Hernan Saenz

Hernan Saenz has been at Bain & Company for over 25 years and has lived and worked in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North and Latin America. He is currently a Senior Partner and serves as the Global Head of our Performance Improvement practice. Hernan also serves on the Board of Directors of Bain and as one of the leaders on the firm's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. 

Within performance improvement, Hernan specializes in accelerated performance transformation, operations reinventions, sustainable supply chains, and circular transformations. As part of this effort, Hernan serves as a delegate and advisor to the World Economic Forum and is currently leading a global initiative on building digital, traceable, and circular supply chains for sustainable and resilient production.

Hernan also serves on the faculty of Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business, where his courses focus on the evolution of strategy and operations in an era driven by turbulence, digital step changes, and stakeholder capitalism.

From 2008 to 2016, Hernan served the firm as the Managing Partner of our Dallas, Houston, and Mexico offices, with full P&L responsibility for the region. During his tenure, the Bain Southwest region more than doubled in size. This expansion included the founding of our Houston office and Private Equity practice in Texas, as well as the scaling of the firm’s business across all major industry and capability practice areas.

Hernan’s client work is focused on corporate transformations, full potential programs, operational turnarounds, and large scale change efforts. Over his career, he has completed ~200 assignments across a number of sectors, including consumer products and retail, industrial products and services, healthcare, distribution, and higher education.

Hernan’s articles have been published in a number of journals, including Harvard Business Review, Business Strategy Review, World Business, Wall Street Journal – Mint, and EIU. His most recent publications focus on sustainability, resilience, digital supply chains, and higher education.

Hernan earned an MBA and an MILR from Cornell University, as well as a MS in economics from Stanford University. He is also a graduate of Harvard College, where he received a BA in economics magna cum laude.

He is a Trustee at Cornell University, as well as a member of the Leadership Council at Cornell’s College of Business. Locally in Dallas, Hernan serves on the Boards of the Dallas Theatre Center, the SMU Cox School of Business, and the SMU Tate Lecture Series.