Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world’s largest management consulting firms, is facing internal turmoil, with senior figures forced to step down amid revelations that it facilitated the creation of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Hundreds of desperate civilians have been shot dead by Israeli forces near the distribution sites of this controversial aid distribution project in Gaza, drawing rebuke from rights groups and governments.
Two senior BCG figures stepped down from leadership roles over their connection to the work, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 11. Two other partners were dismissed in June for the same reason.
The firm is now scrambling to contain the reputational fallout from its ties to a project that has been described as an “inhumane and deadly militarised scheme” disguised as a humanitarian aid distribution effort.
According to a report published by the Financial Times on July 4, BCG’s role went beyond designing the controversial aid project.
More than a dozen BCG staff worked directly on developing a financial model for a covert project named “Aurora,” aiming to displace more than half a million Palestinians from Gaza by offering “displacement packages” funded by foreign entities.
The British daily identified the GHF, created with US-Israeli support, as the executive front of the project.
Following the expose, BCG disavowed the effort, insisting it was never an official BCG project and had been “orchestrated and run secretly outside any BCG scope or approvals.”
The consulting firm claimed that it was undertaken by two senior figures who went against directives categorically barring them from initiating the work.
“In October 2024, a BCG team from the US, led by two partners, provided pro bono support to help establish an aid organization intended to operate alongside other relief efforts to deliver humanitarian support to Gaza,” a June 7 statement published on BCG’s website read.
“They failed to disclose the full nature of the work. These individuals then carried out subsequent unauthorized work. Their actions reflected a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards.”
But the firm’s distancing has done little to quell the backlash.
Save the Children cuts ties
Alongside McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company, BCG is known as one of the world's three largest management consulting firms by revenue.
It has worked with numerous humanitarian organisations, including Save the Children, an international non-governmental body that has been extensively involved in documenting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and sending aid workers to the enclave since October 7, 2023.
Given BCG’s role in planning or facilitating the displacement of the very people that Save the Children has worked tirelessly to support struck a particular nerve within the non-profit group.
Save the Children has denounced the major consulting firm and suspended its longstanding partnership, as announced in a July 8 email to all staff by its CEO Inger Ashing.
He described the firm’s attempt to quantify the per-person cost of displacing the Gazan population and compare it to reconstruction expenses as “devoid of humanity, disregards fundamental rights and dignity, and raises serious ethical and legal questions," in an email to the New Humanitarian.
Ashing was referring to a scenario in which the firm projected that over 500,000 Gazans could be relocated from the enclave with “relocation packages” valued at $9,000 per person.
“We suspended our work with BCG on June 13 and we are now awaiting the outcome of their review,” Save the Children spokesperson Belinda Goldsmith added.
Further explaining the significance of the BCG’s involvement in the GHF, The Washington Post report revealed that their consultants played a critical role in designing and maintaining the business operations of the GHF and regularly met with Israeli officials, according to people familiar with the group.
