Bret Bero

Bret Bero is a Lecturer in the Management Division of Babson College, where he teaches Strategy, Strategic Problem Solving, Management Consulting, Leading Business Turnarounds, and Disruptive Change and Business Transformation to Undergraduate and Graduate students. He also teaches in the Executive Education programs.

Prior to joining the Babson Faculty in August 2016, Mr. Bero was a Managing Director at American Capital, Ltd., were he led middle market private equity portfolio companies in formulating investment strategies, driving operational improvements, enhancing financial performance, and achieving successful exits. He has served as Chairman of two portfolio companies, CEO of five portfolio companies, and on the Board of 12 companies. Mr. Bero has conducted business diligence on over 30 potential acquisitions, including several that resulted in a successful transaction. He developed American Capital's Acquisition Integration toolkit, and the executive transition process operating standard.

Mr. Bero has over 18 years of increasing leadership roles in world class consulting firms. He was hired as President to lead a turnaround of the North America region for DBM, a leading provider of career transition services. As a Partner at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), he developed the Organization Strategy service offering, and was a member of the team that won Andersen Consulting's Kenneth Earnst Strategy Thought Leadership award for work on alliance management. Mr. Bero was a Vice President who led multi-discipline project teams in addressing Business Process Re-engineering, business strategy, and organization change issues for clients in the Diversified Industries/Diversified Services industry group at Gemini Consulting. While with Price Waterhouse, Mr. Bero led engagements addressing portfolio strategy, business turnarounds, organization effectiveness, cost management, and financial effectiveness issues. His clients have included firms such as Marriott, Highmark BlueCross/BlueShield of Western PA, Ferguson Enterprises, Bausch & Lomb, National Services Industries, Lanier, General Motors, Tupperware, Harry & David, KeyCorp, IBM, New York Life, and International Thomson.

Mr. Bero and a business school classmate acquired ECHO Industries, Inc., a small lot deep draw metal forming manufacturing company, in a leveraged buy-out. The business was sold in 2019 with a IRR of 180% and a 52X cash on cash return.

Academic Degrees

• MBA, The Tuck School at Dartmouth College
• BA, Middlebury College

Academic Interests

Private Equity; Turnarounds; Strategic Management; Organization Strategy/Human Performance; Management Consulting;