Builder · Operator · Strategist

I build businesses
from zero to scale.

25+ years taking businesses from nothing—or chaos—to tens and hundreds of millions in revenue. A career-long pattern of assembling teams, creating strategy, and delivering outsized financial results fast. Now focused on AI and the companies reshaping enterprise value creation.

Mike Cooke
$130M → $250M
P&L growth in 3 years
$0 → $30M
Practice rebuilt in 18 months
$0 → $70M
Greenfield build, 60%+ margins
25+
Published in FT, HBR, WSJ
The Builder

Zero-to-one is the pattern.

I've spent my career doing the hardest kind of leadership work: walking into situations with no team, no playbook, and no momentum—and building something that scales.

At Accenture, I inherited eight fragmented practices with misaligned leadership and no unified culture. I designed a strategy that prioritized three growth businesses, ruthlessly pruned underperformers, and invested in people. Within three years: revenue grew 92%, margins expanded 30%, the team grew from 175 to 300+ consultants, and attrition held at 7–9%—through COVID and a major corporate reorganization. I also served as the Strategy & Consulting leader for the Midwest's $2B Cloud First practice.

At Booz & Company, when 90% of the Digital practice defected overnight, I was handed the wreckage. I recruited a new multidisciplinary team—strategists, developers, designers, UX/UI experts, ethnographers, product managers—redesigned the offerings, expanded into Europe and the Middle East, and grew the business to $30M in annual revenue within 18 months.

Earlier, I created an entirely new industry practice from zero—no clients, no team, no brand. I built original thought leadership, developed C-Suite relationships from scratch, and grew it to $25M at 60%+ gross margins in the US, then extended it internationally to $70M. I led a team of ~90 across multiple geographies.

These are not incremental stories. They are zero-to-one stories. And that pattern—build from nothing, assemble the right people, create the strategy, execute relentlessly, deliver outsized financial results—is the throughline of my entire career.

My foundation is in engineering and systems thinking: a mechanical engineering degree from WVU, an MBA with distinction from Michigan Ross, and five years in automotive systems engineering at General Motors before I ever entered a consulting firm. That engineering mindset shapes everything—I don't just design strategies, I build operating models, manage P&Ls, develop talent pipelines, and create the culture that makes scaling possible.

Track Record

What I've built.

$130M → $250M
The Accenture Build
Unified 8 practices into one P&L. Grew revenue 92% in three years, expanded margins 30%, grew team from 175 to 300+, held attrition to 7–9% through COVID. Also led the $2B Cloud First practice.
$0 → $30M
The Digital Rescue at Booz
90% of the team left overnight. Rebuilt from zero: recruited multidisciplinary talent, redesigned offerings, expanded internationally. $30M in annual revenue within 18 months.
$0 → $70M
The Greenfield Build
Created a new industry practice from nothing—no clients, no team, no brand. Built to $25M in the US at 60%+ margins, extended to $70M internationally. Led ~90 consultants.
EVP, $1B Company
Forsythe Technology
Created a new digital services P&L, identified EBITDA improvements, and accelerated the company's transformation from products to services ahead of its acquisition.
4x EBITDA
PE Value Creation
Direct value creation for PE funds, hedge funds, and independent sponsors: quadrupled EBITDA margin at a PE-backed company, M&A integration (6x fees in week one), revenue growth strategy, and troubled program turnarounds.
Hundreds of $Ms
Corporate Transformations
Led transformation programs delivering hundreds of millions in savings, 20%+ effectiveness improvements, and redirected spend to priority areas of growth. Global delivery across five continents.
AI Thesis

Why AI. Why now.

I've spent my career at the frontier of technology's impact on business—IT effectiveness, then cloud, then digital. In each wave, I was early, published thought leadership that shaped the conversation, and built businesses around the opportunity before it was consensus. AI is the biggest wave yet.

Consulting will be disintermediated

The advisory business as currently structured—large teams, long engagements, human-intensive analysis—will be fundamentally disrupted. The firms that survive will reinvent their delivery models around AI, not bolt AI onto legacy approaches.

Consolidation is accelerating

AI will compress competitive cycles across industries. Companies that are slow to adopt will be acquired or displaced by those that move fast and experiment continuously. The PE and growth equity playbook is being rewritten.

Value accrues to operators, not advisors

The companies that capture the most value from AI are those that implement, iterate, and scale—not those that study, deliberate, and produce slide decks. The nature of traditional consulting firms prevents them from capturing this moment.

Every company needs a new kind of leader

Not AI researchers. Not traditional consultants. Operating executives who can translate AI capability into enterprise value—who understand both the technology and the business transformation it demands.

Career

The arc.

2025 — Present
Senior Partner & Founding Team
Fujitsu Wayfinders
One of the founding partners of Fujitsu's global consulting business. Building the Americas practice for CxO Advisory and Technology Transformation—helping senior executives navigate workforce, cost, and technology transitions driven by AI.
2019 — 2024
Managing Director
Accenture
Led Midwest Technology Strategy & Advisory with full P&L responsibility. Unified eight practices, grew from $130M to $250M in three years. Strategy & Consulting lead for $2B Cloud First practice. Built a culture that held attrition to 7–9% through COVID and a major reorganization.
2018 — Present
Founder & Managing Partner
The Merxana Group
Value-creation advisory for PE funds, hedge funds, independent sponsors, and diversified holding companies. Delivered direct financial impact: M&A integration, EBITDA improvement, revenue growth strategies, and troubled program restructuring.
2016 — 2017
EVP, Business Innovation Services
Forsythe Technology ($1B revenue)
Created a new digital services P&L targeting new market segments. Identified EBITDA improvements in preparation for sale. Accelerated the company's transformation from products to services. Acquired by Sirius Computer Solutions.
2000 — 2016
Vice President & Lead Partner
Booz & Company → PwC Strategy&
16 years building and leading global practices. Rebuilt the Digital practice from near-zero to $30M in 18 months. Built IT Strategy & Effectiveness to $70M+ globally at ~60% margins with ~90 professionals. Won the firm's most distinguished award for client impact.
1989 — 2000
Engineer & Consultant
EDS · A.T. Kearney
Automotive systems engineer at General Motors' Launch Center, then management consultant at A.T. Kearney focused on product development optimization. Built the engineering and analytical foundation that underpins everything since.
Thought Leadership

Selected writing & press.

25+ articles published. Quoted in The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. Cited by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Presented at the Chief Strategy Officer Summit.

Financial Times
Does the Company CIO Have a Future?
Predicted the bifurcation of the CIO role and the rise of strategic information ecosystems—anticipating today's AI-driven enterprise transformation.
Financial Times
Hey IT, What's the Big Idea?
Argued that IT should be a primary source of enterprise growth ideas—connecting business vision, technology, and process to create differentiated value.
Financial Times
Halloween Horror: The Looming 'Big Data' Apocalypse
Made the case for strategic information ecosystems as competitive advantage—a thesis validated by the data infrastructure boom that followed.
Strategy+Business
Helping the CIO Lead
In-depth dialogue with Frito-Lay's pioneering CIO on IT-enabled business transformation and the future of technology leadership.
Wall Street Journal
On the Hunt for Tech Hires
Quoted on winning technology talent in a competitive market.
Wall Street Journal
The Sun Shines on the Cloud
Quoted on the strategic implications of cloud computing years before it became the default enterprise model.
The Guardian
Consumerisation of IT
Panel expert on the enterprise impact of consumer technology adoption.
Credentials
Education

MBA, with Distinction

Ross School of Business, University of Michigan — Corporate Strategy

B.S., Mechanical Engineering

West Virginia University

Leading with Analytics & AI

Kellogg Executive Education, Northwestern University

Recognition

Professional Excellence Award

Booz & Company's most distinguished award—for the project with the greatest client impact

25+ Published Articles

Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Strategy+Business, CIO, CSO, and others

Global Delivery

Built teams and delivered results across the US, Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East

Let's talk.

A senior operator and leader at the intersection of AI, enterprise value creation, and high-growth business building.