Beyond the Bio

How the Power of Building Relationships Led an Advanced Analytics Duo to join the Bain Family

Robert Cercós and Juan Pablo (JP) Garcia, founders of Spike SpA - a leading provider of advanced analytics and machine learning solutions - joined the Bain family after Spike was acquired by the firm earlier this year. As part of Bain adding more client-demanding capabilities to our toolkit, Robert and JP bring a new expertise to the firm that not only provides resources for our clients but opportunities for advanced analytics and machine learning experts to work on impactful projects and solve the world’s most challenging problems. Listen to this duo’s journey from engineers to entrepreneurs and how their friendship led them into consultancy.

How Finding a Business Benchmarking Need Led this CEO’s Company to be Acquired by Bain

Lauren Kelley, CEO of OPEXEngine, a member-based benchmarking community for software and SaaS companies that joined Bain in 2021, found a gap in how companies measure data and chose to do something about it. Lauren joins us to share not only her journey to entrepreneurship and what’s driven her throughout her career, but how OPEXEngine is meeting the needs and answering the hard questions companies are asking around performance and what led to its recent acquisition as part of Bain’s aim to build a larger suite of capabilities to support our clients.

How Bain is Meeting Capability Demands for Clients through our Mergers & Acquisitions

Neil Shah, Executive Vice President of Global Mergers & Acquisitions, studied government at Harvard. After graduating, Neil joined Bain as Associate Consultant for a few years before pursuing a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Boomeranging back to Bain after a few career opportunities in banking and policies, Neil now leads our global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that help meet capability demands that support our clients. Listen to Neil’s journeys to Bain, how his government background supports his impact at the firm, and gain some insight into our recent M&As that are helping grow our capabilities in advanced analytics, marketing, innovation & design, and more.

How Embracing Open Doors Led this Former Engineer to Lead Bain’s Digital Delivery Platform, Vector

Arpan Sheth, Bain’s Global Capability Leader of our digital delivery platform, Vector, is all about embracing open doors. Following his father's footsteps and becoming an engineer, Arpan shifted to consulting after hearing inspiring stories from people he knew in business. Throughout his time at Bain, Arpan has combined his engineering and business expertise to help build and grow our practices in India, lead our Innovation and Design capability, and support mergers and acquisitions of digital capabilities in Vector. Listen to Arpan share his journey to Bain and how he expanded our practices in APAC as well as give insight into our fast-growing digital platform, Vector. Additionally, learn how Bain is integrating engineers, data scientists, marketers, and innovators into how we’re supporting our clients.

How the Desire to Run Retail Companies Led this Consultant to Become Bain’s Chief Marketing Officer

After many years at Bain helping start our Retail practice, Erika Serow left to become the US CEO of Sweaty Betty before returning to the firm as our Chief Marketing Officer. Erika’s leadership career stems from her desire to be an operator and run a retail business, but over time found that she truly enjoys working with smart and skillful people for a brand that she believes in. On this episode, Erika shares her journey to Bain, what made her choose the firm as a place to build her career, and how her passions led her to become our Chief Marketing Officer.

How Bain is Leading Our Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives Inside and Out of the Firm

Julie Coffman, our Chief Diversity Officer, leader of our Global DEI practice, and Keith Bevans’s first manager who helped mentor the leader and host we know today, joins us to talk about her extensive career at Bain and how she’s currently leading the firm’s DEI initiatives. As part of our 5-part environmental, social and governance (ESG) series, Julie shares insight into the social part of this capability. Listen to how we not only support our clients’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, but how we’re leading by example through our internal commitments and annual DEI reports.

 

In this episode we discuss:

• The 3 chapters of Julie's extensive Bain career
• What sparked Julie to shift her career to supporting our DEI initiatives
• A deep dive into our initiatives and how we're supporting our people and clients

We'd love to hear from you! If you liked this episode or have any feedback to share, let us know by completing the form on atbain.com/btbfeedback.

A Deep Dive into Bain’s Social Impact Work with The Nature Conservancy and the Marshall Islands

Sasha Duchnowski, a partner in our Chicago office, joins us as part of our 5-part environmental, social and governance (ESG) series to dive into some of the work we’ve done as our commitment to social impact. We discuss our work with The Nature Conservancy and the Republic of the Marshall Islands on an innovative approach to delivering sustainable cans of tuna, and how this work had led to better fishing environments for employees, retailers gaining supply chain traceability and visibility, and consumers being able to trust the products they’re buying.

 

In this episode we discuss:

• Why Sasha decided to pursue consulting
• His journey to Bain
• His work with The Nature Conservancy

 

We'd love to hear from you! If you liked this episode or have any feedback to share, let us know by completing the form on atbain.com/btbfeedback.

The Transformative Impact of Bain’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Capabilities

Bain's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) capabilities focus on helping our clients make real impact in sustainability, equity, and inclusion for all. Having a passion for this work, François Faelli, our Global Managing Partner of ESG, joins us for a five-part series to share how we're centering these efforts across the globe. On this episode, François not only shares his journey to Bain, but takes us through his moving journey of becoming the firm's first Global Managing Partner of ESG and the current priorities of embedding ESG into 100% of our client projects.

In this episode we discuss:

• How François got his passion for ESG
• How he became the firm's first Worldwide Managing Partner of ESG
• The firm's ESG priorities for our clients

We'd love to hear from you! If you liked this episode or have any feedback to share, let us know by completing the form on atbain.com/btbfeedback.

Going Global: How a Legacy Consultant Navigated His Career to Leading Bain’s Business in EMEA

Domenico Azzarello, EMEA Regional Managing Partner based in Paris, was introduced and pre-destined to an international life in consulting thanks to his consultant parents. Born in Milan, his career has spanned the globe with stops in various cities including Chicago, San Francisco, and Paris where he now leads our fast-growing business in the European, Middle Eastern, and African regions. On this episode, Domenico shares his consulting journey, including how he advanced within the industry to join Bain as an established consultant, and how he helped develop our Telecommunications practice. He also sheds light on EMEA’s business priorities as we continue to grow in this region.

In this episode we discuss:

• Domenico’s early introduction to consulting
• His part in growing Bain’s Telecom practice
• His time leading the Paris office
• How he became EMEA Regional Managing Partner
• EMEA’s business priorities
• How EMEA is incorporating ESG into their business

We'd love to hear from you. If you liked this episode or have any feedback to share, let us know by completing the form on atbain.com/btbfeedback.

Take Back Your Time: How a Consultant Transitioned to Entrepreneurship to Help Executives Work Sustainably

Whitney White, Bain alum and founder of Take Back Your Time – a coaching program that helps executives live up to their full potential - uses her entrepreneurial spirit to help executives learn how to work sustainably while having the life they desire. Having a deep passion for helping others, listen to Whitney share her journey to Bain, why she decided to jump into becoming an entrepreneur instead of going to business school, and how she became the business owner she is today.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Whitney joined Bain after studying Anthropology at Davidson College
• Why Whitney chose to jump into entrepreneurship instead of going to business school after leaving Bain
• The origin story of Take Back Your Time
• Why working sustainably is so important to long-term success

 

We'd love to hear from you. If you liked this episode or have any feedback to share, let us know by completing the form on atbain.com/btbfeedback.