About

Eli Gentle, Founder

Born in Texas, I grew up as a missionary kid raised between two worlds: Namibia and the American South. Following an international childhood, I focused on music throughout high school in rural Oklahoma. I reluctantly set aside professional musical aspirations after graduation to chart a different path: studying international business for an opportunity to live and work abroad. I majored in economics and studied Arabic in Alabama, Cairo and at Georgetown, hoping to follow in the expatriate footsteps of my parents and grandparents.

My study of the Middle East led me to McKinsey & Company in Dubai, where I spent five years improving the performance of clients from Egypt to Pakistan on a range of people-related topics, including organization and operating model design, learning and development (L&D), and digital business building. I then moved to Paris, where I led teams at McKinsey France, working with household names in retail and consumer goods on a range of topics including corporate strategy, people and organizational performance.

I left McKinsey after more than six years for an opportunity to return to my childhood home: Namibia. In Windhoek, at Eos Capital (a private equity fund manager), I was responsible for developing and implementing value creation strategies in portfolio companies ranging from soap manufacturing to luxury hospitality. In this role, I worked with boards of directors, CEOs and executive teams to drive initiatives to realize value promised to investors. The work was exciting, but I wanted to rekindle my creative side.

Seeking to reconnect with the musical part of myself, I decided to return to the United States to pursue a degree in flute performance. After a six-month flurry of intense practice, lessons and auditions, I was admitted to the Peabody Conservatory as a freshman at age 34 – fulfilling a childhood dream. I left Namibia and returned to the US to study music after nearly a decade abroad. Despite only completing half of the program, the experience of studying music laid to rest a long-running source of anxiety and cemented the role of music in my life: a deeply fulfilling extra-curricular pursuit.

I established Gentle Consulting in 2022 to fund my studies. However, since leaving music school, it has taken on a new centrality to the life I want to create: one that blends the intellectual stimulation from client service with space for music and fitness. I currently perform with a contemporary music ensemble (Der Gestank) programming cutting-edge works by living composers and obtained my CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2) certification in 2024.