Center of excellence

Your trusted partner in strategy design

Awardco’s Center of Excellence brings together industry-leading experts, strategic advisors, and hands-on practitioners to elevate recognition programs and drive client success at scale.

meet our team

Leaders in strategy,
partners in success

With decades of global experience, the COE delivers tailored support in program design, strategy, and execution, building and optimizing proven solutions that drive real results.

Cali Hyde
Head of Strategic Accounts
Cali Hyde

With over nine years of experience in SaaS and professional services, Cali Hyde brings strategic depth and business acumen to the Center of Excellence. Currently Awardco’s Head of Strategic Sales, Cali has led enterprise sales, proposal strategy, and global development across markets in both the U.S. and Europe. Her cross-functional leadership and passion for scalable, strategic solutions make her an essential voice in aligning COE initiatives with client needs and business growth.

 
Chantale Callingham
VP of Client Success
Chantale Callingham

Chantale Callingham is Vice President of Client Success and leads Awardco’s Center of Excellence, bringing 15+ years of experience in SaaS and enterprise strategy. A certified PMP and MBA, she’s known for people-first leadership, building inclusive global teams, and driving measurable impact. Chantale’s career includes roles at Fortune 500s and leading tech firms, always focused on transforming customer experiences. Passionate about equity, belonging, and innovation, she challenges the status quo and fosters strategic partnerships to scale meaningful workplace recognition and culture.

 
Christi Gilhoi
Corp. Integration - Emp. Experience
Christi Gilhoi

Christi is an Employee Experience executive with leadership roles at Qualcomm, Okta, and Cisco, bringing deep expertise in building and scaling global recognition programs for organizations of 40,000+ employees. With hands-on experience across the full program lifecycle—from business case development and securing executive buy-in to change management and successful launches—she understands the client perspective inside and out. Now consulting with Team Awardco, Christi serves as a practitioner resource, helping clients drive meaningful employee engagement and operational excellence through strategic recognition initiatives.

 
Katie Bundy
Rewards & Recognition Leader
Katie Bundy

Katie Bundy brings deep strategic expertise to the Center of Excellence after 17 years at J.P. Morgan, where she led initiatives across Sales, Finance, and Employee Experience. She co-led the rollout of Awardco’s platform to 290,000+ global employees, boosting recognition satisfaction by 17%. Katie’s strength lies in aligning program strategy with business needs through thoughtful design, change management, and executive engagement—making her a key player in shaping scalable, effective client programs.

 
Laura Shanley
Employee Experience Advisor
Laura Shanley

A trusted expert in program implementation and optimization, Laura Shanley has led Awardco initiatives from the client side and now consults for multiple organizations navigating complex launches. With hands-on experience from Okta, DocuSign, and Qualcomm, Laura brings unmatched insight into the nuances of R&R vendors and platform design. Her ability to build scalable, efficient programmes on tight timelines makes her an essential partner in delivering client success through the COE.

 
Nick Frazier
Senior Director of CS & Ops
Nick Frazier

Nick Frazier serves as Senior Director of Client Success and Operations for Awardco EMEA, bringing years of operational expertise and global leadership to the Center of Excellence. With a background in human resource management, data analytics, and a tenure of over seven years at Awardco, Nick has played a pivotal role in scaling service operations across regions. His strategic oversight and cross-functional insight into client success operations help the COE deliver scalable, sustainable processes that meet the evolving needs of a global customer base.

 
Sarah Marrs
Center of Excellence Global Lead
Sarah Marrs

Sarah is a global lead on Awardco’s Center of Excellence, advising organizations on reward and recognition strategy while researching its impact on employee behavior. An organizational psychologist with 15+ years’ experience, she is completing a doctorate in Evidence-Based HR at Birkbeck University, London. Sarah spent nine years at Qualtrics, guiding EX solution design for major global clients, and earlier held employee-insight roles at Tesco, Hay Group, and Kenexa. A member of the British Psychological Society, she also holds a master’s in Work and Organizational Behavior from Dublin City University.

 
ShaNae McCleskey
Director, Technical Account Services
ShaNae McCleskey

ShaNae is Director of Technical Account Services at Awardco, where she builds and leads high-performing technical teams that support the company’s largest global clients. A Six Sigma–certified leader with a BS from UVU, she is also a key contributor to Awardco’s Center of Excellence, driving process optimization, innovation, and strategic insights. ShaNae specializes in crafting sustainable technology solutions that elevate employee satisfaction while championing people-first initiatives. Committed to psychological safety, she cultivates workplaces where employees can challenge ideas openly, bring their authentic selves to work, and fuel a culture of continuous innovation.

 

Center of Excellence services

Providing tailored guidance on rewards budgeting, program deployment, implementation, and much more to ensure impactful employee experiences.

Strategic expertise rooted in real-world success
Backed by real-world experience leading global recognition programs, our team pairs deep product expertise with benchmark-driven insights to deliver strategic guidance that drives measurable results.
You receive:
  • Strategic guidance backed by experience leading global recognition programs
  • Deep product knowledge paired with benchmark-driven insights
  • Focused solutions that deliver measurable business impact
Tailored program advisory and business consultation
Every organization is at a different stage in its recognition journey, which is why we offer tailored consultation, including ROI strategies, business case development, governance and budget modeling, communication planning, and global stakeholder alignment.
You receive:
  • Support for every stage of the recognition journey
  • Custom strategies aligned to business goals and scale
  • Guidance across ROI, governance, communication, and adoption
Research-backed strategy
Recognition transforms organizations. Through research, community, and client collaboration, we help build programs that inspire, connect, and grow with the business.
You receive:
  • Insights driven by industry research and client collaboration
  • Program design rooted in connection, growth, and evolution
  • Access to a community of practitioners and proven best practices
PMG
 
 
Companies that invest in recognition are seen as people-centric. When people feel appreciated for their contributions and are truly engaged, they’re more innovative, more creative, and more willing to think beyond the status quo. This elevates work, fuels stronger business outcomes and can foster deeper customer relationships.
Monica Gunderson
Talent Management Lead
Southwest Gas Corporation
 
 
Awardco has offered customizability that allows us to cater to our employees' needs and recognize what they are doing and change it as the environment changes as well.
Eric Crow
Administrator, Risk Management and Safety
PMG
 
 
Awardco made it easy for every employee, whether in Dallas or the UK, to feel seen, valued, and celebrated.
Pam Buyers
Head of Culture
Southern Oregon Head Start
 
 
If we retain a teacher, that’s 20 students we get to serve. Going from 45% turnover to 8% means we’ve kept 85–90 more staff. That’s an incredible impact on both our children and our budget.
Amber Lease
Human Resource Director
TaylorMade
 
 
Awardco is the perfect platform for our employee recognition program. It supports our unique employee culture and community.
Rosie Scannell
Global HR
Children's Nebraska
 
 
Some of the great stories that we've read are how impactful all of the team members have been to help the children feel better, it's showing our team members how impactful they are.
Jill Kudron
Patient Experience
Ultradent Products
 
 
We're present in pretty much every continent in the world, and there's no limitation to our recognition system. We see recognitions from Brazil to the US, from Japan to China, from South Africa to France, and everyone is engaged.
Favio Paiva
Workday Specialist
Pacific Life
 
 
We do a lot of remote work activities where you can win something. We do a lot of these contests, and I used to go to Amazon and send a $25 gift card to the winners, but now I do it through Awardco. It's in the system, trackable, and much more streamlined.
Amberlee Taylor
Sr. Communications Specialist
Beckman Coulter
 
 
Change management was a concern when exploring new vendors. However, our leadership, HR, and associates have smoothly transitioned to Awardco, and they appreciate its straightforward and intuitive design, which surpasses the complexities of previous platforms.
Kerie Rogers
HR Operations Leader
Aptive Environmental
 
 
With Awardco we now have more visibility into our incentive budgets than ever, and can be more judicious about our incentive spend.
Lacy Andersen
Project Manager
Paramount
 
 
I was really looking for a user-friendly, up-to-speed, and easy-to-use program that can expand in different ways, and I found it with Awardco.
Shaye McCoy
Manager, Global Total Rewards Experience
Children's Nebraska
 
 
[Awardco] was something that was easy to use. I knew that healthcare provider's first priority is their patient, so how do we make it so easy that they can participate and still make sure that they're still taking care of the patient.
Madeline Quinn
Employee Experience Manager
All Access Staging and Productions
 
 
We wanted to make recognition easy and exciting for our blue collar workers to participate in, and Awardco's capabilities have made that possible.
Mason Ongarato
HR Software & Employee Benefits Expert
Alera Group
 
 
Colleagues have to choose a value from The Collaborative Way when they recognize, making our recognition feed daily proof of why our values are so important. It’s such a powerfully positive place. Leaders are really taking notice—they want to see their teams at the top of the adoption leaderboard because they know the impact our values have on employee performance and retention.
Pam Johnson
VP of HR
SEF Energy
 
 
Awardco allows everything to support our core values and our mission, which is very important to us because that strengthens our culture.
Lauren Long
HR Operations Manager

Personalized advice from experts in the field

Awardco’s Center of Excellence is designed to provide you with the guidance you need from experts you trust.