BRG names Mark Renzi head of financial services, hires economist Richard Schmalensee

Consulting firm Berkeley Research Group (BRG) has appointed Mark Renzi to the newly created role of financial services industry leader. BRG also this month announced the hiring of former MIT economist Richard Schmalensee, PhD, as a senior advisor in its antitrust and competition practice.

Based in Boston, Renzi will lead and coordinate the firm’s practice areas that serve financial services clients, including disputes and investigations, advisory, and corporate finance – where Renzi is a managing director. 

He has more than 20 years of business and financial consulting experience, with expertise in liquidity and capital structure assessment, debt and equity restructuring advisory, and identification of reorganization alternatives.

Renzi has provided restructuring advice on more than 35 engagements in out-of-court workouts and Chapter 11 proceedings. He has advised distressed firms on day-to-day management and served in interim management positions.

Prior to joining BRG in 2016, Renzi spent 15 years at FTI Consulting, where he was latterly a senior managing director. Before that, he worked as a risk manager and trader.

Renzi has a master’s degree in finance from Boston College and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington College.

"Mark is a tremendous thought and people leader within BRG's Corporate Finance practice. Combining the growing Financial Services' segment and Mark's unwavering dedication to client service will result in a significant opportunity for BRG as a firm," Bob Duffy, co-head of BRG's corporate finance practice, said.

Also based in Boston, Schmalensee is a renowned academic in the field of industrial organization economics, with a particular focus on antirust and regulatory policies.

He is the author or coauthor of more than 120 articles and 11 books, including “Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms” – coauthored with David Evans, who joined BRG’s antitrust practice earlier this year.

Schmalensee is dean emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Howard W. Johnson professor of management and professor of economics, emeritus, at MIT.

He also served on President George H. W. Bush’s council of economic advisors and consulted for the US Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice.

“Professor Schmalensee is one of the foremost academics in the application of economics to competition policy issues. The expertise he’ll bring to our team will be critical as we continue to build our capabilities in antitrust and competition policy,” said David Teece, BRG’s executive chairman.