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News round-up: McKinsey, LECG, Buck

Published: Mar 21, 2011

 Consulting       

Hello and welcome to another Monday edition of the news round-up. One can scarcely calculate the comfort it must give to the masses, huddled cold amidst the gloom of a new work week—it really is that negligible. But it is not nothing!

Rajat Gupta, the disgraced former managing director at McKinsey, has tendered his resignation at the Indian School of Business (ISB), where he sat on the board. Gupta "has requested the ISB executive board to relieve him of his board responsibilities till his pending matter with the US SEC is resolved," reports the Wall Street Journal (for the record, 'pending matter' = insider trading). A native of India and a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Gupta served helped found IBS with Anil Kumar, another ex-McKinsey director and fellow defendant of SEC charges. Kumar quit the board last year after pleading guilty to securities fraud. "The ISB community is confident that Rajat Gupta will be vindicated," the school said in a statement. Apparently the story has been something of a hushed secret at IBS, where Gupta is considered among the school's greatest idols; reports of a campus-wide media gag were "over-emphasized", whispered one IBS official.

In other round-up news that also cracked the main feed at Consult THIS, the break-up of LECG gained a further sense of finality today when one of its most celebrated partners announced the formation of his own consultancy, Global Economics Group. Dr. David Evans, formerly the practice leader of the firm's global competition policy unit (once "one of the world’s largest antitrust economics groups") and overall vice chairman, left the rubble of LECG to create GlobalEcon and shape its mission: "to provide independent and rigorous economic analysis in complex legal, regulatory, and policy matters." Evans was previously a consultant at NERA Economic Consulting. Joining Evans in the management team are Roger Hickey, formerly of Navigant Consulting, and Chad Coffman, a founding member of Winnemac Consulting along with Hickey. The trio will fulfill the roles of Chairman, CEO, and President respectively.

Buck Consulting was in hot water last week after a client, California's Mendocino County, cancelled its contract with the firm over an expensive clerical error. Buck consultants, brought in to get the county's financial house in order, made a "faulty assessment" regarding Mendocino's pension system; that sole mistake, the county says, will cost at least $3.3 million this year. Mendocino County is among hundreds of American counties that have turned to consulting firms amidst financial distress. Mendocino announced later last week that Segal Company of New York was tapped to continue Buck's less-than-stellar work.

For more information:
Gupta offers to quit as ISB chairman
Experts United to Form Global Economics Group
Mendocino County cancels contract over $3.3 million actuarial mistake

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