The 2022 Top Consultants: Ken Ditzel

Ken Ditzel is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and leads the firm's North American energy and environmental market analytics team. He has over 20 years of experience in market analysis and consulting. His work has been used in antitrust and competitive assessments; arbitration, litigation and regulatory disputes; asset due diligence; corporate growth strategies; integrated resource plans; project feasibility studies; and policy analyses. Ken often uses statistical and optimization models to determine how changes in market and regulatory variables affect energy supply, demand and prices. His clients have included financial institutions, independent power producers, manufacturers, private equity firms, technology firms, trade associations and utilities. His work has covered the biofuels, coal, electricity, domestic gas and LNG, manufacturing, oil and refined products, petrochemicals and renewables industries. Ken holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Georgetown University.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

My greatest personal and professional achievement is an ongoing one. Somehow, I'm able to balance my busy yet rewarding career and still spend quality time with each of my children. Undoubtedly, it took time to learn how to achieve this balance. The right ingredients have been getting life priorities aligned, making time for yourself and your family, hiring great staff, a willingness to push work down, implementing quality controls and continuously increasing productivity.

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

Be willing to adapt and learn new things. The market, technology, policies, cultural attitudes and your life experiences are constantly changing. A friend recently told me about a CEO who gave a commencement speech encouraging graduates to "stay the course no matter what." Sure, dedication and fortitude are important, but knowing when to adapt is equally important. Businesses are organisms, and when internal and external factors change, they need to be nimble and change as well.

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

It's like being in business school every day. Each engagement is a new case study – a new problem to solve. To be successful in consulting, you must love that challenge. We're hired to come up with solutions, not just to identify problems.

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

The best advice I've received is to prioritize what's most important to you in the long term. Looking back, you'll never regret spending more time with family and friends, going on that vacation or taking that class you seemingly never had time for. Be willing to teach others and relinquish control, your career will grow faster than you expect, and you'll have time for the personally rewarding things life has to offer.

What does being honored as a Top Consultant mean to you?

This award is truly an honor, but it really symbolizes that FTI Consulting is an amazing firm. FTI Consulting's ESG offering is truly unique and powerful, and it's the cross-segment collaboration that has enabled me to win this award. Ultimately, the award means that our collective professional efforts on advancing our ESG offering have paid off and that we're well-positioned to grow and adapt as the definition of and importance of ESG evolves.