Mr. Mercer is President of THE MERCER GROUP, lNC., a management consulting firm which he founded. The firm offers management consulting in the areas of organization and management analysis, privatization, strategic planning, organization development, compensation and classification, management systems, and executive search primarily in the public sector. Prior to forming The Mercer Group, Inc., Mr. Mercer was Founder, President/CEO of Mercer, Slavin and Nevins, Inc., and prior to that he was regional vice president of Wolfe & Associates, Inc., both management consulting firms. Prior to that, he was President of James Mercer & Associates, Inc., a general management consulting firm which he founded in 1981. He has also been Director of Governmental Consulting Services for Coopers & Lybrand in the Southern Region.
Mr. Mercer was formerly manager of the Industrial Extension Division and the Resource Productivity Group of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he was a partner and vice president of Korn/Ferry International, where he regularly conducted searches for executives in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Korn/Ferry, Mr. Mercer was General Manager of Battelle Southern Operations, a venture of Battelle Memorial Institute. BSO was established to bring a wide range of research and development capabilities to bear on social, economic, and technological problems at the state, regional and local levels.
Prior to Battelle, Mr. Mercer was national program director for Public Technology, Inc., Washington, D.C. Mr. Mercer directed a $10 million multi-sponsored program to increase innovation and technology utilization among 27 local governments throughout the United States. As a former Assistant City Manager of Raleigh, North Carolina, he managed the City's capital improvements program, functioned as the city budget officer and was responsible for city-wide management systems. He also spent several years in the private sector and was on the staff and faculty of two major state universities.
Mr. Mercer is a certified management consultant (CMC) with over 25 years of management consulting experience specializing in organization and management studies, strategic planning, privatization, operations analysis, organization development and training and executive search.
Mr. Mercer received his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management and his M.B.A. degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a Certificate in Municipal Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a graduate of the Executive Development Program at Cornell University. He has taught and lectured extensively to college, university, local government, and private-sector groups. He is a corporate member of the International City and County Management Association, a member of the Institute of Management Consultants and many other professional organizations, and is a consultant to the National Science Foundation. He has published over 250 articles (including the Harvard Business Review) and reports and has authored or co-authored five books: Public Management Systems; Public Technology: Key To Improved Government Productivity; Managing Urban Government Services; Strategic Planning for Public Managers; and Public Management in Lean Years. He is currently working on a new book to be entitled Public Employee Involvement Processes: Adaptive Management. He has been quoted in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and other national and international news media. He has appeared twice on CNN and is listed in Who's Who In The World and Contemporary Authors.