W. Robert Devoto
London Partner
Mr. Robert Devoto is a principal of Devoto and Company, Inc., based in London, with more than 25 years of boardroom level consulting experience. In addition to his B.Sc. in Engineering from the United States Military Academy, Mr. Devoto has two scientific graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering and a Nuclear Engineers degree. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Devoto began his consulting career as a consultant to the Director of the Apollo Moon Landing program of the U.S. Aeronautics and Space Agency. He then joined McKinsey & Company, a
well-known and highly respected firm of management consultants. While working with McKinsey, Mr. Devoto served government agencies, nationalized industries and private clients, principally in the areas of top management organization, strategic planning and operational planning and control. He has carried out major assignments in the U.S., the U.K., and in several European countries and is well familiar with the problems involved in managing multi-national businesses. Mr. Devoto’s experience has been principally in technology industries, such as aerospace, petroleum, and transportation.
More recently, Mr. Devoto has led his own consulting teams in such diverse projects as appraising a long-term capital investment program for a major U.K. transport group and leading internal profit improvement teams in a $400 million geographic division of one of the major international petroleum companies that identified and captured several million dollars in increased profits/reduced costs.
Mr. Devoto’s major interest is in diversification and company acquisition. For three years he was the principal advisor to one of the largest U.K. tobacco groups on their diversification effort.
Mr. Devoto also was the director of corporate planning at the Rank Organization for three years, devised new industrial development strategy for the Province of Northern Ireland for the Industrial Development Board, and recently served, for several years, as a consultant on corporate strategy for one of the largest private companies in Europe.