Rising Stars of the Profession: Ian Hennigan

Ian Hennigan is a project management professional with over 6 years of experience in large-scale disaster recovery and IT engagements, as well as application development. He is a seasoned manager in overseeing teams responsible for case management, Agile project implementation, quality assurance and quality control, PMO support, and technical process development and implementation. As a Manager, Ian specializes in disaster recovery efforts, overseeing production and processing, QA/QC, and policy and process implementation.

Before joining Emergent Method in 2020, Ian served as a senior consultant at Postlethwaite & Netterville, where he led the quality team for a state agency's first Agile implementation and designed and managed the project's quality reporting suite. Additionally, he created and delivered weekly training for project staff members on topics including business analysis, Scrum fundamentals, QA test case design and execution, and Jira project administration. Ian also has experience as an eligibility manager, managing the quality control team and developing operating procedures based off of federal and state regulations.

Ian is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in International Trade and Finance. He also earned a Juris Doctorate and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University. He has his Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification as well as his Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Certification.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

I am most proud of the opportunity to redesign a disaster recovery grant processing quality management and reporting suite which supports the repair and replacement of hurricane-damaged homes. This afforded my team the opportunities to foster their leadership abilities and technical skills while dramatically improving the program's efficiency in servicing impacted communities. The results of the project were conspicuous: getting impacted families back into safe and resilient homes months—if not years—more quickly.

What advice would you give a professional just beginning a career in consulting?

Seek to answer the client's follow-up question before it's asked, not just the question they're asking. Regardless of deliverable size or scope, being in the mindset to anticipate second and third level inquiries/responses to your solutions will allow you to set your deliverables and presentations apart from the pack.

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

Consulting allows me to help clients address complex and unique challenges, with results often being in the form of observable and quantifiable outcomes, improvements, or products. I enjoy being able to see the impact of my contributions while helping clients approach their projects with individualized solutions. I also enjoy the collaborative nature of consulting work, where our teams are comprised of individuals with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, all working together to create valued solutions for our clients.

What's the best advice—personal or professional—you've ever received?

The best advice I've received is that having clients like you, trust you, and respect your abilities is as important as the work itself. Creating solid deliverables, giving insightful presentations, or proposing significant process improvements will have a much more powerful impact if you're both liked and trusted by the client. I was advised that clients should see you as a direct outgrowth of their own team. It's been clear throughout my career that clients' successes are our successes, where we must be willing to answer the call for support during both good and challenging times with high performance efforts on their behalf.

What does being honored as a Rising Star mean to you?

It's an honor to be recognized amongst the group of previous and current awardees who embody passion and dedication to the profession. This recognition represents an acknowledgment to those mentors and peers who have supported me along my journey in the profession. It also provides encouragement to the young leaders I work with that the values and purpose we strive to embody as a team are recognized within the industry.