Justin Michael Spencer Jenk (born February 1960) is a British-Danish business executive and investor. He is a co-founder of the advisory firm, Raktas, and an investor in multiple companies such as: Venturethree, Danfoss-Turbocor, Arcam, Põhjala Brewery and Gate Capital.
As a partner at both McKinsey & Company and Accenture, Jenk helped build both firms' global presence as well as advised a number of international clients engaged in the: consumer goods, industrial products; property; technology and financial sectors. Independently, he led teams that implemented bad bank approaches in Europe, notably Securum and Swedbank.
Early life and education
Jenk was born in 1960 in Bombay; now Mumbai, India to Jørgen Jenk and Faith Sisman. His father was an international businessman and decorated war veteran; his mother was a senior royal flights stewardess for BOAC. Jenk was brought up in India, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom. Jenk attended both Westminster School and St Paul's School in London. In 1978, he won a Dean Rusk scholarship to Davidson College in North Carolina. He then attended the University of Oxford, where he read Geography and was a varsity sportsman, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1982. Jenk attended Harvard Business School, graduating in 1988 with an MBA.
Career
1982 – 1986
In 1982, Jenk joined the Swire Group, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate. He worked with its transport-related interests in the Australian, Pacific, Asian and Persian-Gulf regions. With each posting Jenk was responsible for: day-to-day operations; capital budgeting (vessels and aircraft) as well as processes improvements. These postings included: road transport; fishing/cold-storage; logistics; airline management; satellite navigation; as well as bulk/container shipping businesses. Given the nature of the businesses and locations, Jenk was actively engaged in supporting relief efforts for: the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires in Adelaide; the 1984 evacuation for the Rabaul eruption and; the 1985 safe shipping transit in the Persian Gulf during the First Gulf War.
1988 - 2002
In 1988, Jenk joined McKinsey & Company in its Stockholm office. During his time at McKinsey, Jenk opened and managed eight new offices, including Rio de Janeiro, Athens and Moscow as well as the restructuring of Milan. He also co-founded McKinsey's Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in London. In 1992, at the height of the financial crisis in Sweden, Jenk's team advised the Swedish Government with regard to ‘saving’ Nordbanken, the state-owned bank, from insolvency. The solution was to create Securum, a so-called "bad bank", that would assume and unwind Nordbanken's non-performing loans and bad debt. Securum took over a quarter of Nordbanken's credit portfolio, protecting Nordbanken's capital, liquidity and operations. This work facilitated the creation of Nordea, one of Europe's leading banks as well as providing a positive impact to Taxpayers’ funds. In 1993, Jenk was asked to open and lead McKinsey's Moscow office as part the firm's expansion into Eastern Europe. He advised Russian companies and businessmen on how to capitalise on the emerging consumer and financial markets. He assisted in the development of VimpelCom Ltd., LOMO, Alfa Capital, and other enterprises as the privatization process unfolded as well as the Hermitage Museum, and World Bank Apex bank programme. Jenk also helped create Russian Standard and Brewpole, with its merger Zywiec-Heineken in Poland. Jenk was instrumental in advising various brewery owners with regard to the development and consolidation of the Greater European beer industry. The current AB InBev has its roots in this process, through Jenk's support to Interbrew and its owners.
During this period, Jenk was an investor in certain enterprises – such as Venturethree, amongst others. In 2001, the newly formed Accenture recruited Jenk to develop the growing company. He was appointed to its transformation team as well as made a co-head of its Restructuring/Mergers and Acquisitions practice, with a focus on Europe and Asia.