Kirk Waldrop joins Grant Thornton to enhance its private equity supply c

CHICAGO — Kirk Waldrop has joined Grant Thornton LLP as a managing director in the firm’s Operations Transformation practice within Advisory Services.

In this role, he will help deliver supply chain transformation services to the firm’s private equity clients. These offerings include strategy and transformation; integrated demand and supply planning; supply chain operations; strategic sourcing and procurement solutions; analytics and visibility solution; and transportation and network optimization.

“During this time of historic disruption and uncertainty, strong supply chain management strategy is essential,” said Jonathan Eaton, national Supply Chain practice leader at Grant Thornton. “Kirk boasts decades of supply chain experience in industries ranging from private equity and retail to manufacturing and public sector — making him a vital source of supply chain management knowledge.”

“Kirk’s wealth of knowledge within the private equity supply chain sector is unparalleled,” added Carlos Ferreira, national managing partner for Private Equity at Grant Thornton. “Not only will he help our commercial and public sector clients define their supply chain strategy and navigate the challenging current environment, but he’ll also help grow Grant Thornton’s private equity offerings.”

Waldrop has nearly 25 years of supply chain experience with a focus on consulting large multinational and middle market companies across multiple industry sectors — as well as public sector clients — on how to best transform their supply chains. He has extensive experience in areas as varied as:

• Supply chain strategy and transformation.
• Third-party distribution, manufacturing sourcing and transition.
• Manufacturing, distribution and last-mile improvement initiatives.
• Omnichannel and circular supply chain strategy and execution.
• Facility design, management and operations optimization.
• Order-to-cash and cost-to-serve improvement initiatives.
• Sourcing and implementation of enabling supply chain technology solutions.
• Rapid turnarounds and enterprise cost reduction.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Waldrop was a vice president and Supply Chain Operations practice leader at Chainalytics, where he focused on design and optimization of supply chain operations. Before that, he led the Space and Homeland Security supply chain and logistics lines of business at Booz Allen Hamilton — which included NASA, Air Force Space Command, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, United States Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Waldrop is a Six Sigma Green Belt and is certified in transportation & logistics (CTL) from the APICS. He is also certified in integrated logistics support. In 2016, he was named a Supply Chain Pro to Know by Supply & Demand Executive magazine. Waldrop received a master’s of business administration degree in supply chain management and a master’s of science degree in logistics and transportation from the University of Maryland. He received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

For additional information about Grant Thornton’s supply chain solutions, visit www.grantthornton.com/operations-transformation. For more information about the firm’s private equity offerings, visit www.grantthornton.com/privateequity.

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