Bio

Previously, Bern was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey and Company in Dallas, where he led joint consultant and client teams and served clients in the manufacturing, industrials, and private equity sectors. Bern focused primarily on operations strategy and improvements in asset performance and cost structure. He has worked on everything from operational due diligences for top-tier private equity firms to “shop floor” implementation work at major manufacturing facilities. Bern left McKinsey in early 2019 to pursue opportunities in the lower middle market, and prior to joining LongWater, worked as an independent consultant providing operational, strategic, and transaction advisory services to financial sponsors and lower middle market industrials companies. Before business school, Bern started his career at the Transportation Security Administration where, as a regulatory economist, he helped design and led the economic evaluation of multibillion-dollar security regulations across various transportation sectors. Bern earned a BA in Economics from Princeton University, where he was a four-year member of the varsity swim team, and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Mattie, and son, Pearce. Bern is an avid sports fan and a food and travel enthusiast.