Gloria Kurant's expertise in the customer contact industry spans virtually all aspects of the business, from strategic to operational for both consumer and business-to-business applications. Gloria has honed her skills working with an impressive list of companies over the last two decades, with a focus on highly regulated industries, such as insurance, energy and pharmaceuticals. Some client companies include: Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sears Insurance, Allstate Life Insurance, AIG, Hartford Life, and Entergy.

Gloria's expertise includes direct response marketing, operational and channel management strategy, operational assessment and effectiveness, outsourcing management, organizational design, account management and program design, management and execution.

One of Gloria's greatest contributions to any engagement is her understanding of the context in which the Customer Contact Center functions. By identifying the ways the Center must be aligned with business strategy, by identifying critical gaps in planning, business knowledge, staffing or technology, Gloria has helped clients fashion world-class operations. Using her unique talents, she can proudly point to a long history of successful start-ups and organizational transformations.

Prior to founding Kurant Direct, Gloria was hired by AT&T American Transtech (now Convergys) to transform them into a teleservice bureau. Transtech was started as a unit of AT&T for the sole purpose of handling divestiture issues. Gloria's audit of the resources and structure led to her planning and implementing the company's first automated teleservices software, personalized letter writing and database management systems. She was also responsible for new business development, and brought a number of database, direct mail and lead management support system programs for Avon, Aetna, AT&T and Shearson Lehman Brothers to the firm, and successfully guided Transtech into the insurance vertical market. To bring all this to market, she developed business reporting requirements, processes and procedures, and trained management personnel in start-up and ongoing program management practices.

These AT&T experiences, along with her earlier work, have shaped Gloria's unique perspective on the practical business solutions and workable delivery requirements of world-class customer service operations. She learned industry fundamentals as a senior consultant with Ron Weber and Associates, a telemarketing service agency. In addition to consulting to in-house operations, she developed and managed programs in lead qualification, direct sales and renewals.

Gloria brings the latest in marketing and call center strategy, operations and technology expertise to bear on her engagements by maintaining close ties with other industry leaders. She is an active industry speaker and has been involved in a number of professional organizations including the Direct Marketing Association's Telemarketing Council and the Direct Marketing Insurance and Financial Services Councils. She also maintains her New York Life & Health license. Gloria lives and works in New York City.