Referential said goodbye to our longtime COO Kristy Ward at the end of November when she retired. Kristy has been with us since the beginning of our incorporation and while we’re sad she has left, we’re excited for her to start this new chapter of her life! Replacing Kristy is our new team member, Emily, who will be taking over the COO and Director of Finance role.

Prior to joining Referential, Emily was a Transaction Services Manager at Ernst & Young (EY). She began her career with EY in their auditing practice, performing the annual audits of multi-billion-dollar companies. She then transitioned to Transaction Services in San Francisco, CA and worked with companies of varying sizes to perform financial due diligence for mergers and acquisitions.

Emily was excited to join the Referential team as she believes the customer advocacy space has a lot of growth potential, and Referential in particular provides unique services and expertise that make the firm a leader in the customer advocacy world. Additionally, she was drawn to the culture at Referential as everyone is inclusive, helpful, and collaborative, which makes for a great work environment.

Emily is a CPA and her background in Accounting and Finance, as well as her experience with data modeling, will help Referential create more insightful metrics that enable us to examine our business and services in new ways. Additionally, Emily worked with many small companies during her time at EY and will be able to bring her experiences and best practices to Referential.

Outside of work Emily, has a passion for travel and has been to 55 countries! Most recently she visited Dubai and England the week prior to joining Referential, but her favorite trip was to Kenya and Tanzania with her family, where she went on a 10-day safari and saw all of the big 5!