Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> May 27, 2003
SUDHAKAR KESAVAN serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of ICF Consulting, a management, technology and policy consulting
firm headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. The firm's 1,000
employees are based in 15 offices in the Americas and Europe. Mr.
Kesavan joined ICF Consulting in 1983. In 1997, he was named
President of the ICF Consulting Group when it was a subsidiary of
ICF Kaiser, a publicly traded global engineering and professional
services firm. At that time, Mr. Kesavan faced the strategic
challenge of diversifying the consulting group out of its mature
markets into new growth areas. He accomplished that goal while
under a financially stressed corporate parent that subsequently
went into bankruptcy. From 1997 to 1999 Mr. Kesavan, as
President, reduced the firm's dependency on a single federal
agency from 70% of its business to 30%, while growing the top and
bottom line and adding more than 150 professionals. Despite this
success, the corporate parent's financial picture continued to
deteriorate, due to non-consulting operational losses. In
response, Mr. Kesavan brought together a coalition of the
corporate parent, management, investment and employee interests
to execute a management-led buyout from Kaiser in 1999. Under his
leadership as Chairman and CEO, ICF Consulting was launched as a
new, independent company. In its three years as a private firm,
ICF Consulting has developed an entire back office and knowledge
management infrastructure, grown the top and bottom line
significantly, and launched important, new growth areas in
emergency management, transportation, change management, and
information technology applications, while retaining its strong
tradition of quality and innovation throughout the firm. In
addition, in 2002, Mr. Kesavan led the ICF Consulting acquisition
of two divisions (more than 200 people) of Arthur D. Little Inc.,
which added strong qualifications in environmental science,
health and safety, and program management. Mr. Kesavan received
his Master of Science degree from the Technology and Policy
Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984), his
post graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad (1978) and his Bachelor of Technology
degree (Chemical Engineering with distinction) from the Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1976). Profile
Mr. Kesavan: We are a management and technology consulting firm
with revenues of $165 million and 1,000 people.
TWST: How
