United Airlines names Dennis Cary chief marketing and customer officer

CHICAGO – UAL Corporation, the holding company whose primary subsidiary is United Airlines, today named Dennis Cary senior vice president and chief marketing and customer officer and Graham Atkinson president of Mileage Plus, the company’s loyalty program.

With this move, United is integrating the customer experience and marketing organizations under Cary, who will now be responsible for brand strategy, customer communications, merchandising, united.com and the overall design of the customer experience.

Cary previously was senior vice president of marketing. In this new role, he will continue to report to John Tague, executive vice president and chief operating officer, who said the move will provide a greater focus on the end-to-end customer experience.

“By combining marketing and customer experience, we are creating an organization that can more holistically deliver products and services that our customers value,” Tague said. “With our new international first and business class seat roll out well under way, now is a good time to make this move, which will enable Dennis and his team to build on the customer experience work. Graham’s experience and knowledge of our most frequent customers will be particularly relevant as we continue to make Mileage Plus a best-in-class loyalty program.”

As president of Mileage Plus, Atkinson will focus on developing Mileage Plus into a standalone business, leveraging the potential of United’s relationship with key partners and ensuring that United is well positioned to address the changing landscape of loyalty programs and meet the needs of the company’s most loyal customers.

In his new role, Atkinson, who was previously chief customer officer, also will report to Tague. Robert Sahadevan, vice president of Mileage Plus, will report to Atkinson.