This is a profile image of Matthew R. Straus

Matthew R. Straus

PartnerChicago

Drives growth for travel and infrastructure companies with particular expertise in customer experience and loyalty

Matt helps travel, hospitality, and infrastructure companies around the world develop growth strategies, build new businesses, and drive customer choice. He helps major airlines, cruise lines, theme parks, transit agencies, airports, hotel chains, and related travel companies make substantial performance improvements by creating customer-backed strategies, leveraging analytics for decision-making, and deploying the full range of marketing and sales capabilities.

Matt’s recent client experience includes the following:

  • assisting a world-leading airline in building new businesses that leverage the strength and scale of existing loyalty programs and partnerships
  • transforming a world-leading airline’s approach to customer experience to drive significant improvements in customer loyalty and decrease customer churn
  • working with a top destination theme park in deploying a wide range of marketing levers—including digital marketing, channel strategy, promotions, pricing, UI/UX, and more—to increase attendance and per capita spending
  • collaborating with a global tourism destination on a five-year growth strategy, supported by deep analytics and consumer insights
  • working with a major international airport on building a customer experience strategy and standing up the transformation infrastructure to drive strategy execution
  • advising a major public transit agency on its ten-year growth strategy to grow ridership and improve customer experience scores

PUBLISHED WORK

Travel Tuesday is real—and growing,” McKinsey & Company, October 2024

How the world’s best hotels deliver exceptional customer experience,” McKinsey & Company, March 2024

The comeback of corporate travel: How should companies be planning?” McKinsey & Company, July 2021

EDUCATION

Stanford Graduate School of Business
MBA

Duke University
BS, Mathematics