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Bain & Company has picked the head of its European private equity advisory business to be its next global chief executive, as the consulting group deals with an industry slowdown and the fallout from a corruption scandal in South Africa.
The firm’s worldwide partners voted to confirm the appointment of Christophe De Vusser to succeed Manny Maceda, who will step down on July 1 at the end of his second three-year term, according to people familiar with the matter.
De Vusser, a Belgian, will be the first European to run Bain in its 50-year history. His appointment was announced to partners on Monday and to the firm’s 19,000 employees on Tuesday, the people said.
San Francisco-based Maceda’s tenure has been marked by the expansion of Bain’s digital advisory practice, in part through 25 acquisitions, which helped swell annual revenues from a little over $3bn in 2018 to about $6bn last year. That compares with about $16bn in annual revenue at rival McKinsey and almost $12bn at BCG.
The election of De Vusser elevates a partner from Bain’s historically strongest business as an adviser to private equity firms. He has run the business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the past six years, doubling its revenue over the period.
Dealmaking by private equity firms has tumbled as interest rates have risen sharply around the globe in the past two years, crimping growth. Bain has continued to pick up work advising on the restructuring of existing portfolio companies.
Most consultants have curbed pay and bonuses and limited hiring in the wake of the slowdown in dealmaking, but Bain has avoided significant lay-offs of the kind seen among the Big Four accounting and consulting firms in the past year.
Bain has also had to deal with the fallout from a corruption scandal in South Africa and raids on its offices in China.
Beijing has been clamping down on foreign consulting firms amid concerns about the implications of data leaving the country, prompting a drop-off in work. Bain’s offices in Shanghai were raided last year in a broad national security investigation.
In South Africa, Bain was described by a judicial report as a corporate enabler of graft during the government of former president Jacob Zuma, when it worked for the country’s tax agency. It has been banned from working for South Africa’s public sector until 2032.
In 2022, the UK also imposed a three-year ban on Bain bidding for government contracts, citing the South Africa scandal, but it reversed the decision last March.
De Vusser began his career in the consumer products industry, initially at Procter & Gamble as a section head of purchasing, before joining Bain in 2000. He was managing partner of Bain’s Brussels office from 2012 to 2018.