Scott Burgess and Chris Gill of Deloitte Consulting, in an effort supported by the Deloitte Center for Banking Solutions, traveled to cities in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia to see how banks there differ in their retail strategies. American Banker will post a series of seven installments documenting their experiences.

Scott Burgess is a principal in Deloitte Consulting and a national leader for banking and finance companies.

Over the past twenty years, Scott has had broad consulting experience on four continents with multi-national consumer-oriented businesses on issues of corporate strategy, business unit strategy, operational effectiveness and reorganization. Scott has developed considerable expertise in assisting clients in competitive position assessment, new product development, market entry, customer segmentation, post-merger integration, operational restructuring, business process reengineering, cost reduction and organizational realignment.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Scott was the co-head of Booz Allen Hamilton's North American financial services practice. Earlier in his career, he was vice chairman of the Cambridge Group, a marketing strategies firm. Scott was also a founding partner of A.T. Kearney's Financial Institutions Group and a member of the Firm's Americas Management Committee.

Scott has published numerous articles on elusive economies of scale in front-and back-office operations of financial service firms. He has authored a widely referenced monograph entitled "Shaping the Global Bank Office: The Infrastructure Needed to Support Greater International Investment." Scott has also published and spoken widely on topics ranging from identifying levers for shareholder value creation to reorganizing the global institution.

Scott graduated valedictorian from Lake Forest College and attended the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

Chris Gill is a senior manager with Deloitte Consulting's banking & finance practice. He has more than 18 years of experience in financial services and strategy consulting, with significant expertise in retail banking, branch and ATM network expansion, customer experience transformation and small business banking.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Chris was a senior manager at Dove Consulting and held retail banking leadership positions at Commercial Federal Bank and Michigan National Bank, where he led efforts related to distribution network planning, branch and ATM expansion, and customer experience transformation.

Chris earned his MBA from the Tuck School of Business and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.