Alex helps clients accelerate and achieve profitable growth through end-to-end commercial transformations. He works with clients across sectors, focusing on distributors and manufacturers that sell through distribution channels. Alex leads our work in global distribution and directs our research and thought leadership on distribution trends, strategy, and profitable growth.
Alex has notable expertise in helping organizations with large distributed sales forces unlock their potential and grow profitably above market. He helps companies deliver profitable growth by leveraging the latest in advanced analytics and digital to empower organizations with insights that drive sustained margin expansion from pricing and sales growth.
Examples of his recent client work include the following:
- leading a multi-year pricing transformation at an industrial distributor delivering an increase of 250 basis points in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and ten quarters of consecutive margin expansion
- supporting the integration of two leading distributors during a merger, which yielded a 450 percent uplift in stock prices and threefold uplift in margins
- advising multiple distributors on acquisitions, divestiture, and strategy
- leading the commercial transformation involving 20 businesses at a global manufacturer to deliver $250 million in bottom-line impact
- redesigning customer acquisition and sales-growth approaches for a global manufacturer by leveraging advanced analytics to improve churn reduction, cross-selling, and lead generation
Published work
“Category management’s next horizon: How distributors can outperform,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022
“How distributors can self-disrupt to win in the new digital world,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022
“Five ways to ADAPT pricing to inflation,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022
“Defying cost volatility: A strategic pricing response,” McKinsey & Company, August 2021
“COVID-19 crisis: How distributors can emerge stronger than before,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020
“Pricing through the pandemic: Getting ready for recovery,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020
“Pricing in a pandemic: Navigating the COVID-19 crisis,” McKinsey & Company, May, 2020
“Pricing: Distributors’ most powerful value-creation lever,” McKinsey & Company, September 2019
“The commercial response to cost volatility: How to protect margins against inflation and tariffs,” McKinsey & Company, June 2019
“The coming shakeout in industrial distribution,” McKinsey & Company, May 2019
“The next act for private equity in US residential building products,” McKinsey & Company, June 2018
Education
Georgia Institute of Technology
PhD, civil and environmental engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
MS, earth and atmospheric science