How Do You Compare with CCMA Benchmark?

About the Speaker

Sarah Tait, Head of Contact Centre Operations, Customer Services, Riverside

Sarah began her career as an advisor in NatWest Bank’s busy London call centre, where she developed resilience, determination, and a deep understanding of excellent customer service. She went on to build her experience across the private residential housing sector with Countrywide PLC, e‑commerce with The Hut Group, and now social housing at Riverside, always championing the customer’s voice and fast, attentive support. With a strong belief in keeping the customer at the centre, Sarah leads teams that focus on seeing the person, owning the issue, and making things easy. She remains committed to continuous growth and making a meaningful difference.

Emma Newell, Customer Care Director, Financial Times

Emma has extensive experience shaping strategy, developing high-performing teams, and delivering impactful service transformation. Having started her contact centre career on the phones, Emma has held a wide range of roles across frontline operations and leadership, including Team Leader, Contact Centre Manager, and Head of Operations. She is driven by a belief in thoughtful, human-centred leadership and the power of great service to strengthen relationships and inspire loyalty. By combining deep operational experience with a focus on people and intelligent use of technology, Emma champions customer care as a true competitive advantage.

Kim Baker, Head of Operational Support Services, L&Q

Kim brings over 25 years’ experience leading complex operational services and delivering change at scale. She specialises in service design, assurance, regulatory compliance, resource planning, and data‑led improvement, with a strong track record of embedding accountability and continuous improvement across large organisations. Kim provides strategic leadership across operational support, workforce planning, change programmes, and performance frameworks, ensuring services are resilient, efficient, and future‑ready. She is known for building high‑performing, engaged teams and for leveraging insight, technology, and innovation to deliver sustainable impact across multiple industries.

Marcus Brent, Head of Reward at Stepchange Debt Charity

Marcus has worked in reward since 1994 and has held several reward consultant and manager roles, including a couple of spells as a self-employed consultant. Before joining StepChange in May 2019 Marcus spent 5 years at the Yorkshire Building Society and 12 years at Aviva. He’s worked across a broad range of reward activities, from benchmarking, role evaluation and data analysis to strategy development and programme delivery.