Roger Nelson
Chairman, Investment Strategy and Management
Previously, Roger was the Deputy Chairman of Ernst & Young LLP. He is a thirty-year veteran of Ernst & Young and led the turnaround effort of its consulting arm, building it from $300 million in revenue to $2.5 billion in the U.S. In the 1999/2000, he sourced the transaction that led to the $11 billion purchase of Ernst & Young Consulting Worldwide by Capgemini, a French consulting firm.
During his career with E&Y, Roger served as Chairman of E&Y International Consulting, Vice Chairman – Management Consulting, Vice Chairman – Midwest Region, and Southwest Regional Director of Management Consulting Services. He served as a member of the US Management Committee, the Global Executive Board, and the Global Council. Previously, he was Partner in Charge of the consulting practice in the Chicago office and Partner in Charge of E&Y’s Continental Europe consulting practice. His prior experience also included serving as CFO for a U.S. manufacturer of material handling equipment in Sydney, Australia.
Through his involvement in Waterstone Management Group, Roger has served a wide range of corporate clients and private equity firms in the areas of corporate governance, financial planning and control, large scale project management and due diligence on acquisitions in the services and information technology sectors. In addition, Roger has served as special advisor to Tata Consulting Services headquartered in Mumbai, India.
Roger has served on numerous non-profit boards and is currently a member of the board of the Oriental Institute, TJG Holdings LLC, Waterstone Management Group, Trustee of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, and chairman for the Institute for Truth in Accounting. His civic and professional memberships include the Economic Club of Chicago, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Chicago Club, and the University Club. He has also been a lecturer for the Conference Board and the Management Centre of Europe.
Roger is a CPA and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Accounting and Information Systems at Northwestern University ’s J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a B.S. in Accountancy. He and his wife, Marjorie, reside in downtown Chicago.
