You are a boomerang BCGer—welcome back! Please share some highlights from the extensive and impressive public sector career you pursued after your first BCG tenure.
I left BCG and went into the public sector not knowing that I would fall in love with it! I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do, and honestly, the public sector—specifically Chicago Public Schools (CPS)—just met every criterion I had. I like complex organizations. I like working on intractable, hard, messy problems, helping to bring order to chaos. I wanted to be able to do good and have a measurable impact at the same time. You are one person, but you have an impact that is certainly larger than yourself. For me, finding my niche within the public sector was really about being in the spaces where I could leverage my distinct skillset. All the places I have worked within the public sector, whether at CPS or the City of Chicago or the State of Illinois, face large obstacles and require individuals with a wide range of backgrounds, skillsets, lived experiences, and expertise. From my time at BCG, I was able to apply my critical thinking, approach to structuring problems, and focus on implementation—and together, those skills helped to set me apart as an individual contributor and later as a manager and leader.
Some of my professional highlights from the last decade include supporting CPS—and specifically the CEO’s Office—through a number or leadership transitions (three CEOs in two years!), working with the City of Chicago in various performance improvement and process redesign opportunities, and as chief operating officer for the city, supporting the mayor and his department heads in more efficiently and effectively running the city and bringing to life his vision for the future of Chicago.
There is something to being in the right place at the right time, adding something unique and specific to help advance the vision for the future of the city and commitment to the communities that we serve. In my most recent role, I had the great honor and pleasure to serve the state of Illinois and support agencies, boards, and commissions that deliver reliable services to all Illinois citizens. I was able to build capacity, build infrastructure, and enable the agencies and staff that were truly doing God’s work. These are the people who are out in the field—whether it was the Health Department, Human Services, or Emergency Management agencies. Being able to help support them so they could focus on their core mission was my mission, and my team’s mission. These have all been jobs of a lifetime!
Some of my professional highlights from the last decade include supporting CPS—and specifically the CEO’s Office—through a number or leadership transitions (three CEOs in two years!), working with the City of Chicago in various performance improvement and process redesign opportunities, and as chief operating officer for the city, supporting the mayor and his department heads in more efficiently and effectively running the city and bringing to life his vision for the future of Chicago.
There is something to being in the right place at the right time, adding something unique and specific to help advance the vision for the future of the city and commitment to the communities that we serve. In my most recent role, I had the great honor and pleasure to serve the state of Illinois and support agencies, boards, and commissions that deliver reliable services to all Illinois citizens. I was able to build capacity, build infrastructure, and enable the agencies and staff that were truly doing God’s work. These are the people who are out in the field—whether it was the Health Department, Human Services, or Emergency Management agencies. Being able to help support them so they could focus on their core mission was my mission, and my team’s mission. These have all been jobs of a lifetime!
How do you feel your time in high-profile public roles has added value to your BCG experience at present and informs the way you work today?
I came back to BCG specifically for an Expert Career Track (ECT) role. The reason ECT was so appealing to me was because it’s a role where you can bring more of your experience to the conversation. And for me, that was the perfect intersection between marrying what I’d done before and the experience I had on the ground doing this work, day in and day out.
While I feel like I was able to have an impact in my various roles, I was reaching the point of feeling a bit limited in the space and within only a particular geography. I also wanted to help my fellow practitioners, who I knew needed a different kind of consulting support. When I reflected on where I would want to go next, where the work was rewarding, the approach was unique and custom to the client; and where I could feel good about the impact I could make ... there was only one answer. In coming back to BCG in the ECT track, I knew I would be valued for bringing in my institutional knowledge and my outside experience, and that I could immediately hit the ground running.
What motivated you to return to BCG, and what inspired you to make this decision?
In my public sector roles, and as a political appointee, there was always some risk and vulnerability involved in the stability of your job. During a time of change and a reelection campaign, I had to decide as a member of the cabinet what would be the best for me and my team. I was coming up on over three years in the role and was reflecting on if and how long I wanted to stay and what I wanted to do next. Did I want to continue holding the position of agency head and, if so, what was the direction I envision for the agency’s future? Had I accomplished enough, and was my agency at an inflection point where it needed someone with a fresh perspective? These are several of the questions that I had to consider and ask myself. I ultimately felt that I was successfully able to lead the agency’s transformation and set my team up for success, but that a different kind of leader may benefit the organization at its current inflection point.
At the same time, and personally, I realized I had been in the public sector for 13 years and the scope for professional development opportunities was extremely limited in the industry as a whole, and that was becoming of increasing importance to me personally. I was so proud of the work I was able to accomplish during my time in the public sector, but I felt that I hadn’t really been investing in myself in the ways that I wanted to, needed to, and had hoped to. As a BCG alumna, I remained connected with some colleagues and other alumni and continued to have conversations about my professional interests. And the move to BCG ended up happening very organically and so that part was actually a bit of a (pleasant) surprise!
Fast-forward to BCG and ECT (which did not exist when I graduated from BCG the first time), and all of the puzzle pieces came together and fit in the end. I was so excited to reintroduce myself to BCG, bringing the full breadth of my experience back to the firm (especially to the Chicago office)—and the cherry on top has been being able to continue to support the state of Illinois, in a different capacity. To now be able to support the team and the practice area in a space that means so much to me further confirms for me that I made the right decision.
What do you love about being back at BCG? And what do you feel has changed while you were away? What do you notice the firm does better now?
I’ve always said this because I believe it to be true: BCG has a maniacal focus on creating customer value. When I came back to BCG after 13 years, several things had changed but this had certainly not. In my gut, I knew I wanted to be a part of that again. I appreciate the fact that we have such a focus on value—and that we are doing the “right thing” for our client, our community, and the organization. I can say for sure that in the public sector work we do, specifically state and local, the conversation surrounding value is center stage. Is this the right opportunity for us? Would we be the right partners for this project? Even if we might not be the right partners for a project, should we share our view on what we think would be best for them as they think about how to advance their objective? Maintaining integrity is critically important to me personally and professionally, and I believe that it is especially important to do so in the public sector. To be a part of a firm that is so dedicated to client service and value creation, is energized to make the world a better place, and operates with a high level of integrity is incredibly unique in this industry and is one of the reasons I am proud to be back at BCG.
I also love the professional development opportunities BCG offers me. I’m able to invest in myself as a person, not just as an employee. Earlier, I mentioned that one of the reasons I returned to BCG was for professional development. At BCG, this involves coaching, advanced leader journey opportunities, multiple rounds of onboarding, among a host of other support programs. All of this shows me how much BCG is investing in my success, our clients’ success, and the firm’s success. I love the value we deliver to our clients, that we truly work with purpose and integrity, and that BCG invests in its people. We’ve always done that, yes, but for me as a boomerang, it’s been incredibly important.
Another thing that I appreciate seeing since coming back to BCG is the different options that are now available for employees to make a BCG career more sustainable. The availability of programs like 80-20, Flex time, Off Ramp, Time for You all show that the firm’s evolved, and we value our employees’ lives inside and outside of work. It is incredibly important that we recognize the importance of people and the simple fact that life is complicated, but we can make it work. I’ve worked in places where there was no flexibility. For example, government, as an industry, is more of an always-on culture. To be working now in a place where there’s emotional and physical space offered to you, to find ways to be most productive at home and at work, is truly special. I think BCG has also been thoughtful in creating different pathways to accommodate those at varying stages in their lives, which did not exist when I was here previously. Not only have more support mechanisms been put in place, but it seems like the firm is encouraging employees to take advantage of what best fits their needs and share their stories on how these programs are impacting them. These are not easy jobs, and for BCG to prioritize helping employees better manage—focusing on the whole person—really resonates with me, and I do appreciate BCG for that.
How did the BCG Alumni Network provide personal or professional value to you during your time away? In what ways were you able to stay connected?
My sponsor, and former BCG classmate, also happened to be the Chicago Alumni Node, North America Alumni Lead, Justin Manly—and we stayed in contact over the years. From time to time, I would be invited back to the Chicago office for Friday Features and most recently as a keynote speaker at the Women@BCG Great Lakes A/C Conference in July 2021. In turn, I have called on BCG for assistance and thought partnership—and someone always took the call. The firm’s willingness and responsiveness to support me (and the organizations that mean so much to me) as an alum, and to always take my call, actually facilitated my return to BCG as well.
Even as I was thinking of leaving my previous organization, I was just starting to reactivate my network and sketch out my potential paths. In my head, when I started reaching out, it was more about me opening my mind to what might be next. And the fact that people at BCG would be so responsive, supportive—help me brainstorm and be thought partners—it all helped to lead me back to BCG.
You mentioned that during your previous tenure at BCG, the ECT program did not even exist! How do you find that the Expert Consulting Track informs your career development differently compared with how the traditional Consulting track had in your first tenure at BCG?
As somebody who was here a long time ago, ECT was a wonderful way for me to come back in a less-traditional consulting role than I previously occupied. I believe that coming back to BCG in the ECT, I have been able to really focus on the craft of consulting in a unique way and at a different level; I’ve been focusing on leveraging my insights, experience, and expertise without having commercial endeavors as my primary driving force.
One other incredible benefit to this role is that I have options available to me within and beyond the ECT track at BCG, as it makes sense for my career and development; this option for flexibility is very important to me. BCG has created more career pathways for those of us on the CT side as well as on the Business Services Team side, again showcasing the firm’s investment in its people. This is truly one of the main reasons why, to me, BCG—and specifically ECT—was a very compelling proposition. As a result of open dialogue with colleagues at BCG, I learned what ECT was and understood how it was the right next path for me.