John Richards

GARY STIBEL

Gary is the Founder & CEO of the New England Consulting Group, the premier marketing management consulting firm in the world. Gary is a prominent member of New England’s consumer packaged goods, health care, financial services, high tech, restaurant, hospitality, retail and private equity practices.

Gary’s career spans over thirty years of line management and management consulting for businesses that are marketing and sales driven for clients who are market and thought leaders.

Prior to founding the New England Consulting Group, he led the management consulting practice of Glendinning Associates (the largest marketing and sales management consulting firm in the world at the time), following multiple positions of increasing responsibility in marketing and sales management at Procter & Gamble.

Gary’s experience is focused on the development and implementation of corporate, division and brand strategies and plans. He has been equally successful consulting for small, entrepreneurial and large, sophisticated companies ranging from successful start-ups to transformational turnarounds and accelerated growth for the world’s largest corporations, in categories that are intensely competitive and extraordinarily complicated.

In recent years, Gary has consulted for over half of the world’s most admired companies, many legendary CEOs and almost all of the most valued brands on the planet. His knowledge base and analytic skills have helped countless companies and executives generate unprecedented growth and avoid costly errors.
Beyond consulting, Gary serves as a coach and mentor to many CEOs, CMOs and Boards. He is also the first choice for expert opinion on marketing and sales topics of the global business press. He is an avid game player, a voracious reader and an active volunteer. He sits on numerous boards – including local charitable, national professional, global corporate and start-up advisory boards.

He holds a BS in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Southern California, where he was a University Scholar, and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Wharton, where he was a Chrysler Fellow. He graduated in the top 1% of his class from both schools.

STEVEN ROBINS

Steven is a Managing Partner & Principal at the New England Consulting Group, the premier marketing management consulting firm in the world. He is active in the firm’s healthcare, CPG, retail, and restaurant practices and works across our active public and privately held clients.

Steven brings over 25 years of general management experience with such iconic corporate brands as Young & Rubicam, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Bausch + Lomb. He has a remarkable record of developing differentiated positionings and innovative strategies for consumer and professionally driven brands across a wide regulatory spectrum.

As an executive, Steven has structured multiple commercial organizations driving improved results, integrating merged functions and divisions and re-establishing growth in turnaround situations. His experience is balanced across North American and International businesses.

Prior to joining the New England Consulting Group, Steven was President of Milestone Scientific, Inc. a publicly traded (NYSE: MLSS) medical device company where he was responsible for launching two new computer controlled injection systems in Europe and the Middle East while finalizing the US regulatory submissions. Mr. Robins has also held the general management/leadership team at positions at Bausch + Lomb, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc.

Outside of NECG, Steven is a current board member of Butler/Till, a media communications company, and a business advisory board member at Milestone Scientific. He is a past board member of The American Heart Association of Rochester, a board that was one of only two regional boards to achieve the national AHA’s “Gold” standard recognition. He also served on the board of the Greater Rochester Enterprise, a public/private economic development organization.

Steven brings a combination of discipline and creativity to his work. He was selected for Elite Leader Training at Pfizer (Harvard) and J&J (LEAD program). He has a BA from Bates College where he represented the school at two World University Debating Championships.

TOM SEBOK

Tom is a Managing Partner & Principal at the New England Consulting Group and an active member of our consumer marketing and growth strategy practice teams. An expert in global brand development and innovation, Tom has shaped some of the world’s most admired companies, including: AIG, AT&T, Bayer, Campbell’s, FedEx, Frito-Lay, Goldman Sachs, Hilton, KFC, Land Rover, Lowe’s, Mattel, Motorola, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut, PricewaterhouseCoopers, UPS and Virgin Atlantic.

His career began at Grey Advertising, a renowned global agency where he worked on brand accounts Aquafresh, Sucrets, Geritol, Aqua Velva and Dulcolax. From there he was hired at Young & Rubicam, a leading global marketing and communications company, where he was an account executive supporting growth and innovation for AT&T, KFC and the Pillsbury Company.

Thereafter, he became senior vice president and senior account director at BBDO, a highly regarded globally awarded advertising agency. In these roles, Tom led successful pitches for Bayer Aspirin and developed game-changing work that helped reverse steady business erosion in the face of newer analgesics. He returned the brand to growth after decade-long share declines and was instrumental in securing and driving Bayer’s Consumer Care business around the world, including the global analgesics and digestive care. During his tenure, he also served as vice president/account director leading Campbell Soup Company and CPC/Best Foods global businesses.

Subsequently, Tom launched a new Ammirati Puris Lintas full-service agency in Chicago to serve telecom provider, Ameritech, in residential, mobile, cable TV, home security, internet access and more. He built the agency from scratch to over 100 employees in less than six months, providing a full suite of marketing communications services. He also served as group account leader on UPS, and multinational client director on Goldman Sachs and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

From there, Tom was lured back to BBDO as the executive vice president, managing director leading several of the agency’s key accounts including PepsiCo in 60+ countries across all snacks, beverages and food brands, FedEx, Motorola, Pizza Hut, Campbell Soup Company, AIG and Lowe’s. His success led him to eventually become the global client leader for PepsiCo at BBDO Worldwide/Omnicom.

With a proven track record as a passionate, creative and strategic leader, Tom returned to Young & Rubicam as President and CEO of North America to successfully revitalize the agency and transform client services that achieved double-digit revenue and profit growth within two years and numerous awards at Cannes, Clio and NY festivals.

Adding to his notable career, Tom also held senior executive roles at inVentiv Health, the world’s second largest healthcare communications services group where he created shared capabilities across a portfolio of nine separate operating companies to drive superior delivery, efficiency and synergies. Most recently he held managing director and partner positions at Accenture and PA Consulting harnessing his deep expertise in marketing, brand-building, innovation and consumer insights.

Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American Literature from Brown University and is a graduate of Omnicom University’s Senior Management Post-Graduate Programs.

DAVE STONE

Dave is a Managing Partner & Principal at the New England Consulting Group, the premier marketing management consulting firm serving customer-driven enterprises. He is responsible for the firm’s consumer products and services, channel management, and customer management practices.

Dave’s career encompasses an extensive combination of management consulting, business development and general line management experience, all with the common goal of driving growth through focused strategies and executable plans.

Prior to joining New England, Dave managed both consumer focused and B2B organizations and held executive positions as Senior Vice President at Honeywell, Chief Marketing Officer at PepsiCo International and Taco Bell, and marketing management at Kraft/General Foods.

Many of Dave’s accomplishments have been achieved while developing core business capabilities such as multi-channel marketing and sales systems, new product development, marketing analytics and organization counsel to marketing and sales driven companies.

During the past ten years at New England, Dave has focused on advancing major practice areas including customer and channel management, organization design and brand portfolio management across the food and beverage, retailing, financial services and telecommunications sectors. Along with representative clients such as Nestlé, Pfizer, Samsung, PepsiCo, Philips, Office Depot, Hallmark, Nielsen, Visa, Ocean Spray and McDonald’s, he has also consulted for small and mid-sized operations including WellPet Specialty Pet Foods, Just Born candy and South Beach Diet.

Dave has been involved in early stage business concepts providing board-level counsel for start-up ventures including internet video streaming, specialty snacking and beverages. As part of this focus, Dave has been very active providing counsel to private equity firms for both due diligence evaluation and portfolio company turnarounds.

Dave received a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA from Bernard Baruch Graduate School of Business and has been an instructor in marketing management at Pace University.

BOB LEPRE

Bob is an Advisory Partner & Principal of the New England Consulting Group, and a key member of our consumer packaged goods and advertising practice teams.

Bob’s career covers over 25 years of business management and management consulting for some of the smallest and largest companies who view marketing as the pathway to success.

Prior to joining New England, Bob was Executive Vice President and General Manager at Tambrands and oversaw the introduction of several breakthrough new products. In his role as Executive Vice President at Marketing Corporation of America, Bob helped engineer the acquisition of Ally-Gargano, the “hottest” agency for 10 years. His career also includes marketing management responsibilities at Procter & Gamble, Jeep and Life Savers.

Bob’s approach to managing business and his consulting counsel can best be summed up as situationally rigorous, creatively insightful and appropriately impactful. His portfolio of work includes innovative projects focused on new products particularly in the food and snacks areas, global branding and brand equity enhancement, private equity due diligence, strategic planning, organization and breakthrough persuasive and memorable advertising.

His successful engagements at New England span numerous industries and categories and include companies such as Bausch & Lomb, Cadbury, Capital One, Ciba Vision, ConAgra, Dow Jones, Frito-Lay, Hallmark, Heinz, Hershey, Jenny Craig, Jimmy Dean, Proflowers.com, Sprint and StarKist.

Prior to his career in marketing, Bob worked as a research chemist at Union Carbide where his interest in technologically-driven new products lead to the creation of one of the first water-based/latex semi-gloss paints.

He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Columbia University and an MBA from The Wharton School with a major in Marketing and minor in Finance.

John is an Advisory Partner & Principal of the New England Consulting Group, and a key member of our retail and hospitality practices teams.

John brings over 20 years of general management and consulting experience with such iconic brands as Procter & Gamble, Heinz, Four Seasons Hotels, Starbucks, Dean & Deluca and Elizabeth Arden Red Door. John’s consulting work focuses on creating innovative growth strategies for consumer driven brands and assisting clients in building new channels of distribution and web based businesses.

As an executive, John has structured and built several successful multi-divisional organizations in high growth hospitality and foodservice businesses. He brings the practical insight and focus on results of an operating executive to his organization strategy work.

Prior to joining the New England Consulting Group, John was Chief Executive Officer of Elizabeth Arden Red Door where he led the rejuvenation and growth of the iconic service brand, and Dean & DeLuca where he led the development of its e-commerce platform. John served as President of North American Operations for Starbucks Coffee Company during its explosive initial growth period and was Executive Vice President at Four Seasons Hotels overseeing its brand development as it grew from 8 to 40 hotels worldwide.

John’s personal interests center on health, education and human services. He is a past board member of Equinox Fitness and currently serves on the Board of Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM). He supports the Halfway House of Rochester, NY founded by his father the Rev. Thomas B. Richards.

John brings classic “academy training” to his work with early stints at Procter & Gamble and McKinsey. He has a BA from Bucknell University where he started on the school’s first championship D-1 Lacrosse team. He has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Public Policy and Honeywell common market fellow.

Managing Partners & Principals