Joel Bines is managing director and co-head of the Global Retail Practice at the business consulting firm AlixPartners. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading operational strategists with a 30-year track record of improving performance at retailers, brands, and consumer companies. After graduating from Bates College in Lewiston, ME with a degree in Philosophy, he talked his way into a series of jobs with distressed consumer companies facing deep challenges. His early success turning around companies led him to Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA with Distinction in 1999.