EQUATERRA FURTHER ENHANCES TEAM WITH INDUSTRY EXPERTS FROM DELOITTE CONSULTING, AMERICAN MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND HITACHI CONSULTING

HOUSTON ( September 8, 2004) —EquaTerra, the world’s only firm to help buy-side clients achieve business process and IT service delivery excellence from initial strategy development through ongoing outsourcing governance,  today announced the addition of three new, highly recognized business process improvement experts to its team.

Charles Aird

Charles Aird has nearly two decades of expertise in Big Five consulting, outsourcing and IT in domestic and international environments.  Before joining EquaTerra, he was a Partner, Outsourcing, for Deloitte Consulting.  He was originally responsible for establishing the firm’s applications support and BPO practice in Asia, as well as its global business process transformation and management (BPTM) practice.  He then moved to the U.S. to establish the firm’s global BPTM practice by selling transformational deals to multi-national clients. Clients with which he worked while at Deloitte Consulting included Agilent, Ashland Oil, Bank of New York, Dun and Bradstreet, HP, Johnson and Johnson, Merrill Lynch, National Australian Bank and Sprint. 

Tom Schramm

Tom Schramm has over 24 years of expertise working with clients in business process outsourcing, shared services, software implementation, organizational design, merger integration, reengineering, cost reduction, revenue assurance, financial analysis and change management.  He has focused primarily on general and administrative functions including Finance & Accounting and Procurement. He has worked with Fortune 500 to start-up companies in the high tech manufacturing, software, communications, services, energy, healthcare and transportation industries.

Prior to joining EquaTerra, Tom was a Vice President with Hitachi Consulting, responsible for developing Hitachi’s BPO strategy in the U.S.  He also started the Procurement Outsourcing Solutions Group for Hitachi Consulting.

Before Hitachi Consulting, Tom held various leadership roles with Arthur Andersen including Managing Partner, Business Process Outsourcing, Pacific Region and Managing Partner, Business Consulting, Northern California and Pacific Northwest. He was responsible for a wide range of client relationships during his 22 year tenure with Arthur Andersen.

Clients with which Tom has worked include AT&T Wireless, AirTouch Communications (Vodaphone), BellSouth, Covad Communications, Emory Air Freight, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Hyperion Solutions, Ingram Micro, Microsoft, Pacific Bell (SBC), Pacific Gas & Electric, Portland General Electric, Sanmina-SCI, Sprint PCS, UCSF Stanford Healthcare, URS Corp. and U.S. West (Qwest).

Drew Pipkin

Drew Pipkin has nearly 25 years of IT outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing experience, primarily in the telecommunications, financial services, aerospace & defense, and chemicals industries.  He brings to EquaTerra highly distinguished business development, operations and project leadership experience.

Prior to EquaTerra, he was Vice President of Business Process Outsourcing for American Management Systems (AMS), a $1 billion systems integration and software firm.  Before AMS, Drew held several leadership roles with Accenture (then Andersen Consulting), including global managing director of outsourcing for the chemical industry.

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