Kevin Acker

KEVIN ACKER

Practice Manager, Product Development & Innovation

Corporate Executive Board

Accomplished in corporate development, strategy, planning and product development, Kevin Acker has served as Practice Manager responsible for product development and innovation for the Corporate Executive Board since January 2004. A Washington, D.C., provider of best-practices research and data services, the Corporate Executive Board provides strategy consulting for senior executives at more than 1,000 companies, including most of the Fortune 500, and Kevin Acker has created many of the company’s most significant new products and services over the last four years.

Recent Accomplishments

Among the new products and services Kevin Acker created while at the Corporate Executive Board are an IT budget and spending benchmarking initiative; IT Platinum Portal and IT Gold Portal websites for top-tier customers; the Vendor Knowledge Exchange, an online networking and vendor ratings site; and the IT-Business Alignment Diagnostic. Kevin Acker has also led sophisticated qualitative research efforts measuring the impact of IT competency on corporate performance and on the most effective ways to increase secure behavior in the IT environment.

As an independent consultant from 2001 to 2003, Kevin Acker conducted strategy, finance and organizational services to leading companies around the world. His major projects included a strategy review and the restructuring of the Australian operations of the world’s largest provider of electronic security and cash-in transit services. He also analyzed customer profitability and redesigned the sales and marketing infrastructure for that company. Kevin Acker also formulated and implemented financial organizational and process framework for a Los Angeles-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) marketing to the Latino community, redesigning the organizational structure for the finance and accounting staff and leading the selection process of an ERP financial accounting package.

Kevin Acker has also served as Chief Financial Officer for USLAW.COM, a position he assumed after serving as Vice President of corporate development and acting CFO. In his CFO role, Kevin Acker oversaw the company’s business plan, financial model, and budgeting and planning process. Kevin Acker navigated USLAW.COM through successful restructuring and modified the company ownership structure to facilitate a venture-capitalist takeover.

International Acumen

Kevin Acker held a director-level position at Startec Global Communications, where he led the company’s business expansion efforts in East Asia. While there, Kevin Acker negotiated the acquisition of a Hong Kong telecommunications provider, as well as several other telecom companies. Kevin Acker reported directly to the CEO and was responsible for strategic, financial, and mergers and acquisitions projects. Notably, Kevin Acker took a lead role in negotiating the company’s $160-million high-yield bond offering.

Proficient in Russian and in Spanish, Kevin Acker has traveled extensively, having worked in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, Norway and Pakistan.

Earlier Accomplishments

Kevin Acker served as manager of strategic and financial planning at ATX Communications, a provider of voice and data services, where he led the strategic planning process and pursued several joint ventures and other corporate development projects. At William Kent International, Kevin Acker served as a consultant, performing client casework and leading marketing projects for Fortune 500 companies with international operations. Among his accomplishments was the restructuring of a $250-million business division of a industrial products client and a market-assessment study for a $2-billion consumer products manufacturer. Before that, Kevin Acker was a consultant and senior associate at the Advisory Board Company, where he prepared best-practices management and marketing studies for an international financial-services client base.

Publications

Kevin Acker has written several articles for the National Journal and Inside U.S. Trade, as well as “Off With Their Overhead: How to Get More Prison Bars for the Buck” and “Poisoning of the Soul: New Leaders of Russia and Central Europe Talk About the Evil Empire,” both for Policy Review.

Education

Kevin Acker earned an MBA with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, where he graduated in the top ten percent of his class and was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, The Dartmouth.