Warren Ritchie, PhD

During his 30+ year career to date, Dr. Warren Ritchie has emerged as an expert in leading corporate transformation in private and public sector companies. His experience has been gained in the functional areas of corporate strategy, marketing, finance, sales and information technology.

Today, Warren leads the Strategy Services Practice at CGS Advisors’, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that readies clients for the connected world, institutionalizing innovation and general growth strategy realization. Warren assists corporate leaders in being brave as well as advising clients on dynamic market issues and strategic changes necessary to grow. His practice specializes in corporate and business strategies, wrestling with the questions “what business are we in”, and “how do we compete” respectively.

Prior to working with CGS, Warren had a 24-year tenure with the Volkswagen Group of Companies where he held leadership positions in the United States, Canada and Argentina. For the majority of his career he has been a change agent, assigned to either initiate a new or transform an existing challenged function or department. He started his career in automotive by leading field sales & marketing organizations, eventually taking on “headquarter” responsibilities in almost all functions outside of manufacturing. He led corporate strategy at VW in both Canada and the United States for years before moving to the IT department eventually becoming CIO. He continues to advise automotive clients applying his unique perspective of strategy and IT.

Warren holds a PhD in Strategy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA from Dalhousie University in Halifax, and a BA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.