WAKEFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The winners of the inaugural "CX Impact Awards" were announced today by the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), the international non-profit organization created to guide and enhance the growing field of customer experience management. The announcement kicked off the first observance of CX Day, a global celebration of companies and people who are delivering great experiences to customers.

The awards were created to recognize individuals who have had a significant impact on the field of customer experience management. The CXPA invited customer experience professionals to nominate people whose achievements had impressed them. The winners are:

Ashish Mehta, Member of Technical Staff, Adobe Systems India

Alicia Holloway, Claims Adjustor, Arizona Public Service Company

Patti Hoerner, Manager, Customer Experience, Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan

Pamela Jo Hynes, Vice President of Client Success and Education, Interactive Intelligence, Inc.

Ryan Pellet, Senior Vice President, Nexidia

Stephanie Bottner, General Manager, Pear Tree Greetings

Stephenie Hoehndorf, Director, Global Client Loyalty and Retention Intelligence, Savvis, a CenturyLink Company

Misia Tramp, Vice President of Insight and Innovation, SDL

Sue Roberts, Customer Experience Programme Manager, Shop Direct

Scott Burditt, SVP Client Experience and Channel Management, UMB Financial

Nancy Porte, Vice President, Customer Experience, Verint

Noah Grayson, Senior Vice President, Consulting Services and Strategic Account Manager, Walker

"We’re thrilled to recognize the first wave of CX Impact Award winners, and it’s great to see a mix of practitioners and vendors who represent the CX ecosystem," said Bruce Temkin, CXPA Chairman and co-founder. "I congratulate the winners, and I also congratulate all the hard-working CX professionals around the world who are celebrating with us today. It's a great day for CX!"

Nominations for the CX Impact Awards were accepted at the CXDay.org website. The panel of judges that selected the winners consisted of:

Parrish Arturi, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience, Fidelity Investments, CXPA Co-chairman

Jeanne Bliss, President, Customer Bliss

Ginger Conlon, Editor-in-Chief, "Direct Marketing News"

Jeff Frank, Owner/President, Simplicity Sofas

Aimee Lucas, CX Transformist and Vice President, Temkin Group

Colin Shaw, CEO, Beyond Philosophy

CX Day in-person meetings in 19 cities across five countries today include speakers, breakout discussions, networking, refreshments and more. Online events are also taking place, including four Google+ Hangouts across time zones, a webcast featuring CXPA Chairman Bruce Temkin and Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Corporation, a Twitter chat led by Ingrid Lindberg, Chief Experience Officer of Prime Therapeutics, and a CX Blog Carnival. There is no charge to attend a CX Day meeting, but registration is required. Details about all meetings are available from the website. Additionally, a number of companies are holding in-house CX Day celebrations.

The CXPA has created the website CXDay.org as a resource to communicate all of the activities scheduled for CX Day. Clarabridge, Inc. and SDL are Platinum Sponsors of CX Day 2013.

About the CXPA

The Customer Experience Professionals Association is a global, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management best practices. It provides customer experience management professionals with educational and networking opportunities to help them succeed, and facilitates the industry-wide advancement of the discipline of customer experience management. The CXPA’s members include individuals who develop, manage, optimize, and envision how organizations interact with their customers. This community includes customer experience practitioners within companies, vendors who support customer experience efforts, and other stakeholders in the industry.

Founded in April 2011, the CXPA has more than 80 Corporate Members and nearly 2,300 customer experience professionals in its community. CXPA Gold Sponsors include Confirmit, ForeSee, Oracle, and Verint. Clarabridge, Inc., Corsential, Interactive Intelligence, Mattersight Corporation, Medallia, ResponseTek and TNS are CXPA Silver Sponsors. For more information, visit www.cxpa.org.

Customer Experience Professionals Association, CXPA, and the CXPA logo are trademarks of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. All other company names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.