Bain, McKinsey, Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger add French partners

Four of the world’s seven largest strategy consulting firms – Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, Oliver Wyman and Roland Berger – have in recent months appointed several new partners into their French partnership.

With a market value of around €1.4 billion, around one fifth of the country’s €6.5 billion consulting industry, France is home to Europe’s third largest strategy consulting sector, trailing just Germany and the UK. According to analysis by US-based analyst firm ALM, around 20% of the French strategic advisory market is held by an elite group of seven consultancies, a share which is broadly in line with the global split. 

McKinsey & Company

The largest of the seven players, McKinsey & Company (27,000 staff globally), has in the past months relocated three partners to its Paris office – one of McKinsey’s two offices in France with the other being in Lyon. Jonathan Klein returned to Paris after a one and a half year office transfer to the firm’s New York office. Klein is  member of McKinsey’s global Wealth and Asset Management practice, as well as the leader of the Real Estate practice in France. He specialises in serving asset managers, wealth managers and real estate firms on growth, portfolio optimisation and operational transformation.

Following in Klein’s footsteps is Marc Teulières, who also returned to Paris from the New York office. His areas of expertise include private equity, high-tech, automotive and advanced industries – he is one of the leaders of McKinsey’s Robotics & Automation skills center. Before joining McKinsey in 2008, Marc Teulières worked at Lenovo in marketing and corporate strategy, and at McKinsey in his first spell at the strategy consultancy. 

“France’s strategy consulting market is worth €1.4 billion, one fifth of the country’s consulting industry.” 

Rodrigo Chaparro Gazzo previously worked for McKinsey in Paris between 2006 and 2014. He has served various clients in the automotive industry, involved in among other areas setting up lean programmes in Spain, the United States and Russia, and with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) transformations. Chaparro Gazzo holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Lima and a Master's degree in Industrial and Operational Engineering from the University of Michigan.

The three new partners come on the back of a recruitment wave at McKinsey France, with nine project directors and senior experts added to the team in recent months alone. The country organisation, estimated to employ a workforce of over 400 consultants, is led by the Iranian Homayoun Hatami, who earlier in August unveiled that the firm has brought its Generation skill-development programme to the country.

Oliver Wyman

Oliver Wyman, the strategy consulting unit of Marsh & McLennan Companies, also the parent of NERA Economic Consulting, Mercer and Marsh, has poached two new partners from rivals. Éric Confais, appointed a partner in charge of the Energy & Utilities practice, joined from Roland Berger, where he worked from 2001 to 2018, latterly as a partner. Previously, Confais, who is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris, spent three years at Bossard & Gemini (nowadays Capgemini Consulting) and worked for the OFCE (French Economic Observatory) and ICEA, a niche consultancy specialised in restructuring and privatisation of public service institutions in emerging countries. 

Confais specialises in business growth, performance improvement, restructuring and due diligence, serving  clients mainly in the energy – electricity, renewables, natural gas – and utilities – infrastructure, water, waste – sectors. 

42-year old François Beugin has been hired from PwC, where he led a team of more than 80 actuaries. At Oliver Wyman, he has been charged with setting up an actuarial practice in France – globally, the consultancy has around 400 actuaries and financial engineers, including 76 partners and principals, in Germany, the United States and Canada. Prior to working for the global accounting and consulting giant, Beugin served Nomura in Paris and London, where he was an Executive Director in the Continental European Insurance team, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas Cardif and insurance company AXA. He also worked two years for a legal predecessor of Willis Towers Watson in France. 

Roland Berger

Meanwhile, Roland Berger, a German-origin rival led by a Frenchman (Charles-Édouard Bouée, now in his second term), has admitted Sébastien Manceau, a graduate of ESCP Europe, and Stéphane Tubiana, a graduate of Ecole Centrale Paris, into its partnership.

Manceau started his consulting career in 2007 at Roland Berger. He is part of the firm’s practices for Consumer Goods & Retail, and Tourism, Leisure & Entertainment. He specialises in business strategy, (digital) transformation and mergers & acquisitions. Tubiana has also been promoted from the firm’s internal ranks, and he too is a member of Roland Berger’s Consumer Goods & Retail service line. Before joining Roland Berger in 2008, Tubiana spent a decade in various roles in the retail sector, holding finance, HR and general management positions, as well as working at Deloitte for a short spell. 

Bain & Company

Lastly, Sabine Atieh, a Sciences Po graduate, has been elevated from Principal to Partner at Bain & Company. She joined Bain in 2010 after three years at Roland Berger, prior to that serving Capgemini Consulting, the management consulting arm of French IT-services company Capgemini, for three years. Atieh is a member of Bain’s Energy & Utilities and Industrial Goods & Services practices, serving clients in Energy, Utilities, Infrastructure and Chemicals. She focuses on engagements in the field of strategy, performance improvement, organisation and procurement.

Last month, the third of the well-known MBB firms, The Boston Consulting Group, appointed three partners in France: Charles-Antoine Wallaert, Johanna Benesty and Vinciane Beauchene.

Related: The top 20 strategy consulting firms to work for in France.