Oliver Wyman adds Marco Kesteloo in Amsterdam, joins from Strategy&

Oliver Wyman has bolstered its Dutch office with Marco Kesteloo, who joins from Strategy&, where he led the firm’s Amsterdam office and was a key figure in the firm’s global Retail practice.

Marco Kesteloo brings over 25 years of consulting experience to Oliver Wyman, a global management consulting firm with around 4,500 employees across 60+ offices. The firm, which was founded in 1984 but adopted its current brand in 2007, first launched in the Netherlands in 2007 when it opened an office in Amsterdam, having served clients in the country from other offices since the mid-1990s.

Oliver Wyman’s current boss for the Netherlands, Coen de Vuijst, says he is delighted with the joining of Marco Kesteloo. “He is a great addition to our team and will help us realise the growth ambition we have in the Netherlands.”

Kesteloo will focus mainly on clients in the retail & consumer goods sectors, an industry which is being reimagined by a wave of technology-led, changing consumer behavior, the need for more sustainability, and online channels eating market share from incumbents.

While the impacts of the e-commerce boom have by now found their way into mainstream retail strategies, the unfolding changes in the landscape have seen several high street brands in the country axed, including the formerly popular V&D and retail groups Macintosh and Miss Etam. According to the country’s official office for statistics, online shopping is currently estimated to be above €25 billion, double the size noted five years ago. Meanwhile, a recent study by Oliver Wyman found that even greenfield terrains – such as grocery and fresh food – are ripe for disruption. Online grocery player Picnic for instance, a start-up which set up shop just three years ago, is now active in 37 cities, including in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam.

In a bid to navigate change, demand for external support is on the rise: the Dutch management consulting industry grew by an estimated 6% to 8% last year according to estimates by consulting platform Consultancy.nl, with the retail and consumer goods sector assessed to account for around one tenth of the overall €1.2 billion market.

In his new role, Kesteloo will leverage his extensive experience gained in the sector. He latterly served as Strategy&’s Global Leader for its Retail practice and has been involved with dozens of engagements in the sector, in particular for food and non-food retailers across Europe and globally. The 55-year-old is specailised in topics including strategy, organisation, operational improvements, digitisation and collaborative value chain optimisation between retail and consumer goods organisations.

With the tapping of Kesteloo, who holds a BBA from Nyenrode Business School (Netherlands) and a MBA from the University of Georgia (US), Oliver Wyman sees De Vuijst and Kesteloo reunite just under two years after the prior pursued the same career move. De Vuijst spent sixteen years with Strategy& and its legal predecessors (Booz & Company [acquired by PwC] and Booz Allen Hamilton [which split into two firms in 2008]), and at the time of his transfer he led Strategy& in the Netherlands.

At Oliver Wyman, he serves as Managing Partner, a role he was granted after he succeeded Amsterdam office founder Robert Bark, who in late 2017 left the US-headquartered consultancy to join rival Accenture, where he currently leads the firm’s Dutch Financial Services practice.

Kesteloo himself enjoyed a 20-year tenure at Strategy&, and prior to that he worked two years for Accenture, which in a sharp departure from diversity averages in consultancy’s top ranks recently appointed its third consecutive female CEO to lead its Dutch wing. Aside from his partner role at Oliver Wyman, Kesteloo sits on the the Supervisory Board of the Faber Halbertsma Groep, one of Europe’s larger full-service producers of pallets and boxes.

Oliver Wyman has around 40 partners and consultants in the Netherlands. Other senior advisors include partners Coen Degen, Lucas du Croo de Jongh and Ted Rudholm-Alfvin (although based out of London, he played an instrumental role in building the firm’s footprint in the country), principals Franc Verhage and Cornelia Neumann, and engagement managers Hesse McKechnie and Dominik Böhler.