Hans-Paul Bürkner


Hans-Paul Bürkner is the former President and CEO of The Boston Consulting Group. He is currently Chairman at BCG. He was the first European to be president and CEO of the company.

Career

He began his career in corporate finance at Commerzbank and joined BCG, then predominantly a US consulting firm, in 1981. He was a member of the teams that opened BCG’s Düsseldorf and Frankfurt offices. He credited much of his inspiration and business approach to Tom Lewis, a principal at the firm at the time. Before becoming the firm’s first CEO from Europe, he was head of BCG’s global Financial Services practice, the Chair of the Practice Groups and a member of the Executive Committee.
Since his election by BCG’s partners to the office of CEO, under his leadership, BCG has grown from 4,500 employees to more than 15,000 presently. He was re-elected to the office in 2006 and 2009, taking his tenure to December 2012. He has opened twenty new offices around the world and doubled the size of the firm’s partner group.
Bürkner has studied economics, business administration, and Chinese. He has received a diploma from the University of Bochum, an M.A. from Yale University, and a D.Phil. from St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford between 1976 and 1980, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Today he holds offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Frankfurt, Jakarta and Mumbai, and travels extensively among BCG’s 85 offices around the world. In 2013 Bürkner stepped down as CEO of BCG and was replaced by Richard "Rich" Lesser.

Awards and recognitions

Bürkner was recognized as one of the Top 25 Consultants making an impact on clients and within his own firm by Consulting Magazine in 2003.