Wade Cruse leads Bain & Company across Southeast Asia
Global strategic consulting firm Bain & Company has installed a new managing partner for the firm’s Southeast Asia business: Wade Cruse.
The 17-year company member and senior partner has been based in the region for 15+ years, and brings extensive leadership experience within the consulting firm to the regional role.
Cruse succeeds Jean-Pierre Felenbok, who held the position since 2019, and now returns to an advisory partner role, as part of Bain & Company’s rotating leadership model.
In his new capacity, Cruse oversees the firm’s offices in Thailand (Bangkok), Indonesia (Jakarta), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore (Singapore), and the Philippines (Manila). He also leads the firm’s activities in other Southeast Asia markets where Bain serves clients through fly-in teams, including Cambodia and Vietnam.
“Wade becomes the leader for one of our most important growth regions,” said Satish Shankar, Bain & Company’s Regional Managing Partner for Asia Pacific. “He will help our clients navigate the future, increase our footprint in the region and help us lead in important domains such as ESG and sustainability and digital, and lead the development of Bain’s talent.”
Shankar, who previously also led the Southeast Asian business before ascending to the region’s top role, described Cruse as “a well respected leader” within the firm and “someone who puts others first, including our people and clients.”
Having joined Bain & Company in 2005 from a boutique strategy consultancy with previous experience in the steel sector under his belt, Cruse specialises in large scale transformations in financial services (banking and insurance), advanced manufacturing and services, as well as technology, particularly in the semiconductor and hardware industries.
Most recently, he served as Leader of the Customer practice in Asia. This practice advises clients on topics including commercial excellence, sales & marketing transformation, pricing, and the Net Promotor System (which was concepted by Bain in the early 2000’s and is now one of the globe’s most applied metrics for measuring customer loyalty).
Earlier he led the Industrial Goods & Services and Technology practices across Southeast Asia, among others. Outside of Southeast Asia, Singapore-based Cruse has gained project experience in other major markets, including the US, the UK, China, India, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East.
“I am extremely grateful and honoured to be taking on this leadership role. Southeast Asia is going through one of the most exciting and dynamic periods of growth. I am excited to work with our team to support our clients in achieving their full potential and to help them manage through the flurry of disruptions impacting their industries and the region.”
In related news, two other leading global consultancies, Alvarez & Marsal and Kearney earlier this year installed new bosses for their Southeast Asia division, appointing Utsav Garg and Nithin Chandra respectively.
Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company’s Southeast Asia division is led by Kaushik Kaushik and at Boston Consulting Group, the region is led by Dave Sivaprasad.