Read DuPriest

Read helps public and private companies, private equity sponsors, and portfolio companies identify and capture opportunities to strengthen performance, accelerate profitable growth, and create sustainable shareholder value. His experience spans consumer products, retail, food and foodservice, industrial products, healthcare, life sciences, technology, and other industries.

Before joining Ankura, Read served in senior leadership roles in strategy consulting and in corporate strategy and finance. He held executive strategy and finance positions at Asurion, Kraft Foods, and Tyson Foods, where he advised senior leadership teams on business planning, strategic pricing, portfolio strategy, organizational effectiveness, and financial planning and analysis.

Read’s representative experience includes:

• Developed and supported execution of a worldwide growth strategy for a leading industrial equipment manufacturer, generating substantial incremental profit and contributing to sustained top-quartile shareholder returns.
• Identified $300-500 million in annual growth and cost-focused economic profit opportunities for a global packaging manufacturer and supported the rollout of a shareholder value management program.
• Led operational due diligence for a private equity acquisition of an industrial products company, identifying more than $40 million in EBITDA synergy opportunities.
• Built financial and operating scenarios for acquisition, merger, spinoff, carve-out, joint venture, and RemainCo structures, including required funding and resources, performance expectations, execution plans, and Day 1 and Day 100 activities and risk mitigation plans for management and board-level decision-making.
• Developed the strategies, business models, funding approaches, and operating plans for new business launches in the healthcare, specialty pharmacy, consumer products, and other industries.
• Partnered with a financial services CEO and leadership team to develop a new corporate strategy, initiatives, accountabilities, KPIs, and ongoing performance monitoring.
• Developed business model alternatives to address potential economic conditions in Argentina for a global chemical company. Identified a value-maximizing model, including how to manage difficult-to-expatriate intercompany debt.
• Refocused investment and growth of multi-billion-dollar food business on highest-growth consumer cohorts and overcoming primary barriers to increased consumption. Opportunities totaled over $500 million in annual revenue.
• Developed and institutionalized a new pricing framework and processes for a global food producer and marketer, leading to an expected increase of more than $300 million increase in profit. Enabled the business to increase prices on almost the entire multi-billion-dollar portfolio.
• Delayered structure and streamlined or eliminated inefficient activities for a global food company. Drastically reduced layers between the CEO and plant management and generated more than $100 million in ongoing annual EBIT.
• Aligned the finance organizational structure and processes of a large consumer products company with a newly designed operating model. New model improved coordination, increased efficiency, and reduced annual costs by $20-30 million.