Simone Rennie to formally take the helm at management consultancy Rennie

Three years after co-founding the firm, Simone Rennie has now formally taken over the helm at Rennie.

Announced by Rennie’s chairman Tim Eddy, the appointment of Simone Rennie as CEO comes in sync with a number of tweaks to the operating model, designed to accommodate Rennie’s steep growth and prepare the firm for its next chapter.

Founded by Simone Rennie and spouse Matt Rennie in 2022, Rennie has since its inception grown rapidly from a small Brisbane based company to a national business with almost 80 staff. The award-winning firm has been a standout in the Australian market over the past two years, growing despite a downturn in the consulting market.

Previously serving as co-CEOs, Matt now transitions to the newly created role of Chief Markets and Growth Officer, and Simone take the helm as CEO, effective immediately.

“This move makes sense, and is something that Simone and Matt began discussing with the Board earlier this year as an important maturity step for the firm,” said Eddy. “Splitting the CEO role from Markets and Growth provides clear direction on these two critical and linked areas of focus. It will also enable Simone to focus more fully on the firm’s culture and performance as we grow, which is absolutely essential for our long-term success.”

“This is an exciting time for Rennie – we have an amazing team and culture, a real focus on excellence in client delivery, and a supportive board,” said Simone.

Alongside leading the business, Simone will spearhead the company’s ambitious plan for the coming years. With backing of Pemba Capital Partners, which came on board late 2023, Rennie aims to grow into a 300-person advisory business by 2028. That target is expected to see Rennie turn to inorganic growth sometime in the coming period to help accelerate its organic growth path.

A number of other changes have also been worked on to support its goal, including the hiring of Executive Directors, expansion in service areas, and strengthening the internal functions to support client-facing teams. “Over the last few months, Matt and I have been working closely with the Board to get our client facing team in place, and our internal enabling functions ready for another rapid year of growth,” noted Simone.

Meanwhile, for Matt, the shift in focus to client and account architecture is familiar territory. While best known for providing energy and infrastructure advice, Matt ran the markets function internally for EY’s Strategy and Transactions service line across 15 sectors globally during his tenure at the Big Four firm, ranging from government through to energy and mining.

Both Simone and Matt will remain client facing, Simone across the energy reform and ESG spaces and Matt across the capital advisory landscape.