Archives: Speakers

Erich Dietz is the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Suralink, where he leads the company’s growth initiatives, focusing on enhancing client experiences and driving revenue. With over two decades of experience in enterprise sales, partnerships, and SaaS solutions, Erich has a proven track record of building high-performing teams and delivering exceptional results. Before joining Suralink, he held senior leadership roles in various technology and software companies, consistently driving innovation and customer value.

Erich’s expertise lies in aligning business strategies with client needs, making him a key voice in advancing secure, efficient solutions for accounting firms.

Jonathan Arenberg is the Chief Mission Architect for Science and Robotic Exploration at Northrop Grumman. His work experience includes the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope as Chief Engineer and many other missions, studies and technology efforts. He holds a PhD in engineering from UCLA and 15 US and European patents. Widely published he is a Fellow of SPIE and an Associate Fellow of AIAA.

Emily is a Senior Project Manager for the Research Services Department at the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP). She is responsible for planning, executing, and moderating patient advisory boards and various other patient engagement activities, which provide insights to support recommendations in the design and/or improvement of clinical trials. She holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Massachusetts Amherst and a MSPH in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control from Johns Hopkins University.

Chris Angus is a recognized industry voice with considerable influence within the contact center sphere due to more than 20 years of leading and delivering outstanding customer experience results.

Central to shaping 8×8’s customer engagement strategy and leading profitable go-to-market efforts, Chris has expanded 8×8’s presence across Europe and now heads sales and strategy for CPaaS, 8×8 Intelligent Customer Assistance and technology partnerships.

Craig brings extensive experience in the use of enterprise architecture and applications architecture practices in the insurance industry, working with and within insurers.

Craig has advised insurers on IT strategy, legacy modernization, insurance vendor analysis and enterprise architecture topics, principally in the EMEA region. Since joining Celent, he has been a speaker at industry events in North America and London, as well as Celent events in Europe. He has spoken on topics such as the influence of mobile on the industry, the use of social networks by insurers and how the evolving use of the Internet, data and IoT will influence insurance in the future.

Recent consulting clients have engaged Craig for policy administration vendor analyses, market entry strategies, and product messaging work for insurance vendors.

Prior to joining Celent, Craig was an applications architect with Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s Strategy and Architecture team, working extensively with RBS Insurance.

Jamie leads the Celent team globally across banking, insurance, wealth management and capital markets technology.

Since joining Celent in 2011 and drawing from his experience of a career spanning over 28 years in both the management consulting and insurance industry (with AXA, AIG and the Zurich Insurance Group), he has helped clients formulate their fintech technology strategy across the industry globally in ~20 countries. Engagements have included supporting major technology investment decisions, performing due diligence on vendor selection and for mergers & acquisitions, architectural option choices, and technology roadmap development.

Alongside leading the Celent team, Jamie maintains an active client engagement and research role, with a primary interest in the technology opportunities and challenges facing the European life and pensions market, contributing to the debate around innovation, digital transformation, BPO strategies, the impact of regulation, and the insurtech / fintech arena. Jamie was also one the architects of Celent’s innovation framework and continues to be a major contributor to shaping Celent’s global research agenda.

Jamie has an MBA from the University of Southampton and a first class BSc Honours degree in Business Information Technology from the University of Portsmouth. He has also attended Driving Strategic Innovation at the IMD was selected for Telemaque (a global leadership development programme run by AXA University in partnership with INSEAD), and is currently studying for his doctorate in business administration researching innovation. Jamie is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Information Technology Practitioner, and Member of the British Computer Society.

Karun is a Senior Analyst within Celent’s insurance practice based in London. His research efforts have centred around identifying and analysing insurance technology trends and software platforms in the insurance industry, particularly in the EMEA region, encompassing property and casualty (P&C) and life and health (L&H) lines of business. Karun is a highly accomplished and technology-focused professional with a wealth of experience in the global IT industry, specifically within the insurance, pensions, and investment management sectors.

Before joining Celent, Karun spent 22 years at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he played a pivotal role in expanding the company’s insurance portfolio in Europe. During his tenure, Karun excelled in securing and executing large-scale, multi-million-dollar global IT contracts. He assumed complete solution and cost ownership, providing strategic guidance to clients on transformative initiatives.

In addition to his extensive insurance industry experience, Karun has a background in manufacturing and supply chain management. He has led consulting engagements focused on IT strategy and Enterprise Architecture, further enhancing his expertise.

Karun’s recent reports have covered a wide range of subjects, including core systems analysis, digital twins in insurance, best practices in cloud adoption, quantum computing, parametric insurance, ESG, and climate change.

Since joining Celent, Karun has been a featured speaker at industry events in London and Celent events in Europe, covering topics such as NetZero Transition, Climate Change, Cloud, Customer Experience, and Legacy Modernization.