Erika Serow leads American retail practice of Bain

Bain & Company has per 1 January 2014 named Erika Serow as its new Retail Practice head for the Americas region. In her new role Serow will focus on expanding the firm's Retail Practice in North and South America.

Erika Serow joined Bain out of college. In 1994 she left the strategy consulting firm to get her MBA from Stanford Business School, fully expecting to do something other than consulting when she came out. However, it was during school that she realized that she could advance faster in consulting than in any other industry and thus in 1995 decided to return to Bain after graduation. Eleven years later she was promoted to Partner (32 years old at that time) in 2006. The rapid growth at Bain has not remained unnoticed: in 2009 Serow was named one of the Women Leaders in Consulting by Consulting Magazine. Over the past years she has worked across a large number of Bain offices, including Boston, London, Sydney and Milan.

"Erika's role as a leader in the firm's thinking about retail made her a natural fit for a formal leadership appointment" says Darrell Rigby, Bain's global head of the Retail practice. "At a time when the retail industry is changing more drastically than it has in over a generation, her command of the industry and her energy will be a huge asset to clients and teams within Bain".

In addition to client work, Serow has being intensively involved with several high-profile Bain research studies. For example, she was leading multiple international Retail investigations and served as knowledge partner for the "Fashion.NYC.2020" study which Bain executed with the city of New York.

In her spare time Serow is passionate for cooking and an avid traveler. "I am religious about taking a 2-week trip to some place exotic every year with a group of friends" said Serow.