Elixirr adds two senior members to UK team
Fast growing consulting firm Elixirr has commenced 2019 with a double-hire in its UK wing. Keith Bear has been appointed as an Associate Partner at the firm, while Andy Gregson has joined as a Partner in the company’s financial services offering.
Founded by Graham Busby, Andy Curtis, Mark Goodyear, Ian Ferguson, and Managing Partner Stephen Newton in 2009, Elixirr has experienced a decade of strong growth since its launch. As it celebrates its 10th year in business, the firm continues to be one of the fastest expanding consultancies in the UK – and in 2018 was cited as one of the quickest growing in the US as well. The firm recently appointed Karina van dan Oever as a new member of its global Partner team to cope with its boosted demand. As it looks to continue its meteoric expansion in 2019 it has announced two further hires for its UK team.
Keith Bear has joined Elixirr’s ever-expanding team as an Associate Partner, bringing with him a wealth of expertise and insight from a career spanning 35 years. Over the course of his working life, Bear has focused on financial markets, business strategy and transformation, and blockchain.
In his most recent role, he was Industry Leader for IBM’s global financial markets practice, working with banks and market infrastructure firms worldwide. His most recent work was on blockchain deployment in financial markets and FinTech innovation. Previously, Bear was a Partner in IBM’s consulting business, a co-founder of IBM’s original Risk Management Practice, and also led IBM’s Financial Markets consulting practice in the UK. He is a Fellow at Cambridge University’s Centre for Alternative Finance, part of the Judge Business School, and is an advisory board member for three FinTechs.
Remarking on his new challenge with Elixirr, Bear said, “I am extremely excited about joining such a dynamic, agile and forward-thinking firm. Elixirr’s expertise in supercharging growth, not to mention their unique global innovation ecosystem, offers vital opportunities for businesses to disrupt themselves in ways they would not have considered. I am looking forward to getting engaged and helping facilitate such opportunities.”
Andy Gregson has meanwhile been appointed to further strengthen Elixirr's financial services offering. He brings three decades of line and change experience at top tier organisations, with a proven track record of setting and executing business strategy, establishing and maintaining governance and controls and shaping and delivering large-scale transformation programmes.
Before joining Elixirr, Gregson was a Partner and Head of Management Consulting at Leathwaite, and Managing and Client Partner of APG Consulting & Interim Management, two boutique professional services firms he built from inception. Prior to this, he worked in a range of roles in financial services, including positions at Lehman Brothers, HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS, CreditSuisse and Willis.
On joining Elixirr, Gregson remarked, “I’m looking forward to becoming part of such an innovative, fast-moving and forward-thinking team. There is a huge demand for a consultancy to disrupt this market, which remains in a relatively traditional space. Elixirr provide truly unique solutions and bring an entrepreneurial spirit that is unrivalled – a fantastic opportunity for our current and future client base to build their businesses in a new way.”
Commenting on the two arrivals, Stephen Newton, Elixirr’s Managing Partner, said, “Having been ranked by the Financial Times as one of their UK’s leading management consultants… we continue to expand and diversify... Andy’s expertise will add heavy weight to the Elixirr partner team… Keith brings with him unrivalled experience at the cutting edge of innovation that will take our ability to innovate within the financial market to the next level. I am confident that with Keith’s passion for all things FinTech, and his desire to challenge the status quo, he will make a hugely positive addition to the Elixirr team.”
