Consulting veteran Francesco Pavoni joins Kearney as senior partner

Kearney has strengthened its Transportation and Travel practice in the Middle East with Francesco Pavoni, who has been appointed as a senior partner.

Francesco Pavoni has more than three decades of experience to the strategy and management consulting firm. A lifelong career in management consulting has seen Pavoni work for several of the industry’s most illustrious names, and serve clients across Europe, Turkey, Middle East and the Americas.

Excited by “the opportunity to work with an entrepreneurial, growth-oriented firm with a leading position in my key areas of specialization”, Pavoni decided to join Kearney’s Riyadh office a few months ago.

At Kearney, he helps Boards and CEOs on a wide range of topics including corporate governance, strategy, operating model and operations, marketing, human resources, change management, restructuring, corporate venturing, and digital strategy. He works mainly for clients in the tourism, aviation, airlines, mobility, and airports industries.

Based in the Middle East for over a decade, Pavoni also works extensively with governments and funders of transportation investments. Notable projects he worked on include advising on the launch of new airlines and carriers, developing new airports, and supporting economic diversification goals through strategic projects in the tourism sector.

“I am dedicated to harnessing disruptive technologies and fostering human leadership to achieve regenerative solutions,” said Pavoni, drawing an analogy with Kearney’s major research agenda around ‘regenerate’ – a concept of continuous learning and development the consultancy bills as indispensable for any business to remain competitive and agile in an evolving future.

While he welcomes the new challenges and learnings that await him on every client engagement, Pavoni has a special passion for transformational work. “I take enormous satisfaction working a challenge on an end-to-end basis, from strategy all the way to the go-live point,” he said. “It brings me great satisfaction seeing our work come to life.”

One recent engagement where that happened is in the advanced air mobility space. In 2023, Saudi Arabia’s government selected Kearney as its partner for the development of its strategy for advanced air mobility. That blueprint was delivered by the consultants, and fast forward to today, and the Kingdom just has completed a milestone in the execution phase: a successful demonstration flight of an eVtol.

“I am delighted to have worked on such a strategic initiative for KSA and such an important milestone for the advancement of air mobility in the Kingdom. I would like to extend my gratitude to the leadership of Kearney and the entire engagement team for having supported and collaborated on this project.”

Born and raised in Italy, Pavoni was honored by Italy’s president with the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Order of Merit) in 2014. The distinction is given to Italians that have made a remarkable contribution to friendly relations and cooperation between Italy and other countries.

Prior to joining Kearney, he worked for Boston Consulting Group, Roland Berger, PA Consulting, Accenture, and Value Partners.