He's Back! Craig Schlagbaum to Advise Bluewave on M&A

Craig Schlagbaum is resurfacing after retiring from his job leading Comcast Business' channel.

Schagbaum will serve as an independent strategic advisor for Bluewave Technology Group, lending guidance on mergers and acquisitions, and "key strategic initiatives" that Bluewave is making in the technology advisor channel. He'll help newly appointed senior vice president of corporate development Steven Meeker, who will head up M&A strategy.

Schlagbaum spent about three months under the radar following his departure from Comcast Business at the end of 2023.

"Craig is a respected figure in the channel, having pioneered the telecom industry's indirect distribution model," Bluewave CEO Seth Penland said. "His wealth of experience will be instrumental in identifying advisors who are personally ready to transition and become part of the Bluewave platform."

Craig Schlagbaum

Who Is Craig Schlagbaum?

Bluewave describes Schlagbaum as an industry luminary. He played a founding role in Level 3's channel program before spending 13 years as the architect of Comcast Business' solutions advisor program. The programs he built with those vendors helped them transact in the agent partner model that Bluewave leverages.

Some of Schlagbaum's partners at Comcast recently described his process of building the Comcast program.

Related:Partners: Craig Schlagbaum Made Comcast 'Consistent'

Columbia Capital-backed Bluewave has brought on well-known figures from the channel, including from Windstream and Vonage channel leader Curt Allen, to advise its C-suite.

Growing M&A Expertise

Steven Meeker has joined Bluewave as vice president of corporate development. He will lead the company's M&A sourcing going forward.

Bluewave's Steven Meeker

Meeker most recently was Vision Dealer Solutions' chief operating officer. He also was chief strategy officer at DealerSocket. Furthermore, he served for four years as vice president at Zions Bank. He functioned as an investment banker for corporate M&A in that job.

According to Bluewave, Meeker has helped more than 40 business owners move toward exits. That included raising capital and scaling.

"His extensive background in M&A and a passion for empowering business owners will undoubtedly drive our corporate development initiatives to new heights," Penland said.

Bluewave has acquired and integrated multiple technology advisor (agent) businesses.