Martech industry pros focusing on systems integration and training for 1:1 customer engagement platforms.
Who We Are
For over 20 years there were three of us who kept crossing paths - working both separately and together – as we sold, developed, and implemented world class customer engagement solutions across multiple industries.
As personalization became the strongest marketing tool available, we each realized that there was a significant lack of 1:1 martech skill set and experience in the marketplace. We decided to fill that gap by combining our sales, operational, and technical expertise and launching CXForward in 2017. Since then, we have grown to become one of Pega’s most trusted 1:1 engagement partners with the most experienced decisioning specialists in North America. In 2021 we expanded our partner ecosystem to include Adobe, and we are on the leading edge of helping clients leverage the power of both technologies, working together.
Our mission? Helping companies get the most out of their 1:1: Customer Engagement investments.
Our Leadership Team

Ryan Jessop
Founder and President
Ryan is a co-founder of CXForward and serves as the company’s Operations and Strategic Development Lead and President. He has been intricately involved in Pega projects since 2008 when he implemented Chordiant for Cox Communications. In the years since, he’s led delivery teams in a wide variety of industries and for a broad range of clients. He helped build the Pega practice for Comet/Merkle where he was responsible for leading delivery in the Americas. In 2017, Ryan helped co-found CXForward where he and the team focus on 1:1 customer engagement projects.
Ryan and his wife, Sharon, live in Atlanta with their four children.
Tom Brosnan
Founder, Senior Vice President of Client Development
Tom is a co-founder of CXForward and serves the company as its Business Development and Talent Acquisition Lead. Tom has been implementing Pega projects since 2008 and can count many successful engagements in the Financial, Insurance, Automotive and Telecommunications industries. Prior to starting CXForward in 2017, Tom owned a successful IT staffing company, Synapse Technologies, then oversaw Business Development and Pega Relationship Development for Comet/Merkle.
Tom is married with three children and splits his time between his Atlanta and Chicago homes. Go Bills!!


Mathew Nolton
Founder, Senior Vice President and Technology Lead
Mat is a co-founder CXForward and serves as the Company’s Technology Lead. Mathew has far-reaching, deep technology experience working with a number of different programming languages and data platforms. In 2008 he began focusing on 1:1 marketing programs leveraging Chordiant and Pega. Mathew has helped many customers in the Telecommunications, Financial and Auto Industries implement their strategic 1:1 marketing programs to include inbound retention, cross-sell/up-sell and outbound email/sms/direct mail. Mathew continued his 1:1 marketing career with Comet/Merkle. In 2017 Mathew left Merkle to help found CXForward.
Mathew is married with three daughters and currently lives in Colorado.
Kelly Holmstrom
Senior Vice President, Customer Experience
Kelly is a Business Advisor and serves as SVP Customer Experience at CXForward, helping clients realize and embrace the business transforming power of their 1:1 Engagement programs. She has more than 20 years of corporate marketing experience focusing on customer retention, revenue generation, channel engagement and business transformation. Kelly was the business leader responsible for the launch, daily operation and evolution of the real time decisioning program for the largest telco in the US, resulting in industry-leading customer retention.
Before joining CXForward, Kelly led Merkle’s US Decisioning practice, focusing on the practical application of how to integrate real time decisioning and journey orchestration into marketing organizations.
Kelly enjoys living in Northern California with her two children Ani and Cameron; and Blue, the giant muppet dog.


Gayle Wellborn
Senior Business Advisor
Gayle serves as a Senior Business Advisor at CXForward. She brings to the role over 30 years of leadership experience in technology, customer service, ecommerce and marketing. In her roles as Digital Products and Services Executive for Bank of America and Brand and Digital Executive for Ally Financial, she was responsible for defining and delivering best in class products, services and customer experiences that positioned the respective companies as Online Banking leaders in their industry.
Gayle is married with two children and lives near Charlotte, NC.