McKinsey partner Maria Fernanda Souto joins Qvartz
Qvartz, a management consultancy based in the Nordics, has bolstered its Norwegian partner team with Maria Fernanda Souto, who joins the Oslo office after more than ten years with McKinsey & Company.
Maria Fernanda Souto has 11 years of consulting experience, gained at McKinsey & Company. She joined the strategy consultancy in 2004, after previously working for two years as a researcher at CEST, an Austrian competence centre for electrochemical surface technology (Souto completed her PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Vienna).
At McKinsey, she gained broad experience within strategy (growth, innovation, new market entry), organisation (restructuring, performance transformations, lean processes) and operations (procurement and supply chain, lean).
Her client work focuses primarily on the oil & gas and energy sectors, working extensively with large oil companies in Latin America, the North Sea and Asia, as well as with industrials, power companies and private equity firms. During her spell with the consultancy, Souto was based in among others Olso, Mexico City and Amsterdam.
Per November the 1st Souto has decided to take on a new challenge, remaining within management consulting, and joined Qvartz. With offices in Copenhagen, Olso and Stockholm, Qvartz (formerly Quarts+Co) is one Scandinavia’s largest home grown consultancies, and of late the firm has been growing its international standing on the back of a strategy consulting project portfolio and the recruitment of several high-profile consultants top-tier competitors.
Recently Qvartz for instance added two former BCG consultants to its leadership team – Egil Becker and Per Karlsson, also in Norway – while last month the firm was named a top 25 best consulting firms to work for in Europe.
From the base in Olso*, Souto will focus on further expanding the firm’s footprint in the Norwegian market, an industry estimated to be worth €579 million, with a focus on the energy and oil & gas sectors. “I love the entrepreneurial spirit that you breathe the moment you are around Qvartz people. And also the genuine love for the civilisation you are co-creating – and therefore I really look forward to building and growing this organisation,” comments the new partner on her move.
* Qvartz’s Norwegian office is based at Wergelandsveien 21, across the Castle Garden, where it has been situated since April 2012, when it moved into the new, and large refurbished premises.
