Jennifer Vides is Metro’s first Chief Customer Experience Officer, with oversight over Arts & Community Enrichment, Community Relations, Customer Care, CX, Marketing and Public Relations. In this role, Ms. Vides taps her expertise in organizational change and strategic communications to advance a customer-first culture, and her deep experience in branding to ideate and launch new initiatives that improve the customer experience. Ms. Vides joined Metro from Southern California’s regional rail service Metrolink, where she launched high-touch customer programs including the SoCal Explorer loyalty program, the 5-Day and 10-Day Flex Passes targeted to those now telecommuting since the pandemic, and a customer opinion panel to put customers at the center of decision-making. At the same time, she repositioned the agency’s brand from commuter rail to a regional passenger rail operator that connects people to work, family, friends and fun. Ms. Vides previously led marketing, communications, and brand at the Public Media Group of Southern California, formed following the merger of PBS SoCal and KCET. She also brings private sector experience, having led marketing for retailers Hot Topic, Torrid and Gymboree, as well as working for global communications firms Burson-Marsteller, Weber Shandwick and the MSL Group. Vides is of Salvadoran descent and is bilingual (English and Spanish), having been raised in Central America and the Caribbean. She holds a B.S. in Communications from the University of Miami (Fla).