The 2021 Global Leaders in Consulting: Brent McGoldrick

He leads FTI's analytics and insights offerings in the Americas, leading a team of 33 digital analysts, primary researchers, data scientists, and content creators. The team engages clients at any and every level of the analytics and digital maturity lifecycle, from building early-stage reputation measurement programs to providing counsel on developing integrated insights "fusion centers." His work is focused on using advanced analytics to help companies, organizations and government agencies measure reputational impact.

McGoldrick has historically not been one to shy away from a challenge. He's frequently worked in high-stakes consulting environments, on U.S. presidential campaigns, and serving as CEO of a company. However, ask him to describe his greatest professional achievement so far in his career and he'll say "working with a set of dedicated professionals to identify a problem, diagnose that problem, develop a range of solutions, make a recommendation and then execute."

But, if I had to point to two achievements, one would be finding the right mentors. If you find the right mentors, professional life becomes a lot easier to navigate. The second is becoming a good listener. Clients and colleagues will share a lot if you take the time to listen," he says.

Last year, McGoldrick led engagements including calculating the reputational impact on a region's tourism and local economy based on media reports, leveraging data science and visualization techniques to better understand the media ecosystem around a major retail company.

As for what it means to be recognized as a Global Leader in Consulting, McGoldrick says it's an "enormous honor" to be named among such an outstanding peer group of past, present, and future leaders in consulting.

"For FTI Consulting, we strive every day to be 'Experts with Impact' who live and work by the values of Integrity, Creativity, Achievement, Respect and Empathy (ICARE). To have our work and professionals recognized by industry peers is gratifying and good validation of the work we do and the way in which we do that work."

Q&A: What has been the biggest key to your success so far?

"To the extent I have been successful, it has been following the advice of a great mentor early in my career. She told me that great professionals seek to build subject matter expertise quickly (and maintain it), but most importantly, they build teams of people junior and senior to them. The better you are at that, the better you will be professionally."