- Oliver Wyman
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This article is about the company. For the voice actor, see Oliver Wyman (actor).
Oliver Wyman 
Type Subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Industry Management Consulting Founded 1984; became Oliver Wyman in 2007 Headquarters New York City, U.S. Key people John P. Drzik, President Services Management Consulting Revenue US$ 1.5 Billion in 2007 Employees 2900 employees (Oliver Wyman) Website www.oliverwyman.com Oliver Wyman is an international management consulting firm. Founded in 1984, the firm adopted its current form in May 2007, when Mercer Oliver Wyman joined with Mercer Management Consulting and Mercer Delta to become one firm named Oliver Wyman. Oliver Wyman is headquartered in New York City with 40 offices in Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific and employs over 2,900 professionals. It is part of the Oliver Wyman Group, which is a business unit of Marsh & McLennan.
Oliver Wyman is an established leader in the Financial Services consulting industry and has also been described by The New York Times as "a leader in general business consulting." It is one of the business groups that provides Marsh & McLennan with an edge over other insurance brokers.[1] Adrian Slywotzky, a prominent business consultant and author of several books, is a partner at Oliver Wyman.
Contents
History
Oliver Wyman was formed in May 2007 through the combination of three global consulting businesses :
- Mercer Oliver Wyman: specialized in Banks, insurance and Financial Services
- Mercer Management Consulting: management consulting firm for industry and services
- Mercer Delta: expert in organizational transformation, board effectiveness and CEO leadership development
Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) is the parent company of Oliver Wyman.[1]
In 1984, Oliver, Wyman & Company was founded by Alex Oliver and Bill Wyman - former partners from Booz Allen Hamilton. From 1984 to 1995, Christopher Meyer was Vice President and Group Head at Mercer Management Consulting. In 2003, Oliver, Wyman & Company was bought by MMC and became part of its Mercer Consulting businesses under the name Mercer Oliver Wyman.
Mercer Management Consulting was formed through the combination of Temple, Barker & Sloane, which was founded in Boston in 1970 and acquired by MMC in 1987, and Strategic Planning Associates, which was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972 and acquired by MMC in 1990. The two companies merged in 1990 as Temple, Barker & Sloane/Strategic Planning Associates, which was renamed Mercer Management Consulting in 1992.
Mercer Delta was founded in New York in 1980 by Dr. David Nadler as Delta Consulting and was acquired by MMC in 2000.
In recent years, Oliver Wyman has been growing rapidly both organically and through acquisitions. In 2008, it acquired several consulting firms, including: ChapterHouse, Academee(UK), Hemeria(France), Celent, and Harbour Consulting.
Oliver Wyman Group
Oliver Wyman is part of Oliver Wyman Group which includes:
- NERA Economic Consulting (microeconomic consulting)
- Lippincott (brand, image and identity consulting)
Notable alumni
- Sid Sankaran, Chief Risk Officer, AIG[2]
- Robert Kopech, Vice President and Group Chief Risk Officer, The World Bank [3][4]
- Christopher Meyer (author), Founder of Monitor Talent[5]
- Andrew Kuritzkes, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, State Street Corp. [6]
- Andrew Rear, Chief Executive Officer, Munich Re Life - UK, Australia, and South Africa[7]
- Henry Essert, Chief Risk Officer, MetLife
- Premal Shah, President, Kiva.org[8]
- Rupert Duchesne, Chief Executive Officer, Aeroplan[9]
- J. Randolph Babbitt, Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration[10]
- Bill Wyman, Co-Founder, Wyman Worldwide Health Partners[11]
- Charles Bralver, Senior Associate Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University[12]
- John Haigh, Executive Dean, Harvard Kennedy School of Government[13]
- Rajiv Vinnakota, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The SEED Foundation[14]
- Lisa Gardner, Best-selling crime novelist [15]
- David Gaylin, Executive Director, Boston Baroque[16]
- Lew Hay, CEO, FPL Group[17]
- Jeffrey Zients, President Obama's Chief Performance Officer[18]
- Jeff Conlon, CEO, Kaplan Higher Education[19]
- Andrew Youn, Founder, One Acre Fund[20]
- Tom Arnold, Founder and Chief Environmental Officer, TerraPass[21]
Offices
The Americas
Portland, Ore.
Princeton, N.J.
Reston, Va.
San Francisco
São Paulo
Toronto
WashingtonAsia Pacific
Europe and the Middle East
Abu Dhabi
Barcelona
Dubai
Düsseldorf
Frankfurt
HamburgControversies
It was reported that Oliver Wyman was the unnamed consulting firm that in 2005 recommended to Citigroup's "senior-most management" to expand parts of its fixed income business, including in collateralised debt obligations(CDO), which led to more than US$50 billion in losses and ultimately a rescue by the U.S. government.[22] However, "people familiar with the analysis provided to Citi say it included ample warnings about the risks of diving into the structured product market, as well as other precautions that should be considered".[23] At that time, Citigroup was led by Chuck Prince, a lawyer who had served as its general counsel and was described as having "relatively limited capital markets experience".[22]
Citigroup was reportedly not the only bank that raised its exposure to CDO based on the advice of external consultants. It has been reported that UBS, based partly on a strategic review of fixed income business by Oliver Wyman, identified large growth potential in structured credit and securitized products and consequently expanded its exposure in these areas. UBS suffered heavy losses subsequently and had to be bailed out by the Swiss government.[23][24]
Oliver Wyman in 2007 named Anglo Irish Bank as the best bank in the world in a piece of research published to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.[25][26][27] The next year the Irish Government was forced to nationalise the Bank at a cost of €25 billion.[28][29][30] Oliver Wyman in 2009 also validated Bank of Ireland’s bad debt levels at €6 billion over three years to March 2011, a bad debt level which Bank of Ireland had exceeded by almost €1 billion within a matter of months.[25]
Publications
The Future of the Global Financial System: A Near-Term Outlook and Long-Term Scenarios[31]
Oliver Wyman Financial Services led the research and analysis for this 2009 World Economic Forum publication that explores the driving forces that are shaping the global financial system and how these forces might affect governance and industry structure.2010 State of the Financial Services Industry report [32]
This publication, the 13th edition, focused this year on the recovery process and steps taken to overcome the seize on interbank lending following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.2010 State of the Communications, Media and Technology Industry report.[33]
This publication analyzes the performance of 450 public CMT companies and identifies key value migration trends in the industry.State of the Financial Services Industry 2011[34]
This publication "stress tests" the financial system by describing a possible scenario for a future crisis involving bubbles in commodities and related assets.Non-profit partnerships
Oliver Wyman Group partners with non-profit organizations that work to improve the lives of people in the developing world through microfinance, healthcare, and education. Alliances with non-profits include:
- Kiva.org - the person-to-person microlending website
- Acumen Fund – a global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty
- Room to Read – an international non-profit organization devoted to breaking the poverty cycle by providing educational resources and opportunities to underprivileged children in the developing world
- Women's World Banking – a global network of 54 microfinance providers and banks, working in 30 countries to bring financial services to poor women entrepreneurs to enable them to grow their businesses and lift their families out of poverty
Comparison to Competitors
Oliver Wyman was ranked 7th in the Vault Consulting 50 for 2011, combining Vault's "Best to Work For" ranking with overall prestige.[35] Consulting Magazine has ranked MOW one of the top 10 consulting firms to work for in 2005, 2006, and 2007.[36]
References
- ^ a b Treaster, Joseph B. "Trying to Find the Upside After a Scandal", The New York Times, May 23, 2007. Accessed October 21, 2007. "The Marsh & McLennan umbrella includes a number of big names in financial services, from the signature Marsh insurance division to Mercer Human Resource Consulting to Oliver Wyman, a leader in general business consulting, and Kroll, which advises on security and corporate intelligence. None of the other insurance brokers can match Marsh & McLennan with these broader resources, analysts say."
- ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-08/aig-is-said-to-appoint-oliver-wyman-s-sid-sankaran-as-chief-risk-officer.html
- ^ http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,contentMDK:20040913~menuPK:1696997~pagePK:51123644~piPK:329829~theSitePK:29708,00.html
- ^ http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/rik9-fac.html
- ^ http://www.futureagenda.org/?page_id=134
- ^ http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9GL5UF80.htm
- ^ http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/protection/munich-re-appoints-new-ceo/1018499.article
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/8084.htm
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/8051.htm
- ^ http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-government/12265850-1.html
- ^ http://www.wwhps.org/press/2010/9/9/consulting-magazine-article-on-bill-wyman-and-wwhps.html
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/15263.htm
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/8075.htm
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/13796.htm
- ^ http://www.consultingmag.com/article/ART638134?C=dCOl2SOvhODFpia0
- ^ "Fresh start for two groups in new year". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/12/17/new_year_to_bring_fresh_starts_for_boston_baroque_handel_and_haydn_society/.
- ^ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-26/fpl-s-hay-relies-on-wind-as-rate-case-clouds-utility-outlook.html
- ^ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_49/b4158044764871.htm
- ^ http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090204005171/en/Kaplan-Higher-Education-Names-Conlon-President
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/13025.htm
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/8473.htm
- ^ a b Francesco Guerrera and James Politi (2010-04-07). "Citi took outside advice on securities". The Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c4162f4-4274-11df-8c60-00144feabdc0.html. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
- ^ a b Megan Murphy, Justin Baer and Brooke Masters (2010-04-08). "Spotlight falls on role of consultancies". The Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6826fdec-4344-11df-9046-00144feab49a.html. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
- ^ David Gow (2008-10-16). "Switzerland unveils bank bail-out plan". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/16/ubs-creditsuisse.
- ^ a b Comment | The Post
- ^ kathleen barrington: Our banks keep going back for more
- ^ http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/pdf_files/SPI_CS_0107.pdf
- ^ The cost of Anglo Irish Bank - The Irish Times - Thu, Aug 12, 2010
- ^ 100 ways to spend the Anglo €25,000,000,000 | The Post
- ^ Mc Williams David, Follow the Money, Page 134,Gill & Macmillan Ltd 2010, ISBN 978-07171-4807-3
- ^ The Future of the Global Financial System
- ^ 2010 State of the Financial Services Industry report.
- ^ 2010 State of the Communications, Media and Technology Industry report.
- ^ State of the Financial Services Industry 2011
- ^ Vault Consulting 50.
- ^ The Best Firms to Work, Consulting Magazine
16. 2010 State of the Communications, Media and Technology Industry report
External links
Categories:- International management consulting firms
- Management consulting firms of the United States
- Companies based in New York City
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