Office
Greenwich
Hometown
Johannesburg, South Africa
Residence
Brookfield, CT
Richard
Benson-Armer
Director of Research and Senior Advisor
“The opportunity to leverage technology to reinvent businesses so that everyone wins is an imperative and challenge that is too good to miss. There is also huge value to be unlocked!”
Office
Greenwich
Hometown
Johannesburg,
South Africa
Residence
Brookfield,
CT
Richard is an engineer-turned-corporate strategist with 25+ years of experience helping large, established companies and smaller startups scale in the consumer goods and information services industries globally. A 5-year stint as managing partner of McKinsey's Stamford office piqued Richard's interest in growing a professional service organization - his role at Activant supporting partner companies to grow as well as developing the firm is a dream job.
Education
MBA
University of Cape Town
BCommerce
University of South Africa
BSc Chemical Engineering
University of the Witwatersrand
Relevant Experiences
McKinsey & Company
Senior Partner
22 years
Global experience supporting growth and cost leadership at some of the world’s leading corporations and fastest growing start-ups; global leadership of McKinsey’s efforts to develop client capabilities and manage performance.
Responsibilities
Richard was the location managing partner in McKinsey’s Stamford office for 5 years and held global leadership roles in the Consumer Goods and Capability Building practices. He served global and local clients in the consumer goods, retail banking, and B2B information services industries on issues of strategy, performance management, and capability building.
About McKinsey & Company
Throughout his 20+ year career at McKinsey, he worked in the Toronto, Sydney, Brussels, Seoul, and Stamford offices.
The Thompson Corporation
SVP & Chief Strategy Officer
4 years
Real-world experience identifying opportunities and allocating resources to maximize growth as an exec committee member of a Fortune 250 company.
Responsibilities
Responsible for identifying and pursuing growth opportunities in Thomson’s core and adjacent markets, as well as leading the corporation’s strategic planning process and allocation of resources to support growth.
About The Thompson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation’s acquisition of Reuters in 2008 created the world’s largest information service business - Thomson Reuters - with 38,000 employees and over $12 billion in revenue. The company focused on the global financial services, legal, scientific, healthcare, and tax & accounting sectors.
The South African Breweries
Corporate Planning Manager
2,5 years
Implemented the corporation’s performance management system and worked on strategies to deliver global cost leadership.
Responsibilities
In addition to assuring the quality of production at a brewery producing 700 million litres of beer a year, Richard led the company’s strategic planning processes and creation of functional strategies to deliver cost leadership and efficiency.
About The South African Breweries
Now part of AB Inbev, SAB grew from being South Africa’s leading brewer and one of the nation’s most admired companies to one of the top 3 brewers in the world.