Debi Potgieter is a recognised Customer Experience executive leader, speaker, transformation strategist and Founder of XMwize Solutions. Her leadership extends into the global CX profession through her role as Vice Chairperson of the CXPA CCXP Advisory Committee, and across the African CX community as a Board Member of Customer Experience South Africa.
Customer Experience is Debi’s life’s work. She believes kindness changes outcomes, compassion builds trust, and when shaped through disciplined experience design, they become powerful drivers of human and business impact.
Triple-certified globally in Customer Experience and ranked 6th globally as a CX leader, Debi brings 35 years of financial services experience across customer experience, credit risk, collections, recoveries and experience-led risk management. Her work helps organisations embed CX as an integrated way of doing business; strengthening governance, improving high-stakes customer journeys, and translating experience into measurable value.
Known for connecting commercial performance with human-centred leadership, Debi helps leaders navigate one of the biggest challenges facing organisations today: how to build trust, protect customer dignity and create meaningful connection while operating in complex, highly measured and increasingly digital environments.
She has been recognised as Africa CX Leader of the Year 2025, received Distinction as an ICXA judge, and was awarded Lifetime CCCX recognition for her contribution to the customer experience profession.
At the heart of her work is a deep commitment to growing CX professionals and building organisations that take people seriously; not only as customers, but as human beings.
