Management consultancy Kearney has added Katherine Black as a partner in its consumer practice. She will be based in New York City.
Black brings more than 20 years of management consulting and retail industry experience to Kearney. She focuses on understanding consumer behavior and applying insights to drive growth through pricing, promotions, new products, geographic expansion, e-commerce, personalization and loyalty programs, and partnerships and alliances.
Her work has included supporting retail and CPG firms on redesigning their business models and establishing partnerships to monetize retailer data assets.
Black joins Kearney from KPMG, where she spent the last four years and served as a founding principal and partner in the consumer & retail strategy practice. Before that, she spent nine years at Dunnhumby, a global customer data science company. Black latterly served as an SVP, and worked with large clients such as Tesco, Macy’s, and Kroger on their pricing, promotion, and assortment analytics via customer loyalty card data.
Before Dunnhumby, Black was a VP at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, where she managed a team responsible for analytics, research and direct marketing for the bank’s consumer, small business, and commercial business lines. She was also previously a business manager in Capital One’s internal consulting group.
Black holds a BS in business administration from Wake Forest University.
“We are delighted to have Katherine join our practice during a time of tremendous challenges and opportunities for clients in the consumer sector,” said Greg Portell, lead partner in Kearney’s global consumer practice. “She has an outstanding track record of helping to formulate business transformation strategies with retailers, consumer companies, marketing firms, and private equity investors, improving their performance by gaining a deep understanding of their customers and their business needs, and then formulating and executing operational plans that deliver results.”
As retailers face increasingly complex challenges due to the pandemic, Kearney has been working to expand its consumer practice. The practice recently added Shannon Warner as a partner in the Chicago headquarters.
“Now, more than ever, retailers need actionable strategies to produce results quickly,” said Black. “I am thrilled to join Kearney, a partnership that develops innovative solutions, but is also known for creating measurable results for its clients.”
Kearney intends to continue expanding its consumer and retail advisory team in the coming months, according to a release from the firm.