Mark Masson, Partner
Mark is a highly-experienced adviser and partner to senior leaders, primarily at professional service firms. He serves senior leaders of large law, accounting, consulting and financial services firms on a range of topics to create value by: discovering new pathways to growth, increasing go-to-market effectiveness, maximizing return on the service and talent portfolio, and enabling effective operational execution. Mark’s work blends the nuance and experience of firm and change leadership with cutting-edge business analytics.
Experience
Prior to joining Axiom Consulting Partners, Mark spent five years as a pilot plant operations leader and chemical engineering R&D scientist for Merck & Co., Inc. While at Merck, he developed chemistry for groundbreaking pharmaceuticals in a variety of disease classes, led the startup effort for a critical phase of the construction of a $500MM pilot plant facility, and managed plant operations for a portfolio of over 50 preclinical drug candidates, overseeing engineers and union personnel.
Notable Achivements
- Led predictive analytics approach to develop client growth strategies for AmLaw 20 firm and designed implementation plan for educating key Partners and Leaders to take recommended actions leading to tens of millions in profitable growth.
- Developed strategy and implementation plan for one of the world’s largest law firms, leveraging the firm’s core strengths, potential combinations, shifting market landscape, and technology disruption.
- Developed innovative go-to-market strategy and firm wide change management plan for the U.S. firm of one of the world’s largest accounting firms
- Led Board review of firm governance for a major professional services firm, recommending critical changes in the leadership architecture and Board election process, including preparation of the Partnership for a vote to modify the Partnership Agreement.
- Redesigned the partner compensation system and led a change management process for a large public accounting firm
- Developed a customer intimacy strategy and company-wide change management plan for a large regional bank, including system, people and analytics needs assessment and customer interface approach
- Created external partner admit process for a major U.S. management consultancy leading to higher success in lateral hires.
- Identified key capability and succession gaps in staff and senior contributor roles for a major accounting firm, building an interacting talent intelligence dashboard to enable decision-making and coaching plans at local leadership level.
Education
Mr. Masson holds a Master’s of Business Administration from The J.L. Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern) and a Master’s of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.
Publications & Affiliations
Mark frequently writes and speaks on growth, execution, and technologies and tools that are revolutionizing firm management and leadership, with his work being published most recently in Accounting Today and The Legal Marketing Association publications. He is also the author of The Lost Art of Governance, co-authored with Grant Thornton and AI is the Future of Everything, Right? for Strategies – The Journal of Legal Marketing from the Legal Marketing Association (LMA). Additionally, Mark presented the groundbreaking work with DLA Piper – Harnessing Predictive Analytics to Drive Client Growth and Retention – at the LMA National Conference in 2017.
Personal Note
Having a young son and infant twin girls has truly painted the world a different color for me. There is a thrill of discovering with him and a need to constantly prioritize and focus my time. When I get it right, I am a much better husband and father than I otherwise would be. The experience underscores for me the importance of balancing discovery and focus for the organizations and leaders with whom I work.