Former Strategy& partners join Marakon in New York

Global management consulting firm Marakon has expanded its team with John Rolander and Srini Venkateswaran, two former partners of Booz & Company. Both senior advisors decided to leave Booz early this year following the firm’s decision to sell the business to Big 4 firm PwC.

John Rolander has more than 30 years of experience in the consulting industry and specialises in wealth and asset management, with particular expertise in sales effectiveness, sales strategy, marketing, and distribution. He previously worked for Booz & Company (currently Strategy&), where he served as a partner in the firm’s financial services practice. Prior to that, he worked at Katzenbach Partners (which was acquired by Booz in april 2009) and The Boston Consulting Group. He began his career in London in the 1980s at The MAC Group, which was acquired by Cap Gemini (currently Capgemini), where he led the global financial services business. He earned an MBA from Columbia Business School, a M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a BA from Yale College.

Before joining Marakon, Srini Venkateswaran spent roughly 5 years at Booz & Company, where he was a partner and global leader of the digital financial services practice, and A.T. Kearney, where he also served as partner. At the two consulting firms he worked on dozens of engagements, including the positioning and strategy for a bank-owned asset manager, a post-merger strategy for a global asset management firm, a strategic transformation of the mortgage business of a money center bank, and a due diligence for M&A opportunities in credit cards and merchant acquiring. Prior to that, he was director of corporate strategy at Citi Cards and worked for eight years at another consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton. Venkateswaran holds an MBA in Finance & Strategy from Columbia Business School and specialises in strategy, operations, M&A and organizational effectiveness.

New York
Both Rolander and Venkateswaran will join Marakon’s New York office, although they will work closely with consultants from its Chicago, Boston and London offices. “We are excited to welcome John and Srini to Marakon. Their focus in wealth management rounds out an expertise that Marakon has been interested in growing as part of our broader financial services offering,” says Mason Kissell, Director at Marakon.

Marakon is part of Charles River Associates* (CRA), an international consulting firm founded in 1965 that specialises in litigation, regulatory, financial consulting and management consulting. CRA has 13 offices in North America and seven offices in Europe, including a base in London.

* In June 2009 Charles River Associates acquired substantially all of Marakon Associates.