The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Private Equity Consultants and Leaders of 2024. As key figures in the broader financial ecosystem, these leaders help private equity firms navigate the complexities of high-stakes transactions, operational challenges, and value creation strategies. Their work not only drives the success of individual firms but also influences entire industries, shaping businesses, attracting investors, and fostering market expansion globally.
Private equity consultants are instrumental throughout the entire investment lifecycle, from conducting due diligence to implementing post-acquisition transformations. By partnering with investors and management teams, these consultants help solve complex business challenges and deliver measurable results, leaving a lasting impact on industries ranging from technology and healthcare to industrials and infrastructure.
Among this year’s awardees, Rachel Barton, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, is recognized for her cross-sector work in advising private equity firms on growth strategies and value creation throughout the deal lifecycle. Alberto Fumo, Senior Partner at Kearney, specializes in guiding private equity firms through acquisitions and post-acquisition transformations, delivering substantial value across industries. Phil Dunne, UK Managing Director at Stax, stands out for his work in driving buy-side, sell-side, and value creation opportunities within the industrials sector.
This year’s awardees were selected through a methodical nomination process and careful consideration of each candidate’s career track record and industry contributions. Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Private Equity Consultants and Leaders of 2024.
1. Shelley Stewart
Firm: McKinsey and Company
Title: Senior Partner
Shelley Stewart is a Senior Partner at McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm. A leader within McKinsey’s Private Equity and Principal Investors Practice, Stewart serves a range of clients on growth, marketing, and sales topics. He has worked with companies across the industrial and technology sectors, helping them identify opportunities for accelerated growth, design go-to-market models, improve the effectiveness of sales forces, and leverage digital routes to market.
2. Rachel Barton
Firm: Accenture
Title: Senior Managing Director
Rachel Barton is a Senior Managing Director and manages the Global Private Equity business at Accenture, where she specializes in advising business leaders on how to transform and create new growth from strategy to execution. In her role, Rachel focuses on maximizing value creation and positive impact for private equity funds and their portfolio companies by connecting diligence, diagnostics, technology and BPO services to support private equity funds across the full deal lifecycle.
Working cross sector, Rachel is a growth strategist by trade and is motivated by helping companies grow while creating positive societal and environmental impact. She also leads Accenture Strategy’s Global Thought Leadership Council and sits on Accenture’s global Corporate Citizenship Council. Additionally, Rachel is Chair for UnLtd, a charity investing in social entrepreneurs and is a trustee for the King’s College Hospital Charity.
3. Brian Kushner
Firm: FTI Consulting
Title: Senior Managing Director
Brian Kushner co-leads the Activism and M&A Solutions Practice, Technology Practice, and Aerospace, Defense, and Government Contracting Practice at FTI Consulting and is the Founder and former leader of FTI Consulting’s Private Equity practice. Brian has more than 40 years of board and C-level experience that include serving as director, CEO, and Chief Restructuring Officer of more than 35 public and private companies.
Brian has led more than 50 engagements involving TMT, defense, business process outsourcing, and manufacturing. He has worked on projects involving every aspect of corporate and C-suite performance and board governance, from strategy and go-to-market planning, pricing and revenue enhancement, cost cutting, perpetual license to SaaS migration, enterprise resource planning remediation, digital strategy, and complex restructuring.
Brian has bought or sold over 25 companies and conducted diligence on more than 50 for private equity and hedge funds in financial, commercial, IT and operational diligence, revenue enhancement, cybersecurity, outsourcing, governance and selling, general, and administrative expenses reduction.
Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Brian co-founded CXO, LLC, which was later acquired by FTI Consulting. He began his career at BDM International, a defense firm, where after 10 years, he was Chief Scientist and CIO leading advanced technology, IT, turnarounds and all DARPA businesses.
4. Sheldon Hamburger
Firm: Infosys
Title: Managing Director Private Equity Practice
Sheldon Hamburger is the Managing Director Private Equity Practice of Infosys, a multinational technology company specializing in digital and consulting services. With 30 years of experience, Hamburger focuses on driving revenue growth, business turnarounds, strategic alliances, and market expansions. As a skilled business developer, he excels at building and managing commercial relationships, negotiating enterprise-level agreements, and guiding deals from pilot phases to full profitability.
5. James Marceau
Firm: Alvarez and Marsal
Title: Managing Director
James Marceau is a Managing Director in the Alvarez and Marsal Private Equity Services Operations Group and leads the firm’s Aerospace, Defense, Aviation, and Space practice. He specializes in value creation and performance improvement for public and private equity owned portfolio companies, with a focus on strategy, revenue growth, due diligence, buy/sell side, M&A, PMI, innovation, engineering, operations, manufacturing, supply chain, technology, and value creation execution.
With over 30 years of experience, Marceau has held executive leadership roles in both public and private equity-owned businesses. His teams of engineers, operations experts, and financial professionals have advised on some of the largest government acquisition programs, consistently delivering on cost, schedule, and performance. He is also deeply involved in corporate turnarounds, restructuring efforts, and transformation initiatives that drive stakeholder value.
Marceau has extensive experience advising government and private equity clients on high-profile, complex projects. He has been a trusted expert for the U.S. Department of Defense, military branches, intelligence communities, and foreign governments, offering insights into innovation, engineering, and operational excellence. His work spans advanced weapons systems, AI, hypersonics, and classified government programs, contributing to mission-critical projects across the defense industrial base.
Additionally, Marceau leads buy/sell-side teams for large corporations and private equity firms, conducting operations, IT, and financial due diligence. His work in portfolio company performance improvement includes developing value creation plans, managing business carve-outs, executing industry consolidations, and driving post-merger performance improvement programs that deliver meaningful results. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and an MBA in international business from the University of Miami Herbert Graduate School of Business.
6. Jan Timmermann
Firm: Kearney
Title: Partner
Jan Timmermann is a Senior Partner at Kearney and serves as the European Private Equity Portfolio Operations Lead. Over the past five years, he has helped build Kearney’s Private Equity and Principal Investor practice across Europe. With over 25 years of experience in industry and professional services, Jan has led more than 70 private equity assignments across a broad range of sectors, including consumer products, technology, healthcare, life sciences, energy, and business services.
Jan specializes in working with PE funds to deliver value creation-focused operations DDs, and in the post-deal, delivers high-impact transformations that beat pre-deal targets. He has led some of the most complex global carve-outs across various industries and geographies, many operations DDs and portfolio company performance improvement programs for leading private equity firms, resulting in billions of dollars of value creation.
Before joining Kearney, Jan worked at Alvarez and Marsal in the Private Equity Performance Improvement practice, developing and implementing value-creation plans, carve-out and post-merger integrations, as well as leading transformation offices. Earlier in his career, he worked in corporate finance at Deloitte and at PA Consulting Group, after beginning his career as a Chartered Management Accountant at Procter and Gamble.
7. Deirdre Baggot
Firm: Oliver Wyman
Title: Partner and Private Capital Leader
Deirdre Baggot PhD is a Denver based senior partner at Oliver Wyman where she leads healthcare deal work for the firm. Oliver Wyman, a business of Marsh and McLennan is a management consultancy that combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise to help clients optimize their business, improve operations and accelerate performance. Baggot not only plays an important role leading healthcare mergers and acquisitions for the firm, she also enjoys advising her payer and provider clients on corporate strategy. Previously, Dr. Baggot spent ten years in academic healthcare, first at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and later at the University of Michigan.
She holds a PhD from University of Colorado, an MBA and Gregory La Vert Scholar from Loyola Graduate School of Business and a BSN, Summa Cum Laude from Southern Ilinois University. She also holds a certificate in Healthcare Executive Leadership from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Deirdre and her husband Ted live in Denver Colorado with their two children, Harry and Emily.
8. Alberto Fumo
Firm: Kearney
Title: Partner
Alberto Fumo is a Senior Partner at Kearney and currently leads the firm’s global Private Equity and Principal Investors team. With over 20 years of experience, he has advised corporations and private equity firms across the entire transaction and transformation cycle. Alberto specializes in assessing acquisitions and divestitures from multiple commercial and operational perspectives and supporting management in the post-acquisition phase.
Alberto assists his clients in completing transformational deals for their organizations and their own careers, working alongside clients to deliver the synergies or value-creation opportunities identified during the diligence phase. He aids clients in ensuring that the value creation becomes tangible on both the P&L and balance sheet.
9. Apurva Nair
Firm: Oliver Wyman
Title: Partner
Apurva Nair is a New York City-based Partner in Oliver Wyman’s Private Capital practice. He has more than 15 years of experience working closely with PE firms on both, pre- and post-deal initiatives. Apurva’s industry expertise includes manufacturing/industrials and telecom/enterprise software, with a multi-year track record of value creation across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
In the industrials/manufacturing space, Apurva focuses on operational diligences and post-close value-creation efforts, aimed at helping his PE clients realize improved operating performance in accelerated time frames. In the telecom/enterprise software space, Apurva focuses on buy and sell side diligences, in addition to delivering post-deal value, both top and bottom line.
Currently, Apurva leads Oliver Wyman’s intersection of Private Equity and Operations in North America– a specialized team focused on helping PE-owned businesses maximize their potential upside in operating performance. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, Apurva served as Partner and COO for a boutique firm with operations in the US, Europe, and Asia. Apurva holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, as well as master’s degrees in engineering management and applied mathematics from Dartmouth College.
10. Kai Lakhdar
Firm: PwC
Title: Private Equity and Pensions Consulting Leader
Kai Lakhdar is the National Private Equity and Pension Fund Consulting Leader for PwC Canada, where he leads a team of investment management consulting partners and staff to serve their investor clients across Canada and globally. Strategy&, part of PwC’s global network, is a business consulting firm that focuses on aligning economic growth with social progress and environmental sustainability.
Over the past 20 years, Kai has advised a range of investor and corporate clients across Canada on a wide range of strategic and operational issues including fund transformation, growth strategy, technology modernization, advanced data analytics, operational effectiveness, policy reform and navigating the impacts of megatrends, technology, and regulation.
Kai brings deep experience in both strategy development and the application of analytical techniques in capital markets, alternatives, healthcare, technology, and retail and consumer goods. He formerly helped establish an international technology business focused on corporate customers. Before that, he led a corporate strategy practice at KPMG, assuming various Canadian and global roles.
Kai has significant international experience, having worked on more than 100 strategy and transformation engagements in more than 15 countries. Kai holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in engineering with a focus on management science from University College London as well as certificates in investment management and ESG investing from CFA UK.
11. Bill Tribe
Firm: Kearney
Title: Partner
Bill Tribe is a Senior Partner at Kearney, based in the Chicago office. His 20 year consulting career started with Kearney in London, and he has worked across Europe, Asia and America, re-locating to the US in 2013. He has experience across a broad range of industry sectors, including industrials, consumer goods, chemicals, F&B, and healthcare, working for both private equity portfolio companies and large corporates in margin improvement programs, transformations, and M&A transactions.
Tribe has held a variety of senior positions within Kearney, having previously led the Manufacturing team in North America, and now leading the value creation team in Kearney's Americas Private Equity practice. As an early member of the team and one of its senior Partners, he has been central to the rapid growth of Kearney's Private Equity practice and value creation offerings, working across the deal cycle for funds and their portfolio companies. He currently manages Kearney's relationship with five of the top Private Equity funds in North America, as well as having worked extensively in the mid-market.
Prior to Kearney, Tribe had a successful academic career at the University of Cambridge, subsequently moving into a VC startup, where he worked in the development of novel imaging technologies and their commercial production and application. Tribe received his doctorate from Oxford University and his MBA from Cranfield School of Management.
12. Bhuvy Abrol
Firm: Deloitte
Title: Principal
Bhuvy Abrol leads Deloitte’s Private Equity Consulting Segment and M&A and Restructuring’s Consulting PE Practice in the US. Abrol also serves as a client leader for Consulting and is responsible for bringing the breadth of the firm’s capabilities and qualified teams to identify and realize sources of value for marquis PE clients. He has more than 22 years of experience in advising clients on new and adjacent market entry, profitability assessments, customer segmentation, and new product and services strategy. Further, in the front end of M&A, he specializes in creation of inorganic growth strategies, acquisition pathways, screening and prioritization of targets, commercial and operational/carve-out due diligence, cost and revenue synergy estimation, and carve-out and stand-up planning of businesses with a particular emphasis on sales and marketing functions. Abrol also works with clients on defining and executing 100-day plans post diligence and executing transformation programs to capture value during ownership and at exit
Prior to joining Deloitte he worked at AMD in engineering, sales, and marketing positions in Silicon Valley and in Europe with responsibility for all of Southern Europe out of Paris.
Abrol holds a BA in Economics from Lawrence University, a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the Anderson School at UCLA. He lives in LA with his family and enjoys all racquet sports (lot more of pickleball recently!), wine, and cooking in his spare time.
13. Sean McDevitt
Firm: Arthur D. Little
Title: Partner
Based in Boston, Sean McDevitt is a Partner at Arthur D. Little, where he leads the USA TMT practice. He advises telecom operators, suppliers, private equity, infrastructure funds, and lenders on critical business decisions regarding investment due diligence, commercial and market assessments, business plan review, strategic growth initiatives, and portfolio value creation.
Sean brings three decades of international management consulting and operations experience across several global markets. He has been pivotal in driving ADL’s growth and re-emergence as a leading management consulting firm in the U.S. Sean also leads the firm’s recruiting efforts and has had an instrumental role in building the ADL USA team and company culture.
Prior to joining ADL, Sean was a VP at Cartesian, where he led the North American Strategy and Management Consulting businesses. Previously, he held executive positions in Europe, serving as Président-Directeur Général of Le Numéro France (118218) and COO of 118118//Media in the UK. Sean holds a bachelor’s degree in classics and business economics from Brown University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
14. Ben Gregory
Firm: Teneo
Title: Managing Director
Ben Gregory is a Managing Director in Teneo’s Management Consulting division, and leads the Private Equity Growth capability in UK and Europe. His focus is on value creation for Technology businesses, with particular expertise in Enterprise Software, B2B Information Services, and Tech-Enabled Services.
Ben has led over 100 engagements supporting financial investors to accelerate value realisation in their portfolios. His expertise spans value creation planning, pricing and packaging strategies, and proposition strategy, alongside growth-focused Commercial Due Diligence. Ben believes strongly that the most effective consulting engagements combine deep functional and industry expertise, rigorous quantitative analysis and a ‘hearts and minds’ approach working with management teams to ensure that recommendations turn into results.
Ben joined Teneo in 2017 via the acquisition of Credo, a London-based consulting boutique. He previously lived and worked in the Middle East, working to develop the region’s consulting presence. Ben holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge.
15. Vimal Menon
Firm: Zinnov
Title: Partner
Vimal Menon is a Partner at Zinnov, based in the firm’s Paris office, where he leads the Private Equity practice. An expert in formulating and executing strategies for growth, market expansion, go-to-market, M&A, and globalization, Vimal has extensive experience working with global clients. Zinnov is a global management and strategy consulting firm helping clients accelerate their technology journeys and create value through revenue growth, transformation, and optimization.
With more than 13 years of experience, Vimal has played a key role in expanding Zinnov’s footprint in Europe as well as working with private equity firms globally in the technology services industry. He spearheads major client engagements for technology services firms spanning organic growth strategies, margin optimization, workforce globalization, organization design, inorganic strategies, post merger integration, among others. Additionally, he heads commercial due diligence engagements for private equities focusing on technology services firms.
Previously, Vimal was a design engineer in civil and structural at Fichtner Consulting Engineers. Earlier in his career he worked with Reliance Engineering Associates Ltd as a Manager of Civil Design. Vimal holds an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bangalore, and a bachelor’s degree in technology with specialization in civil engineering from National Institute of Technology, Surat.
16. Tjai Nielsen
Firm: WittKieffer
Title: Senior Partner
Tjai Nielsen is a Senior Partner in Global Leadership Advisory at WittKieffer. In this role, he advises private equity firms, venture capital investors, and Fortune 500 senior executives on critical leadership challenges, including CEO succession, M&A, talent assessment and development, and organizational performance optimization. He has extensive experience working with investors across various industries, both pre- and post-transaction.
Before joining WittKieffer, Tjai was a Senior Principal at ghSMART, where he built trusted advisor relationships with numerous private equity leaders and portfolio company CEOs, coached C-suite executives from Fortune 125 companies, and was an invited speaker at venues such as MIT, Harvard Business School, and the United Nations.
Earlier in his career, Tjai worked with RHR International specializing in CEO succession, executive assessment, leader development, and senior team dynamics, partnering with organizations ranging from large corporations to the United States Congress across more than 20 countries in North America, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
Along with his consulting career, Tjai spent over 12 years as an academic, primarily at George Washington University's School of Business, where he served as Director of Executive Education, Dean’s Research Scholar, and Professor of Management. Tjai holds a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology, a master’s degree in health and human performance, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
17. Phil Dunne
Firm: Stax
Title: Managing Director
Phil Dunne is the UK Managing Director and Head of Europe at Stax, a global strategy consulting firm, where he advises private equity clients on buy-side, sell-side, and value creation opportunities, primarily within the Industrials sector. Since joining Stax, the firm has more than doubled in size across Europe.
With over 30 years of experience across both industry and consulting, Phil brings a wealth of expertise to his clients. Trained as an engineer, he began his career designing ground-to-air missiles with British Aerospace. He then spent five years in France working for Michelin in design and manufacturing roles.
Phil began his consulting career with Kearney, focusing on large-scale restructuring and cost transformation programs for industrial OEMs, as well as strategy projects within the firm’s supply bases. He later became the head of the UK’s Automotive practice, progressively shifting towards transaction-related projects for private equity and large corporate mergers. Phil eventually became UK Managing Partner and Head of the Private Equity Practice.
He later joined EY, where he became a member of the leadership team for the UK Transaction Advisory Services division and led the EY-Parthenon Strategy team. In this role, Phil advised both private equity and corporate clients on a wide range of strategic, deal-related issues. In 2020, he transitioned back to pure-play strategy consulting, becoming the UK Managing Partner for Roland Berger. Phil holds a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Birmingham and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.
18. Jamie Loder
Firm: SGS Maine Pointe
Title: Managing Director
Jamie has worked in private equity and the private capital market for over 20 years. His initial career focused on derisking industrial and services companies from legacy pension scheme assets working for Rothesay which is now responsible for c.$100bn of assets. He later worked as a consultant for over 5 years for the controlling shareholders of Swire which has c.$50bn of assets and owns the Cathay Pacific airline, the rights to Coca Cola in China and 35m sq ft of property in Asia. In 2013 he joined a boutique private equity focused due diligence practice in London and within 2 years had become the Managing Director of the business and led an MBO and subsequent disposal of the company. Clients during this time included Advent, CVC and KKR. In late 2018 he joined Maine Pointe which was acquired by SGS in 2019 and today leads all private equity activity in the European market-place. Notable current clients include Bain, CD&R and Warburg Pincus. Loder is recognized as an authority on supply chain, operations and procurement transformation particularly in a manufacturing and distribution context. His focus is on implementing significant change with material economic benefits linked to overall value creation.
19. Bridget Walsh
Firm: EY
Title: Global Private Equity Leader
Bridget Walsh is the Global Head of Private Equity at EY, where she leads a team of private equity professionals across 145 countries. With a presence in over 150 countries, EY leverages data, technology, and diverse teams to provide assurance and support clients in their growth, transformation, and operations.
20. Daniel Gettings
Firm: Marsh
Title: Managing Director, Private Equity and M&A
Daniel Gettings is the Managing Director for the Latin America and Caribbean region of Marsh’s Private Equity and M&A and Infrastructure practice, which supports financial sponsors, strategic investors, and M&A advisors. Marsh McLennan is a global firm specializing in risk, strategy, and people, with operations in 130 countries.
21. Rebecca Burack
Firm: Bain and Company
Title: Partner
Rebecca Burack is a Partner at Bain and Company, a global management consulting firm serving clients across 65 cities in 40 countries. Burack leads Bain's Global Private Equity practice. She brings 25 years of management consulting experience to her role, advising leading private equity investors and alternative asset managers across the full investment cycle.
22. Kerensa Butler
Firm: RSM US
Title: National Private Equity Strategy Leader
Kerensa Butler is the Assurance Private Equity Strategy Leader at RSM US, where she guides the firm’s strategic efforts across the assurance practice to serve PE firms and their portfolio companies within a holistic client experience model. Butler has served PE firms and their portfolio companies for almost 30 years and joined RSM’s national PE leadership team in 2006.
23. Alex Hartley
Firm: KPMG UK
Title: Partner, Head of Private Equity
Alex Hartley is a M&A Partner and the National Head of Private Equity at KPMG, where he also leads the London region's M&A team. With an extensive understanding of private equity market dynamics, Hartley maintains close connections with key stakeholders across the industry and has advised on numerous deals.
24. Michael Notarangelo
Firm: Grant Thornton
Title: Partner, Private Equity Audit Leader
Mike Notarangelo is a Partner and National Private Equity Audit Leader for Grant Thornton. Notarangelo is responsible for overseeing audits of privately owned and publicly traded companies, including private equity sponsored companies. He has served clients primarily in the consumer industrial and branded retail product manufacturing, technology, and insurance industries.
25. Verenda Graham
Firm: BDO USA
Title: Partner, Private Equity Tax National Leader
Verenda Graham is the National Private Equity Tax Leader and a Principal in the Tax practice at BDO, a global firm providing assurance, tax, and advisory services to clients across the U.S. and in over 160 countries. In her role, Graham is responsible for overseeing BDO’s delivery of tax services to private equity funds and their portfolio company investments.
Sourced from The Consulting Report