Meet our Partners
Our people are our success and we endeavour to celebrate and support them throughout their careers.
When asked, what sets OC&C apart from other strategy consultancies, the most common answer is a group of intelligent, motivated and genuinely fun people which make up the supportive workforce. But, don’t take our work for it – hear what our team has to say.
Apply nowStart your OC&C career
Veronica, Partner
I graduated with a Bachelors degree in international finance from Fudan University, China. I then went on to complete a Masters degree in economics from Renesselaer Polytechnics Institute, US.
I joined OC&C HK office in 2012, having previous experience as a strategy consultant at Monitor Group, Shanghai, China. What interested me the most about OC&C was the industry specialisation – I believe we have a real advantage as experts in the industries we work in and can always deliver the biggest impact to our client. We also really enjoy working as a team within those fields.
Since joining OC&C I have never stopped learning and have had many different project experiences. Our main goal is to always deliver as a team the biggest impact for our client. However, my favourite was for a grocery retailer - our team were given six pilot stores where we were asked to develop and implement a strategy to improve their performance while our client controlled the cost.
It was a great experience to execute in person the strategy we had developed and see the real time impact! For that project, we helped delivered 12% LFL growth for the six pilot stores while the controlled stores only achieved 6%.
Outside of project work, I enjoy lots of sports – boxing, running, weight training etc. I even participated in a triathlon this year for the first time.
Zee, Partner
I graduated from the University of Cambridge, with an MA/Eng in Engineering.
I joined OC&C as an Associate Consultant shortly after graduating, having spent a year working in consulting at a leading professional services firm.
The combination of doing a couple of consulting internships prior to and during university, and doing a 4-year course, meant that I knew a lot of people already working in consulting when I came to apply – which was an invaluable source of intel on what life was actually like at the different top tier firms. In the end, OC&C ‘felt’ like the best suited consultancy for me. Given that I’ve been here for 14 years, it was probably a good decision!
During my OC&C career, I’ve also had a couple of lengthy spells out of the business. The first was after 3 years, when I spent 6 months in Dubai doing a strategy project for the Government. In the second (when I was a Manager at OC&C), I spent a year working on a healthcare technology start-up with a friend.
I have learnt more than I could have ever imagined whilst being at OC&C on a variety of projects. My favourite experience was working with a global client that had no single HQ – meaning that board meetings and workshops happened in London, Chicago, Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City over the course of a 3-month project.
Nicholas Farhi, Partner
I studied Physics at Oxford University. OC&C was my first ever job!
Before joining, I was going to do a Physics PhD, but the PhD trial over the summer of my third year put me off. I had no idea what to do instead! My neighbour at Oxford and I used to cook together, but one night we ran out of food, so he suggested we go and eat some corporate canapés for dinner…which just happened to be OC&C’s! I ate some more canapés over the next few weeks, but OC&C were the nicest people I met as well as the most interesting, so as soon as I got the offer I terminated my other processes.
My journey has been very linear. I have stayed at OC&C with no breaks for MBA / secondment / startup / soul-searching. After five years as Partner, I moved from London to New York to help drive growth in our US office.
My advice to anyone wanting to apply is not to assume that we’re only interested in work experience at a big bank – we know that’s not available to everyone. We’re just as interested in your work in a local bar to fund your studies.
At the interview, relax and enjoy it. You will know you’ve done well – and that you’re a good fit with OC&C – if the interview felt like an interesting conversation.
My favourite project experience is the Spanish sandwich factory where I discovered why all egg and bacon sandwiches appear to get the best slice of the egg. It’s safer to go freshly made!
As a Partner, the biggest impact is normally behind closed doors, one-on-one with the CEO, often after the project has finished. And it is often really simple: like getting them to realise that their focus needs to shift for the next few years of the business. I have learnt that it’s really hard as a CEO to make great decisions for your business. That’s why we’re here.
Outside of projects, I spend time as a chair a UK charity that backs 500 social entrepreneurs each year, an angel investor in ~10 startups, changing nappies/diapers badly and exploring the less-travelled corners of the US.
Ye - Partner
I joined the firm after studying Engineering, Economics and Management at Oxford University. Prior to OC&C, I initially explored a career in finance and completed internships in private equity and investment banking. The internships taught me that I enjoyed learning about how companies and industries worked, but that the long hours in investment banking were not for me. I decided to pursue a career strategy consulting as it seemed to be the ‘best of both worlds’ – and haven’t looked back.
Since joining OC&C in London 7 years ago, I have worked across the full range of industry sectors that OC&C offers – from retail and consumer goods to software and hosting – for clients in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. Along the way, I have also enjoyed many of the opportunities unique to OC&C such as secondments to clients and ambassadorships to international offices.
For my secondment, I worked for 5 months in the Transformation Office of Liberty Global, a leading European cable operator based in London and Amsterdam. I am currently on ambassadorship in the New York office after transferring from the London office last year.
The most interesting strategy consulting projects are typically completely unrelated to how glamorous the industry or client may appear on face value. The team often has the biggest influence on how fun a project will be. One of my favourite projects in the last few years was a strategy project for a UK estate agency chain, seeking to understand the how new online estate agent start-ups might impact their industry as a whole.
My only advice is to just go for it. There is a range of different backgrounds at OC&C and the interview process is designed to test how you think, not what you know - don’t be afraid to submit your application!