Leading Customer Experience Transformation

David Solnet is a Professor of Service Management and Service Work in the UQ Business School. He is recognized internationally for his research, teaching and consulting, all focused on managing and leading service organizations, with particular emphasis on managing the employee-customer interface. His research focuses on frontline employees and the relationships between management practices, employee attitudes and firm performance. He is currently leading a new strategic initiative, creating UQ's first fully online Master's degree through a UQ partnership with edX, Master of Leadership and Innovation.

David is a sought after advisor to industry and government, specializing on business improvement, financial analysis, service quality and management development programs. He comes from a restaurant background, with over 18 years of experience including senior management roles in the USA (Brinker International, El Chico Group, Bennigan’s Restaurants and Olive Garden) and Australia (including six years as general manager of Bretts Wharf in Brisbane). He has consulted to many organizations, including Merlo Coffee, Cactus Jacks Restaurant Group, Aromas Noosa, Ricky’s River Bar, Locale Ristaurante, Pier Nine Restaurant and Oyster Bar, Mitchell Ogilvie Menswear and Baguette Restaurant.

David coleads the workforce research team in the tourism group at the UQ Business School and has been a principal investigator on a number of state and national projects including two ‘tourism employment plans’ as part of the Australian Commonwealth Government initiative to address employment challenges in regional areas in Australia; and has worked with Service Skills Australia on a number of projects centred around workforce development.

Professor Solnet has published over 50 academic journal articles, and his work consistently appears in the top journals in his field, such as the Journal of Service Management, Managing Service Quality (Journal of Service Theory and Practice), Annals of Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Travel Research and the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research.

Professor Solnet is currently an academic partner seconded to the Division of Student Affairs, developing initiatives centered around improving student experience.

Janet R. McColl-Kennedy is Professor of Marketing, UQ Business School, and Lead, Innovation Pathways Program, FaBA (Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator), Trailblazer Universities program, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Professor McColl-Kennedy is an Honorary Visiting Professor and Fellow, Cambridge Service Alliance, Institute for Manufacturing, in the Department of Engineering, the University of Cambridge, UK. Research Collaborators | Cambridge Service Alliance. She is also the Founding Co-Lead of the Service Innovation Alliance (SIA) Research Hub at the Business School, The University of Queensland. SIA is a multidisciplinary research hub focusing on Customer Experience, Service Innovation and Sustainability, with an emphasis on AI, digital transformation and service design.

Janet embodies scholarly excellence. She is an elected Fellow of the prestigious Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) from 2022 for her distinguished contribution to the social sciences. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) having "demonstrated outstanding contributions to the Academy and also demonstrated eminence in the Marketing discipline through research, scholarship, education and leadership". https://anzmac.org/fellows/.

In 2024 Professor Janet McColl-Kennedy was appointed to the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts based on her exemplary sustained track record of obtaining and leading her teams to the successful completion of their respective programs of research. The ARC College of Experts plays a very important role for the ARC and the research community more broadly. Appointees assign external assessors and help rank and moderate ARC grant applications that have been submitted under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). They also assist with recruitment of new assessors and provide advice for peer review reforms to the ARC. This appointment is recognition of her international standing and contributions to research both in Australia and internationally.

In 2025 she was awarded the “Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award”. This highly prestigious award is presented annually by SERVSIG to the individual whose teaching, research and service have had the greatest long-term impact on the development of the services discipline. Career contributions of the candidates should be of long duration, preferably 20 to 40 years. Contributions to the services discipline should be significant, frequent, and include recent contributions.