Smart. Pragmatic. Dedicated. International.
Our team has outstanding analytical skills, intellectual curiosity, a genuine desire to achieve the best for our clients and the ability to get things done.
Academic excellence and intellectual ability underpin our reputation for rigorous, data-driven work for our clients.
Our people are pragmatic, ensuring that your bespoke solutions are practical and actionable.
Partners, team members, senior advisors – everyone goes the extra mile to serve our clients.
We come from all over the world, a team with a genuine international outlook addressing your UK and global challenges.
Meet the partners
Rupert Barclay
Managing Partner
Rupert’s strategic advisory career spans 30 years working in consulting and industry. He spent ten years at LEK Consulting, the last five as a partner, working on a variety of strategy and M&A assignments in various industries. He followed this with spells as head of strategy and M&A at two top 50 UK companies, Allied Domecq and Reuters. He specialises in corporate and business unit strategy in education and B2B business information. He has an MA in Classics from Cambridge, an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
Julie Mercer
Partner
Julie joined Cairneagle in April 2019 to lead the growth of our management consulting practice and the Higher Education sector. Julie was previously a partner at Deloitte where she set up and grew the education practice in the UK before becoming the industry leader for education globally. Her work spans the whole education system, and she brings over 20 years of experience of designing and delivering new operating models to improve service design and quality, reduce cost, improve productivity, open new markets and grow revenues in the UK and internationally. A qualified accountant, Julie trained with the National Audit Office and advised the C&AG and PAC on policy matters, including education. Julie graduated from the University of Bristol.
Arun Kanwar
Partner
Arun joined Cairneagle in 2015. His strategy consulting and commercial due diligence experience includes both LEK Consulting and PwC, where he has worked across various industry sectors. In addition, he has spent over eight years in industry – at Tesco.com and Bright Horizons – where he had hands-on experience of formulating and delivering on growth and operational goals. At Bright Horizons, he headed up the UK mergers and acquisitions function when the business added over 100 childcare and education settings. Arun has an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.
Jorge Amirola
Partner
Jorge focusses on the education and media/technology sectors. He’s worked in international schools across four continents and has 20 years of consulting and industry experience, including roles with AMR International. His strategic work includes M&A advisory assignments (in transactions ranging from £10m to £1bn+), strategic reviews, market entry, product development, pricing and due diligence. Jorge holds an MSc and PhD (Summa cum laude) in Engineering and an MBA from CEIBS (Shanghai) and London Business School.
Meet the managers
Alfred Chambers
Manager
Alfred joined Cairneagle in 2019 and has led projects across the education sector spanning international schools, adult education, edtech and childcare as well as B2B media. Prior to joining Cairneagle, Alfred worked at JCB in a variety of roles including sales, operations and growth strategy. He spent his last two years with JCB in India, project managing the ramp-up of a new factory whilst simultaneously establishing India’s largest literary prize in the name of the company. Alfred has a Master’s in Engineering Design from the University of Bristol.
Peter Friedman
Manager
Peter joined Cairneagle in January 2020. As a Manager, he leads project teams delivering for clients across the education sector. His work includes strategy development, organisational transformation, and commercial due diligence. Prior to joining Cairneagle, Peter worked at BASIS Global, a U.S. Pre K-12 international schools operator, where he crafted an Asia expansion strategy and at Invest Hong Kong where he advised U.S.-based companies and education institutions looking to expand into Asia. He takes a client-centric approach honed from being a corporate lawyer and investment banker in New York and Hong Kong earlier in his career. Peter has a JD from Columbia Law School and a BA, with distinction, in Ethics, Politics & Economics from Yale University.
Sam Lecacheur
Manager
Sam joined Cairneagle in 2016 and now leads strategy and commercial due diligence assignments across the education sector in the UK and internationally. His recent experience includes work in nurseries, schools, higher education, further education, English language learning, education publishing, and education technology. Prior to Cairneagle, Sam was Content Lead for an educational mobile app company. He remains passionate about the potential for technology to improve educational outcomes, co-authoring the 2020 EdTechX Global Report. Sam has a Masters in Physics from the University of Oxford.
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Discover
Graduates
Do you have what it takes to become a strategy or management consultant at Cairneagle?
We are hiring ambitious, talented graduates to join our practice.
We have positions for interns, new graduates and MBAs
Experienced Hires
Already working in strategy or management consulting and looking for a new challenge or faster career path?
We are hiring experienced consultants with strategy and transformation backgrounds.
Contractors
We believe in the power of the network and are keen to work with talented independent consultants who enjoy working as part of a team.
Find out how you can work with Cairneagle if you are self employed or run your own business.