 |
Ronnie |
|
|
Managing Partner |
Former office: London, UK
Alumnus since 2002
Ronnie was a Senior Director and London Office Manager between 1989 and 1987.
The Booz & Company legacy at work? For Ronnie Wilkie, it may have been expressed best in his last days at the firm, in 2002, during an interview for a position as Chief Operations Officer at Ascot Racecourse outside London.
Facing a panel of six people firing questions, Wilkie turned the tables—requesting a flip chart and three colored pens and proceeding to engage them by asking questions about the racetrack financials and drawing charts, just like a client presentation. “What started as an ‘I’ became ‘we,’” Wilkie recalls. “In front of their eyes, we worked as a team to make on-the-spot strategic decisions. It was pure Booz.”
Wilkie got the job—and proceeded to direct and deliver Ascot’s five-year $330 million redevelopment project on-budget and on-time, just ahead of the Queen’s visit to the historic racecourse. Having just retired and now living in Herefordshire, Wilkie looks back at a varied career that comprises in addition to Ascot and 15 years as Booz & Company’s senior director and office manager in London, 26 years with a Royal Guards Regiment in the British Army: “Three great centers of excellence,” he calls them, “all uncompromising in their own disciplines and relentlessly customer focused.”
“Everything I needed”
“When I joined Ascot, the combination of the Booz business experience and the ceremonial experience from the Guards was perfect,” Wilkie says. “You can’t underestimate the power of having Booz & Company on the resume. I had everything I needed going into the new position—experience in redevelopment and infrastructure from the firm, and knowledge in pageantry, history and ceremony from the Guards.”
So why leave Booz & Company at all? For Wilkie, it was a rare opportunity to pursue a dream job. But in another sense, he never moved on at all. “You don’t really leave Booz,” says Wilkie, who still meets former colleagues, including several he mentors. “It’s the kind of firm where you continue to feel a part of things.”
So while the people change, the “Booz buzz,” as Wilkie calls it, endures. “The brainstorming and exchanging ideas—the process of the brains in the room getting aligned and developing solutions—will always be a part of the firm,” he says.
So will a place filled with dynamic people, the kind as former Senior Partner David Newkirk likes to say, with resumes crowded at the bottom with activities. “As always, you assume the brain at Booz, but you look for the character,” Wilkie says. “You want the former scout leaders or the people who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. You want those exceptional people who have achieved excellence in other areas.”
After all, think of the qualities needed for a young consultant to present in front of a board of an international conglomerate, Wilkie asks. “It takes immense character—and the ability to think quickly and clearly, and not be easily bowed,” he says. “That has always been the Booz difference.”
Wilkie is a Director of the Ascot Charitable Trust and Chairman of Born Free USA. In June, Queen Elizabeth named him a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognizing distinguished personal service to the Order's Sovereign. He is also currently a member of the Football Licensing Authority Board and Principal of ORCA, (Operational Readiness Consulting Associates), which specialises in sports stadium redevelopment and operational performance optimisation.