Brian Kennedy
FTI Consulting
Excellence in Client Service
Brian Kennedy became a management consultant by accident, "but I'm glad the accident happened," he says. "The fast-paced and diverse nature of the work quickly made it clear that I fell into the right profession. Career planning is often an oxymoron; if you find something you love doing and work hard at doing it, there will be no shortage of opportunities to advance your career."
Today, Kennedy is a Senior Managing Director and serves as Head of the Americas for FTI Consulting's Strategic Communications division, overseeing nearly 250 multi-disciplinary communications professionals across 18 geographies in Canada, the U.S. and Latin America.
Ask him about the professional achievements/accomplishments he's most proud of over the course of his career and he'll say: "Building a number of best-in-class teams by empowering others and giving them the runway to succeed."
With more than 20 years of experience managing high-profile strategic communications matters, he is best known for his expertise in crisis management, when clients are faced with complex communications challenges associated with operational and environmental incidents, transactions, shareholder activism, major litigation, Congressional and Federal government investigations, product recalls, fraud, and other threats to reputation and enterprise value.
Kennedy's clients include numerous Fortune 100 energy, industrial, chemical, manufacturing and retail companies.
"I'm competitive by nature—I love winning, but equally, I take the trust others have placed in me very seriously," Kennedy says. What he enjoys about the consulting profession, above all else is: "working with a diverse array of brilliant people on complex challenges."
Prior to his tenure leading the Americas, Kennedy led the Energy & Natural Resources practice, which he started when he joined the firm in 2009 and grew to become the largest strategic communications practice of its kind in the Americas.
Notably, during that time, he served as chief spokesman and communications strategist for the global offshore drilling contractor, Transocean, during the BP Macondo spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the multi-district litigation in federal court that followed. He lives in Washington, D.C. and serves on the board of directors of A Wider Circle, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to lifting people out of poverty.
What's been the biggest factor to his success? "Hard work, persistence and—above all else—having really smart people around me all the time," he says.
It pays off, for sure. In 2015, Kennedy was recognized by the M&A Advisor on its annual "40 Under 40" list and, previously, by the National Journal as one of the "Power Players to Watch" inside the Washington beltway. And now, Kennedy is one of Consulting magazine's Top 25 Consultants, as well.
What does winning Consulting's Top 25 Award mean to you?
Kennedy: "It confirms that if you find something you love doing and work hard at doing it, there will be no shortage of opportunities to advance your career."
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.