Carly Buxton

I had the pleasure of working alongside Carly as fellow Directors on the newly established Market Development team at EF Education First. Operating at the intersection of product development, sales, and marketing, our team was the first in EF’s nearly 50-year history dedicated to consumer research and guest experience-driven product innovation.

While my background was primarily in operations and product design, Carly brought exceptional expertise in consumer research and customer insights. She spearheaded extensive focus groups, established customer and stakeholder advisory panels, and worked closely with our development teams to design and execute A/B testing across website experiences, digital marketing, and product positioning. More importantly, she translated those findings into meaningful product innovations and measurable commercial results. In just one year, she led the development and launch of Japan, the most profitable product launch in EF Educational Tours’ history, which continued to outperform much of the broader portfolio.

Beyond her research and strategic capabilities, Carly’s other superpower is her ability to inspire and educate sales teams. She understands something many brilliant product developers overlook: even the best product or customer experience is only as effective as the people communicating its value. Carly has a rare ability to bridge that gap, turning complex customer insights into authentic, compelling communication that resonates with both employees and customers.

She combines intellectual curiosity, commercial instincts, and a genuine understanding of people. Any hospitality organization looking to elevate its guest experience and customer communications would be fortunate to have her expertise.

While her credentials speak volumes of Carly’s formal expertise, what they don’t convey: Working with Carly is like finding a new best friend that makes you smarter and more excited about the world and opportunities around you – she’s a bouquet of unexpected delights and blooming A-HA’s!

Carly brings a thoughtful, highly collaborative approach to understanding customers and translating those insights into a meaningful communication for brands. One of Carly’s superpowers is her ability to connect what people say and what that means for how a brand should communicate with them – there’s always nuance, and Carly doesn’t just recognize it, she respects it and leverages (often overlooked) human nuance to shape a meaningful and differentiated connection between people, services, places, and their things.

From tech platforms to healthcare to equipment for outdoor enthusiasts, Carly led several unique communication initiatives with our clients and consistently elevated the relationships and outcomes through her focus on understanding the customer at a deeper, more human level.

What has always struck me about working with Carly is how deeply tailored her thinking is. Her ideas never feel like a collection of generic strategies or “best practices”; she takes the time to understand the particular person, audience, and experience she is working with and then develops ideas that feel genuinely specific to that world.

With a diverse background in history, storytelling, theatre, and digital health, Carly has the unique ability to attune to a wide array of projects and people. Her rich experiential toolkit, along with her natural gift of connecting with people, are centered in every interaction.

Carly herself is an incredible host: the warmth, thoughtfulness, and sense of welcome she creates in a digital environment are exactly the qualities that make you want to partner with her as you think about not just the product you are offering but how you want to make people feel.