Kathleen Khirallah is Lead Analyst for TowerGroup's Retail Banking research and advisory service. She applies her strong subject matter expertise and extensive experience as a research leader and analyst to this role. She is responsible for building a strong research agenda and leading delivery of research in Retail Banking as well as providing thought leadership to clients and the industry.

Kathleen has been actively involved in supporting the retail banking practice throughout her 12 years at TowerGroup. Her research has centered on the strategic and tactical use of customer data, customer profitability management, financial management applications, sales management and sales culture development, and strategic marketing systems. Kathleen also focuses on enterprise-class solutions and their application for improving the customer experience, proactively managing customer relationships, and managing business processes and corporate performance in the banking industry.

Globally, retail banks of all sizes are struggling with two critical and complementary issues: how to acquire, retain, and maximize the profitability of retail customers while managing overall institutional performance and ensuring profitability. Kathleen is known for her coverage of innovative uses of customer data to further improve the overall customer experience; the effective implementation of sales management strategies within the bank; the deployment of predictive analytics within customer segmentation schemes; the assessment of customer, product, and line-of-business profitability; the strategic use of marketing solutions for improved customer communications; and the implementation of business intelligence tools to optimize bank performance and process management.

Kathleen has over 25 years of financial services industry experience. Prior to joining TowerGroup in 1997, Kathleen was senior principal at Marketing PLUS Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in maximizing the revenue potential from marketing customer information file and operational customer information file systems. She has an extensive background in the banking industry, having served in marketing and product management roles in broad spectrum of commercial banks and thrifts. Her experience spans institutions both large and small, including Amoskeag Bank, Security Pacific National Bank, Great Western Bank, and Home Savings of America.

Kathleen is interviewed frequently by industry publications including Bank Systems + Technology, American Banker, Bank Technology News, FutureBanker, and Computerworld. In addition, she has authored articles and commentaries for publications including Bank Accounting & Finance, Bank Systems + Technology, The Journal of Customer Relationships, and Bank Technology News.

Kathleen holds a B.A. in American political systems and classical civilizations from Wheaton College. She also holds an M.S. in technology management from Pepperdine University.