Bain & Company will open a Washington D.C. office to be led by Phil Kleweno, a veteran Bain & Company Partner, and former CEO of Princess Cruises and President of Teleflora.
"Bain's been talking about D.C. now for a number of years and the driving force for us behind entering that market is around talent," says Kleweno.
"Over the years, we've lost a bunch of talent—recruits and others—because we didn't have an office in D.C. We've also lost people who we would've liked to retain who have either a family or personal need to be in D.C., and we don't have a solution for them. And, as with all of our office openings, we always like to be closer to our clients."
Kleweno says the firm has a couple dozen clients it's actively engaged with in Washington right now. The new office should be open in a temporary space by Labor Day and the permanent office, which will be located in Washington's K Street corridor, should be up and running by the second quarter of 2013, Kleweno says.
Although the new office's headcount isn't yet set in stone, Kleweno says Bain is looking to rent about 20,000 square feet of space with options for additional space.
Kleweno says the lion's share of the work Bain will be doing in the area will focus on the commercial side. He says he was in D.C. recently and spoke with several CEOs who are excited about the move.
Obviously there is a federal sector in the D.C. market, but that's not work that we have pursued today," Kleweno says. "It is work that we will learn more about over time and may have an interest in, but the presence of a big public sector market isn't a big reason for us moving into D.C. Our public sector practice is global."
Meanwhile, Kleweno is quick to point out that it's merely a coincidence that the D.C. move is happening at the same time Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee for president. "This has been the plan for a long time and this was going to happen with or without a Romney campaign," he says. "The timing is totally coincidental; and this office will be there for a long, long time."
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