Bret Bero is a Assistant Professor of Practice in the Management Division of Babson College, where he has taught Strategy, Strategic Problem Solving, Management Consulting, Leading Business Turnarounds, and Disruptive Change and Business Transformation to Undergraduate and Graduate students. He also teaches in the executive education programs through the BECC.
Prior to joining the Babson Faculty in August 2016, Mr. Bero was a Managing Director at American Capital, Ltd., were he led middle market private equity portfolio companies in formulating investment strategies, driving operational improvements, enhancing financial performance, and achieving successful exits. He has served as Chairman of two portfolio companies, CEO of five portfolio companies, and on the Board of 12 companies. Mr. Bero has conducted business diligence on over 30 potential acquisitions, including several that resulted in a successful transaction. He developed American Capital's Acquisition Integration toolkit, and the executive transition process operating standard.
Mr. Bero has over 18 years of increasing leadership roles in world class consulting firms. He was President of the North America region for DBM, a leading provider of career transition services. As a Partner at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), he developed the Organization Strategy service offering, and was a member of the team that won Andersen Consulting's Kenneth Earnst Strategy Thought Leadership award for work on alliance management. Mr. Bero was a Vice President who led multi-discipline project teams in addressing business transformation, business strategy, and organization change issues for clients in the Diversified Industries/Diversified Services industry group at Gemini Consulting. While with Price Waterhouse, Mr. Bero led engagements addressing portfolio strategy, business turnarounds, organization effectiveness, and financial effectiveness issues. His clients have included firms such as Marriott, Highmark BlueCross/BlueShield of Western PA, Ferguson Enterprises, Bausch & Lomb, National Services Industries, Lanier, General Motors, Tupperware, Harry & David, KeyCorp, IBM, New York Life, and International Thomson.
Mr. Bero and a business school classmate acquired ECHO Industries, Inc., a small lot deep draw metal forming manufacturing company, in a leveraged buy-out in 1997. The business was sold in 2019.
Mr. Bero was a candidate for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts during the 2022 election cycle. He has served on the Town of Carlisle Finance Committee and the Revenue Enhancement Committee.
