Peter Skarzynski named head of Americas region at PA Consulting
Innovation expert Peter Skarzynski has joined innovation consultancy PA Consulting as leader of the Americas region. He will remain based in Chicago.
Skarzynski succeeds Ken Toombs, who was named CEO of the UK-based consulting firm earlier this month. He brings more than 35 years of management consulting experience, with a focus on strategy and innovation.
Skarzynski spent the last four years as a managing director at Doblin, the innovation unit of strategy consultancy Monitor Deloitte – and a direct competitor of PA Consulting. At the firm, he advised senior leaders on how to anticipate and seize new business opportunities.
Before that, he spent five years as the managing partner and co-founder of ITC Business Group, a Chicago-based consultancy working at the intersection of strategy and design thinking.
Prior to founding his own consultancy, Skarzynski spent 16 years at consulting firm Strategos, where he lead a team of strategy, growth, and organizational change advisors. He served as CEO and chairman of the firm, and then served as a senior managing director when the company was acquired by Innovaro in 2008.
Skarzynski also spent a year-and-a-half as a strategy and innovation fellow at 4iNNO, a Cincinnati-based innovation consultancy that was acquired by PA Consulting last year.
A well-known expert on business innovation, Skarzynski has also written two popular books on the topic: “Innovation to the Core” and “The Innovator’s Field Guide.”
He holds an MBA in finance and marketing and a BA in economics and policy studies from the University of Chicago.
“We are pleased to have Peter on the team, and welcome his experience helping large organizations bring new innovations to market,” said Toombs. “He’s had great success helping companies capture new growth opportunities – a skillset we plan to bring to our US clients.”
Founded in London in 1943, PA works with range of industry clients on strategy and operations, product design and engineering, digital transformation, and emerging technology. Some of the firm’s recent work in the Covid-19 era includes helping build an online clinician matching network for US doctors and hospitals, as well as helping to develop the Airora Professional air decontamination technology.
The firm has US offices in New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as a dozen locations in Europe.
“I was attracted to PA because they are a global leader in helping clients imagine, create, incubate, and scale new businesses,” said Skarzynski. “Most consultancies lack the capabilities to do this. It is very interesting and energizing that PA is leading that space. I am excited to lead the US team as we deliver breakthrough innovations for our clients and bring ingenuity to life.”
