Boston – Oct. 19, 2020 – Pearl Chen, an expert in new business and corporate development, with more than two decades of experience, has joined Bain & Company as executive vice president of global partnerships, effective immediately. She will be based in the firm’s San Francisco office.

In this role, Ms. Chen will oversee the growth and development of the Bain Alliance Ecosystem (BAE), a network of partnerships with complementary tool, technology, and service providers – to accelerate delivery of breakthrough client results. Now in its fourth year, the Ecosystem has supported more than 500 Bain clients globally through its more than 40 alliance partners and 60 additional pilot partners.  

The announcement of Ms. Chen comes as the global management firm continues to enhance its capabilities and innovative offerings to clients through more specialized services that complement its deep industry expertise.

“Pearl is a proven leader with significant experience in helping some of the world’s most successful global technology and industrial companies grow their business and outpace competition through key strategic alliances and partnerships,” said London-based Partner, Paul Meehan. “Her experience building alliance ecosystems will serve as a great accelerator for our team in helping us grow the value and impact of our own Alliance Ecosystem.”

Ms. Chen joins Bain & Company from Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she served as head of global business development. There, she led the worldwide expansion of AWS’ fastest growing database service through strategic global partners. Prior to that, Ms. Chen was a founding leader of GE Digital and served as vice president of global ecosystem and channels, where she built the partner ecosystem from the ground up and was the first to open GE Digital’s presence in key international markets. Earlier in her career, she led new business and corporate development at SAP, managed alliances at Siebel, and held finance and product marketing roles at HP.   

“I’m excited to build on the already extensive network of alliance partners to help Bain clients build scale and achieve results by using the expertise and insights these partnerships provide,” said Ms. Chen.

She succeeds Bain & Company Partner, Tom Springer, who first formed the Bain Alliance Ecosystem. “Over the past four years, Tom led the start-up of our alliance program, processes and team, laying the foundations that Pearl will now build upon," said Mr. Meehan. Mr. Springer will now serve as senior advisor to the firm.   

Ms. Chen earned a B.S. in business administration from the Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She also served on national academic and civic advisory committees. 

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Editor's Note: To arrange an interview, contact Dan Pinkney at dan.pinkney@bain.com or +1 646 562 8102