BearingPoint adds Chetan Rangaswamy as partner and US practice leader

Amsterdam-based management consultancy BearingPoint has added veteran consultant Chetan Rangaswamy as a partner and leader of the firm’s US practice. The move is a commitment to “re-establishing critical mass in the US market,” according to a release from the firm.

“Expanding our US practice is one of the pillars of our Strategy 2025,” Kiumars Hamidian, managing partner of BearingPoint, said. “The US is one of our core markets outside Europe because it is one of the core markets of our European clients, and we have big plans for future growth with Chetan as our US leader.”

The former consulting branch of KPMG, the firm was spun off in 2000, went public in 2001, and was rebranded as BearingPoint in 2002.

At the height of the Financial Crisis in 2009, the company’s US operations filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, having run up over $2 billion in total debt. In the aftermath, the Japan business unit and North American commercial services practice was sold to PwC, while the North American public services practice was sold to Deloitte. The management buyout of BearingPoint’s European operations by approximately 150 partners allowed the brand to continue in Europe.

The Netherlands-based partnership today has 4,500 employees based primarily in Europe, with revenues of approximately $819.4 million.

The management and technology consultancy reaches into other regions of the globe through a system of alliances; in the US, BearingPoint partners with management consulting firm West Monroe Partners. BearingPoint’s US operations are based out of Chicago.

The company appears to be gearing up to reassert itself in the US, which is the world’s largest market for consulting services, and also a key market for many of BearingPoint’s European clients. The new head of its US practice, Chetan Rangaswamy, will be based in Chicago, and will be tasked with building out the US business.

Rangaswamy brings two decades of experience to the role, with a particular focus on procurement and supply chain consulting. He joins BearingPoint from The Hackett Group, where he was a principal and sourcing and procurement leader. Before that, he was a vice president at management and technology consultancy GEP Worldwide, and a senior manager at Accenture. Rangaswamy started his career at Ingersoll Rand, where he was a sourcing manager.

“Building up the business in the US is an exciting opportunity,” Rangaswamy said. “BearingPoint is an amazing organization that values people and knows how to cultivate leaders, and on that basis, I am confident that we’re going to do great work for our European clients in the US and get them where they want to be.”