Industry: Banking

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Kevin Acker is an experienced international consultant in the fields of corporate development, strategy, planning and product development. His specialty lies in high-level strategic thinking, in negotiating complex transactions, and in scoping and developing high-impact new products and services.

For the past four years, Kevin Acker has used these skills while serving as Senior Director, Product Development and Innovation for the CORPORATE EXECUTIVE BOARD, a Washington, D.C., firm that provides best-practices research, decision support services and executive education to corporate executives.

Kevin Acker’s responsibilities at Corporate Executive Board include leading product development and quantitative research for the firm’s information technology practice. While there, he has created a number of key products and services, including: an innovative benchmarking service focused on IT budget and spending; the IT Practice Platinum and Gold Portals, offering value-added services to top-tier clients; an online service to facilitate vendor-related networking conversations among clients; and a survey-based diagnostic that measures alignment between IT strategy and business needs.

Kevin Acker also spearheaded several quantitative research projects at Corporate Executive Board. Chief among them was a study that tackled the contentious question of whether excellence in the IT function impacts overall corporate performance and a study that utilized an innovative behavioral model to determine how best to increase secure behavior among end-users.

Kevin Acker worked as an Independent Consultant from ’01 to ’03. During that time, he conducted strategy, finance and organizational consulting projects. One project involved a comprehensive strategy review and restructuring of the Australian operations of an electronic security and cash-in-transit service firm. Kevin Acker analyzed profitability by customer size and industry, and then redesigned sales and marketing to address the most attractive market segments.

From ’00 to ’01, Kevin Acker served as Corporate Development V.P./Acting CFO and then CFO with USLAW.COM, the Internet’s leading marketing partner for small law firms and legal reference Web site for consumers. As CFO, Kevin Acker created and led the company’s strategic planning and budgeting processes. He also guided the company through a restructuring, which included reducing the headcount, renegotiating vendor contracts and changing the company’s cost structure to a break-even model, enabling a venture capitalist-led takeover of the company. In addition, as CFO, Kevin Acker prepared a private placement memorandum for a $15MM equity offering and a memorandum for the sale of the company.

From 1998 to ’00, Kevin Acker worked as a Strategic Planner and Senior Manager of Corporate Development for STARTEC GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS, a telephone, Internet and communications service provider headquartered in the Washington, DC area. In addition to leading the company’s mergers and acquisition efforts, Kevin Acker played a major role in the company’s $160MM high-yield bond offering. Kevin Acker led Startec’s expansion in East Asia, developing strategies for Startec to offer Internet transport, VOIP and collocation services in region, where he negotiated the acquisition of a Hong Kong telcommunications provider.

Prior to joining Startec, Kevin Acker served from ’97 to ’98 with ATX TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Philadelphia, Pa., as Manager of Strategic and Financial Planning, leading several corporate development efforts, including a joint venture with a cable television company designed to provide Competitive Local Exchange Carrier services over the company’s cable network.

Kevin Acker gained valuable experience from ’95 to ’97 with WILLIAM KENT INTERNATIONAL, a Washington, D.C.-based management consulting firm that specializes in strategy development and investment for Fortune 1000 companies. As a Consultant, he conducted a business restructuring for a $250 million division of an abrasives manufacturer and directed a market-assessment study for a $2 billion manufacturer of contact lenses, lens care and ophthalmic pharmaceutical products in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

Kevin Acker has written several articles for the National Journal and Inside U.S. Trade, as well as “Off With Their Overhead: How to Get More Prison Bars for the Buck” for Policy Review in ’90 and “Poisoning of the Soul: New Leaders of Russia and Central Europe Talk About the Evil Empire” for the Policy Review in ’91.

Kevin Acker earned an MBA with honors from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College, graduating magna cum laude, where he was editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth.

In his free time, Kevin Acker enjoys modern art and design, hiking, mountain biking, classical music and high-end audio equipment. He has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and traveled in 37 countries.

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