Activant Capital

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Office

Greenwich

Hometown

Johannesburg, South Africa

Residence

Brookfield, CT

Richard
Benson-Armer

Director of Research and Senior Advisor

Get in touch

“The opportunity to leverage technology to reinvent businesses so that everyone wins is an imperative and challenge that is too good to miss. There is also huge value to be unlocked!”

Office

Greenwich

Hometown

Johannesburg,

South Africa

Residence

Brookfield,

CT

Richard is an engineer-turned-corporate strategist with 25+ years of experience helping large, established companies and smaller startups scale in the consumer goods and information services industries globally. A 5-year stint as managing partner of McKinsey's Stamford office piqued Richard's interest in growing a professional service organization - his role at Activant supporting partner companies to grow as well as developing the firm is a dream job.

Education

MBA

University of Cape Town

BCommerce

University of South Africa

BSc Chemical Engineering

University of the Witwatersrand

Role

How Richard supports portfolio companies

Identifying growth opportunities and refining strategies to take advantage of these

Scaling businesses across sectors

Supporting growth by identifying the organizational and talent needs to support rapid scaling

Connecting founders and others on senior teams with peers addressing similar challenges

Research

Relevant Experiences

  • McKinsey & Company

    Senior Partner

    22 years

    Global experience supporting growth and cost leadership at some of the world’s leading corporations and fastest growing start-ups; global leadership of McKinsey’s efforts to develop client capabilities and manage performance.

    Responsibilities

    Richard was the location managing partner in McKinsey’s Stamford office for 5 years and held global leadership roles in the Consumer Goods and Capability Building practices. He served global and local clients in the consumer goods, retail banking, and B2B information services industries on issues of strategy, performance management, and capability building.

    About McKinsey & Company

    Throughout his 20+ year career at McKinsey, he worked in the Toronto, Sydney, Brussels, Seoul, and Stamford offices.

  • The Thompson Corporation

    SVP & Chief Strategy Officer

    4 years

    Real-world experience identifying opportunities and allocating resources to maximize growth as an exec committee member of a Fortune 250 company.

    Responsibilities

    Responsible for identifying and pursuing growth opportunities in Thomson’s core and adjacent markets, as well as leading the corporation’s strategic planning process and allocation of resources to support growth.

    About The Thompson Corporation

    The Thomson Corporation’s acquisition of Reuters in 2008 created the world’s largest information service business - Thomson Reuters - with 38,000 employees and over $12 billion in revenue. The company focused on the global financial services, legal, scientific, healthcare, and tax & accounting sectors.

  • The South African Breweries

    Corporate Planning Manager

    2,5 years

    Implemented the corporation’s performance management system and worked on strategies to deliver global cost leadership.

    Responsibilities

    In addition to assuring the quality of production at a brewery producing 700 million litres of beer a year, Richard led the company’s strategic planning processes and creation of functional strategies to deliver cost leadership and efficiency.

    About The South African Breweries

    Now part of AB Inbev, SAB grew from being South Africa’s leading brewer and one of the nation’s most admired companies to one of the top 3 brewers in the world.

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