Bain names Peter Stumbles and Dirk Vater heads of financial services practice
Peter Stumbles and Dirk Vater have been announced as the new co-leaders of Bain & Company’s global financial services practice. The new dual leaders will assume the position at the start of 2026, based in North America and Europe respectively.
“As the financial services industry faces a rapid transformation from new technology, data, and AI, we are adding leadership capacity to match the scale of our clients’ ambition and accelerate the pace of change,” said Laura Miles, Bain & Company’s chief client officer and global head of industries. “The appointment of Peter and Dirk as global practice co-leaders and their extensive expertise across the industry further enables us to bring innovative, new approaches and investments to help our financial services clients globally solve some of the most complex business challenges.”
The new, dual leadership underlines Bain’s commitment to the practice’s next phase of growth as it further broadens and deepens its capabilities and support for clients. Peter Stumbles is based in New York, while Dirk Vater will split his time between New York and Frankfurt.
Stumbles is a senior partner in Bain’s financial services practice. He previously served as Bain’s managing partner in Australia from 2019 to 2025 and, prior to that, led the firm’s Asia-Pacific Financial Services practice from 2015 to 2019. He brings to his new leadership role deep experience with Bain’s clients across the financial services industry, including in the banking, insurance, asset and wealth management, payments, and fintech sectors.
He commented on the news via LinkedIn, “It’s an incredible honour to lead our Financial Services practice at such a pivotal time for our clients - as the industry is being reshaped by AI, technology, data, and evolving customer expectations. The pace of change is extraordinary, and so are the opportunities.”
Vater meanwhile is currently EMEA leader of Bain’s financial services practice, as well as part of the firm’s global digital leadership team and a senior member of its sales and marketing practice. He has over 30 years of management consulting experience, advising global clients on major transformation programs and strategy development, especially across retail banking, wealth management, small and medium-sized financial enterprises, and in corporate banking.
The duo succeed Julien Faye, who has led the global financial services practice for the past six years, helping it to deliver groundbreaking transformations for the world’s leading banks, insurers, payments providers, and wealth management groups, and achieving sustained, double-digit growth in Bain’s sectoral revenues. In this period, the practice has expanded its expertise and capabilities across financial sectors and became a global leader in advising on AI, technology modernisation, and digital transformations in the industry.
