Linda Solomon
Homeland Security Practice Leader
Deloitte Consulting
Excellence in Public Sector
Linda Solomon isn't where she thought she'd be.
"I was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area and the last thing I ever wanted to do was work for, or near, the federal government," she says from her D.C. office.
She joined what is now Deloitte Consulting in 1990, serving the private sector exclusively. Perhaps subconsciously, Deloitte was particularly attractive because it didn't even have a federal government practice at the time.
While serving the private sector, "I developed a great deal of battle scars and lessons learned. And it provided a number of very valuable experiences in running large, major programs," she says.
Though she was quite successful, it left her wanting more. "I was struggling with what I really wanted to be known for," she says. "I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to do something more public-service oriented. I looked at what non-profits I could get involved with, and began to ask myself how I could accomplish this change without leaving Deloitte."
So, she did what she had once swore she'd never do: She moved back to Washington. "It was ironic—I left Washington to get as far away as possible. But you sometimes reach a critical time in your life where you begin to rethink your priorities."
In 2002, Deloitte had a large practice serving state and local governments, but wasn't particularly active in serving the federal government. "We had two clients. There was no federal practice, per se. We just had partners serving federal clients on an ad hoc basis." Later that year, Solomon became one of the original partners to form the 35-person federal practice. She began serving the newly formed Department of Homeland Security in 2003, shortly after its inception.
Since 2004, she has led the consulting arm of Deloitte's Homeland Security practice, which currently accounts for about $100 million in annual revenue. Her accomplishments with the DHS have included implementing a successful financial transformation program at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which identified over $300 million in surplus funding for security enhancements to 8,800 federal buildings.
—Jess Scheer
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