Rebecca Burack new leader of Bain's private equity practice

Rebecca Burack has been appointed global leader of Bain & Company’s private equity (PE) practice.

Based in the consulting firm’s Boston headquarters, Burack brings 30 years of experience, including nearly 25 years at Bain. She succeeds Hugh MacArthur, who will take on the newly created role of global chairman of the PE practice. MacArthur helped found the practice more than 25 years ago.

“Hugh is one of the most sought-after thought leaders and advisors for private equity managers, helping his clients to make smart decisions amid a rapidly changing private equity landscape,” said Manny Maceda, worldwide managing partner of Bain & Company. “I am confident as the first global chairman of the Private Equity practice that he will continue to strengthen our client and people assets, and build on our reputation as a trusted advisor to financial investors.”

Burack most recently served as Americas head of the PE practice. She has deep expertise in fund strategy, operational due diligence, and post-acquisition value creation programs – including post-close “strong starts” and B2B commercial excellence. Burack has sector expertise in industrials and leads the firm’s infrastructure, construction, and building products sector.

Prior to joining Bain, she held engineer, quality manager, production manager, and plant operations roles at International Paper.

Burack has a master’s degree in engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard University.

“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,” Maceda said. “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.”

With 2,000+ private equity experts, Bain’s PE practice is by far the largest in the management consulting industry, and represents approximately one quarter of the firm’s business. The practice provides various fund types and institutional investors with consulting in deal generation, due diligence, immediate post-acquisition, ongoing value addition, exit, and firm strategy and operations.

There’s also the Bain Capital connection. Founded in 1984 by several Bain & Company partners – including Mitt Romney – the private investment firm has acquired or invested in hundreds of companies. Bain Capital as of 2022 managed approximately $160 billion of investor capital. Though technically a separate company, Bain Capital pioneered the model of applying consulting expertise to portfolio companies.