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Thomas J. Tierney is the former chief executive of Bain & Company, the international consulting firm. He is also the founder and Chairman of The Bridgespan Group, Bain’s non-profit affiliate. Bain & Company has long been recognized as one of the premier strategy consulting firms in the world, with over 2,500 employees serving clients from more than 25 offices around the world. Bain’s work ranges from the development and implementation of corporate and business unit strategy, to customer loyalty, cost management, and organizational strategy in all major industries. During the 1990’s, under Mr. Tierney’s leadership, Bain & Company grew its revenues six fold, while expanding from 12 to 26 offices worldwide. The firm aggressively broadened its technology and e-commerce practices, while becoming the global leader in consulting to private equity firms. Additionally, Bain invested successfully in numerous private equity ventures, an approach relatively unique among top tier consulting firms. Mr. Tierney joined Bain & Company in 1980 following graduation from Harvard Business School where he received his MBA with distinction. A native of California, he received his BA in Economics, with highest distinction, from the University of California at Davis, where he was honored as that year’s most outstanding graduate. Mr. Tierney worked for Bechtel International in North Africa as a field engineer before entering HBS. He was promoted to Partner after three years at Bain & Company, and in 1992, he was elected Bain’s Global Managing Partner. He specializes in high growth companies, organizational strategy and the management of professional service firms. Mr. Tierney is also a recognized leader in serving the non-profit sector. After more than a decade of pro bono consulting projects, in 1999 he launched The Bridgespan Group, an independent, non-profit affiliate of Bain & Company designed to provide high-quality consulting services to foundations and non-profit organizations. He currently serves as Chairman of this endeavor. During 2000, Mr. Tierney stepped down as Bain & Company’s chief executive to focus on The Bridgespan Group and related initiatives. Mr. Tierney recently became a director of eBay, Incorporated. He is also active on a number of non-profit boards, including the Hoover Institution, The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Harvard Business School, The Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise and The National Academies. He is a past director of many other organizations including: The United Way, Stanford Business School, The Committee for Economic Development and WGBH. Mr. Tierney lectures at Harvard Business School and has contributed to numerous case studies and publications, including The Harvard Business Review. He was recently profiled in the book, Learning From The CEO, published by Forbes. He has co-authored a book about organization and strategy entitled “Aligning the Stars”. It was published in April 2002 by Harvard Business School Press. Mr. Tierney lives with his wife and two children in Wellesley, Massachusetts. For more information about the work of Thomas J. Tierney, go to Related Writings .  For Mr. Tierney's media bio, visit the Author Bios & Photos section of the Aligning the Stars Press Room. Jay W. Lorsch is the Louis Kirstein Professor of Human Relations at the Harvard Business School. He is the author of over a dozen books, the most recent of which is Pawns or Potentates: The Reality of America’s Corporate Boards (1989). Organization and Environment (with Paul R. Lawrence) won the Academy of Management’s Best Management Book of the Year Award (1967) and the James A. Hamilton Book Award of the College of Hospital Administrators (1969). Having taught in all of Harvard Business School’s educational programs, he was Chairman of Doctoral Programs, Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the Executive Education Programs from 1991-1995, Senior Associate Dean and Director of Research from 1986-1991, Chairman of the Advanced Management Program from 1980-1985, and prior to that was Chairman of the Organizational Behavior Area. As a consultant, he has had as clients such diverse companies as Ameritech, Applied Materials, the Bank of Montreal, Citicorp, Chubb and Sons, Coopers & Lybrand, Corning Glass Works, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Merck Sharp and Dohme and Petreleos de Venezuela S.A. He is a Director of the Brunswick Corporation. He is a graduate of Antioch College (1955) with an M.S. degree in Business from Columbia University (1956) and a Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School (1964). At Columbia, he was a Samuel Bronfman Fellow in Democratic Business Administration. From 1956-59, he served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Finance Corp.