Hugo Parkinson

I'm Hugo. Before joining Bain, I served in the Royal Navy and studied computer systems engineering at the University of Bristol.

"I spent nine years in the Royal Navy, as a submariner and patrol boat commanding officer, and that drew a really nice line under my naval career."

At that point, I wanted to look around and maintain that sense of challenge in my career—working in small teams on tough problems. Consulting, and Bain in particular, offered that in abundance. I joined Bain as an associate consultant and am now a partner, so my role has changed considerably in the nine years I've been with the firm.

Though I've been based in the London office the whole time, I've done a huge amount of travel. For example, I spent a year commuting to Johannesburg each week for an oil and gas super-major. I spent a lot of time bouncing around Europe for a client that has offices both in America and in Europe. And I've done a fair amount of travel to the US, for trainings but also for client work. I've been particularly interested in industrial companies and also very interested in retailers. I've been able to pursue both of those paths throughout my career at Bain, and I would now consider myself relatively deep in both sectors.

Bain is an incredibly supportive environment. It's very similar to the Royal Navy, in that there are small teams with dedicated mentors looking after you, and rapid feedback so that you can understand what you're doing well but also where you should focus on your development. And, we're constantly under a high learning curve, often with quite significant things to learn. People give you feedback in a very natural and clear way, so that you can grow together.

Within the office, I'm deeply involved in Veterans at Bain, making sure that we have a good pipeline of former veterans that we're interviewing. Within Bain, I act as a sort of informal mentor for veterans. There's often quite a transition from the military into consulting, so it's nice to have a friendly face, a little bit more senior, who can guide you, and we often do it over a beer outside the office.