Carl W. Stern Jr.
Chairman of the Board
The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.
Carl Stern is chairman of The Boston Consulting Group Inc. (BCG). Widely recognized
as the pioneer in the field of corporate strategy, BCG is a global management consulting
firm that advises clients on issues of direction and performance. The firm has 67 offices
in 40 countries.
Mr. Stern joined BCG in 1974. He began as a consultant in the San Francisco office,
transferred to London in 1978, and led the firm’s Chicago office from 1981 to 1991.
He headed BCG’s Americas region from 1991 to 1997. In 1997 Mr. Stern was elected
president and CEO, a position that he held from 1998 through 2003. He has since
served as chairman of the board.
Mr. Stern remains active in client service, assisting a number of global companies—consumer,
industrial, and financial—in developing competitive strategies for their businesses and
in shaping their corporate portfolios. He spends a quarter of each year in Asia. Mr. Stern
has published several articles in BCG’s widely read Perspectives series and is co-author
of BCG on Strategy.
Mr. Stern serves on the boards of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and the Friends
of the World Food Program. He is a trustee or member of several organizations; among
them are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rush University Medical Center, the civic
committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Chicago Club.
Prior to joining BCG, Mr. Stern served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant. He graduated
from Harvard, cum laude, with a BA in economics. He earned an MBA from the Stanford
Graduate School of Business in 1974.