BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Charles River Associates (NASDAQ: CRAI), a worldwide leader in providing management, economic, and financial consulting services, today announced that Yann Duchesne and Devendra Kumar have joined Marakon, the boutique management consulting practice at CRA, in London. Mr. Duchesne, who joins as an executive director, brings deep experience, as both a consultant and business leader, in the financial services, consumer, retail, and industrials sectors; Mr. Kumar, who joins as a director, rejoins the Marakon team with an extensive industry background and track record in the financial services space.
“It is a pleasure to welcome Yann Duchesne and Devendra Kumar to CRA and Marakon,” said CRA's President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maleh. “They are trusted advisors to senior executives on business and corporate strategy matters in the core sectors we are focused on growing within Marakon’s management consulting offerings.”
Marakon European Practice Leader Neal Kissel added, “Yann and Devendra are great additions to our team. They are both highly experienced and well-regarded professionals, and we expect them to contribute materially to the build-out of our business in the UK across our core sectors of financial services, consumer, and industrials. Yann will focus on a broad and material business building mandate across our sectors, while Devendra brings a long industry track record in financial services and payments to our growing financial services practice.”
Mr. Duchesne joins CRA from Doughty Hanson, a private equity firm, where over the course of 12 years, he led transactions in the industrials and consumer sectors on behalf of SAFT Group, Balta, and Tumi, among others. Prior to that, he was with McKinsey & Company for 20 years and held positions in the US, Europe, and Japan. As Managing Partner for McKinsey in France, he led the pharmaceutical sector and co-led the financial institutions group before leading all industrial sectors. Mr. Duchesne holds a number of board positions, including as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAFT Group and as board member of Ipsos and Laurent-Perrier. He is the author of a book on economic policy, “France S.A.” (Le Seuil, 2002), and has been awarded the French order decoration “Légion d'Honneur.” Mr. Duchesne has degrees from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, École des Mines de Paris, and École Polytechnique.
Mr. Kumar brings 20 years of experience in the global financial services sector, specifically in retail banking and the payments industry. His experience in retail payments includes merchant acquiring, current accounts, credit card and commercial issuing, and consumer finance. Mr. Kumar has a track record of managing P&Ls, building new businesses, and creating and delivering organizational transformation through strategy, corporate development, and innovation in large, global organizations. He has held senior executive roles at Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, and WorldPay. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
About Marakon
Marakon specializes in strategy and helping
CEOs and their leadership teams achieve winning performance and stronger
organizations. Marakon has been working with business leaders for more
than 30 years and has built a reputation for working with a client
portfolio that has consistently outperformed its peers. Its consulting
teams combine deep sector experience and functional knowledge. Marakon’s
approach is underpinned by value creation as the common denominator for
decision making, a rigorous process based on a deep set of facts, and
the assessment of alternative strategies as a mechanism to build
leadership team commitment to the best path forward. More information is
available at http://www.marakon.com.
About Charles River Associates (CRA)
Charles River
Associates® is a global consulting firm specializing in litigation,
regulatory, financial, and management consulting. CRA advises
clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and
regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical
business strategy and performance-related issues. Since 1965, clients
have engaged CRA for its unique combination of functional expertise and
industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems.
Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout the world and is
celebrating its 50th year anniversary in 2015. Detailed
information about Charles River Associates, a registered trade name of
CRA International, Inc., is available at http://www.crai.com.
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Statements in this press release concerning the roles of Yann Duchesne and Devendra Kumar, the Company’s and Marakon’s management consulting offering, any future business Yann Duchesne and Devendra Kumar may generate for the Company or Marakon, the future business, operating results, and financial condition of the Company and statements using the terms "material business building mandate," "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "should," "prospects," "target," or similar expressions are "forward-looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon management's current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is inherently uncertain, and actual performance and results may differ materially due to many important factors. Such factors that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements made by the Company include, among others, their failure to generate engagements for us; dependence on the growth of our management consulting practice; the potential loss of clients; the demand environment; global economic conditions; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; and intense competition, as well as other potential factors that could affect our financial results are included in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including risks under the heading “Risk Factors.” We cannot guarantee any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievement. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this press release, and we do not intend to do so.