Gareth Lau

Turning turbulence into trust — one customer relationship at a time.

The story so far

Senior Customer Success leader with a decade of experience driving customer retention, escalation management, and Continual Service Improvement across complex, multi-cultural B2B aviation technology organizations. Currently leading a global Customer Success team at Jeppesen ForeFlight, after building strategic airline relationships worth $32M+ across Europe at Boeing Digital Aviation Solutions. Based in Montréal, relocating to Toronto this October.

My path into this work started on the operational side — tracking crews and contracts at Norwegian and Airbus — before moving into commercial and customer success roles where I found what actually drives me: turning a frustrated customer into an advocate, and a fragile process into one that scales. That thread runs through every role since, from rolling out CRM systems at CitySwift to leading a team spread across AMER, EMEA, and APAC today. Outside of work, I’ve spent seven years on the board of the Irish Aviation Students’ Association, which is really just the same instinct pointed at people instead of accounts.

Get in Touch LinkedIn

Working

Global Customer Success Program Manager

Leading a global Customer Success team at Jeppesen ForeFlight.

Based

Montréal, Québec

Heading west to Toronto in October 2026.

Building

A sharper CS playbook

Rebuilding how the team spots and resolves issues before customers have to ask.

The journey

From the Emerald Isle to the Great White North.

I grew up in Ireland, made Montréal home, I’m heading west to Toronto in October. New city, same curiosity.

10+Years in aviation customer success

$32M+Strategic airline contract value

55+Team members across AMER, EMEA, APAC

1,220+CA accounts supported

Core Competencies

Regional CX Leadership

Owning the customer experience across time zones and cultures.

Escalation & Service Recovery

Turning at-risk accounts into renewed trust.

Continual Service Improvement

Finding the process fix before the next fire.

Renewal & Expansion Strategy

Growing accounts by proving value, not just asking.

Cross-Functional Stakeholder Management

Aligning Product, Support, and Sales around the customer.

Global Team Leadership

Leading specialists across AMER, EMEA, and APAC.

Career journey

My Flight Path

A decade in aviation experience — from operations support to leading a global team in SaaS.

Work experience

Global Customer Success Program Manager · Jeppesen ForeFlight

Oct 2025 – Present

Montréal, QC

55+Team members in scope

90%Adoption rate of internal CS systems

1,220+CA accounts supported

Lead and manage a global team of 5 Customer Success specialists.
Own end-to-end operational escalation management across 55+ team members spanning AMER, EMEA, and APAC.
Drive Continual Service Improvement initiatives that raise the bar for how the global team engages customers.
Designed and implemented scalable Customer Success playbooks, health score methodologies, and executive reporting structures by rolling out and owning the Gainsight platform globally.

Senior Customer Success Manager · Boeing Digital Aviation Solutions

Sep 2021 – Sep 2025

Dublin, Ireland

$32M+Contract value managed

—Add a KPI here

—Add another KPI

Proactively built relationships with strategic airlines representing $32M+ in contract value.
Partnered cross-functionally with Product, Support, and Sales to resolve escalations and drive renewals.
Championed customer advocacy programs that turned strategic accounts into public references.

Commercial Manager · CitySwift

Oct 2020 – Sep 2021

Galway, Ireland

~25%Workflow efficiency improvement

10+Board reports delivered

Designed and implemented a CRM rollout that improved pipeline visibility and customer lifecycle management.
Strategised ways to build market share, increase revenue, and drive commercial growth through improvements to organizational structure.
Assisted in preparing, planning, and project managing the delivery of key projects to strengthen CitySwift's brand and platform.
Supported CitySwift's customer engagement, retention, and development strategy across all key stakeholders.
Prepared and presented monthly and quarterly board reports to C-level executives and senior managers, providing visibility into commercial performance and strategic priorities.

Crew Tracker & Operations Support · Norwegian Airlines

Sep 2019 – Mar 2020

Dublin, Ireland

8Operating bases supported for safety oversight

50+Aircraft compliant under Irish AOC

Kept an accurate and continuous crew watch, ensuring EASA Flight Time Limitation compliance.
Ensured crew held valid licenses, ratings, medicals, qualifications, and passports in accordance with EASA OPS ORO.GEN and the Operator’s Operations Manual.
Prioritised safety and punctuality in all crewing decisions, making decisive operational calls to avoid disruption in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
Assisted in maintaining a continuous flight watch over the NAI network in coordination with flight operations controllers.
Provided administrative support to the finance, technical, and safety management departments.

Contracts Intern, Flight Hour Services · Airbus

Jun 2018 – Sep 2018

Dublin, Ireland

Supported the contracts team in reviewing customer agreements and inputting contractual terms into Airbus's internal systems.
Reconciled flight-hour data against invoices to ensure financial accuracy across high-volume billing cycles.
Reviewed invoice and purchase order information to ensure timely parts delivery to OSS/Pools.

Tools, systems, and platforms.

Customer & CRM

Gainsight
Salesforce
HubSpot
Copper

Productivity

Slack
Microsoft Office
Google Workspace
Zoom

Enablement

Seismic

AI Workspace

Claude
ChatGPT

Product & Delivery

Jira
Loom

Knowledge

Confluence
iCertis

Identity & IT

Okta

Recommendations

“Add a LinkedIn recommendation quote here — pick 2–3 that speak to leadership, escalation management, or customer trust.”

— Name, Title

“Add a second LinkedIn recommendation quote here.”

— Name, Title

Education

Institute of Project Management

Professional Diploma, IPMA Certified Project Management Associate, Project Management

2023 – 2024

Law Society of Ireland

Diploma, Aviation Leasing & Finance

2022

South East Technological University

Bachelor of Business (Hons) in Aviation Management

2018 – 2020

Dundalk Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Business in Business & Management

2015 – 2018

Volunteering

Irish Aviation Students' Association

7-year progressive board leadership journey: Chairperson to Non-Executive strategic advisor.

Non-Executive Board Member

Oct 2019 – Sep 2025

Provided strategic direction and advised the incoming executive on governance and finance.

Chairperson

Sep 2018 – Oct 2019

23Committee members led

+30%Sponsorship revenue growth

1,800+Attendees across events

Represented IASA's mission across Ireland's aviation industry, building relationships with universities, airlines, and industry partners both nationally and internationally.

Projects

A few initiatives that moved the needle on customer success.

Gainsight Rollout

Led the regional rollout of Gainsight to bring proactive health scoring and structured lifecycle management to a book of strategic airline accounts.

Value Enablement Program

Built a Value Enablement Program that helped customer-facing teams demonstrate ROI and deepen adoption across enterprise accounts.

World Aviation Festival

Spoke on a panel with EasyJet, Women in Travel CIC, and ITT on the war for talent in aviation.

Personal

Beyond the resume

Videography, travel, and the outdoors are what fill the time between flights — a look at what keeps things interesting outside of work.

Featured

Videography

A reel showcasing video work — swap in the real embed below.

Travel

I love travelling and exploring new places — every pin below is a city that pulled me in. Scroll or pinch to zoom in on the map and see where.

255

Flights

573k

Kilometres flown

Airports

Countries

Airlines

Around the world

14.3x around Earth

1.5x to the Moon

Aircraft flown

Boeing 737-800

61 flights

Boeing 737-800

Airbus A320

Airbus A320neo

Boeing 787-8

Embraer 195 E2

Airbus A321neo

Shortest flight

SeattleVancouver

204 km

Longest flight

Buenos AiresAmsterdam

11462 km

Interests

Hiking & the outdoors

Time on trails around Ireland and Canada — swap in a few favourite hikes or photos.

Food & cooking

A quick note on go-to cuisines or a signature dish.

Music

A line on taste, or link a playlist.

Languages

Which languages you are learning and why.

Hiking & the outdoors

Time on trails around Ireland and Canada — swap in a few favourite hikes or photos.

Food & cooking

A quick note on go-to cuisines or a signature dish.

Music

A line on taste, or link a playlist.

Languages

Which languages you are learning and why.

Get in touch

Open to Customer Success leadership roles in the Toronto area and remote.

hello@garethlau.com

linkedin.com/in/garethlau

Montréal, QC — relocating to Toronto, ON (Oct 2026)