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Hernan J.F. Saenz, III

Hernan J.F. Saenz, III

  • Visiting Senior Lecturer

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Faculty Area

Faculty Expertise

  • Strategy
  • Consulting
  • Organizational Behavior

Contact

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management

hs39@cornell.edu

Cornell Directory Entry

Biography

Hernan Saenz has been at Bain for over 25 years and has worked in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North and Latin America. He is currently a senior partner in the Dallas office and serves as the global head of Bain's Performance Improvement (PI) Practice. With PI, Hernan focuses on cost transformation, operations reinvention, and sustainable value chain implementation. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Bain & Company.

From 2008 to 2016, Hernan served the firm as the managing partner of the Bain Dallas, Bain Houston, and Bain Mexico offices, with full P&L responsibility for the region. During his tenure, the Bain Southwest region more than doubled in size. This expansion included the founding of the Bain Houston office and Bain's Private Equity practice in Texas, as well as the scaling of Bain's business across all major industry and capability practice areas. Prior to joining Bain, Hernan was a faculty member in economics at INCAE, a business school in Latin America. In addition, he was a principal at a consulting firm serving banks and other financial institutions across Latin America.

Hernan's client work specializes in corporate transformations, full potential programs, operational turnarounds, and large-scale change efforts. He has completed ~200 assignments across a number of sectors, including airlines, consumer products and retail, healthcare, industrial products and services, distribution, and higher education.

Hernan's articles have been published in a number of journals, including Harvard Business Review, Business Strategy Review, World Business, Wall Street Journal – Mint, and EIU. He also serves as an advisor to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Platform on Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, and leads Bain's current work on Digital Traceability and Circular Transformation, developed in collaboration with the WEF.

Hernan serves as a visiting senior lecturer at Cornell University where his courses focus on the analysis, formulation and implementation of business strategy. He earned an MBA and a master's in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University, as well as a MS in economics from Stanford University. He is also a graduate of Harvard College, where he received a BA in economics magna cum laude.

Hernan is trustee of Cornell University and a member of the Leadership Council at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He also serves on a number of local Boards in Dallas.

Selected Publications

Recent Courses

  • NBA 5790 - Applied Principles of Business Strategy

Academic Degrees

  • MILR Cornell University, 1998
  • MBA Cornell University, 1998
  • MA Stanford University, 1994
  • BA Harvard University, 1993