Umbrex was founded in 2015 by Will Bachman, Jing Liang, and Margarita Soto — a group of former McKinsey consultants who believed that organizations deserved access to top-tier consulting talent without the constraints of the traditional firm model. The idea had its roots in 2008, when Bachman left McKinsey to start his own independent practice and, inspired by Seth Godin's Tribes, began connecting independent consultants to share lessons learned and collaborate. What grew from those early professional development events became Umbrex: the first and only global community dedicated to independent management consultants who trained at the world's leading firms. Today, over 7,500 consultants strong, Umbrex has staffed more than 1,000 client projects and hosts more than 50 professional development events each year. Managing Partner Will Bachman has been named one of Business Insider's 38 global Power Players of Consulting, and Umbrex's work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Yahoo Finance, US News, and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Umbrex is a community before it is anything else. Our consultants are not names in a database — they are people we know. We meet them at mixers in Washington D.C., London, Tokyo, Singapore, Toronto, and cities across six continents. We exchange ideas in our members-only forum. We collaborate on projects, share resources, and build the kind of trust that only comes from genuine relationship. More than 90% of our members are alums of McKinsey, Bain, or BCG, and the majority also carry deep experience in industry roles at firms like Coca-Cola, Roche, Hilton, and Sephora. Because we know our consultants personally — their strengths, their working styles, and the cultures where they thrive — we can match you not only to the right skill set but to the right fit for your organization.

Umbrex connects organizations with independent management consultants who have earned their credentials at the world's highest-ranked firms and then chosen the freedom of independent practice. We serve clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to privately-owned businesses and consulting firms augmenting their teams. Our 27 service lines span six functional areas — Strategy, Operations, Organization, Marketing, Finance, and Sales — as well as Artificial Intelligence, Interim and Fractional Executive placements, Enterprise Resource Planning, Associate-level Support, Board Director Recruiting, and Pro Bono work. Our 32 industry practices cover every major sector, from Aerospace and Defense to Wine, Beer, and Spirits. You tell us about your project; we provide bios of fully vetted, well-matched consultants within 24 to 48 hours. You interview, you select, and you start. Solutions are fully flexible: part-time or full-time, on-site or remote, a single consultant or a coordinated team, analyst-level support or partner-level leadership — with no locked-in commitments and no penalty for ending early.

The name of our podcast says it all: Unleashed. Umbrex exists to unleash the potential of independent management consultants — and, through them, the organizations that engage them. We believe that some of the most capable business minds in the world have chosen to work independently, and that both they and their clients are best served when the friction between supply and demand is removed. For clients, that means rapid access to caliber they previously could only find inside large firms, without the overhead. For consultants, it means a community that supports their practice, surfaces meaningful project opportunities, and invests in their growth. Umbrex also reaches further with its Consulting Fellowship — a free, one-on-one mentorship program pairing college students with experienced consultants to expand access to the profession for those who lack existing networks inside it.

At Umbrex, we operate by a handful of principles that show up in how we work every day. Speed matters: clients consistently tell us that no other firm acts with comparable urgency — profiles arrive within 24 hours, and on a good day a consultant is at work by Monday morning. Reliability matters: we make selective membership decisions precisely because our reputation rests on every consultant we introduce. Honesty matters: if we are not the right solution for a given project, we say so upfront and recommend another firm. And partnership matters: we listen, we ask smart questions, and we help you figure out the exact profile you need — rather than talking at you with a predetermined answer. Umbrex does not charge membership or application fees to consultants, and we add only a modest margin to project invoices to cover our operating costs.

When you work with Umbrex, you get the judgment, insight, and core consulting skills you would expect from the highest-ranked global firms — delivered by practitioners who have actually worked there, without the overhead of a traditional firm's pyramid model. You are never sorting through forty unsolicited resumes; we do the curation and deliver a shortlist of vetted, well-matched candidates. You set the terms: one consultant or a team, part-time or full-time, on-site or remote, junior to partner level, for a week or a year. Our global footprint spans 50-plus countries, so whether your project is in New York, London, São Paulo, or Singapore, we can find the right person in the right place. And because we do not lock you in, you retain full control. Clients who have worked with us tend to stay — not because they have to, but because, as one SVP of Enterprise Transformation put it simply: 'We've got Umbrex on speed-dial.'

Umbrex connects clients with independent consultants who bring hands-on experience in sustainability strategy and execution. When regulation, investor scrutiny, or customer commitments create pressure to act, our consultants help organizations set emissions and resource-efficiency priorities, assess climate-related risks, evaluate sustainable product and portfolio options, and build the business case for investments — all grounded in realistic trade-offs and financial impact. Our sustainability practice spans decarbonization strategy, circular economy design, ESG materiality assessment, sustainability reporting readiness, and the design of sustainability operating models and governance structures. We also support consultants within our community who, like a former Corning Director of Sustainability in our network, bring deep industry-side experience to these engagements. Sustainability is not separate from strategy at Umbrex — it sits within our Strategy practice, because we believe the most durable sustainability agendas are the ones that hold up under a rigorous business lens.

Umbrex is much more than a referral network. Over 7,500 independent management consultants across six continents belong to a community they joined by application — not by paying a fee. Members connect in our invite-only online forum, attend more than 50 professional development and social events each year (from small-group dinners in Austin and Denver to mixers in London, Tokyo, and Singapore), and receive a weekly email featuring 20-plus active project opportunities. Community members access practical playbooks, templates, checklists, and resources to build and grow their independent practices. They can outsource desk research to our offshore research team, share thought leadership on our blog, and contribute their skills to vetted pro bono initiatives. Our Unleashed podcast — the leading podcast on thriving as an independent professional — has brought Umbrex's thought leadership to business schools including Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, and Kellogg. Umbrex does not charge membership fees. Social events are sponsored by Umbrex; professional development events are subsidized. The community is the product.

Umbrex believes that management consulting should be accessible to anyone with the talent and drive to succeed in it — regardless of where they went to school, who they know, or what networks they were born into. Our Consulting Fellowship embodies this conviction directly: a free, one-on-one mentorship program pairing college students interested in management consulting with experienced consultants from top-tier firms. The program's tagline — Expanding access. Elevating confidence. Accelerating readiness. — reflects what it actually does for fellows who may not have consulting professionals in their families or immediate networks. Fellows receive monthly one-on-one meetings with their mentor, quarterly cohort sessions hosted by an Umbrex Managing Partner, access to a private online forum, and inclusion in a bio book distributed to consulting firm recruiting teams. Within our service offerings, Diversity & Inclusion sits as a dedicated practice within our Organization service area, where our consultants help client organizations design more equitable workplaces. The breadth and geographic diversity of the Umbrex community itself — with consultants in more than 50 countries spanning every major region — reflects our belief that top-tier talent is global.