Easton Consultants - Our Approach

Practice Leaders

Robert E. MacAvoy, President

Robert E. MacAvoy is founder and President of Easton Consultants. He is responsible for the information services practice of the Firm, and takes an active role in many of the financial services assignments of the firm as well. He has over twenty years of experience in business strategy and corporate development services, including extensive work in acquisition identification and evaluation.

He has performed strategy assignments in database and software businesses, information clearinghouses, and hardware businesses concerned with the acquisition and processing of information.

Recent assignments have included:

Acquisition evaluation of a $4 billion revenue company.
Development of new strategy for a prominent lending institution, including internet delivery of an array of banking services.
Identification of prudent business model adjustments for a large business information company due to pressure on Advertising revenues.
Development of new sales and marketing programs for a hardware manufacturer to take advantage of new e-commerce capabilities.
Identification of valued content for the e-commerce platform of a major computer manufacturer employed to tie together and transact business with the Firm’s four thousand business partners.

Robert MacAvoy received a Bachelors degree in Engineering from Villanova University, an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, and took post graduate studies in capital budgeting and financial systems at MIT. His early career was with Ford Motor Company in both staff and field positions. He was elected a certified Management consultant by the IMC in 1980.

Gordon Canning, Vice President

Gordon Canning, a Vice President of Easton Consultants, Inc. concentrates in assisting clients in the areas of strategy—the development of strategies for the improvement of the client’s competitive position and marketing—developing ways to improve the client’s position in the marketplace.

In recent years, Mr. Canning worked with clients both to develop and implement strategies. This strategy development is aimed at the creation of innovative business approaches. The implementation programs integrate a range of marketing and sales functions, product development, organizational changes, and operational shifts to assure that a sound strategy does not fail because of poor execution.

Mr. Canning consults with a variety of industries including—distribution and industrial products and services. He has substantial experience in laboratory products including:

For a European-based service company, evaluated a large regional distributor of pharmaceutical products as an acquisition. Project required projection of trends in this fast evolving business, including the shifts between independent distribution and manufacturer-owned.
For a distributor of electronic building and process controls has recently been on retainer to assist in the expansion of this firm’s business as it assumes many of the direct sales functions of its major principal
For a major manufacturer of scientific lab equipment—developed a multichannel distribution strategy, which greatly increased the market coverage and expanded market share 15% in three years.
For a specialty steel distributor—developed a strategic plan for improved inventory planning and regional expansion.

For many years, Mr. Canning was a Senior Vice President of Hayes/Hill, Inc., the predecessor firm to Easton, and for eight years prior to joining Easton, he was a Vice President with Cresap, a general management consulting firm. He has an undergraduate degree from Williams College and a Master’s degree from Northwestern University. He is a frequent contributor of articles on marketing and strategy subjects.

Robert Draeger, Vice President

Robert Draeger is a vice president of Easton Consultants, Inc., and is responsible for the technology & pricing practices of the firm.

Prior to joining Easton, Bob held executive marketing and market research positions in several technology firms including IMSL, Tektronix and Indus International. Most recently, he was Vice President of Marketing for KBR, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Halliburton Company. While at KBR, Bob led the consolidation and re-branding of multiple Halliburton subsidiaries and lines of business into the new, unified KBR entity. Under Bob’s marketing leadership, KBR developed new solutions and markets for the Government, Aerospace & Defense, Healthcare, Education, and Petrochemical industries.

Bob brings over 30 years of strategic marketing expertise to Easton, with work in over 60 companies in a dozen industries. He is a published author with the Journal of Professional Pricing and periodic featured speaker with the Professional Pricing Society.

His recent projects include:

Strategic repositioning of a mid-major oilfield services firm including a re-launch of the firm with a new brand name.
Restructured pricing for a $100 million software company after researching customer perceptions of price/value, modeling financial impacts and developing price book and discount schedule.
Segmented enterprise software company’s market based on benefits, use and price sensitivity. Increased revenue growth 11 percent and improved free cash flow by 19 percent in the first year.

Bob holds a B.S. degree in Marketing from the University of Oregon and a Marketing MBA from Portland State University.

Suzanne Grey, Vice President

Suzanne Grey is a Vice President of Easton Consultants responsible for strategy implementation services.

Prior to joining Easton she held various strategy, marketing and planning positions at large public companies, in many cases during a period of substantial business model transition. For example, she was an officer at Pitney Bowes (mailing solutions and outsourcing) and held a senior strategy position at CA (software). Most recently Sue was at Bowne & Co., Inc, (compliance, shareholder and marketing communications) where as Senior Vice President she was responsible for strategy, product planning and product management, marketing and corporate development. During this period she helped Bowne move from a project oriented and high fixed cost operating model to one focused on recurring revenue sources and more flexible fixed cost commitments. She also championed innovative web based services for clients; and make four strategic acquisitions.

With more than 30 years of experience, Sue has addressed a wide range of business challenges; for example:

Converted regulatory threat into $20 million opportunity--Launched unique intelligent tagging service to address SEC’s XBRL requirements.
Reversed fortunes of contracting $400 million hardware business–Guided management team to new growth strategy including transforming to higher value-added software and services for large utilities and financial services firms.
Rationalized runaway project activity – Pruned 65+ Internet and eCommerce initiatives (Web 1.0) and redirected investment to high-return customer service areas.
Business turnaround--co-architect and lead implementer of strategy to fix ailing $350 million office products company, bringing the business from a negative operating profit to positive cash flow and market leadership.

Sue has a B.A. in philosophy and mathematics from Wells College where she also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees.

David Ogilvie, Vice President

David Ogilvie, a Vice President of Easton Consultants, has over 30 years of experience in business research and management consultancy. Clients are typically C-level executives formulating performance strategy. Most engagements center on primary research designed to discover sustainable sources of comparative advantage, and are based on direct interviews with top management in corporations worldwide.

Mr. Ogilvie’s principal practice areas are in information services, financial services, and energy.

Recent engagements related to information services have included assessment of the value propositions of proprietary databases; assessment of the role for IT consulting services for outside directors and board members; evaluation of specific new advertising media for their reach; evaluation of professional services for human resource management.
Recent assignments in financial services have included global studies in capital markets trends; strategic positioning research in retail banking; competitive analysis in property casualty insurance; strategic planning in international correspondent banking; competitive evaluation of e-trading; assessment of banking services for small, cash-based retail businesses.
In the energy sector, engagements have focused on development of performance strategy for deregulated components of major gas utilities.

David Ogilvie received his MA from Cambridge University, where he read Mechanical Sciences and Social Anthropology. His early career was with Dun & Bradstreet, in research management in New York and line management in London.

Richard Simon, Vice President

Richard Simon is a Vice President of Easton Consultants. He leads the Financial Services and Information Technology practices.

Mr. Simon has held executive positions with market leaders in both of these industries both in the US and overseas. His recent work has focused on improving the financial performance and sales effectiveness of his clients.

Recent projects have included:

Pricing strategy for a subscription-based software service of a UK based firm
Strategy planning framework to prioritize and streamline both the products and markets served by a large US based software vendor.
Go-to-market plan for a T&E payment vendor.

Prior to joining Easton, Mr. Simon directed a large IT consulting practice implementing advanced self-service and e-commerce systems for market leaders in financial services, airlines, energy, retail, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and the public sector. He spent several decades in the financial services industry in both commercial and consumer business units where he lead major strategy, sales, systems and pricing initiatives that generated multi-million bottom line impacts.

Mr. Simon received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.