RAKBANK

Leading Culture Transformation and driving Innovation Strategy at RAKBANK by integrating Service Design, Journey Mapping, and Human-Centered Design principles to radically enhance Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Experience (EX). 

Successfully embedded scalable Innovation Frameworks improving internal capability, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

VP - People Transformation & People Product Innovation 

WXO - World Experience Organization

Founding Member

Legal & General

Directed strategic Innovation and Experience Design initiatives, embedding Service Design and Human-Centered Design practices across organizational culture. Facilitated cross-functional teams through agile sprints, redefining Customer and Employee Journeys and enabling measurable business outcomes and lasting Culture Transformation.

Head of People Experience & Strategy

?What If! Innovation | Part of Accenture

Transforming organizations by integrating human-centered design, behavioral science, and service innovation to create seamless experiences that empower employees and delight customers.

Strategic Leadership & Innovation:
• Pioneered an enterprise-wide experience design practice, aligning customer journeys with employee enablement to drive measurable improvements in engagement and retention.
• Designed cross-functional innovation programs, accelerating solution delivery through rapid prototyping and experimentation, resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction.
• Developed behavioral change frameworks, empowering teams to anticipate customer needs and proactively address service challenges.

Experience Design & Transformation:
• Redesigned end-to-end onboarding experiences, using journey mapping and behavioral insights to improve retention and customer satisfaction.
• Created Employee Value Proposition (EVP) strategies, reducing turnover and enabling teams to deliver exceptional service across critical touchpoints.
• Implemented rapid prototyping methodologies, shortening innovation cycles and improving operational efficiency through iterative design and testing.

Core Expertise:
Journey Mapping & Experience Innovation
Behavioral Change Design & Implementation
Business Model Innovation & Scaling
Leadership Capability Building
People Product Design & Development
Experience Strategy & Transformation
Rapid Prototyping & Experimentation

Innovation Manager (Culture & Innovation)

Accenture

Driving Transformation Through Service Design, Behavioral Insights, and Innovation
Partnered with global organizations to lead transformative initiatives, combining human-centered design, behavioral science, and service innovation to reimagine customer and employee experiences across diverse industries.

Strategic Advisory & Leadership:
Guided enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, leveraging behavioral insights and design thinking to elevate service delivery and employee engagement.
Led multidisciplinary innovation programs, accelerating digital transformation through methodologies like rapid prototyping and experimentation.
Designed and deployed scalable frameworks for organizational change, empowering clients to embed sustainable innovation practices and foster customer-centric cultures.
Client Collaboration & Implementation:
Directed end-to-end service design projects, from strategy development to implementation, driving measurable improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Facilitated design thinking workshops and innovation sprints, building client capabilities to sustain continuous improvement and innovation.
Applied agile methodologies to streamline solution development, ensuring alignment with client goals and user-centered outcomes.

Core Expertise:
Experience Strategy & Design
Behavioral Economics & Insights
Service Innovation & Transformation
Change Management & Organizational Design
Digital Transformation
Customer Journey Mapping & Design
Innovation Framework Development

Innovation Manager (People Strategy & Transformation)

GP Strategies - EMEA Region

Driving Enterprise Transformation Through Design, Innovation, and Behavioral Science
I lead organizational transformation by blending human-centered design, service innovation, and digital enablement to deliver seamless customer experiences and empower employee excellence.

Strategic Vision & Impact:
•Architect seamless CX/EX journeys, integrating service design, systems thinking, and behavioral insights to deliver measurable business impact.
•Champion digital innovation initiatives that modernize service delivery, enhance workforce productivity, and anticipate evolving customer needs.
•Craft future-ready solutions by combining deep behavioral insights with emerging technologies to drive engagement and satisfaction.

Transformation Leadership:
•Designed and implemented integrated journey strategies, resolving complex challenges while aligning customer and employee touchpoints.
•Pioneered workplace evolution initiatives that foster engagement, enable exceptional service delivery, and support future-of-work models.
•Led digital transformation projects, enhancing self-service capabilities, streamlining operations, and improving customer satisfaction.

Core Expertise:
Customer Experience Architecture & Journey Mapping
Service Design & Innovation
Behavioral Economics & Change Design
Digital Enablement & Transformation
Organizational Transformation & Future of Work
Systems Thinking & Integration

Director - Strategy & Culture Transformation

In this role, I combine design strategy, business partnering, and innovation to deliver impactful solutions for FTSE100/500 clients. By blending customer and employee experience design, I’ve driven measurable improvements in learning, culture, and performance outcomes while enabling digital and organizational transformation.

Core Focus Areas:
• Customer Experience Innovation: Aligning learning and culture strategies with business goals to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Modern Learning Functions: Designing scalable, digitally-enabled solutions that connect employee performance to customer impact.
• People & Culture Design: Building frameworks that empower employees to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
• Digital Transformation Strategy: Leveraging technology to enhance both customer and employee interactions.
• Leadership & Early Career Development: Equipping leaders and new talent with the skills to champion customer-centric cultures.
• Agile Project Management: Delivering fast, iterative improvements to meet evolving customer and business needs.
• Social Learning & Innovation Scanning: Identifying emerging trends to keep learning solutions customer-focused and future-ready.

Impact Highlights:
• Partnered with FTSE100 clients to modernize learning ecosystems, increasing employee performance and improving customer satisfaction by 15%.
• Designed leadership development programs that aligned cultural behaviors with customer-first business strategies, reducing time-to-impact for new leaders.
• Delivered blended learning solutions that enhanced customer-facing team capabilities, driving a 20% improvement in customer resolution rates.
• Created digital transformation strategies that streamlined processes, reducing operational costs and improving CX consistency.

Architect/Consultant - Design, Innovation & People Experiece

The Mindset Software Company

Client Partnership Impact
•Guided major clients (Warburtons, Missguided, Burger King, Cambridge Assessment)
•Led Mindset software integration strategies
•Developed internal campaign launches
•Delivered strategic L&D consultancy

Experience Innovation
•Redesigned user interface focusing on learner engagement
•Enhanced software usability through user-centric design
•Created intuitive learning experiences

Data & Analytics Leadership
•Transformed backend architecture
•Implemented behavior analytics
•Enabled data-driven decision making
•Developed engagement tracking systems

Specialised in combining strategic consultation with user-centric design to deliver measurable learning outcomes.

Head Of Audience listening & Innovation

TalkTalk

Driving customer and employee transformation through strategic experience design and digital innovation.

Experience Design & Digital Transformation
• Designed customer-centric face-to-face and digital experiences, increasing engagement across key customer touchpoints.
• Led Office365 adoption through 'Learnathon' initiatives, improving digital collaboration and customer service delivery.
• Established strategic partnerships with LinkedIn and Microsoft to enhance digital learning ecosystems and customer-facing solutions.

Leadership & Talent Development
• Created next-generation leadership pathways that aligned leadership behaviors with customer-centric business goals.
• Implemented spot-coaching and mentoring programs, enhancing leader readiness to address evolving customer needs.
• Designed graduate and apprenticeship schemes, equipping new talent to deliver superior customer and employee experiences.
• Partnered with stakeholders on new manager development, focusing on customer-first team leadership.

Culture & Performance
• Transformed performance management frameworks at TalkTalk, aligning employee behaviors with customer expectations.
• Co-created an organization-wide culture change program, driving a 15% increase in employee engagement and improved customer satisfaction.
• Developed an integrated behavior framework spanning the employee lifecycle, ensuring consistency in customer-facing roles.
• Aligned organizational values across recruitment, performance, and leadership to build a customer-centric culture.

I specialize in driving sustainable organizational change by combining human-centered transformation with strategic experience design that delivers measurable customer and employee impact.

Group People Experience Lead

Telefónica

Strategic Consulting & Innovation
•Guide organisations through learning transformation
•Develop customised L&D strategies
•Enable digital learning adoption
•Drive organisational change initiatives
•Partner with stakeholders to define success metrics

Learning Design Leadership
•Architect innovative customer service learning solutions
•Design multi-faceted programs for diverse learning styles
•Break traditional learning models through creative approaches
•Leverage digital and experiential learning techniques

Change & Implementation
•Led Tesco Mobile learning strategy for 1,200 staff
•Guide organisational change management
•Drive digital transformation initiatives
•Enable sustainable behavior change

Community & Culture
•O2 Big Thinker and community advocate
•Design distinctive, adaptable experiences
•Bridge business objectives with learner needs
•Drive engagement through creative leadership

Core Strengths
•Strategic consulting and thought leadership
•Innovation-driven solution design
•Data-informed decision making
•Stakeholder management
•Digital transformation expertise

Specialised in transforming organisations through innovative learning design and strategic consultation.

Learning and Development Consultant

Tesco Mobile

Team Leader
After successfully completing the in house manager program at Tesco Mobile: 

•	Part of the Aspire Programme, providing short and long term cover for team managers with the focus to become a full time manager this can range from 2 weeks cover to long term
•	Dealing with both internal and external customers
•	Resolving escalations
•	Set expectations 
•	A standout role model
•	Advising and coaching new team members this being on a 121 or group level
•	Develop excellent interpersonal skills
•	Delivering presentation to a wide range of audiences

Team Leader/Coach

•Creating and maintaining a positive, rewarding work environment.
•Focus on ensuring employees feel valued and invested in their work.
•Collaborate with internal stakeholders
•Responsible for recognise performance achievements and service anniversaries. 
•Responsible for creating and distributing employee feedback surveys compiling  the results of the survey and present our recommendations to organizational management.

Employee Experience Manager (TAG) 

Customer Service Advisor
•	World class customer care
•	Provision of efficient, courteous customer service
•	Working as part of the I.C.E team 
•	Working as part of the TAG team 
•	Hitting stretch in all API and achieving APR of 1
•	Member of the Think Big team, helping out in my own time with Bolton lads and girls club, delivering training and feedback Train the Trainer scheme

Customer Service Specialist

I help innovation leaders, CX and EX directors, and HR professionals design experiences and innovation strategies that deliver measurable business and cultural impact.

With deep expertise in Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX), Service Design, Culture Transformation, and Human-Centered Design, I turn ambitious strategies into scalable realities.
Whether you're:

• Scaling Innovation Frameworks and Capability Building
• Redesigning digital or physical Customer and Employee Journeys
• Embedding Behavioral Science and Design Thinking methodologies
• Launching Venture Incubation initiatives or agile experiments (MVP Testing)

I provide practical, outcome-focused solutions that resonate across your organization and your customer base.

Specialties:
✅ Innovation Strategy and Operating Models
✅ CX & EX Strategy and Journey Mapping
✅ Behavioral Science & Human-Centered Design
✅ Service Design and Prototyping
✅ Culture Transformation and Organizational Change
✅ Agile Methodologies & Venture Incubation

If you're facing challenges with CX, EX, or scaling innovation... DM me lets have a chat.

Danny Seals

The time has come for me to start exploring new senior opportunities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I’ll be available from January. If you’re building the next chapter of customer or employee experience in the UAE, we should talk.

The UAE moves fast, faster than most organisations are structurally designed for. 

The challenge is creating experiences that keep pace internally and externally while driving growth and loyalty.

Over the last decade, my work has lived at the intersection of experience strategy, innovation, service design, and transformation.

Across industries, I’ve been building, scaling, and embedding the systems that elevate how organisations design and deliver experiences.

My craft blends four core disciplines:

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 Designing experience-led strategies that connect brand, business, and behaviour.

𝗘𝗫 + 𝗖𝗫 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Orchestrating the front-stage journey and the back-stage systems that create it.

𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 Leveling up teams in journey mapping, insight synthesis, product thinking, and service and experience design

𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲-𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Shifting organisations from process-driven structures to product-led, experience-driven operating models.

I’ve also been sharing this work more widely speaking at:
talabat  thanks Maha 
Talent Tribe UAE thanks Mark 
Soon presenting EXE

Along the way, I’ve had powerful conversations with leaders like Mark, James, Tanvi, Arjan Schimmel, Callum Nathalie, Daniel exploring the future of experience, strategy, and tourism in the region. 

Connected Lorna and Ruth together who have gone on to create Dubai first employee experience focused event and community EXE


𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗜 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴:
• EX–CX Integration
• Experience Architecture
• People-Product Transformation
• Insight-led Design
• Innovation Capability Building

𝗜’𝗺 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀:
Head of Experience, Experience Strategy, Director of Innovation, People-Product Transformation, CX/EX Integration, Experience-led Transformation particularly within Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

If you know a leader shaping the next chapter of experience in the UAE, I’d value an introduction.

❓𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺:
Which UAE organisations are genuinely pushing the boundaries of experience design and or customer and employee experience right now?

Talking about experiences 

Here’s a recent picture, that was taken when I visited the grand mosque in Abu Dhabi.

Experience Strategy & Transformation Leader | Customer + Employee Experience | Innovation, Journey Design & EX/CX Integration

No alternative text description for this image

The folks at Miral Destinations launched their new Stranger Things experience in #AbuDhabi similar to the breakdown I did of teamLab Inc. experience here's my honest breakdown of the experience...

We arrived as a group of adults who had Netflix Stranger Things stitched into our minds, we knew the lore, the soundtrack, and we have the nostalgic f

Open article: Stranger Things Abu Dhabi: A Case Study in Immersion Fracture and the Price of Getting Experience Wrong by Danny Seals • 5 min read

Stranger Things Abu Dhabi: A Case Study in Immersion Fracture and the Price of Getting Experience Wrong

Would you subscribe to your own experience?


Last week I gave a talk to a packed room these are the ideas that seemed to land the most:

1️⃣ The most progressive organizations are the ones that connect the value on both sides of the experience coin internal customer and external customers.

2️⃣ Across Dubai, service excellence is pretty much a given. So whenever everything is the same commoditization happens and with that, a brand and business’s distinct advantage fades.  
With the service maturity that’s happened here, you either fight in the nickels and dimes or you move to experience design.

3️⃣ The currency of every brand now both its customers and employees is the stories shared and the memory it captures and holds.

4️⃣ If your organization doesn’t have an Experience strategy, get one now. 

5️⃣ If you’re in the service game right now, you’re probably looking at efficiencies process design, doing less for more, or working your internal customers dry but you’re basically robbing Peter to pay Peter and killing off your internal customer base.
Hello burnout.

6️⃣ The Little Big Things.
You don’t need to redesign the whole journey, managing points within that journey will give you some big wins fast look for points of transitions, find your areas that can drive peaks in the experiece

7️⃣ Focus on designing goodbyes, invest the same amount of time if not more in how  welcome our customer (internal and external) in how we say goodbye to them. You will be amazed how many people value a meaningful  exit and how much it’s recalled 

8️⃣ The challenge for leaders now isn’t delivering more service, It’s designing experiences people would choose to subscribe to again and again something most “immersive” experiences still haven’t figured out yet.


So let me leave you with these simple questions:

❓If your brand or workplace disappeared overnight, would anyone feel lost, or would they instantly replace you with the next efficient option? If yes, you’re in trouble and might not even know it yet.

❓How much would you charge for your experience to both your customer types (external and internal)? Is it premium enough to justify the cost?

❓Both types of customer are paying with their time, are you making it worthwhile?

Biz Group

Leading the Learning Solutions, Marketing, Customer Success and Sales Academy divisions. 

I LOVE the world of learning and development, so I'm back for a second stint with a company that holds a special place in my heart. I'd love to hear from HR and Learning professionals who would value strategic advice, a sounding board or specific direction on how to create memorable, impactful  learning experiences that people love.

If any of these challenges sound familiar, I'm here to help:

- You need to develop leadership capability, but struggle to get leaders to apply learning
- Your Customer Experience (CX) is a major focus for your people development team in 2024
- You struggle with buy-in from participants to learning, and need to create impactful learning experiences that everybody loves
- Developing your sales and key account management capability is critical for your business to remain competitive in 2024
- Learning Application is a priority for your learning and development strategy in 2024

I'd love to hear from you if you need support with any of the above, or if you have specific experience in the learning space that you think could be relevant to Biz Group: 

Use this wisely, so spam, no sales pitches :-)
matt.jennison@bizgroup.ae

Commercial Director

One Zebra

Executive Director

One Zebra delivers outsourced lead generation, sales development, strategic guidance, and content creation services to owner operated companies who require both strategic direction and hands on support to grow their business.

Founder & CEO

NOW Money

Advocating financial inclusion, financial health and wellbeing for the unbanked, underbanked and underserved migrant communities across the Middle East. 

Give your employees peace of mind with a NOW Money mobile bank account.

Instant access | No hidden fees | Multi-language. 

Predatory lenders, hidden charges and long queues at the exchange houses are all causes of stress, anxiety and low productivity for employees who don’t have access to digital banking facilities and the training required to use them.  

The problem with traditional banks, is their model isn’t setup to cater for employees who earn below the threshold, and it’s simply not enough to just give these employees access to a payment card and banking APP. 

Low financial and tech literacy, language barriers and a lack of trust in digital banking, result in them reverting back to cash and expensive exchange houses, often leaving them financially worse off and targets for predatory lenders. 

Your employees deserve better.

NowMoney enables companies to instantly process WPS and non-WPS payrolls, and then give employees a digital bank account, mobile app and the training they need to safely access their salaries, remit money back home to their families and much more. 

We also go one step further with our team of multilingual onboarding specialists who spend time in labor camps and employee accommodation facilities to guide and educate them on how to use the APP to remit money home to their families, top up their mobile phones and even get salary advances for those unforeseen emergencies. 

How does it work?


1 - PROCESS PAYROLL: 
Process your payroll through the secure NowMoney portal.

2 - INSTANT ACCESS: 
Employees are paid instantaneously into their NowMoney accounts.

3 - PEACE OF MIND: 
Give your employees peace of mind and Get the recognition your company deserves for driving sustainable financial inclusion.

***In partnership with Commercial Bank of Dubai and VISA**

Head of Financial Inclusion

Responsible for all aspects of marketing, partnerships and sales.

Head of Revenue and Commercial

WorkMotion

Regional Head of Sales UK, Middle East & North America

WorkMotion (www.workmotion.com) is a global HR-platform enabling companies to hire & onboard their employees internationally, at the push of a button...    fully legal and fully compliant.

I lead the account executive and sales development teams for the UK and Ireland.

Head of Sales UK & Ireland

Biz Group - UAE

I lead the Sales, Marketing, Global Partnerships and Digital Learning functions. Leading a team of 12 across sales, marketing and digital learning, we quadrupled revenue, selling leadership development, experiential learning, virtual reality and digital learning solutions to enteprise clients. We also launched the regions first SaaS digital learning platform through our partnership with Axonify.

Commercial Director - Training, SaaS and Partnerships

Kaplan Professional ME

Established the sales and marketing function for this financial training company, selling CFA and ACCA training programs to corporate and individual clients across the Middle East. Genesis Institute was subsequently acquired by Kaplan and is now Kaplan Professional

Sales Director - Financial Training

Charterhouse Partnership

I lead B2B sales for this recruitment business, securing mid to senior level mandates to recruit for mid to large sized organisations. I hired and developed a team of 16 Consultants, and opened the first Charterhouse Abu Dhabi Office.

Sales Director / General Manager Abu Dhabi

Randstad UK

Lead generation, sales, and recruitment consulting services, with a focus on senior finance recruitment for blue chip clients in the UK.

Sales Consultant

Rexam

FTSE 100 listed company. Second largest consumer packaging company in the world.

Finance Business Partner to Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, R&D, Production and Warehousing. Six Sigma project green belt. SAP Implementation.

Senior Finance Business Partner

Finance Business Partner to Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, R&D, Manufacturing. Six Sigma project green belt.

Finance Business Partner

I love galvanizing teams to deliver their best work, have fun and make the world a better place | Commercial Leader | Financial Inclusion

I started my career as a Financial Analyst, but soon discovered my love for working more closely with clients, so I swapped my Excel spreadsheets for a phone and desk in the recruitment industry. 

After a bit of YOLO move to Dubai in 2005, I went from individual contributor to growing a team of 22 consultants and opening a new office in Abu Dhabi as the Middle East experienced rapid growth. 

I've since built and led sales, marketing, operations and partnership teams in the learning, HR consultancy, SaaS and digital banking sectors, and setup my own fully remote marketing communications consultancy with entities in Dubai and London.

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