John Wolff leads Kearney’s global Aerospace and Defense practice, serving Government and industry defense clients around the world. Wolff is now in his 26th year with the firm, and after working across multiple industries for eight years he began working with the US DoD in 2005. He has been in the practice lead role since 2020, achieving unprecedented growth and rapidly expanding the firm’s presence to multiple countries’ Defense Agencies and industrial bases. Building upon a wide range of strategic operations and organizational improvement capability, under Wolff’s leadership the practice has pressed into several new areas, including advanced analytics, adoption of Industry 4.0, and development of AI tools for supply chain risk management and resiliency.
Wolff also helps spearhead Kearney’s current work with the World Economic Forum on the Airports of Tomorrow initiative. Previously, he helped expand Kearney’s Women in Aerospace, Defense and Security network, which has hosted events around the world that promote interaction and advancement of female executives across the sector. Wolff has served on Kearney’s Global Partner Selection committee that elects new Partners, and the Global Talent Team that oversees broader Partner development and career track. He also led Kearney’s Washington DC office for four years. Wolff earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, graduating with High Distinction.
Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Transportation, Industrials & Infrastructure.
In such a vast and complex industry, safety, innovation, and regulation are crucial. In between the pressure to innovate and transform, while keeping costs down, you need a partner to help you strike the right balance. Luckily, Kearney doesn't get called the “results consultants” for nothing. Kearney’s track record in this space has seen them deliver return on investment at typically 10:1 and often much higher. Kearney doesn't say this to brag. They say it because it’s something you need to know. For Kearney, it’s about delivering the best, every time. Whether you need help navigating risk and regulations, reimagining your supply chain management, or making critical innovation investment, Kearney makes your progress their passion.
Since Kearney’s founding nearly 100 years ago, they’ve partnered with clients across the A&D landscape – from departments and ministries of defense, to prime contractors producing major systems, and to their suppliers. Additionally, Kearney works with commercial aerospace companies to achieve specific business outcomes. The breadth and depth of their experience puts Kearney in a position to tackle some of the most complex challenges out there, but they never presume they’ve seen it all before. Kearney’s more interested in developing solutions together. Looking beyond the expected, so you can go there.
Whether you need to make your program more affordable or optimize your portfolio strategy, Kearney’s people can help every step of the way. Since the beginning, Kearney has been a firm for engineers – long before ‘consultant’ became the job title. You can see that legacy in the work they do and how they do it. Fact-based analysis that takes big ideas and makes working realities.
Above all, Kearney’s committed to success that’s built to last. Superficial updates? They’re not for Kearney. Kearney’s all about actions that guarantee return in the years to come.
Since 1926, Kearney has been trusted advisors to the world’s foremost organizations and they continue to live by the principles established by their founder Andrew Thomas (Tom) Kearney so long ago: “Our success as consultants will depend on the essential rightness of the advice we give and our capacity for convincing those in authority that it is good.”
Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm with more than 4,200 people working in more than 40 countries. Kearney works with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500, as well as with the most influential governmental and non-profit organizations.
Kearney is a partner-owned firm with a distinctive, collegial culture that transcends organizational and geographic boundaries—and it shows. Regardless of location or rank, Kearney’s consultants are down to earth, approachable, and have a shared passion for doing innovative client work that provides clear benefits to the organizations they work with in both the short and long term.
