Richard Metzner

Richard is a Principal in KPMG Strategy with more than 15 years of experience across upstream and downstream oil and gas, mining, construction materials, infrastructure and power generation. Richard specializes in the development of growth and operating model strategies.

Professional and Industry Experience

• A global oilfield service provider was looking to bridge the divide between its organic and inorganic growth projections and market expectations which could reach 20% by 2020. I led an initiative to help them assess the potential organic, inorganic, and adjacencies growth opportunities using Industry outlook analysis, market sizing and growth analyses, competitor analysis, customer & market interviews, financial fit analysis, and strategic roadmap for implementation. The company has since broadened it’s inorganic growth scope to encompass the findings of our analysis.
• A passenger rail organization was seeking to reduce their budget deficit through a series of targeted cost reduction initiatives. I led the identification and implementation of a series of initiatives to reduce this deficit across call centers, IT, finance and HR. The client is moving forward with all initiatives with a targeted reduction of 10-20% across the in-scope cost base
• A global upstream oil and gas organization was seeking improved margins in its declining North American on-shore assets. I led the review to develop a detailed set of opportunities to drive increased production and reduced costs. Analysis looked across the value chain from well operations through to shipping. The client approved all opportunities for implementation and subsequently sold part of their organization to reduce cost in underperforming assets.
• A China based petrochemicals facility joint venture of an oil and gas super major needed to increase margins due to pressure from both joint venture partners. I worked with the organization to develop a detailed set of opportunities to increase margins in areas such as feedstocks, maintenance, operations, business optimization (including Linear Program optimization), and energy efficiency. The company has since implemented the majority of these opportunities and increased their margins.
• Facing declining margins and lower oil prices one of the largest European oil refineries was looking to identify opportunities to turn around their operating performance. I worked with the leadership to develop a set of operations focused improvement opportunities during a “deep dive” assessment focussed on operations, logistics, procurement and support activities.
• A major US utility was seeking an “outside in” review of its operating cost to drive cost reduction through its budgeting process. Working with the client head of strategy, I led the review of the entire organization (including commercial, procurement, operations, maintenance, customer management and back office) to develop a set of opportunities to drive improvement in the organization.