February has seen a large number of personnel changes globally, with particular attention given to high-growth markets such as the Middle East and the US. This month, we explore moves and promotions across strategy, transactions, and digital within strategy consultancies and the Big 4, as well as specialist advisory firms such Interpath Advisory and Quantuma.
In Europe senior moves have slowed down in accordance with market conditions, although consistently underpinned by investment into key topics, such as supply chain and digital. Similarly, there have been significant changes to senior leadership in the industry.
People Moves
Oliver Wyman has welcomed Suha Haddad as a Partner in their Dubai office, where she will be focusing on supporting Government and Public Institutions clients across the India, Middle East, and Africa region. Her background in management consulting spans the Public Sector, Media, Entertainment, and Technology industries.
Alvarez & Marsal has hired seven Managing Directors and announced the launch of its Financial Services Industry (FSI) practice in the United States. The new MD hires join an existing team of six in the US. The new US FSI practice is led by Michael Spellacy, who brings more than 25 years of global experience as a CEO, board chair, executive management advisor, PE investor, and dealmaker. Supporting Michael are industry veterans Michael Cheek, Bruce Holley, Michael Horvath, Farrell Hudzik, Brian Kuelbs, and Greg Parets.
Interpath Advisory has expanded its Financial Services Deal Advisory offering in London with the hire of four former EY professionals, including a Managing Director and a Director. Jenna Picken joins as a Managing Director and will lead the firm’s Securitisation Debt Advisory offering. Jack Dutton joins the firm as a Director, having previously spent five years in EY’s Financial Services Corporate Finance team, where he also specialised in debt advisory.
Jens Nackmayr has joined the EY UK&I Consulting team as a Partner. He has over 25 years in international strategy and operational excellence consulting, and will be leading the EMEIA Private Equity Supply Chain and Operations SC&O team.
After 16 years at BCG in the UK, Shilpa Patel will join Alvarez & Marsal in March of this year. Shilpa brings with her a wealth of experience in the Consumer and Consumer Health sector, with functional expertise in commercial strategy, transformation, and value creation.
Global strategic consultancy Roland Berger has appointed three new senior leaders in its Middle East team. The arrival of Partners Gang Ji and Slava Chak and Principal Dorival Bettencourt strengthens Roland Berger’s expertise across key sectors such as Real Estate, Urban Development, Energy, and Localisation.
Rouge Sana has re-joined KPMG as Leadership Talent and Transformation Partner. Rouge works in the Middle East practice and has moved from PwC, having previously completed 11 years at KPMG.
Annika Melin-Jakobsson has joined Alvarez & Marsal’s Stockholm office as a Managing Director and leader of the Nordic Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory (CMAA) practice. Annika boasts a wealth of experience in Big 4 firms, having previously been at EY and KPMG.
Onur Dogan has joined Arthur D. Little as a Partner in the Istanbul office. Onur has 20 years’ experience of enhancing companies’ digital strategies, operating model efficiency, and productivity. Neil Tang has also joined Arthur D. Little as a Partner in the Shanghai office, where his main focus will be the Healthcare and Life Sciences practice.
Advisory firm Quantuma has strengthened its Middle East practice through the hire of Ahmad Chit. Appointed as Managing Director, he is a chartered accountant with more than 15 years of experience in forensic accounting, investigations and compliance. His experience includes involvement in a wide array of complex, high-profile, and multi-million-dollar investigations and disputes across the Middle East, Africa, North America and Europe.
Grant Thornton has boosted its Middle East footprint through the hire of two Partners. Imran Jaffer (Abu Dhabi), joins as a Partner in the Restructuring Advisory practice, and Faizan Ahmed (Dubai) joins as a Partner in the Audit and Assurance practice. The pair have moved from PwC and Deloitte respectively.
ClearView Healthcare Partners has hired Brian Quinn as a Managing Director from IQVIA. Brian is a strategy and M&A consulting Partner with over 17 years’ experience in Life Sciences, including six years in operating roles in biotech, and a background in biomedical research.
Bain & Company in the US has welcomed Ricardo Correia as an Expert Partner in their Financial Services practice. He has over 30 years of experience in digital currencies, innovation, technology strategy, and digital transformation.
Simon-Kucher has hired Tom Hesselink as Transaction Services & Private Equity Partner. Tom has moved from KPMG and has almost 20 years of experience in consulting.
People Promotions
Paul Griggs has been elected as Senior Partner of PwC’s US arm after 30 years at the firm. He will continue his work as a client-focused leader with a four-year term, starting in July 2024.
Mark Raddan, current Head of Advisory at Interpath Advisory, will take on the role of CEO as of April 1st 2024. The announcement follows the news that Blair Nimmo will step down from the role.
Bain & Company has followed the election of Christophe De Vusser as Global CEO with the appointment of three new practice leaders in the Americas. Kurt Grichel will act as Head of the Retail practice, Daniel Hong as Head of the Communications, Media & Entertainment (CME) practice and Mikaela Boyd as Head of the Financial Services practice.
Similarly Bain has promoted a trio of company members in the Middle East to Partner: Ankur Goyal, Sara Minelli, and Fadi Hariz. Ankur covers Advanced Manufacturing & Services practice with a particular focus on the Transport & Logistics, and Construction, Building Materials & Real Estate sectors. Sara is a leader in the Public Sector practice in the Middle East, serving clients across Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Fadi Hariz is a member of the Financial Services practice, with a primary focus on clients in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Felix Schweigger becomes Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal in the Private Equity, Performance Improvement Team, having started out there as a trainee 15 years before.
Alongside external hires, Grant Thornton Middle East has boosted its Partner team through two internal Partner promotions. Neha Julka, based in Dubai, and Mohamed ElKhashab, based in Abu Dhabi, have joined the partnership in the Advisory and Audit divisions respectively. The pair have both been with the firm for over seven years.
Simon-Kucher has promoted three new Partners in Consumer: Camille Drumel in Paris, Oroel Praena in Barcelona, and Peter Hoijtink in Johannesburg. Camille has been with the firm for nine years, Oreal for 10 and Peter for just over a year, having had experience at PwC and Strategy& and Deloitte beforehand.
Market Intelligence
Global strategy consultancy firm L.E.K. Consulting has launched a Payments practice, led out of its London office. The practice will help clients with strategy and top-line growth through innovation, M&A, and performance improvement. Leading the new wing are the duo Doug King and Richard Mould, appointed Co-leaders of the Payments practice. Both have extensive experience across payments, gained in industry and in consulting.
Expert services and advisory firm Ankura has partnered with OpenAI to create a new virtual artificial general intelligence system. Ankura AGI will enhance Ankura’s service offerings, for use by its employees and clients. The tool will “enhance Ankura’s capabilities as it continues to drive results for clients”. This comes after OpenAI has recently collaborated with PwC and Bain & Company to produce tools helping their consulting function.