Cresta, the Expertise AI provider to the enterprise, today announced key appointments to its Strategic Advisory Board: Chris Koehler, Chief Marketing Officer at Box; Aparna Khurjekar, Senior Vice President of Verizon Business Markets at Verizon; Bob Kupbens, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Neiman Marcus Group; Mahmoud ElAssir, Vice President, Google Cloud Customer Experience – Strategic Accounts; and Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson, the Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab at the Institute for Human-Centered AI. All are joining Cresta to help inform its strategy on the development of human-AI mentoring and interaction for the enterprise.
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“We’re delighted to welcome pioneers from the corporate and academic worlds to Cresta. We’re pushing the boundaries of how humans and AI can work together to improve both. The experience and insights these people bring to this mission will be invaluable,” said Zayd Enam, co-founder and CEO of Cresta.
These five new advisors bring decades of experience in AI, marketing, and strategic planning. Chris Koehler’s roots are in social psychology, consumer behavior, and analytical thinking. Combined with his operational experience as Chief Marketing Officer at Box, where he leads its Cloud Content Management platform and has helped the company generate record revenue of $770.8 million in 2020, will bring extensive growth management and digital transformation expertise to the company. Before Box, Koehler was the head of Go-to-Market and Product Marketing at Adobe, focusing on Creative Cloud for enterprise. During his more than ten-year tenure at the company, he was responsible for driving digital innovation across the portfolio. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from George Mason University, an MBA from Georgia State University, and was a graduate of the Harvard Business Analytics Executive Education Program.
Aparna Khurjekar brings more than two decades’ worth of experience in the telecommunications industry. As Senior Vice President of Verizon Business Markets, she is currently responsible for the company’s $8B+ mid-market wireless and wireline business, Fios B2B and IOT. She leads 3000+ sales professionals, who guide customers through digitally transformed journeys with innovative managed solutions for total connectivity, communications, and collaboration. During her 13-year tenure at Verizon, Aparna has held various leadership roles, including, most recently, the Chief Customer Officer for Verizon Consumer Group, which included guiding AI-led business transformations, omni-channel consumer experience and the digital P&l. She also brings extensive product development experience from both her work at Verizon and her previous position at Motorola Mobility, where she served as the Director of Portfolio & Technology Strategy. She holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Temple University and a B.S. in Electronics and Telecom from Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Bob Kupbens brings considerable expertise in customer experience from his leadership roles at Apple, eBay, ADT and his current role as Chief Product & Technology Officer of Neiman Marcus Group. Kupbens has extensive experience in driving digital-led transformation and, during his tenures at Delta Air Lines and Target, was a pioneer of omnichannel customer interactions. He has successfully driven growth, profitability and strategy across a variety of complex organizations and gained cross-functional expertise in marketing, eCommerce, enterprise IT, supply chain and product development. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Mahmoud ElAssir specializes in developing and executing Digital Transformation strategies for enterprise customers in his role at Google, where he is Vice President, Google Cloud Customer Experience. He focuses on delivering measurable business outcomes in the most efficient way possible for customers, tying into Cresta’s ability to deliver measurable results just weeks after implementation. Prior to Google, he spent nearly two decades at Verizon in various technology leadership roles, including leading the Global Technology Services division as its SVP and CIO as well as launching Verizon’s journey to the cloud. He has also served as an Advisory Council Member to both Amazon Web Services, Red Hat and Dell Technologies, and he is currently a member of the board of advisors of the CTO Forum, which connects technology and business leaders to share insights. He holds his B.Eng in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut.
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An expert on the economics of information, Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson is the Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab at the Institute for Human-Centered AI. His research, which examines the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and performance, digital commerce, and intangible assets, will be invaluable in informing the next generation of human-machine interaction. A best-selling author, Prof. Brynjolfsson holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Harvard in applied mathematics and a PhD from MIT in managerial economics.
“Cresta is at the leading edge of human-machine interaction in the enterprise domain. Their focus on human advancement through technology is exactly the kind of forward-thinking that I am excited to support with Zayd and his team,” said Prof. Brynjolfsson.