Bill Achtmeyer

Co-Founder, Chairman &
Managing Partner

+1 857.891.5628

Executive Assistant
Lisa Abbott
+1 508.274.1949
lisaa@acropolisadvisors.com

Bill Achtmeyer started his career in the strategy consulting industry in 1977 at Bain and Company where he rose to being one of ten senior partners leading the firm.  He started the mergers and acquisitions practice and led Bain’s North American business development activities.

In 1991, Bill Co-founded Parthenon and became Chairman, CEO, and Managing Partner in 1994.  By 2014, Parthenon had grown to be a $100mm business with 28 partners and 350 professionals.  It operated out of six offices: Boston (headquarters), San Francisco, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Singapore.  At that time, the firm was a major global advisor to the Education and Private Equity industries, with emerging positions in the Consumer/Retail, Industrial, Healthcare, and Technology sectors. 

Parthenon merged with EY in the fall of 2014 at an all-time high acquisition multiple for a strategy consulting firm.  Bill continued to lead the organization until the end of 2019.  Upon handing over the reins, he built EY-Parthenon into a $2 billion, 500 partner, and 5,000 consultant juggernaut.  It was the fastest growing, highest margin entity within EY.  Besides being its best acquisition to date, EY decided to make Parthenon its only sub-brand.

Bill developed a proprietary strategy construct called The Full Potential Paradigm™ (FPP) that he utilized and perfected throughout his career.  FPP helps CEO’s set growth and margin expectations for investors and employees that are fact based and reliable.  A book on FPP and Bill’s experiences as a CEO advisor is in the works. 

During the course of working in the consulting business for over forty years, Bill has advised a number of Chief Executive Officers on the strategic direction of their corporations.  Those corporations include: Agilent, Briggs & Stratton, Corning, DeVry, eBay, Educate, Ford Motor Company, Hachette, Herman Miller, J.M. Huber Corporation, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Laureate Education, Mead/Westvaco, QuadGraphics, Saatchi and Saatchi, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Thomson Reuters, and Young & Rubicam.  Bill is recognized as an expert in corporate strategy, as well as mergers and acquisitions strategy and integration.   

Philanthropically, Bill has served as Chairman of numerous organizations, including: the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; the Massachusetts High Technology Council; Tenacity; Lawrence Academy; and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.  In June of 2012, Bill stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Overseers at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth after 11 years of service. At that time, he was awarded the Overseers’ Medal in recognition of his dedicated service to Tuck, where he has hooded over 2,600 students at Investiture ceremonies.  Finally, he has served as Vice Chair at his alma mater, Belmont Hill, for over two decades.  

Bill holds an A.B. from Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.