The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Private Equity Consultants and Leaders of 2023. A fundamental element within the United States financial landscape, private equity considerably contributes to propelling economic growth and stimulating job opportunities. With its focus on acquiring non-publicly traded companies, private equity firms act as investors to infuse capital into businesses with high potential and facilitate their expansion.

According to recent data, the private equity industry has experienced substantial growth over the past decade, with total assets under management reaching an all-time high of $4.5 trillion in 2019. Furthermore, it is estimated that there are currently more than 4,000 active private equity firms operating in the United States, supporting around 8 million jobs across various industries.

Private equity investment has been particularly influential in sectors such as technology, healthcare, and energy, demonstrating its ability to drive innovation and foster entrepreneurial activity. As a result of its success in generating attractive returns for investors, private equity has become an increasingly popular choice for institutional investors seeking diversification opportunities within their portfolios.

Among this year’s awardees is Robert Haas, meticulously honing his expertise for more than 25 years in the field of Private Equity. He leverages his extensive experience to tackle strategic and transformational challenges including M&A Strategy, Diligence, Integration Planning, Growth Strategy as well as Enterprise Transformation and Restructuring faced by his clientele worldwide. Up ahead is Amit Laud, who co-heads the private equity team for Alvarez & Marsal across Europe and has spent the past 16 years building up the PEPI (Private Equity Performance Improvement) practice across Europe. He has played a pivotal role in helping clients implement effective business and technology strategies.

Finally, with 15 years of expertise under her belt, Kim Clark Pakstys stands out as a seasoned advisor to both private equity firms and corporations navigating through mergers, acquisitions, and integration processes. As co-leader of CohnReznick’s Finance Transformation practice, Clark Pakstys focuses on increasing collaboration across service lines and creating new services to help clients drive growth.

Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Private Equity Consultants and Leaders of 2023. These exceptional individuals have made significant contributions to their industry and deserve our utmost recognition.

 

1. Robert Haas
Company: Kearney
Title: Partner

Robert (Bob) Haas is a Kearney Senior Partner based in the New York office. He has more than 25 years experience working with global clients in Private Equity, consumer, healthcare, technology, and financial services industries; and has led dozens of client transactions and transformations in the US, Japan, Switzerland, UK and around the globe. Haas focuses on a range of strategic and transformational issues including: M&A Strategy, Diligence, Integration Planning, and Growth Strategy as well as Enterprise Transformation and Restructuring

Haas has held a variety of Kearney leadership roles including: Director, Governance Chair, Strategy Chair, for A.T. Kearney Holdings Board of Directors, Silicon Foundry (a Kearney Company) Board of Directors Chairman, Founder and Global Leader Private Equity and M&A practice, Global Leader Transactions and Transformation Practice, Global Leader Strategic IT Practice and Founder Kearney Digital Business Forum.

Haas led dozens of M&A programs including some of the most complex global carve-outs and divestitures across various industries and geographies, numerous commercial and operations DDs and portfolio company performance improvement programs for leading Private Equity firms, drove synergy design and implementation programs (pre and post-close) resulting in billions of dollars of synergy value, and multi-year support to CEO and leadership team of Global Consumer company on M&A, Sales, Supply Chain, and IT issues

Prior to Kearney, Haas held senior positions at Information Resources, Inc. and IBM subsidiary Metaphor Systems. He earned both an MBA and a BS in industrial engineering from Rutgers University.

 

2. Amit Laud
Company: Alvarez & Marsal
Title: Managing Director

Amit Laud co-heads the Private Equity team for Alvarez & Marsal across Europe and has spent the last 16 years with A&M building up the PEPI (Private Equity Performance Improvement) practice across Europe. He has 25 years of hands-on leadership in managing large technology programmes, developing and implementing value creation plans, carve-out and post-merger integrations as well as leading transformation offices. He has helped clients across Europe to implement business and technology strategies, drawing on his extensive experience in the TMT and business services industries.

Prior to joining A&M, Laud was responsible for Asset-Plus, a software division of GE HealthCare, the largest provider of asset management software for healthcare in Europe. As head of the unit, he restructured it and drastically reduced costs over a six-month period to improve the EBITDA. Previously, he applied Lean Six Sigma methodology as a Master Black Belt and served as CIO for GE HealthCare International. During this time, he led the $3Bn GE Healthcare acquisition and post-merger technology integration of Amersham PLC.

Earlier in his career, Laud was with McKinsey in US, Germany and Scandinavia in the Financial Services and the TMT sector, managing several large-scale systems and strategy projects. Previously, Mr Laud also worked for SAP AG, and Siemens in German. Laud earned an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, as well as engineering degree from VJTI, Mumbai. A UK national, he is fluent in English and German.

 

3. Scott Bingham
Company: FTI Consulting
Title: Senior Managing Director Co-Leader of Global Transactions

Scott Bingham is a Senior Managing Director, and Leader of the U.S. Transactions practice, and Co-Leads the Global Transactions practice, which encompasses both pre-deal and post-deal services. Bingham has more than 20 years of experience providing clients with acquisition advice on engagements, ranging from $30 billion leveraged buyouts and multibillion-dollar ‘white knight’ defenses of hostile takeover targets to middle market private equity placements and strategic ‘add-on’ acquisitions. He has deep industry expertise in healthcare and life sciences.

Bingham has assisted both private equity and corporate clients throughout the deal continuum, including the identification of potential targets, due diligence, contract structuring and negotiations, and transition planning. He has also served in many post-deal roles including, integration support, financial advisor to the lenders, and interim CFO.

Bingham has also taken a lead role in developing FTI Consulting’s Healthcare Integrated Diligence platform, which combines financial and tax due diligence, clinical and compliance diligence and operational assessments. Sectors in which Bingham has experience include renal care, behavioral health, specialty hospitals (long-term acute care, rehab), home health, urgent care, pathology laboratories, specialty pharmaceuticals, healthcare technology, numerous physician practice roll-ups, and for-profit and not-for-profit acute care hospitals.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Bingham was a Managing Director in the Advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”). Bingham helped start the Atlanta office of the Transaction Services practice for PwC and was the Practice Leader for the Healthcare Transaction Consulting practice at PwC. Prior to joining PwC, Bingham was Director of Corporate Development for a healthcare-based private equity portfolio company whose primary investors included Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and William Blair and Co Bingham holds a B.S., cum laude, in accounting from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and is a Certified Public Accountant in Georgia.

 

4. Jay Scanlan
Company: Accenture
Title: Private Equity Practice Global Leader

Jay Scanlan is the global lead for private equity at Accenture where he supports private equity investors, operating professionals and portfolio company executives to assess, define and deliver value to their limited partners.

Over a 20-year career, Jay has led relationships with many US and international private equity firms, where he supported the investment life cycle from due diligence through value realization and exit. Previously, Jay founded the global private equity practice at a US-based professional services firm and is experienced in integrated transformations, mergers, divestitures, and global growth. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and an MA in international economics from Johns Hopkins.

 

5. Brian Crandall
Company: Accenture
Title: Senior Managing Director

Brian Crandall is the Founding Senior Managing Director and Chief Client Officer for the Private Equity practice at Accenture. He has been in professional services and private investment for 20+ years. Most recently he was with Platinum Equity managing post-acquisition portfolio operations for the flagship fund.

Prior to that he was at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on commercial strategy and led business operations for AI division QuantumBlack. He led the PE practice for client service delivery and associated fees at Accenture last year, and helped drive value creation in numerous areas including commercial growth, managed services, GenAI and cybersecurity. He is known amongst clients and colleagues for transparency, client-first execution and delivering accelerated business outcomes within private investment and respective portfolio companies. Brian lives in the California Bay Area with his wife and two kids, and enjoys running, golf, and wine in his spare time.

 

7. Dan Brenner
Company: Bain & Company
Title: Partner

Dan Brenner is a Partner at Bain & Company, a global consultancy that helps the world’s most ambitious change-makers define the future. Across 65 cities in 40 countries, they work alongside their clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. They complement their tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Brenner is a member of Bain's Private Equity and Retail practices. Brenner has more than 20 years of operating and advisory experience. He is one of their leading experts on Amazon and Amazon-based businesses and co-leads their Amazon outlook and POV. He also leads their e-commerce retail sector for North America.

Beyond his client work, Brenner leads the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts for the Seattle office. Brenner originally joined them in 2005 in our Chicago office, where he worked with clients in the Consumer Products, Retail and Private Equity practices. His firm experience includes engagements in retail transformation, omnichannel strategy, agile innovation, and brand strategy. Outside of the US, Brenner has extensive experience with retail and consumer businesses in China, India, Brazil, and Mexico. Brenner rejoined them in 2018 after spending the prior six years in executive-level roles at Amazon and Starbucks, bringing a unique combination of consulting and general management experience to their firm. At Amazon, Brenner was a leader in the company’s retail consumables business and served as the global leader for the Prime Pantry business, with P&L responsibility for eight global markets. He previously served as general manager of Amazon’s grocery business. category management, marketing, supply chain, engineering, and product development.

Before Amazon, Brenner held executive roles in strategy, M&A and consumer products at Starbucks. Brenner holds an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

 

8. Kim Clark Pakstys
Company: CohnReznick
Title: Managing Director, CFO Advisory

Kim Clark Pakstys is a Managing Director in CohnReznick’s CFO Advisory Practice specializing in business and finance transformation. She has more than 25 years of professional services experience, including over 15 years of experience advising private equity and corporations through mergers, acquisitions, and integration. She oversees a national team that provides a range of advisory services to help businesses build platforms, improve performance, optimize operations, plan for transactions, and integrate acquisitions. Clark Pakstys and her team help executives and operators employ strategies for operational excellence, profitability, and value creation.

Clark Pakstys has experience in numerous industries including the technology, communications, consumer products, industrial, space, energy, professional services, nonprofits, and, public sectors. She is often called upon to share insights on the best practice in driving value creation for all stakeholders during the distinct phases of ownership. As co-leader of CohnReznick’s Finance Transformation practice, Clark Pakstys focuses on increasing collaboration across service lines and creating new services to help clients drive growth. Earlier in her career, she was instrumental in building the Center for Performance Improvement at Price Waterhouse, LLP. She serves on the executive committee of the Alliance of Mergers and Acquisition Advisors National Capital Region and is the chairman of Easterseals DCMDVA.

 

9. Colin Sanderson
Company: RSM US
Title: Partner, TriState Private Equity Leader

Colin Sanderson is a Partner and TriState Private Equity Leader at RSM US. Sanderson is a distinguished financial consultant with a focus on private equity funds, including audits, fund administration and value creation at the portfolio level. He is RSM US LLP’s TriState leader for private equity services, harmonizing our offerings to clients in coordination with our firm’s relationship leaders, while also serving key private equity accounts, and leading our Fund Services practice.

Sanderson boasts extensive experience in private equity fund audits and administration. He is renowned for addressing private equity fund accounting, valuation, investment adviser compliance and custody, as well as RSM’s M&A360TM value creation model at prominent industry forums. Sanderson's influence extends to his active involvement in multiple professional associations, and his educational background includes dual degrees from South African universities and CPA licensure. Sanderson graduated from the University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika with an undergraduate degree in accounting.

 

10. Niklas Brundin
Company: Arthur D. Little
Title: Partner

Niklas is a Partner in the Stockholm office and leads the local Automotive & Manufacturing practice. He primarily advises companies in the sectors of Automotive, Manufacturing, and Private equity. As people, organizations and societies embrace change at pace, its leaders must anticipate, innovate, and transform ever faster. They help their clients overcome today's most pressing challenges and seize tomorrow's most promising opportunities. With a powerful blend of creative thinking and scientific rigor, we link people, technology and strategy to find original and pragmatic ways to accelerate performance, innovate through convergence and digital, and make a positive impact on the world.

With almost 20 years in international strategy consulting with Arthur D. Little, creating value for clients primarily in the Manufacturing and Automotive industries and addressing a wide range of functional topics, Brundin has accumulated a solid base of experience with the key challenges faced by top management. Brundin believes in the need for companies to be highly innovative and agile in meeting the challenges of a hypercompetitive world. Brundin is analytical, creative, solutions-focused, and experienced in designing and managing change programs to a successful result. Brundin holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from KTH, Sweden. He had a Major in Manufacturing management with, e.g., a master’s thesis on Lean Manufacturing.

 

11. Deirdre Baggot
Company: Oliver Wyman
Title: Partner and Private Capital Leader

Deirdre Baggot is the Partner and Private Capital Leader of Oliver Wyman, a global leader in management consulting. With offices in more than 70 cities across 30 countries, Oliver Wyman combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. The firm has more than 5,000 professionals around the world who work with clients to optimize their business, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities.

Baggot spent 10 years in academic healthcare, first at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and later at the University of Michigan Health System. She shifted to consulting in 2010 by joining GE/Camden as Senior Vice President and then joining ECG as a Partner. Baggot also worked for CMS as an Expert Reviewer for the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative, and advised NY Medicaid on the development of eight chronic disease bundles. Most recently, Baggot has been working with Verily start-up, Onduo, on new payment models for diabetics. She holds a PhD from the University of Colorado, an MBA from Loyola University Graduate School of Business, and obtained her BS in Nursing from Southern Illinois University. She also holds a Certificate in Healthcare Executive Leadership from the Wharton School.

 

12. David Reid
Company: Teneo
Title: Senior Managing Director

David Reid is a Senior Managing Director with Teneo’s Management Consulting business and serves as the leader of the Global Private Equity Growth Practice. Teneo is a global CEO advisory firm. Drawing upon their global team and expansive network of senior advisors, they provide advisory services across their five business segments on a stand-alone or fully integrated basis to help their clients solve complex business challenges. Their clients include a significant number of the Fortune 100 and FTSE 100, as well as other corporations, financial institutions, and organizations.

Reid has 12+ years’ experience in management consulting and has lived across the UK, Continental Europe, South East Asia and the US. Reid has an MBA in International Business and an undergraduate Economics degree. He previously worked for Credo, a boutique strategy consulting firm in London, which was founded in 1999 and acquired by Teneo in 2017. Prior to Credo, Reid has worked for Simon-Kucher & Partners and Citigroup. Reid’s focus is advising leading Private Equity investors on top-line growth, value creation and transaction advisory. Reid has run over 150 top-line growth projects which in aggregate have added over $5Bn in Enterprise Value for PE funds. Reid founded Teneo’s Global Private Equity Growth Practice in 2018. This practice exists to increase the Enterprise Value of Private Equity backed assets. The practice now has 35-40 specialized resources, split between Teneo’s London and New York offices.

 

13. Claire Hackett
Company: Kearney
Title: Principal, Private Equity Services

Claire Hackett is a Principal at Kearney, delivering due diligence and leading transformation programmes for large buy-out funds and their portfolio companies. Hackett joined Kearney’s growing Transactions & Transformation Practice in 2021 and quickly joined leadership as a Principal in 2023. She focuses on ODDs and sustainable cost-out transformations. At Kearney, she has worked to redefine these offerings and drive new best practices. Kearney is often known for its deep industry and operational expertise, and these offerings bring the best of the firm to clients with a PE lens - focusing on EBITDA, payback and speed.

Hackett prides herself with these thoughtful offerings, and partnering with clients to deliver tangible, achievable results. She has a passion for people, especially mentoring and bringing women together in the PE space. Prior to Kearney, Hackett was with Alvarez & Marsal’s PE consulting practice. Prior to that, she worked in retail, running special projects from the CEO office - across various functions, channels and brands.

 

14. Bruna Melo
Company: Alvarez & Marsal
Title: Director Private Equity

Bruna Melo is a Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Private Equity Services practice based out of New York, with over 11 years of experience acting in Brazil, Latin America and the United States. Her primary areas of specialization include merger integration, pre-acquisition due diligence support and performance improvement.

Throughout her career, Melo has worked in the beauty segment, retail agrobusiness, industrial gasses, plastics, mining, engineering, automotive and auto parts, consumer goods and foodservice industries to unlock value by optimizing business performance through effective integration transactions and performance improvement initiatives.

Melo earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics Science from the University of Campinas – UNICAMP and is fluent in English and Portuguese, with a working proficiency in Spanish. Ms. Melo is a certified Professional Scrum MasterTM I (PSM I) and a certified PROSCI® change management practitioner.​

 

15. Kerensa Butler
Company: RSM US
Title: National Private Equity Strategy Leader in Audit

Kerensa Butler's expertise spans assurance, tax, accounting, and related consulting services, with a particular focus on value creation throughout an investment’s life cycle. She has almost 30 years of experience across various industries, including consumer products, industrial products, technology, and for-profit healthcare entities. As one of RSM’s elite Enterprise Account Leaders, Butler delivers unified, seamless, global services with high-quality deliverables and a depth of understanding of regulatory and industry constraints to private equity firms. Negotiating delivery of these services across the globe requires Butler to use courage, nimble problem solving, technical expertise, and excellent communication skills, all at an accelerated pace.

Butler believes in the exponential power of a team that can bring their full selves to work. She is the executive sponsor of RSM’s efforts to engage more women in the private equity marketplace and has served as the national leader of the firm’s Pride employee network group. Butler first got her start in 1996 as a senior associate at PwC. From there, she went on to Daszkal Bolton LLP as a senior manager. Butler graduated from Florida State University with an undergraduate degree in accounting and anthropology.

 

16. Rohini Christina Williams
Company: Infosys
Title: Global Head of Private Equity

Rohini Christina Williams is the Global Head of Private Equity Practice at Infosys. She has been with Infosys for 18 years and advises Private Equity on value creation through operations and engineering optimization and digital transformation. Williams leads a global team with a hands-on approach and a strong drive for execution and a passion for building and nurturing high performing, motivated and diverse team.

She works with Private Equity Investors, Operating Partners and Portfolio companies’ C-suite to help them evaluate, define and deliver value to their Limited Partners with a clear understanding on these initiatives impact on EBITDA and thereby MOIC. In addition to Infosys offerings, she works with all technology providers who have Private Equity focus to embed their solution for delivering the best value for Private Equity.

Williams is passionate about D&I and her actions speak for themselves by being a shining example for women in the IT Industry and nurturing and promoting women leaders in her team. She is invited and speaks in all private equity forums and has been positioned as a thought leader in this space.

 

17. Alvin David
Company: Grant Thornton
Title: Managing Director

Alvin David is the Managing Director of Grant Thornton, one of the world's leading independent audit, tax and advisory firms. That means their network has more than 60,000 professionals in more than 135 countries who are ready to help public and private organizations of all sizes take on today's challenges.

David is a disciplined and success-driven professional with over 13+ years of auditing and accounting experience. David has recent and continuing experience in hedge funds, fund of funds, broker dealers, private equity funds and investment management companies under US GAAP. Have substantial experience in manufacturing, oil and gas and retirement plans under IFRS. Before joining Grant Thornton, David was an audit manager at KPMG Manabat Sanagustin & Co., CPAs. David graduated from Far Eastern University with an undergraduate degree in accountancy.

 

18. John Kurkowski
Company: Crowe
Title: Managing Partner of Private Equity

John Kurkowski is the managing partner of the Crowe LLP private equity services group and oversees the delivery of solutions to help private equity firms and their portfolio companies maximize value – from investment to realization. Crowe is a public accounting, consulting, and technology firm with offices around the world. Crowe uses its deep industry expertise to provide audit services to public and private entities. The firm and its subsidiaries also help clients make smart decisions that lead to lasting value with its tax, advisory, and consulting services, helping businesses uncover hidden opportunities in the market – no matter what challenges the markets present.

Kurkowski has more than 25 years of experience conducting audits and reviews and providing financial advisory services to privately held and publicly traded clients in manufacturing, distribution, and service industries. In addition to his audit and financial advisory responsibilities, he has extensive experience. Prior to joining Crowe, Kurkowski was a partner at Arthur Andersen, where he served clients in the consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, distribution, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare industries. Kurkowski graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with an undergraduate degree in accounting.

 

19. Anna Pione
Company: McKinsey & Company
Title: Partner

Anna Pione is a Partner at McKinsey and a leader within the firm’s consumer and private equity sectors. McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm. They are the trusted advisor to the world's leading businesses, governments, and institutions. They work with leading organizations across the private, public and social sectors.

Pione has extensive expertise serving consumer companies on commercial growth topics in the consumer health and wellness space, including inorganic and M&A-led growth, channel strategy, portfolio strategy, marketing, sales, and R&D. She leverages consumer and market research to shape and prioritize strategic initiatives with a lens toward true financial impact.

Pione is also a leader of the firm’s consumer work within the private equity space, serving clients across the deal cycle—including market scans, diligences, portfolio strategy, and exit work. Pione co-leads McKinsey’s global research on the Future of Wellness, aimed at better understanding changes in how consumers approach the concept of wellness across fitness, health, nutrition, appearance, sleep, and mindfulness. Prior to joining McKinsey, Pione worked in financial services for the consumer and retail sector. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

20. Robert Ohrenstein
Company: KPMG
Title: Partner and Global Head of Private Equity

Robert Ohrenstein is the Partner and Global Head of Private Equity of KPMG, a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. They have 227,000 outstanding professionals working together to deliver value in 146 countries and territories. Ohrenstein leads their UK and Global Private Equity practice. With over 20 years’ experience in the private equity industry, Ohrenstein has advised direct investors including private equity funds, family offices, sovereign wealth and pension funds on numerous transactions. Ohrenstein is the Global or European lead partner for a selection of their largest PE clients advises several of our largest clients and their portfolio companies on some of the most complex cross-border transactions, across a wide range of industries and geographies dealing with acquisitions, disposals, and refinancing. Ohrenstein has been a Partner at KPMG since 2004.

Prior to joining KPMG, Ohrenstein trained and became a partner at Andersen, and subsequently at Deloitte. He is a charity trustee and school governor for two leading independent schools. Ohrenstein graduated from the University of Warwick - Warwick Business School with an MBA and from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with an undergraduate degree in accounting and finance.

 

21. Chris Donovan
Company: Deloitte UK
Title: Partner

Chris Donovan is a Partner at Deloitte Financial Advisory business and is based in London, where he leads the Private Equity Portfolio team. Deloitte drives progress. Their firms around the world help clients become leaders wherever they choose to compete. Deloitte invests in outstanding people of diverse talents and backgrounds and empowers them to achieve more than they could elsewhere. Their work combines advice with action and integrity. They believe that when their clients and society are stronger, so are they. This cross-discipline team is dedicated to supporting Private Equity Houses and their investments with portfolio optimisation and successful exits via Deloitte’s PE focused value propositions and programmes. Donovan also leads a number of key large cap Private Equity house and portfolio relationships for Deloitte.

Previously, he was an audit partner for 4.5 years based in Deloitte’s Private Capital audit business leading large scale audits for PE-backed and Private groups. With over 21 years' experience of supporting clients across the 5 Deloitte Private segments specifically Private Equity, Family-run & Owner-Managed, Family Office & High Net Worth Individuals, Partnerships and High Growth, Donovan’s clients recognise his ability to build trusted relationships and act as a reliable conduit to the rest of Deloitte to bring the depth and breadth of the firm’s expertise.

As an Assistant Director, Donovan spent a year in Deloitte's M&A business, working on Private Equity and Capital Markets transactions both in the UK and internationally.
Donovan trained with Andersen before joining Deloitte in 2003. Donovan graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with an undergraduate degree in management and Spanish.

 

22. Travis Bales
Company: Booz Allen Hamilton
Title: Managing Director

Travis Bales is a Managing Director of Booz Allen Ventures. Based in Austin, Texas, Bales leads the firm’s early-stage, strategic venture fund. He and his team identify, evaluate, and invest in potential technologies and platforms for use across the firm and its clients. They are a global firm of approximately 32,600 diverse, passionate, and exceptional people driven to excel, do right, and realize positive change in everything they do.

Bales has extensive expertise in product development and marketing, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, technology identification and maturation, and due diligence. Before joining Booz Allen, Bales spent more than 20 years in healthcare diagnostics and devices across multiple disciplines with profit and loss responsibility. In a variety of roles, he identified and evaluated new technologies for potential partnership or acquisition. Earlier, he was deeply involved with strategic partnerships, sales and marketing, and business development efforts at Quest Diagnostics and ThermoFisher Scientific, among others. Upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Bales was commissioned as a field artillery officer. Bales earned his B.S. in economics.

 

23. Matt Segal
Company: BDO USA LLP
Title: National Partner

Matt Segal is the National Partner for Private Equity Assurance. He began his accounting career more than 20 years ago with BDO in Kalamazoo. BDO USA, a Delaware professional service corporation, is a US member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms.

His experience spans all phases of auditing, accounting, and consulting for large and medium-sized public and private corporations. Segal has significant experience serving private equity-backed companies through mergers and acquisitions and related due diligence procedures. Segal is in charge of planning, fieldwork and report preparation on assigned audit and review engagements for the audit department. His industry specialties include the distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, software and service. Segal graduated from Western Michigan University - Haworth College of Business with an undergraduate degree in accounting.

 

24. Martin Bennett
Company: Marsh
Title: Managing Director Private Equity and M&A Practice

Martin Bennett is the Managing Director of Private Equity and M&A Practice of Marsh, the world's leading insurance broker and risk advisor. With over 45,000 colleagues operating in 130 countries, Marsh serves commercial and individual clients with data-driven risk solutions and advisory services.

Bennett has advised corporations, infrastructure and private equity fund investors, and sovereign and pension fund direct investors for the last 20 years, providing risk and insurance consultancy services for transactions within the UK, continental Europe, the USA, Africa, and Asia. His focus on the infrastructure sector includes strong experience of issues arising from brownfield M&A transactions, government privatizations, and greenfield developments.

 

25. Heather Wade
Company: Marsh McLennan
Title: Vice President, Private Equity & M&A

Heather Wade is the Vice President of Private Equity M&A of Marsh McLennan. He first joined the company in 2021. Marsh McLennan is the world's leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people. The Company's more than 85,000 colleagues advise clients in 130 countries. With annual revenue of over $20 billion, Marsh McLennan helps clients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex environment through four market-leading businesses.

Previously, Wade was an underwriting specialist in excess casualty national accounts at AIG and, before that, a broker and sales consultant at OneDigital Health and Benefits.