The 2018 Rising Stars of the Profession: Katy Rauen

For the past two years, Katy Rauen has been an engagement leader working with a retailer to help them plan a complex integration. There were more than six deal structures for which detailed planning was initiated before the deal structure was finalized and the transaction could proceed. Through each one of those deal structures, Rauen led a consulting and client team of close to 100 through the planning process to work through in detail the sequencing of activities, create playbooks and processes for dealing with the unexpected.

"I'm proud of the longstanding relationships I've built with my retail health clients, and of the consumer health team that I've helped build within A.T. Kearney," Rauen says. "We've built a team of consultants with deep expertise at all levels, and done so in a way that supports development and empowers our people to pursue topics that they care about."

Healthcare is on the cusp of a massive transformation, she says. "We'll have to confront an unsustainable model, provider shortages and high costs for development and delivery of care," Rauen says. "We're also seeing incredible advances in technology which will unlock data for use in new ways—offering tremendous potential for researchers to better understand medical conditions, reduce the time it takes to develop a cure, and better understand the role patient behavior and other contextual factors play in outcomes."

What excites her the most about her consulting career is helping her clients develop strategies and form new partnerships to not only adapt to the new environment but to drive meaningful change.

Rauen says she's been extremely lucky to work with fantastic people—her clients and A.T. Kearney colleagues—"who have taught me, supported me and challenged me. I wouldn't be where I am without them."