Mary Poppen, MA, is the President and Managing Partner of HRIZONS Employee Experience (EX) and former Chief Customer Officer at SAP and LinkedIn. She is also a Professor of Practice for the CXM Master's Program at MSU.
Mary is a seasoned leader with a strong track record of building high-performing teams, accelerating revenue, increasing customer retention and improving operating efficiency in high-growth and high-change environments. Her teams have delivered some of the highest customer retention and satisfaction levels in the SaaS industry. She is well-known for her thought leadership in customer and employee experience; she often speaks at global conferences, authors content for various publications, and is frequently featured in podcasts. She recently published a book entitled "Goodbye, Churn. Hello, Growth!"
Mary has experience building world-class teams and processes for early startups including SuccessFactors, Glint and involve.ai, as well as large organizations including SAP and LinkedIn. She is passionate about fostering "people success," which she describes as the intersection of employee and customer experience. Mary holds a Master's Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has over 20 years of experience building and innovating employee and customer experiences. In addition to teaching for MSU, she enjoys serving as a Board Advisor and executive coach, and has a passion for giving back through female mentorship programs.
In her spare time, Mary enjoys traveling with her husband and two sons, playing Pickleball and doing Warrior Sculpt for exercise, and wine-tasting for exploratory purposes.
