Hans-Paul Bürkner (*1952 in Varel, Germany) has been President and CEO of The Boston Consulting Group since 2003. He began his career in corporate finance at Commerzbank and joined BCG, then predominantly a US consulting firm, in 1981. He was a member of the team that opened BCG’s Düsseldorf (1982) and Frankfurt (1991) offices. Before becoming the firm’s first CEO from Europe, he was head of BCG’s global Financial Services practice and was a Senior Vice President in the firm.
Bürkner has studied numerous subjects, including economics, business administration, and Chinese, at various universities. He has received a diploma from the University of Bochum, an M.A. from Yale University, and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford between 1978 and 1981, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Today he is based in both Frankfurt and New York, and travels extensively among BCG’s 74 offices around the world.