NEW YORK – July 1, 2003 – Consulting Magazine has named Marakon Chairman and Co-founder Jim McTaggart to its list of "The Top 25 Most Influential Consultants" for 2004. Executives from 14 leading consulting firms selected the consultant leaders out of more than 500 nominations.

"It’s an honor to be recognized by my peers," said McTaggart. "I’m proud of the impact we have made with our clients and within the industry. Our success is due to the exceptional talent and hard work of many people over the past 25 years."

McTaggart is an authority on the subject of managing large companies for long-term value growth. He is a co-author of The Value Imperative: Managing for Superior Shareholder Returns (Free Press, 1994) and a contributor to numerous publications, including Strategy & Leadership, Mergers & Acquisitions and the Marakon Commentary series. He has been a featured speaker at Business Week and Harvard Business Review conferences, among others, and has served on the Advisory Board for Strategic Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

In 1978, he co-founded Marakon with two other Wells Fargo executives – Peter Kontes and Jim McGrath – and a distinguished finance professor, William Alberts. Since then, the firm has grown steadily, with revenues increasing an average of 25% annually.

Marakon’s clients are primarily the CEOs and top management of large, multinational corporations. Past and present clients include Alcan, Barclays, Boeing, BP, Cadbury Schweppes, Cardinal Health, Dow Chemical, Gillette, Prudential plc and Roche.

A profile of McTaggart and others on the Top 25 list will appear in the July/August issue of Consulting Magazine. Published since 1970 by Kennedy Information, the magazine is a leading source of information on the management consulting industry.

About Marakon Associates:
Marakon Associates is an international management consulting firm that advises senior executives on the issues most impacting company performance and long-term value. The firm is widely recognized for its integrated approach to strategy, organization, finance and leadership. This approach produces exceptional value growth for clients. The Economist has called the firm "a consultancy that has advised some of the world’s most consistently successful companies." Marakon has offices in Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco and Singapore.