For decades, Tom Stewart has been studying disruption: the proverbial train about to come through the building. “It’s the new business driver,” says the former editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review, “these things that come out of left field.” His work as co-author of the AlixPartners Disruption Index has allowed him to track the heroes of the disruptive age—the executives who have gotten comfortable with uncertainty. That strain of agility has served Tom himself through three careers: magazine editor (and Fortune columnist), book publisher, and thought leader. His first official day as a full-time Director within Marketing at AlixPartners was two days after his 76th birthday. Want to think like Tom? His book recs for executives are Shakespeare's history plays (for leadership), Machiavelli’s The Prince (for strategy), and the epistles of St. Paul (for mission, vision, values, and how an entrepreneur can scale a multinational organization).
When Diane Shaw isn’t deep in aerospace and defense projects, you’ll find her out on the sea—competing in gig-rowing races that demand precision, teamwork, and resilience. Her career journey has been just as adventurous: from cleaning up military sites for the UK Ministry of Defence to managing £2.3 billion infrastructure programs, advising armed forces in the Middle East, and now driving large-scale transformations as a Partner & Managing Director in our Aerospace & Defense practice.
“I believe that whatever comes your way, just say yes and then figure out how to do it.” Hima Juttu, a VP in AlixPartners' Automotive & Industrial group, was always curious about how things worked. As a teenager, she invented things made of mechanical parts, experimented with a “water car” that used Brown’s gas as a potential fuel source, and built a buggy for a baja race. After graduating from university, she became a mechanical engineer, first at Mahindra and Mahindra and then at GM. She wanted to learn more about the business decisions that drove the strategy of her engineering team and decided to go to business school. She met AlixPartners at the Forté Foundation's MBA Leadership Conference the summer before starting her MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. “That initial conversation stood out to me—if felt authentic,” she said. “I could immediately see how my engineering and problem-solving background could translate here.” She joined AlixPartners as a summer intern in 2022 and then full-time in 2023, where she gets to use the entirety of her engineering skill set. But it’s her daily interactions with her clients and colleagues that is driving her growth. “I’m constantly surrounded by talented, smart people that challenge me. Every day I learn something new just by being in the same room and working through problems with my teammates. That’s the level I want to be at with my career, the speed I want to grow at, and I am getting that here.”
At home, Alexa Angotti Dineen is a fixer, problem solver, and official ‘Manager of Chaos,’ though her sons just call her Mom. At work, Alexa’s all those things and more. A Partner at AlixPartners, she serves as a “catch all” for all things Risk Advisory. She is a strategist who drives growth for our people, practices, and the firm, while overseeing day-to-day operations and serving as support to various colleagues. Having a family has always been important to Alexa, but when she and her husband were ready to start their family, they ran into some issues. With the help of AlixPartners’ family planning benefits package, Alexa welcomed her first son, Paddy in 2019. From there, Alexa’s motherhood and advocacy journey began.
Filip Nemeth’s consulting career journey really began as a 17-year-old exchange student studying in Lubbock, Texas. It was the first time he spent significant time outside of his native Slovakia, and he was energized engaging with different kinds of people and cultures. And he wanted more experiences like it. He next moved to London for university and business school and sought out a consulting career specifically for the travel opportunities. Now a Partner on AlixPartners’ Retail team, Filip has built a global practice (he has worked on projects or pitches in the Netherlands, the UK, Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan in the last 12 months alone), which he credits to the openness of our culture and our people. “It’s driven by how we are set up and how we talk about ourselves, but it’s also about the people,” Filip explained. “Everybody is willing to help. I can’t think of a time when I reached out to someone in a different region or practice and they were too busy to meet with me.”
“Who goes to school on a Navy ROTC scholarship while majoring in drama?” Erik Lautier, a Partner in AlixPartners’ Retail and Growth practices, it turns out. Fresh out of college, he pursued singing for a time, working on a soap opera and performing on Broadway, but found his way into coding early e-commerce sites. From there, he obtained an MBA and became a true retail expert, working for Lacoste, Bebe, and Francesca’s, and helping Bono and Ali Hewson launch their clothing line (later sold to LVMH). The music thread, though, was always there, and it wasn’t until the 2010s that Erik turned his prowess as a coder to composition, creating and recording an original score and libretto for Hamlet with Broadway stars. “I've always followed what I was passionate about and trusted that if you leap, the net will appear,” he says, “I see parallels between writing music and my e-commerce work, and I look at the latter the way I hear the former: attuned to what will move the audience and fixated on what needs to happen beneath the surface for it to achieve that end.”
Justin Stacy’s leadership skills were formed at an early age and have influenced every step of his career path. As a Vice President in Operations and Manufacturing at AlixPartners, he helps companies simplify processes and structures, manage supply chain disruptions, and even improve work culture. Helping others makes Justin’s job worthwhile, and he’s eager to continue growing within the firm for years to come.
Sarah Warren has a knack for working her way into spaces where she believes she can make a difference. She loves learning about what makes people tick and helping them reach their personal and professional goals. In her role as a People Business Partner Director for AlixPartners’ Private Equity and Performance & Technology teams in the Americas, Sarah gets to do just that. “I think I’ve been able to be successful at it because I’m pretty good at forming relationships with people by being honest, but also kind. Here, the people are our business,” Sarah said. Over the past 11 years, Sarah’s impact at the firm has stretched far beyond her primary role. As Global Lead of the firm’s NextGen Employee Resource Group for three years, she helped facilitate mentorship and relationship-building between AlixPartners employees across generations, departments, and roles. That experience led to a long-term secondment to the Diversity, Inclusion, and Responsible Business (DIRB) team, where she collaborates on projects that shape the firm’s culture and processes. You’d think she had enough on her plate, but Sarah wanted more. So, she's partnered with NextGen and the AlixAlumni program to create her newest side-of-desk project: the Leave a Legacy initiative. It gives retiring Partners and Managing Directors a chance to share their experiences and wisdom—while receiving their proverbial flowers. Sarah’s dedicated to celebrating others’ legacies—and she’s surely creating one of her own.
What came before they added the “e” into “eDiscovery”? A lot of boxes of paper, according to 20-year firm veteran, Partner and Managing Director Tarek Ghalayini. He walked us through his early days at firm, his decision three years in to get a law degree from George Washington University, and the inception of the eDiscovery practice and AI-enabled Lumen Chat platform that followed.
AlixPartners is pleased to announce that David Garfield and Rob Hornby have been appointed as our new Co-Chief Executive Officers, effective February 1, 2025. As longtime leaders at the firm, David and Rob bring distinctly complementary skills underpinned by a shared commitment to innovation and client success. They succeed Simon Freakley, who becomes Executive Chairman after nine years in the CEO role. At a pivotal moment for the consulting industry David and Rob are set to take AlixPartners forward, building on the strong foundations laid by Simon and each of our prior Chief Executive Officers.
