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Gridiron welcomes two Vice presidents across investment and Digital Growth teams. Additions Expand the Firm's Resources for Founders and Management Teams * September 2026 * Gridiron, People NEW CANAAN, CT, September 29, 2026 - Gridiron Capital, LLC ("Gridiron Capital" or "Gridiron"), an investment firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams, is pleased to welcome Brynn Jackel back to the firm as a Vice President on the investment team, and to welcome Melissa Levy as Vice President in the firm's Digital Growth Accelerator. These new team members bring a breadth of investment, consulting, and operating experience, accelerating Gridiron's ability to drive growth for the founders and management teams it partners with across the portfolio. Tom Burger, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Kevin Jackson, Managing Partner, said, "We're thrilled to welcome Brynn back as a Vice President following business school. She's a proven performer and a central member of the investment team, and we're looking forward to seeing what she'll accomplish in this elevated role. We're equally excited to welcome Melissa to the Digital Growth Accelerator. Her strategic mindset and digital growth expertise will be a real asset as she rolls up her sleeves alongside management teams across our portfolio." Brynn Jackel rejoins Gridiron as a Vice President after earning her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. While at HBS, she served as co-president of the Women in Investing Club. Brynn was previously a Senior Associate at Gridiron, and prior to joining the firm in 2020, she worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, where she focused on the industrials sector. At Gridiron, Brynn focuses on new investment opportunities, due diligence, and value creation at current portfolio companies, including Colibri Group and Health Monitor Network. Melissa Levy joins Gridiron from Boston Consulting Group, where she advised private equity, consumer, services, and technology clients on due diligence, growth strategy, and value creation. She previously worked at American Express on the Membership Rewards team. Melissa earned her M.B.A. from The Wharton School, with majors in Finance and Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and her B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. At Gridiron, Melissa will partner with portfolio company leadership and the investment team to identify and drive digital growth opportunities across the portfolio. About Gridiron Capital Gridiron Capital is an investment firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams, and creating value by building middle-market companies into industry-leaders in business services, consumer products & services, and industrial growth segments in the United States and Canada. We help transform growing companies by winning together through hard work, partnerships grounded in shared values and a unique culture that comes from hands-on experience building and running businesses. As a team led by former operators and entrepreneurs, we know what it takes to run successful businesses on a day-to-day basis. Additional information is available on the firm's website: www.gridironcapital.com.

Revenue Growth Management AI by BCG X recognized in POI's 2026 Enterprise Planning & Retail Execution Vendor Panorama report. September 28, 2026 | new at BCG. BOSTON - Boston Consulting Group (BCG) received nine "Best-in-Class Category Distinctions" in Promotion Optimization Institute (POI)'s 2026 Enterprise Planning & Retail Execution Vendor Panorama report. The report evaluates leading providers to help consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers identify the technology and services that can best aid in driving profitable growth. POI awarded Best-in-Class Category Distinctions to Revenue Growth Management AI by BCG X in nine areas: * Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning * Consumer Data & Insights Utilization * Enterprise Planning IBP/S&OP * Generative AI/Chatbot Assistant/Agentic AI * Headquarter Planning * Internal Collaboration * RGM Bespoke Solution * RGM UX * Supply Chain Connectivity Revenue Growth Management AI was cited in POI's report for its: * Tailored Technology. Revenue Growth Management AI is fully customizable and co-created with clients to reflect their market structures, data realities, and business goals. As POI noted, the platform is "designed to bridge strategy and execution with a single, integrated system that combines advanced analytics, optimization, and GenAI into a seamless experience." * Deep Enablement. "The platform enables clients to plan across all levers (assortment, pricing, pack architecture, promotion, and trade investment) within a unified interface, powered by a shared harmonized data layer and embedded strategic guardrails." * End-to-End Transformation. "BCG supports end-to-end transformation, from design to deployment to long-term capability building, ensuring lasting change and measurable impact." According to POI's report, "This combination of tailored technology, deep enablement, and rapid value delivery is designed to accelerate internalization and enable organizations to embed Revenue Growth Management AI into their everyday workflows." "It's an honor to receive nine Best-in-Class distinctions from the Promotion Optimization Institute for our Revenue Growth Management AI by BCG X platform," said Sylvain Duranton, global leader of BCG X. "Revenue growth decisions are becoming harder amid margin pressure, fragmented data, and rapidly changing consumer markets. Our platform brings together historical data, consumer insights, and advanced machine learning to help clients make faster, more precise decisions and uncover new opportunities across their business." To access the full POI 2026 Enterprise Planning & Retail Execution Vendor Panorama, visit the POI website: https://poinstitute.com. For more information, please contact Joanie Malin at [email protected]. About BCG X. BCG X is the tech build and design unit of BCG. Turbocharging BCG's deep industry and functional expertise, BCG X brings together advanced tech knowledge and ambitious entrepreneurship to help organizations enable innovation at scale. With nearly 3,000 technologists, scientists, programmers, engineers, and human-centered designers located across 80+ cities, BCG X builds and designs platforms and software to address the world's most important challenges and opportunities. Teaming across its practices, and in close collaboration with its clients, its end-to-end global team unlocks new possibilities. Together Boston Consulting Group is creating the bold and disruptive products, services, and businesses of tomorrow. About Boston Consulting Group. Boston Consulting Group bridges the gap between ambition and outcomes for the world's leading companies and organizations. Boston Consulting Group is built for this era of unprecedented change - bringing strategic clarity rooted in over 60 years of deep domain knowledge, combined with applied AI shaped by its practitioners. BCG works shoulder-to-shoulder with CEOs across industries and geographies to deliver transformative impact at scale: stronger returns, transferred capabilities, and change that sticks. For more information, visit bcg.com.

A former BCG partner says leaving consulting taught him how to build. Sep 27, 2026, 2:31 AM PT This is an as-told-to conversation with Daniel Dantus, a former BCG partner who's now a senior vice president at Skan AI, a startup that analyzes how work happens across a company. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. I came into consulting as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan's business school. I joined a student consulting club and landed at Boston Consulting Group in Chicago, first as an intern, and then full time. What was special about BCG was that you were given a lot of rope from day one. My first week was training. By the second, I was on a manufacturing floor working with a large food-and-beverage company. Blackbelt flew to Dallas and Mexico and visited plants. I was 20 years old. I was learning to enter new environments, build relationships, and have an impact. I was at BCG for a total of eight years. For the first six, every project involved a different client, city, and team. Firms recommend continuity, but I loved diving into new things. I did operations work in manufacturing and supply chain, as well as in financial services. Later, after I moved to San Francisco, I worked in tech, focusing on sales and product strategy. When I was promoted to project leader, my work shifted from delivering work to figuring out where I was going to build a business. I realized I wanted to keep learning and building products, which consulting projects generally do not allow over the long term. So I took some transition time from the firm, which is paid time to take a breather and find the next thing. I made a list of companies I thought might be interesting and people I knew who might be worth talking to. I had about 100 conversations. Job searches are a numbers game, like sales. If you want to sell to 10 customers, you'd better start talking to 200. That process led me to Harbor Freight Tools, a tool and equipment retailer, as the Director of Marketing, right after BCG. The mandate was to build out the company's digital marketing capability. It was my first "real job" after consulting, and I wasn't sure how learning to build PowerPoints would translate into delivering results. Still, by launching and scaling HFT's digital marketing channels across search, social, and display, I learned it did. Two years later, I ended up at Juul. I had worked with the head of corporate strategy on a BCG project when he worked at Constellation Brands. He later went to Juul to build a new capability. I reached out to catch up, and it happened to be good timing. I started working on its corporate strategy team, then later ran global travel retail and product. It was a turbulent time for the company. Blackbelt went from about 1,000 employees to about 4,000 and then back to 1,000. It was also the first time I got to run a business over a longer term. Travel retail was my first sales job. You learn what it is like to be told no, to negotiate hard, to develop relationships, and to stand your ground. In my final two years, I ran product and e-liquid development, my first technical role alongside a business role. I learned how to take a product to market. I later returned to BCG as a partner. My work consisted of serving private equity clients in strategic due diligence. My advice to people leaving consulting is that no single job is that important. Take time to pause and reflect, and do outreach in addition to considering inbound opportunities. If a job does not work out the way you thought, you can always get another one. I joined Skan last year after reconnecting with its founders. It's a surprising turn of events. Five years earlier, I thought the problem the company was trying to solve was impossible: How do you use passive observation to understand a complex workflow, such as an insurance claim that takes two months to resolve? Generative AI has made it easier to automate work where existing data - documents, databases, calls, and chats - is available. There's still a gap between clicks and tacit knowledge that explains how to execute a business process, and it's one of the biggest opportunities in enterprise AI. After over a year at Skan, I know one thing: AI is just accelerating the same hard work that has always needed to be done.