Hal Brierley is CEO of The Brierley Group, LLC advising its clients on effective customer engagement strategies. A lifelong entrepreneur, Hal has launched three ventures focused on customer relationships. 

As an Executive in Residence at SMU Cox School of Business, Hal has unwritten the Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement, offering MBA candidates a marketing specialization in customer engagement.

For thirty years, Hal served as Chief Loyalty Architect for Brierley & Partners, a specialist in the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. He has counseled some 175 major brands, including American Express, AT&T, Hertz, Hilton, Jaguar, Neiman Marcus, Nike, 7-Eleven, Sony, and United Airlines. He served as Brierley’s CEO through 2006 and its Chairman through 2015, when the company was acquired by Nomura Research Institute. 

In 1999, Hal founded e-Rewards, Inc., now Dynata, the world’s largest online market research panel, serving as Chairman and CEO for ten years. Dynata has over ten million panelists in 36 countries, providing survey responses for some 2,500 market research firms. 

He began his entrepreneurial career in 1969 as co-founder of Epsilon Data Management, a pioneer in database marketing, serving as its President and CEO for eleven years. 

In 1980, Hal served as a consultant for American Airlines’ AAdvantage program, the nation’s first frequent traveler program. As Vice President of Sales and Advertising for Pan American World Airways, he launched WorldPass, the first global frequent traveler program. He later was Senior Vice President of Marketing for Continental Airlines. 

He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Harvard Business School, where he has underwritten a Endowed Chair, the Executive Board of SMU Cox School of Business, the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian National Zoo, the Executive Board of The Better Angels Society (supporting Ken Burns’ documentary work for PBS), and the Board of NPR’s Foundation.

He serves on the Boards of the AT&T Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Symphony, the Baylor Health Care System Foundation, North Texas Public Broadcasting, and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Foundation.

He graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering with highest honors from the University of Maryland in 1965 and with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1968 as a Baker Scholar with High Honors. Hal and his wife Diane live in Highland Park, Texas.