The Jury

Traci Freeman is the Managing Member of Believe Consulting, a boutique advisory firm offering strategic consulting, white-label project management, and bespoke advisory services across the Global Business Services (GBS), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and CustomerExperience (CX) sectors. With nearly 30 years of experience, Traci is a seasoned ecosystem builder and internationally recognised advocate for purpose-led, social impact delivery.

Having played a central role in developing South Africa’s GBS strategy, advancing the country’s position as a top-tier offshore destination. A global convener and collaborator, she introduced COPC standards to South Africa, co-authored national BPS standards with SABS, and leads ISO workstreams on Contact Centre Standards.

Traci is also a partner in CxOutsourcers, a founder of the THRIVE Coalition Index, and a co-architect of the Africa Federation of GBS Associations. Through platforms like GBS Nexus, supporting market entry, research, and sector growth across Africa.

Passionate about DEI, ESG, and inclusive hiring, Traci and the Believe Consulting team design and deliver high-impact industry engagements, from executive roundtables to flagship summits. Grounded in collaboration, innovation, and a deep commitment to creating sustainable, inclusive futures for businesses and communities across the global services landscape.

Gavin Ifield is a global transformation leader and entrepreneur with a proven track record of building, scaling, and optimizing Global Business Services (GBS) and shared services operations across all SG&A functions, now applying that expertise to help businesses build high-performance global teams through Peoplegig.

With experience spanning Finance, HR, IT & Digital, Legal, Sales & Marketing, Procurement, Logistics, and Administration, Gavin has led large-scale transformation, offshoring, and restructuring initiatives across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and the Americas. He has established greenfield shared service centers, scaled GBS models, and delivered operating frameworks that align cost efficiency with long-term strategic growth.

In 2022, he co-founded Peoplegig, bringing his enterprise transformation experience into the entrepreneurial arena. As Co-Founder & Managing Director, he leads a company that helps businesses across Australia, the US, UK, Canada, and Singapore design, build, and manage high-performance offshore teams in the Philippines.

Gavin is passionate about building and transforming organisations, connecting people across borders, and creating environments where individuals and teams can grow and thrive. For him, leadership is about shaping structures that perform while developing people who evolve with them. Through Peoplegig, he continues to combine performance, ethics, and human connection to build global teams that deliver, grow, and belong.

Kerry Hallard, MBA, is the Chief Executive Officer of The Global Sourcing Association (GSA), Chair of the Global Technology & Business Services Council, Co-founder of the Council for Supplier Diversity and Inclusion UK and co-Founder of FormIGA, the Industry for Good Alliance.  Kerry speaks on the importance of sustainable strategic sourcing all around the world and advises companies and delivery destinations how to align themselves to the very latest in industry best practices.

Tony Saldanha is a global industry founder within Global Business Services (GBS) and Digital Technology. He ran Procter & Gamble’s famed multi-billion-dollar GBS and IT operations in every region across the world during a 27-year career there. 

Tony led the development of major trends in both GBS and IT, including offshoring, outsourcing, disruptive IT innovation, and many others. He has over three decades of international business expertise in the US, Europe, and Asia. Tony advises about 20 of the Fortune 100 organizations on digital strategy at the board or CXO levels.

Tony is also CEO and co-founder of Inixia, the global standards and certification body for the Shared Services industry. Tony is currently President of Transformant, a consulting organization on digital and shared services strategy. He is also a founder of two blockchain and AI companies, and an adviser to venture capital companies.

He was named on Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Professionals list in 2013. His book titled Why Digital Transformations Fail was released globally in July 2019 and ranked #1 on Amazon’s New Releases for Organizational Change, listed on publisher Berrett-Koehler’s best-sellers for July 2019, and recommended by various publishing forums like CEO-Reads, Book-Pal, CEO Library, and others. Forbes contributor Michelle Greenwald called it the “best business book ever that you’re yet to read”. Tony’s second book called Revolutionizing Business Operations is co-authored with Filippo Passerini. It will be released in September 2023.