Directors – CACE Partners

Our directors are hands on in delivering tangible results to our clients

CACE Partners directors lead and manage all our engagement teams, and thus are hands on in achieving tangible results for our clients.

Contact Brad

Brad Bowton

Director, CACE Partners

MBA (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania),
BSc (Economics)

Brad is one of the founding Directors of CACE Partners. Prior to CACE Partners, Brad founded another consulting firm, worked as a management consultant with Bain International (2 years) and McKinsey & Company (4 years) and worked as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley International and Salomon Brothers. In his 30-year career as a management consultant, Brad has assisted Australian, NZ, US and Asian CEOs, Boards and Senior Managers across a broad range of industries, although he has largely focused on Financial Services and Property/Construction over the last 30 years. In addition, Brad was a member of the Board of Directors of QIC and Watpac

Some examples of Brad’s experience include –

Led several engagements in the retail bank, business bank and wealth management business of one of Australia’s big four banks, largely focused on achieving a sustainable reduction in each business’s cost structure. Specific engagements included a redesign of the retail bank’s distribution strategy, a redesign of its mortgage and commercial lending processes, the development of a plan to achieve a reduction in the retail bank’s costs by 30% over 3 years, the development of a plan to achieve a reduction in the business bank’s costs by 30% over 3 years and the installation of a management toolkit to achieve a sustainable improvement in the productivity of the wealth management’s division legacy operations area.
Led several engagements in one of Australia’s regional banks, largely focused on achieving a sustainable reduction in the organisation’s cost structure. Specific engagements included a redesign of its mortgage and commercial lending processes, the development of a plan to achieve a reduction in the bank’s costs by 25% over 3 years and the installation of a management toolkit to achieve a sustainable improvement in the productivity of the bank’s operations area.
Assisted the retail bank of one of Australia’s big four banks in a redesign of the its distribution strategy and the development of a plan to achieve a sustainable reduction in its costs by 30% over 3 years.
Assisted the senior management team of the institutional bank of one of Australia’s big four banks in addressing various strategic issues over a 6-month period.
Assisted one of the major US banks in designing a plan to achieve a 30% reduction in the costs of its overhead areas.
With a senior client manager, designed (as part of a strategy consulting firm) and implemented (as CACE Partners) a major cost reduction program in the Australian and NZ businesses of a major life insurance/wealth management company. The cost reduction program covered all areas of the business including back office operations, call centres, overhead functions, distribution, marketing and product and delivered over $100 million in annual recurring management expense savings (over 20% of operational management expense structure). In addition, the team recommended the sale of 2 non-core assets. Both assets were sold by the company. CACE Partners was involved nearly full-time for over 3 years.
Co-led with a senior client manager a 2-year program in the Australian and NZ businesses of a major life insurance/wealth management company that achieved a $50 million reduction in management expenses, lifted their customer satisfaction ratings and embedded six sigma methodologies across the organisation. CACE Partners was involved for 20 months in the design and implementation of the Program’s key initiatives
Assisted a leading Australian financial services company in developing a program to reduce operating expenses by a double-digit figure over 2 years. Assisted over a one-year period in designing and implementing cost reduction initiatives in the client’s distribution, investment management and platform operations.
Developed and implemented with the CEO and Senior Management of the NZ business of an A/NZ financial services company a program to improve operational performance and reduce costs by 35% over 3 years. Re-designed the entire operating model of the business across its asset management, life insurance and super/investment businesses. Assisted over a 10-month period full-time. Achieved 35% cost reduction objective ahead of schedule.
Developed and implemented with the CEO and Senior Management of a Top 50 ASX-listed property investment and development company, a program to streamline its operations and achieve a 20% sustainable reduction in overhead costs. In addition, assisted the client in developing scalable, robust and disciplined operations in several of its back-office activities, particularly payroll and finance. CACE Partners was involved nearly full-time for 3 years.

Contact Gordon

Gordon Scholes

Director, CACE Partners

MBA (MGSM) BEc. (University of Sydney)

Gordon has extensive commercial, executive and consulting experience developed over many years at Visy Industries, Bain & Company, Pacific Equity Partners and CACE Partners, working mostly in Australia and New Zealand. In his near 20-year management consulting career, Gordon has assisted management teams resolve strategic and operational performance improvement issues, working with clients across a range of industries, including Food, Agribusiness, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Retail and Construction.

Some examples of Gordon’s experience include –

Assisted senior management of a NZ packaging company with a manufacturing transformation and overhead cost reduction project. Cost reduction included negotiating prices for key inputs, staff reduction, process re-engineering and identification of significant head office savings opportunities. Project implementation at one operation delivered a productivity improvement of ~25%.
Led a combined CACE Partners / client team to develop a 3 – 5-year manufacturing strategy for an Australian FMCG company, working collaboratively with management to identify operational issues and develop solutions to transform manufacturing with a competitive cost base.
Led an overhead cost reduction programme for an Australian FMCG company, working collaboratively with client management to identify savings of 20% from non-manufacturing overheads, build an implementation plan & load savings into cost centre budgets
Led an operational performance review of an Australian / NZ manufacturing company for its private equity owner. Worked with management to identify savings of ~15% in operations and along the supply chain, with a rationalisation of suppliers and components sourced, and a reduction in production lead times
Led a joint client / consultant team in the strategic review of an emerging adjacency opportunity for a major Australian wealth management company. The review identified a significant opportunity, which the client elected to pursue. The project then established a rapid deployment / pilot approach to develop and test the offering. Once launched, the new offering will form a central part of the client’s growth strategy
Led a strategic review of personal wealth management products for an Australian financial services company, working customer-back to understand gaps in the current offering. Developed a recommendation to satisfy three core target customer segments, encompassing product, customer process / experience and pricing
Led a review of a proposed transformation program for an Australian dairy company. Worked collaboratively with management to build an investment case for a suite of proposed investments, identifying key sensitivities and building go / no go recommendations for all
Led a joint client / CACE Partners team in the post-merger integration of an Australian / NZ financial planning and funds management company. The team identified and delivered expense synergies that exceeded the assumptions used at valuation, and involved a 20% reduction in overhead

Contact Arran

Arran Martin

Director, CACE Partners

B.Com (Strategy);
BA (Econ) University of Auckland

In his nearly two-decade long consulting career, Arran has advised and consulted to Senior Leadership of companies in Australia, NZ, US and UK. His experience spans both Strategic and Operational Issues across a broad range of industries including Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing and Property.

Industry Experience

Financial services, Private equity, Retail, Fast moving consumer goods, Manufacturing

Practice Experience

Led the development and implementation of a management toolkit for the back office of a leading Australian financial services administrator/platform provider. Implementation resulted in a doubling of service level adherence, halving of rework and error rates and created 20% additional headroom capacity for the organisation.
Led the strategic review of the cost base of an Australian regional bank that yielded $35M in cost savings. Review scope included entire cost base. Subsequently let the implementation of a management toolkit in the back-office areas that delivered productivity and service level improvements greater than 20%.
Led the identification and Implementation of 20% cost savings in the contact centre and administration back-office areas of a leading Australian funds management company. Productivity improvements of 20% were achieved whilst improving service and quality.
Managed the process to close a $100M cost gap for the business bank division of an Australian top four bank across eight business units.
Led the end-to-end review of the commercial lending process for an Australian top four bank. Identified roadmap to reduce turnaround times by 50% and reduce rework by 30%.
Undertook a strategic review of a North American NASDAQ listed financial services company with over 1000 locations across Canada, US and Mexico in six business divisions. Yielded new focused strategy that has successfully returned the business to profitability.
Led the development of a new strategy for ASX listed property development company to reposition its market and product offerings.
Managed thirteen teams over four waves which identified cost savings of $90 million for a major Australian food retailer.
Co-project managed, with client manager, implementation of a $20 million cost savings project for major Australian General Merchandise Retailer. First part of the project implemented revised working conditions for approximately 500 staff in 100 Locations. Second part of the project implemented redesigned work processes affecting over 5000 staff in 100 locations as well as the rollout of a new labour planning and management IT system.
Led the development of new product market entry strategy for wealth division of a top four Australian bank.
Led the development of a two-new segment market entry strategies for a leading Australian wealth management company
Undertook a strategic review of manufacturing portfolio company of a leading Australian private equity fund.
Developed supply chain / store replenishment de-bottlenecking solution for Australian $3B general merchandise retailer. Retailer was experiencing bottlenecks in store replenishment process.
Led the development of supply chain strategy for Australian $1B consumer electronics retailer. Retailer had experienced rapid growth and required development of strategy to meet future growth requirements.