About Craig Underwood

Entrepreneur, CEO, Loyalty and Web 2.0 Strategist, Advisor to Social Entrepreneurs

Craig Underwood is the Founder and Managing Partner of Underwood Partners, LLC, a Boston based consulting firm.  Craig recruits and works with a small number of highly experienced executives and analysts selected for each project based on their relevant backgrounds and passion for helping clients address their most important strategic challenges and opportunities.  Underwood Partners primary expertise is in developing and optimizing data-based loyalty and reward programs.  The firm also has expertise in helping large enterprises understand, engage with and profit from the philosophy and applications of Web 2.0 and social media technologies.  Although a successful consultant, Craig’s true passion is to work with extraordinary teams to create and lead game changing new businesses. He recently partnered with Sir Keith Mills, the founder of successful coalition loyalty businesses in the UK, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands and the UAE.  Keith was CEO of London’s successful 2012 Olympic bid and is Deputy Chairman of the 2012 Olympic Games.  Keith, Craig and their partners are actively exploring global opportunities for new internet enabled data-based loyalty programs.  Keith is the lead angel investor in Craig’s new company, Sports Loyalty International, Inc.

In addition to his role as Founder and Managing Partner of Underwood Partners, Craig’s experience includes Founder and CEO of The Loyalty Group/Air Miles Canada; CEO of Sports Loyalty Systems; Co-Founder of SocialSphere Strategies; and serving as a Partner at both Bain & Company and The Bridgespan Group, Bain’s nonprofit affiliate.  He has served on over 10 start-up, corporate and nonprofit boards.

Craig’s CEO experience includes being the Founder and CEO of The Loyalty Group (now LoyaltyOne), the Canadian company that created and runs the AIR MILES Reward Program – one of the largest coalition (multi-company) loyalty programs in the world.  Started by Craig and two colleagues in a Toronto hotel room in 1991, Loyalty now employs over 1500 people.  Over 70% of Canadian households are active members of the program and the business generates over $250MM in annual operating cash.  While at Loyalty, Craig developed 20 innovative coalition database marketing programs for sponsoring companies including Safeway, Shell, and American Express and launched www.airmiles.com, the first loyalty program on the internet. He sold the business in 1998 to Alliance Data Systems, which became one of the most successful public companies of the past decade (NYSE:ADS).

In addition to leading Underwood Partners over the past decade, Craig’s consulting experience includes six years at Bain & Company from 1984 to 1990, where he developed and implemented strategies in a wide variety of industries from health care to food products manufacturing to marketing research.  At Bain, Craig developed expertise in and a passion for the powerful economics of customer loyalty. As the 7th partner to join Bridgespan, where he served from 2003 through 2005, Craig focused on developing growth strategies for high impact nonprofits and improving the effectiveness of nonprofit boards.

Craig is a Co-Founder and Board Member of Year Up, the innovative workforce development program that recruits and trains low income inner city young adults for entry level technology careers and higher education.  Craig worked closely with Founder and CEO Gerald Chertavian in 2001 to launch Year Up with 22 students in Boston.  The program now operates in Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Providence and Washington, D.C. and serves over 1000 students.  Eighty five percent of Year Up graduates are working at leading US corporations including State Street, Bank of America and American Express. Craig is the board lead on all of Year Up’s strategy work and is also involved in fundraising, recruiting and web strategy.

Craig earned a BA in Political Science at West Virginia University, an MA from Oxford University in Politics, Economics and Philosophy, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has served on numerous boards, including Upromise and Oxford Properties and is currently on the Advisory Boards of Modiv Media and Perk Street Financial, an internet bank.  Craig resides in Brookline, MA with his wife, their fourteen year old daughter and eleven year old son.  All of the Underwood’s are avid snowboarders, tennis players, Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots and music fans.  Craig’s blog about Web 2.0, customer service and loyalty can be found at www.collaborationevangelist.com.