Bain & Company promotes Jamie Cleghorn to head of global customer practice

Bain & Company, a Boston-headquartered management consulting firm, has promoted Jamie Cleghorn to leader of its global customer practice.

Cleghorn, who has been at Bain for the last 20 years, succeeds Darci Darnell, who has led the practice since 2019.

Bain’s customer practice helps businesses unify offering, brand, marketing, sales, pricing, and experience into a single, integrated growth system. The practice, which introduced the widely used Net Promoter Score system in the early 2000s, is today guiding clients through AI-driven reinvention of customer models to help build loyalty and deliver sustainable growth.

“There is a clear through line from Bain’s early work on customer advocacy to the AI- and data-driven growth transformations we are delivering today,” said Cleghorn. “The next business cycle will demand that companies infuse the latest AI technologies into their existing business models and transform from the inside out. I’m excited to work with our teams and partners to help clients move further, faster – while staying grounded in the first principles of value creation and customer led growth.”

In his new role, Cleghorn will advance a suite of growth solutions and scale AI and digital capabilities to help clients build modern front offices with technology-enabled pathways to sustainable revenue performance.

Based in Chicago, Cleghorn has for the last 15 years helped build Bain’s commercial excellence solution, which helps clients improve performance in sales, marketing, pricing, and go-to-market. He co-authored “B2B Elements of Value,” the firm’s approach to architecting value propositions, and co-created Sales Play SystemsSM, a front office operating system for B2B growth.

Cleghorn has particular expertise in technology companies and private equity-sponsored growth initiatives.

He has a master’s degree in marketing from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois.

“Bain’s Customer practice has long been the premier advisor and transformation partner for executives seeking to accelerate growth by elevating the primacy of customers,” said François Faelli, global head of capabilities at Bain & Company. “Jamie brings a rare combination of strategic rigor, commercial instinct, and technological fluency. He is exceptionally well positioned to build on the practice’s strong momentum – deepening our impact with business leaders, scaling our ecosystem partnerships, and continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible in customer-led growth.”

Bain recently appointed Aaron Cheris as leader of its global retail industry practice.