Thomas O'Toole

Thomas F. O’Toole is the Executive Director of the Kellogg Executive Fellows Programs and Clinical Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University. His teaching and scholarship focus on customer strategy, the business of loyalty programs and related subjects. He developed and teaches Kellogg’s MBA course Loyalty Co.: The Business of Customer Loyalty and Kellogg’s Executive Education online course on customer loyalty strategy, and teaches in several Kellogg Executive Education programs.

From 2020 through 2025, O’Toole served as Associate Dean of Executive Programs (2023–2025) and, previously, Associate Dean of Executive Education (2020–2023), with responsibility for Kellogg’s Executive MBA degree, its global partner schools, and Executive Education programs. He was Executive Director of Kellogg’s Program for Data Analytics from 2018 to 2020.

He is the author of “Branding Services in the Digital Era” in Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World (Wiley, 2019) and of “Customer-Centricity as a Business Strategy” and “Personalization: Today and Tomorrow” in Kellogg on Marketing (Wiley, 2023).

O’Toole currently serves on the Board of Directors of Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: LNT), an S&P 500 company providing electricity, natural gas, renewable energy, and logistics services. He has previously served on the Boards of Directors of CWT, Extended Stay America, LSC Communications, and cxLoyalty, among other public and private companies. In 2016, he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to the Board of Brand USA, the nation’s public-private destination marketing organization, and was subsequently reappointed.

O’Toole is a member of the Open Minds network, an impact-driven organization that spans industry and academia to address the “Dual Challenge” of meeting our growing energy needs while reducing climate impact. He chairs Open Minds’ NextGen program focused on identifying, empowering, and connecting the next generation of global energy and climate leaders.

O’Toole serves as a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, advising clients across travel, financial services and other industries worldwide on customer strategy, enterprise data and analytics, revenue strategy, digital enterprise transformation, and the business of loyalty programs.

Until his retirement at the end of 2016, O’Toole was Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of United Airlines and President, MileagePlus — then the world’s largest and top-rated frequent flyer program. At United, his responsibilities included brand strategy, marketing, product development, ecommerce, digital channels, ancillary revenue, co-brand credit cards, partnerships and other functions. He joined United as Chief Marketing Officer in 2010.

Before United, O’Toole spent 13 years at Hyatt Hotels Corporation, ultimately serving as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Information Officer with worldwide responsibility for marketing, its loyalty program, distribution, and information technology. He joined Hyatt as Vice President of Marketing in 1995.

O’Toole serves on the Board of the Big Shoulders Fund of Chicago.

In 1998, O’Toole was named to the Advertising Age Marketing 100.

O’Toole holds a Master of Applied Communication Theory and Methodology and a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in communication research, both from Cleveland State University. In 2013, he was named Distinguished Alumnus of the University’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.