L.E.K. Consulting has appointed Sara Elinson, a long-time consulting executive, as a managing director and partner in its financial services practice.

L.E.K. is a management consultancy with offices in more than two dozen cities worldwide. It’s present in an even larger number of industries, one of which is the financial services sector. The firm counts banks, lenders, insurers and other market players among its clients.

Notably, L.E.K. also works with financial technology firms, which have played an outsized role in bringing the IPO market out of its most recent deep freeze. Three of this year’s highest-profile IPOs, namely Circle, eToro and Chime, are fintech companies. The timing of L.E.K.’s decision to bolster the leadership of its financial services practice may not be entirely unrelated to this heightened deal activity. When deal volumes increase, there’s more revenue to be had for management consultancies. 

Elinson brings more than two decades of management consulting experience to L.E.K.’s financial services practice. She is joining the firm following a nearly nine-year stint at EY, where she was most recently a principal at the firm’s EY-Parthenon management consulting arm. She earlier held the same title at Deloitte. Elinson has worked on projects for fintech companies, as well as other market players such as incumbent banks and investors.

One of Elinson’s focus areas at L.E.K. will be the firm’s work with payments companies. Those are financial services providers that specialize in tasks such as helping merchants process credit card purchases and pay overseas suppliers. 

 “Fintechs – and payments companies in particular – are in the midst of a global shape-shift that all firms – banks, retailers, industrials and beyond – need to be aware of,” Elinson told Boardroom Insight. “Firms are divesting non-core businesses to simplify, acquiring complementary offerings to sharpen the focus, expanding and investing to disrupt, and making bold bets on next gen tech and talent needed to shepherd these kernels from an idea to a critical part of their businesses moving forward.”

Elinson is closely familiar with such acquisitions and investments. Before joining L.E.K., she oversaw commercial diligence work on acquisition targets in several parts of the fintech industry including the payments, capital markets and regulatory compliance technology segments. Commercial diligence is the phase of due diligence projects that focuses on big-picture questions about the health of a business. For example, a buyer may seek to determine whether the proposed acquisition price of a payments startup is aligned with its expected revenue growth rate. 

“I’ve always been a student of the market, monitoring and helping to shape the strategies firms use to better compete for customer delight. But, this moment feels particularly exciting as payments trends are front page material, not relegated below the fold or in the back office,” Elinson noted. “Rather, these trends are fodder for everyday conversation and wonderment for anyone who touches finance and payments – i.e., everybody.”

That broad interest in the financial sector’s IT trends may have factored into the stock performance of the IPO market’s recent fintech standouts. Circle, Chime and eToro, the three fintech firms that went public earlier this year, all priced their offerings above the expected ranges. Circle has received a particularly strong reception from the market. Shares of the company, which develops the USDC stablecoin, are currently worth more than 7 times what IPO investors paid. 

“AI and agentic commerce, stablecoins, embedded experiences — all of these headline topics are also at the heart and center of every payments company’s strategy,” Elinson said. “I joined L.E.K. exactly because we’re at the heart of these conversations and believe that getting these transformations right will be critical for any business looking to succeed and stand out over the course of this decade, and possibly the next century.”

Photos courtesy of L.E.K. Consulting