Managment consulting heavyweight Bain & Company has named Rebecca Burack as the head of its global private equity practice.

Bain ranks, along with McKinsey & Co and BCG, in the management consulting industry’s Big Three group of leading market players. The firm’s client list includes many Fortune 500 companies.

Bain’s private equity practice has an outsized role in the market. The practice, which employs over 2,000 professionals, is more than triple the size of its largest competitor.  

Private equity is a term used to describe a part of the financial sector where funds primarily focus on corporate acquisitions. In this ecosystem, funds known as private equity firms buy companies, streamline their business operations and then sell them at a higher price.

Bain’s private equity practice advises funds on such transactions. Bain consultants can help an investment manager find promising companies to buy and sort out the complex details involved in carrying out a purchase.

Investment managers also turn to Bain after a private equity acquisition closes. Bain helps its clients develop a strategy for realizing a return on corporate purchases, a complex task given that the value of such deals often runs into the billions of dollars.  

Rebecca Burack is taking over as the global head of the practice after nearly 25 years at Bain. She was most recently the head of the firm’s Americas Private Equity practice.

Over the course of her career, Burack managed hundreds of due diligence projects focused on helping funds ensure that the companies they buy meet investment criteria. The executive also advises clients on other aspects of private equity deals, such as the task of realizing a return on purchases.

“As a leader in the firm’s Private Equity practice for many years, Rebecca is a trusted adviser to industry leaders around the world and serves as a mentor and role model for her teams,” commented Bain worldwide managing partner Manny Maceda in a statement. “Her reputation and expertise will be invaluable to our largest PE clients as they look to address their most pressing strategy, organization and operations challenges.” 

Before joining Bain, Burack earned an MBA from Harvard practice School and a degree in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University.

Burack is stepping into a role previously held by Hugh MacArthur, the long-time Bain executive who created the firm’s private equity practice more than 25 years ago. MacArthur will become the practice’ global chairman as part of the leadership change. 

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