As President and Founder of Glencourt Technology, Denis Picard works with CEOs to enhance financial performance, customer service and employee satisfaction through effective use of information technology (IT). With more than 25 years of working closely with senior executives and investors, Denis’ experience includes development of pragmatic IT strategies; creating secure, reliable and cost-effective infrastructure to support growth; outsourcing; development of IT capabilities; and supporting M&A strategies through IT due diligence and post-deal integration. He has advised Kohlberg & Company, a leading New York investment firm, on IT matters for several of its portfolio companies.

Prior to founding Glencourt Technology, Denis was the Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Nevamar Company, a $225 million U.S. manufacturer of decorative building products that was divested from International Paper in 2002. He led pre-acquisition due diligence, then joined the Company in 2003 to lead separation of all information systems from International Paper. He created a high-performing IT organization that implemented numerous improvements, including common financial systems, creation of customer sales reporting systems, and an improved production scheduling system; modernized the communications and technology infrastructure; supported divestiture of two non-strategic business units; and reduced IT operating costs by 40%.

Denis spent nearly nineteen years as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) before joining Nevamar. While at PwC he founded PAG, a business advisory group designed to address urgent issues faced by senior executives of large organizations. He created a leadership team that recruited more than 100 experienced staff to provide services such as IT due diligence, post-merger integration, operations improvement, financial/back-office re-engineering and interim project management. He led the practice’s growth to eight U.S. cities and assisted local efforts to expand the practice in Europe, Australia, Japan and Canada. He left the firm when regulatory constraints limited the non-audit services the firm could provide.

He has served in interim operating roles for several clients facing an urgent need to achieve results. He was the de facto Chief Operating Officer for Seagram’s North American back office operations (customer service, IT, finance, purchasing) during its acquisition by Diageo and Pernod Ricard; and he led restructuring of the global IT function at AMP, Inc. Both projects were successfully completed under tight deadlines. He also worked with senior executives at Warner-Lambert, Ingersoll-Rand, Sony Music and other companies to develop global IT strategies. His experience includes project management and evaluation of many leading ERP software packages.

Denis has been active in teaching, speaking and writing about IT management issues for many years. He has been quoted in national publications, including Computerworld, Information Week, and The Daily Deal, and has spoken at several large international conferences. He contributed to two books, Better Change (Irwin, 1995) and Managing IT As A Business (Wiley, 2004).

He holds a B.S., Finance from Northeastern University and an M.S., Operations Management from Purdue University. He has also participated in executive education programs at Dartmouth, Columbia, and the University of Virginia.

Denis is involved in a number of community activities, including Treasurer of the Twin Boro Bears Football Club, Cabinet Member for Family Service of Morris County’s Capital Campaign and former Senior Warden at St. Mark’s Church. He is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth and the Project Management Institute. He is also a board member of Purdue’s Krannert School Alumni Association.