Stephen Blunck

Senior Consultant, Maven Associates

VP, Serent Capital

Associate, Advent International

Senior Associate Consultant, Bain & Company

MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business

BS, Brigham Young University

Representative Projects

  • Developed and implemented procurement and cost reduction initiatives for multi-billion-dollar public retailer
  • Designed organizational growth strategy and decision-making framework for charter school network expanding across regions
  • Led the merger of two human capital management enterprises to consolidate market share and drive growth synergies
  • Created strategy to accelerate company growth for data center company
  • Implemented value creation initiatives for at-risk healthcare entity, including leadership build-out, growth strategy, and new geography expansion
  • Supported ed-tech company with merger integration, financial operations, capital structure, and tracking against key performance indicators
  • Negotiated with lenders to obtain ~$600M in financing to facilitate company recapitalization
  • Led due diligence workstreams for multiple potential private equity transactions, with combined enterprise value of ~$6B

Expertise

Industries

  • Business Services
  • Healthcare
  • Financial Services
  • Retail
  • Education
  • Technology & Software
  • Human Capital Management
  • Pharmaceuticals

Project Types

  • Growth Strategy
  • M&A Strategy
  • Finance
  • Profit Improvement
  • Organizational Design
  • Due Diligence

Representative Clients

Companies

  • JCPenney
  • Uplift Education
  • TalentWave
  • Professional Health
  • Care Network
  • KEV School Solutions
  • Data Center Co.
  • ATI Physical Therapy
  • InVentiv

PE Firms

  • Serent Capital
  • Advent International

  • COO, J&S Audio Visual
  • VP, Apple Leisure Group
  • Principal, Plutus Capital
  • Principal, SunTx Partners
  • Consultant, Bain & Company
  • J.D. University of Virginia Law School with emphasis on M&A
  • B.S., B.A. Southern Methodist University Dallas

Representative Projects

  • Developed cost reduction initiative for large public property management company based in Toronto/New York.  Led business process outsourcing plan for several back-office functions including HR, Payroll, F&A, Call Center.
  • Consolidated back-offices functions of three PE-backed travel companies and 10 different business departments including Operations, Call Center Customer Service, F&A, Rate Loading saving $6mm annually.  
  • Oversaw divestment of large $250M E-commerce business for a PE backed company which included winding down operations and data-centers.
  • COO of $100M+ PE-backed hotel services business encompassing 400+ employees.  Oversaw FP&A and all aspects of Operations. Created Key Performance Indicators, vision, and strategy for group.
  • Created continuous improvement office which identified bottlenecks in a $1B+ Canadian copper mining operation,  increasing production by 18%.
  • Developed outsourcing plan for large software application company identifying over $20M in annual savings.
  • Created Centralized Procurement office for major aero-space defense contractor which consolidated purchasing efforts with company’s largest suppliers saving 12%.

Expertise

Industries

  • Airline
  • Business Services
  • Defense
  • Mining
  • Private Equity
  • Real Estate
  • Retail
  • Technology
  • Tourism/Hospitality
  • Transportation Services

Project Types

  • SG&A Reduction
  • BPO
  • Operations Optimization
  • KPI Dashboards
  • Business Process Transformation
  • M&A Assessment/PMI
  • PMO

Representative Clients

Companies

  • Brookfield Properties
  • Apple Leisure Group
  • Woolworths (Australia)
  • Ned Bank (South Africa)
  • Teck Industries (Canada)
  • Sabre Group
  • Rio-Tinto (Australia)
  • Expedia/Travelocity
  • Freeman Industries
  • United Airlines
  • Lockheed-Martin

PE Firms

  • Plutus Capital
  • SunTx Capital

Mark Hess   

Founder

  • Founder, Maven Associates
  • Principal, Stagen
  • VP Strategy & BD, GES
  • Manager, Bain & Company
  • Engineer, Black & Veatch
  • MBA, Tuck-Dartmouth
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Rice University
  • BA, Economics, Claremont McKenna College

Representative Projects

  • Led development of a strategy to accelerate company growth and maximize exit valuation multiples for a ~$300M metal manufacturer
  • Developed a growth strategy for a ~$200M online consumer loan business
  • Created a roadmap for a ~$40M publisher to improve profitability and pursue new strategic growth opportunities
  • Conducted a 3-week due diligence of a PE acquisition target in the equipment moving space
  • Led the development of a profit improvement plan for a hydraulic seal manufacturer
  • Developed a 5-year Value Creation Plan for a ~$600M wine distributor in Canada post acquisition by a PE fund
  • Built a growth strategy for a ~$200M luxury recreational boat manufacturer
  • Conducted a 3-week due diligence of a PE acquisition target in the land management space
  • Developed detailed analysis of the Top 20 competitors of a national big box retailer
  • Created a growth strategy for a ~$100M SaaS business

Expertise

Industries

  • Business Services
  • Consumer Products
  • Financial Services
  • Manufacturing
  • Metal Fabrication
  • Restaurants
  • Retail
  • Technology
  • Transportation Services

Project Types

  • Due Diligence
  • Growth Strategy
  • M&A/PMI
  • Marketing/Branding
  • Organizational Design
  • Profit Improvement

Representative Clients

Companies

  • Cobalt Boats
  • At Home
  • Safariland
  • PointClickCare
  • WorldStrides
  • Alliance Equipment
  • Arterra Wines
  • Craftmark Bakery
  • Raybern’s
  • PDC
  • Best Egg

PE Firms

  • Carlyle Group
  • JMI Equity
  • Ontario Teachers
  • Anchor Partners
  • Satori Capital

  • Founder, MG&A Strategy
  • CFO / COO, Qida
  • VP Strategy Manager, JPMorgan Chase
  • Senior Associate Consultant, Bain & Company
  • MBA, Columbia Business School, New York City
  • BS & MA, Management, ESADE, Barcelona

Representative Projects

  • Led a 5-year strategy formulation for an Asian subsidiary of a global leading life insurance company, partnering with the local leadership team and the central strategy function.
  • Developed market assessments for pharmaceutical and transportation clients exploring growth opportunities in new verticals.
  • Prepared strategic recommendations for the Board of Directors of a Real Estate Technology and Consulting company analyzing the alternatives for one of their business units.
  • Improved Sales Innovation for a global research firm scaling up a pilot program 10x in two months to systematize personalized outbound marketing for C-level technology executives.
  • Assisted an online presence management technology company rethink sales analytics to support nimble decision making in pursuit of growth target.
  • Supported clients in Private Equity, household appliances, healthcare and telecoms industries on commercial due diligence, customer, service and profitability projects.

Expertise

Industries

  • Business Services
  • Financial Services

Project Types

  • Corporate Strategy
  • Strategy Development
  • Market Assessment
  • Digital Transformation

Representative Clients

Companies

  • Top global publicly traded insurer
  • ~$5B American road transportation company
  • $300MM+ US-based pharmaceutical quality provider
  • >$3.5MM media start-up

PE Firms

  • $100B+ Global PE
  • Middle-market focused European PE investor
  • Multiple European family-promoted PE investment funds

  • Principal, Hanafi Strategy
  • Senior Director, IT Strategy & Innovation, DIRECTV/AT&T
  • COO, Folio3
  • Consultant, Bain & Company
  • Director/Strategy Lead, Viant
  • Financial Analyst, Citigroup Smith Barney
  • BA, Columbia University

Representative Projects

  • Providing Agile PMO and strategy planning support for a federal government agency
  • Planned and supported ~$225M multi-year digital transformation for a large consumer products company
  • Acted as Portfolio Lead for data management and governance initiative for a large consumer products company
  • Conducted IT cost benchmarking analysis for a large telecom provider, identifying ~$70-120M opportunity to right-size spend mix
  • Developed digital platform strategy for sports and news networks division of a Fortune 100 cable company
  • Led financial management and spend analysis for savings portion of $1B IT synergy savings program for M&E company post-merger integration
  • Developed strategies for new digital capabilities in areas such as cloud computing, Big Data, social business and API’s for a large M&E company
  • Led enterprise-wide information management strategy covering all major business units and entire information value chain for a large M&E company
  • Developed IT strategic plans and managed multi-year roadmaps for multiple, complex IT capabilities for a large M&E company

Expertise

Industries

  • Business Services
  • Consumer Products
  • Entertainment
  • Financial Services
  • Retail
  • Technology
  • Telecom

Project Types

  • IT/Digital Strategy
  • Digital Transformation
  • Strategic Planning
  • Corporate Development/M&A Strategy
  • Business Planning
  • Agile PMO
  • Product Management

Representative Clients

Companies

  • CenturyLink
  • Charter Communications
  • Federal Government Agency
  • Harman/Samsung
  • Mattel
  • PTC
  • Seagate
  • Sears
  • VNU/Nielsen

PE Firms

  • American Express
  • Charles Schwab
  • General Dynamics

  • Owner, ORCA Consulting LLC
  • Case Team Leader, Bain & Company
  • Senior Associate, Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLC
  • Engineer, Northrop Grumman
  • MBA, Booth (U Chicago), concentration in entrepreneurship
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, UCLA
  • Minor, Accounting, UCLA

Representative Projects

  • Built recommendation for market entry of new product in innovation department of $26B consumer goods company
  • Led development of international portfolio strategy for $3.5B global manufacturing company prioritization of growth, sustain, divesture of multiple recent acquisitions
  • Created new US pricing strategy for newly created pricing team at $24B consumer goods company and integrated new pricing vendor into process
  • Built recommendation for market entry into new health care space for national retail company based on assessment of current landscape and future health care trends
  • Conducted a 1-week due diligence of a PE acquisition target in the conference management space
  • Conducted a 1-week due diligence of a PE acquisition target in the software registration space
  • Conducted a 1-week due diligence of a PE acquisition target in the health care services space

Expertise

Industries

  • Agriculture
  • Business Services
  • Consumer Products
  • Financial Services
  • Manufacturing
  • Retail
  • Technology

Project Types

  • Growth Strategy
  • Due Diligence
  • M&A
  • Pricing Strategy

Representative Clients

Companies

  • McDonalds
  • Kraft Heinz
  • CVS
  • Walmart
  • Regal Beloit
  • Nutrien

PE Firms

  • Carlyle Group
  • Pamlico Capital
  • Gemspring Capital
  • GTCR
  • Sterling Partners