revenue, market share, and business valuation. He founded Service Council™ in 2009 with a vision to create a platform for innovation sharing, shaping, and sharpening service skills. Under Carroll’s direction, Service Council has grown from a groundbreaking idea to a community with more than 150,000 service executives worldwide across six continents, with members in over 30 countries.https://twitter.com/tservicecouncil/https://www.linkedin.com/in/johntcarroll/ - Bob Feiner, SVP Global Services
Bob Feiner joined Dell Technologies in 1999 and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Dell EMC’s Global Deployment and Field Services business. He leads a global organization of nearly 3,000 team members and over 25,000 contractors who support Dell EMC customers in more than 140 countries. His teams provide services to Dell EMC customers throughout their life cycle, including configuration services, installations and deployments, managed services, on-site support, and asset recycling and resale. As the leader of the Global Deployment and Field Services organization, Bob is responsible for managing a $1 billion business. Bob is also an author: see his site https://feinerbook.com.
https://twitter.com/austinsox
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-feiner-4b25b2/ - Rod Cook, Director of North American Service Operations
In his current position as Director of NA Service Operations, Rod is responsible for leading Trane’s field service operations teams. He provides leadership and support to over 2,500 field technicians and their leaders and helps them provide customers with a world-class service experience. His primary areas of responsibility include field technology and tech-enabled services, mobility, coordination, fleet, and value-stream transformation. Rod has over 24 years of experience in the HVAC industry and has spent most of his time strategizing, leading, and implementing service operations solutions across North America. - Mark Hessinger, SVP of Services
Mark is the SVP Services at 3D Systems and is responsible for all Global Services Functions. He is a Senior Global Customer Experience Leader who leads organizations to higher performance. He is a visionary with a demonstrated ability to identify customer needs and design a strategy that builds innovative, profitable, and scalable solutions, delivering greater customer loyalty and employee engagement. Mark produced and led global customer experience programs leveraging NPS and a closed-loop process improvement at multiple companies. He architected the strategy and led IoT and M2M projects that leveraged technology to transform business processes and operations. Mark specializes in finding sustainable solutions for large, messy, customer-facing problems.
https://twitter.com/markhessinger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhessinger/
- Ron Kruse, VP of Service Operations
Ron has over 20 years of experience building, transforming, and leading operations teams within the energy, sustainability, and industrial supply sectors. As Volta Charging’s Vice President of Service Operations, he leads the field service, customer support, and operational analytics functions. His team ensures Volta’s stations are online and well-maintained and that their drivers, site partners, and advertising customers have an excellent experience. Ron’s career in Operations has spanned roles in supply chain, information technology, and field operations. With an unrelenting focus on process improvement, change management, and team building, Ron operationalizes and rapidly scales organizations to enable revenue.https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronkruse/ - Robb Origer, Vice President, Field Services
Robb Origer has 25+ years of broad experience in operations, service, and sales. He has built and led teams supporting customer acquisition, final mile, and service efforts for organizations nationwide. Today, Robb leads field services for Sleep Number (www.sleepnumber.com). The field services team provides an in-home experience for their 360 Smart Beds, which includes delivery, installation, and customer education. Before joining Sleep Number, Robb gained valuable cross-functional expertise, ultimately leading the sales operations and field operations departments at DISH Network. His teams completed millions of in-home appointments each year for DISH TV, installing smart home, home theater, and home appliance products for many national brands.https://www.linkedin.com/in/robboriger/ - Scott VerBracken, VP Automotive Services
Scott began his career with AAA ACG (The Auto Club Group) in 2001. Over the past two decades, he has led integration and transformation efforts with ACGs Contact Centers and Field Operations. In his current role as Vice President Automotive Services, he has oversight of ACGs Automotive Contact Centers, 30 Fleet Operations, 1,500 Independent Service Providers, 1,100 Approved Auto Repair Facilities, and 6 million annual road service events. Scott is the former Chairman of the AAA National Automotive Subcommittee and remains an active committee member. He also serves on the Salesforce Field Service Community Advisory Board.https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-verbracken-751403/ - Curtis Woods, Director of Technical Services
Curtis is the Director of Technical Services for Fresenius Medical Care North America, responsible for a nationwide field service organization, the technical training program, and a 24 / 7 technical support call center. Over his career, Curtis has worked in quality control, research and development, operations, and project management for new product introductions. His passion for cross-functional collaboration and introducing new technologies helps to simplify service and improve customer experience. Curtis’s current focus is to strengthen relationships between departments in the organization while improving product design for the manufacturing process.https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-woods-3b832928/
- Dan Kelly, Director of Field Service & Strategy
Dan believes the customer’s perspective and experience are essential to business success. He started his career as a customer systems technician working his way to field service director at Hunter Douglas Inc., continually succeeding in taking on challenges that improved business operations by looking through the customer’s viewpoint. This outlook, along with his strong work ethic and combination of practical experience and business acumen, allows Dan to lead by example and achieve his corporate objectives. Dan recruited a solid cross-functional team that exceeded company goals in improving satisfaction scores while building a personal reputation as a subject matter expert in delivering an exceptional customer experience.https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkelly3/ - Shannon Beecher, Vice President, Services Supply Chain
With over 40 years of heading various functions in the supply chain, Shannon is currently the Vice President of the Service Supply Chain operation at IBM. She is responsible for strategy and global business execution, contributing to the Best in Class NPS for IBM Support. Her goals are to drive innovation and transformation, resulting in end-to-end digitization, transparency, and business optimization. She is responsible for an over $300M operating budget, supporting over 350K SKUs. Shannon leads a team of 450 deeply talented supply chain professionals, supporting over 74 countries, with client response times from 2 hrs to the next business day.https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-beecher-89a9ba1 - Rick Shimko, Service & Field Service Apps Marketing Leader
Rick is the Senior Product Marketing Manager for Oracle Field Service. He rejoined Oracle in November 2020 having previously worked for the company in 2015-16 after the acquisition of TOA Technologies (now Oracle Field Service). Prior to the acquisition, Rick led the global marketing operations and demand generation team for TOA, building a strong knowledge and appreciation of the field service industry and technology ecosystem that supports it. Rick has more than 15 years experience in B2B and SaaS software marketing across a diverse group of start-up, growth stage and enterprise companies.https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickshimko/ - Jon Barr, Head of IT, Americas
Jon Barr is the head of Information Technology for KONE Americas. In this role, he leads transformational information technology initiatives across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. His efforts focus on ensuring world-class processes and tools are in place to empower business results for KONE Americas. Jon has been with KONE Americas for over 16 years, and serves on the Americas Leadership Team. Previously, Jon was the director of business processes for KONE Americas. Jon started his career with KONE working on the SAP Implementation project team. Prior to joining KONE, Jon was a manager for Accenture.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-barr-jr/
https://twitter.com/jon_barr_jr?lang=en - Brad Haeberle Senior Vice President Services
Brad Haeberle is Vice President of the Solutions, Services and Energy Businesses for Siemens Smart Infrastructure, Regional Solutions & Services, Americas. He is currently responsible for the multi-billion-dollar fire, building automation, security, electrical, energy and HVAC portfolio strategy to achieve superior profit, growth, and customer and employee satisfaction goals. He is also responsible for the Americas Digital Service Center and IT services application.Haeberle joined Smart Infrastructure (formerly Siemens Building Technologies) in 1994, and has held several strategic sales and marketing positions across five business units. He was responsible for leading the effort to develop the service strategy for Siemens Industry, Inc., and has chaired the Siemens Sustainability Committee, helping to define the company’s sustainability efforts. In his most recent role, Haeberle was the Segment Head for the Building Automation Service Business.https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-haeberle-b20b368/ - Paul Whitelam, SVP & GM, Field Service Management
Paul Whitelam is the Senior Director of Product Strategy for Salesforce. He joined Salesforce as part of the acquisition of ClickSoftware, where he led the global marketing team, working closely with field service management leaders across various industries. Paul has more than twenty years of experience in enterprise software, with leadership roles in several areas fundamental to field services, such as mobile (Nokia), location intelligence (HERE Technologies), and data management (Endeca).https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulwhitelam/ - Bulent Cinarkaya, GM of Field Service Management
Bulent Cinarkaya is the General Manager of Field Service Management at ServiceNow. He leads the business unit dedicated to supporting and strengthening field service organizations, enabling them to deliver outstanding customer and employee experiences. An experienced people and product manager, Bulent previously held senior vice president roles at Salesforce and Oracle.https://www.linkedin.com/in/bulent/ - Karin Hamel, Vice President of Services for U.S. Digital Buildings
Karin Hamel leads Services for the U.S. Digital Buildings business at Schneider Electric, a $28.6 billion global leader in providing digital solutions for energy efficiency and sustainability. A leader recognized for establishing a culture of success to drive shareholder value, Karin is highly regarded for scaling organizations to long-term sustainable performance, maintaining a customer-centric approach, and enhancing long-term profitability through operational excellence. Karin’s diverse background in sales, marketing, and operations gives her a unique perspective to drive the necessary transformation within services.https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinhamel1/ - Jim Robinson, Research Director
Jim Robinson is a Research Director at Gartner. His research focuses on enterprise field service management, including agreement management, operations, performance management, and mobile workforce management. Mr. Robinson has over 20 years of field service experience, spanning ERP/field service implementation, development, business process re-engineering, and executive leadership.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrrobinson/
- Chris Westlake, Global Service Business and Technology Leader
Chris’s background includes more than 20 years of global Services & Support leadership experience at companies such as Danaher, Rockwell Automation, Medtronic, and currently at Generac. His expertise is developing effective business strategies, building high-performance commercial and operational teams, and leveraging systems, processes, and technology to improve customer experience and accelerate profitable growth.https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswestlake/ - Sasha Ilyukhin, SVP, Customer Service Operation
As a member of the global senior leadership team for Tetra Pak Services, Mr. Ilyukhin is leading the service operations team of 700+ people across North, Central, and South America to support the $500 Million+ growing services business. In this role, Sasha and his team are transforming the services business model through creating, deploying, and nurturing outcome-based solutions focused on customers’ business resilience, sustainability, and human centricity. Ilyukhin also serves on several international steering committees tasked with strategy development and organizational transformation at Tetra Pak Group.https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilyukhin/ - Sarah Nicastro, Field Service Evangelist & Podcast Host
Sarah Nicastro has extensive experience covering the trends, technologies, and business drivers that significantly impact service-based businesses. She joined IFS in 2018 to create Future of Field Service, previously spending more than a decade as the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Field Technologies Online. Sarah is passionate about helping service leaders share their trials and triumphs through interviews on the Future of Field Service podcast and bringing the field service community together to collaborate, share best practices, and contribute valuable insights.https://twitter.com/SJNicastro
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhowland/ - Ron Palinkas, Service Team Builder
Ron Palinkas is Head of Customer Connect at Hitachi Energy. He believes field service is the final frontier of customer relationship management and has a passion for developing and harnessing the potential of field service reps in the industry. He incorporates strategic vision, uniform standards development, lean management principles, and objective implementation into his business philosophy. Ron’s posts about team development can be found on his High Caliber Teams blog.Ron Palinkas (@ronpalinkas) / Twitter - Stefano Folli Head of Global Services and Solutions Delivery, Executive Vice President
Stefano leads the Global Services and Solutions Delivery organization within Philips. With approximately 14,000 employees, the Services and Solutions organization is at the core of Philips’ transformation into a solution provider in health technology. Philips partners closely with their customers to transform healthcare delivery. Stefano leads change through leadership impact, authenticity, and engagement. With extensive knowledge of diversified B2C and B2B/B2G strategy, Stefano has led prominent multinational corporations and international groups; including public, privately owned, and private equity funded businesses. He thrives on achieving success through talent, innovative approaches such as digital and lean, and strong teamwork.https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanofolli/ - Erin Izen, Senior Director of Workforce Programs
Erin Izen is the Senior Director of Workforce Programs at The Home Depot. Her focus is mainly on The Home Depot’s approach to social responsibility and the external support of underskilled and underrepresented populations. Examples include a workforce development team (focusing on filling the skilled labor gap) and a military relations department (responsible for the comprehensive enterprise strategy for supporting US military service members and veterans). She also heads the contingent workforce program office, leading the strategy behind Home Depot’s use of contract workers. Before this position, Erin held various strategic planning, execution, and operational roles in the business, such as Strategic Business Development, Store Operations, and THD Rental.https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinizen/
What Do You Get Out of This Field Services Influencers List?
As a part of the field services community, you have many choices. Many innovative technologies, applications, fascinating case studies, lists of best practices, and more information are being developed daily. How to sift through it all? The above list of industry thought leaders are in the trenches and are worth following. They have already laid the foundation for exchanging ideas and connecting people and have dedicated their work lives to the field service industry. Follow them and learn.
Who else would you add to this list? Send us a message with your nominations.
