The 2022 Fastest Growing Firms: Ankura Consulting Group, LLC

Number of Billable Consultants: 1500

Client Industries Served: Aerospace & Defense, Construction & Infrastructure, Cryptocurrency & Blockchain, Education, Energy, Mining & Natural Resources, Financial Services, Government & Public Sector, Health Care & Life Sciences, Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure, Manufacturing, Chemicals & Industrials, Real Estate, Retail, Sports, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Transportation & Logistics

Consulting Service Lines: Cybersecurity & Data Privacy, Data & Technology, Diplomacy & Advocacy, Disputes, Finance, Forensics & Investigations, Governance, Operations, Risk & Compliance, Strategy, Talent & Culture, Transactions, Transformation, Turnaround & Restructuring

Website URL: Ankura.com

Ankura is an independent global expert services and advisory firm that delivers services and end-to-end solutions to help clients at critical inflection points related to conflict, crisis, performance, risk, strategy and transformation. The Ankura team consists of more than 1,700 professionals serving 3000+ clients across 55 countries who are leaders in their respective fields and areas of expertise. Collaborative lateral thinking, hard-earned experience, expertise, and multidisciplinary capabilities drive results and Ankura is unrivaled in its ability to assist clients to Protect, Create and Recover Value.

Consulting: What were the main factors that contributed to your firm's exceptional growth?

Lavin: Ankura's tremendous organic growth started in 2016 with executives who were best in class in their areas of expertise and whose focus on internal collaboration to serve the needs of clients brought the solutions and services to clients in an increasingly complex and global environment. Over the last few years, our growth has been fueled by thoughtful and complementary acquisitions of companies that hold similar values to the original founding executives, including, most recently, Noragh Analytics and McLarty Associates, as well as strategic hires, both in the U.S. and globally. Ankura has also been committed to helping businesses navigate the intersection of the private sector, government and civil society that is driving investors, activists and government as critical stakeholders everywhere. In just six years, we have grown from an idea to a multidisciplinary international consulting firm with nearly 2,000 employees in 35 offices around the world. While our global footprint, most recently with new offices in Germany, India, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, we remain committed to our innovative approach to new services and solutions to protect, create and recover value for our clients globally.

Consulting: How would you say you've managed to maintain growth during the unprecedented past three years?

Lavin: Ankura has a strong senior leadership team who have been instrumental in not only building our teams but also helping our professionals navigate their career paths and succeed. As mentioned above, over the last few years, our growth has been fueled by thoughtful and complementary acquisitions of companies that hold similar values to the original founding executives, including, most recently, Noragh Analytics and McLarty Associates, as well as strategic hires, both in the U.S. and globally. Ankura has also been committed to helping businesses navigate the intersection of the private sector, government and civil society that is driving investors, activists and government as critical stakeholders everywhere. While our global footprint, most recently with new offices in Germany, India, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, we remain committed to our innovative approach to new services and solutions to protect, create and recover value for our clients globally.

Consulting: How is this year shaping up for your firm?

Lavin: It is an exciting time to be at Ankura. We continue to grow both in terms of the number of professionals and in our service, solution and product offerings. Our recent acquisitions and strategic hires have enabled us to provide further depth in our service offerings, coupled with our global expansion which allows us to provide local resources to our clients as we deliver on results. Our track record of success has allowed us to optimize both organic and inorganic growth that has allowed us to respond to needs of our clients, particularly at this time of uncertainty, economic stress and disruption from the pandemic, disputes, war and supply chain issues.

Consulting: How would you describe your firm's outlook for 2023? Where do you see the most opportunities?

Lavin: Our firm manages cyclical trends by providing services and solutions throughout the lifecycle of a company. Our international expansion has enabled us to provide services and solutions across numerous jurisdictions and industries. Given the current market conditions, we are expecting an uptick in our Turnaround & Restructuring and our disputes businesses as the economic environment and the government/Central Bank policy responses to inflation stress businesses globally. In addition, Cyber continues to be an area where we expect to remain strong and we will be focused on becoming a leading technology-enabled consulting firm by leveraging our exciting new artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms.

Consulting: What would you say are your firm's biggest challenges in 2023?

Lavin: Through the pandemic, we learned that while we can efficiently work remotely, there are benefits from meeting with clients and our other professionals in person. One of our biggest challenges for 2023 will be balancing continued flexibility for our workforce and in person meetings or gatherings. We will also continue to navigate the competitive market for talent in order to add the best and brightest professionals to our team.

Consulting: What does being named one of Consulting's Fastest Growing Firms mean to your firm, your employees and your clients?

Lavin: The designation of being named as one of Consulting's Fastest Growing Firms is wonderful recognition and validation in the market and for our teams who have worked tirelessly to build a global consulting business with nearly 2,000 people worldwide. We set out to build a next-generation firm designed to meet the challenges our clients face both today and in the future and our amazing growth is testament that it is working. Being named a Fastest Growing Firm is a great nod to the beliefs and values we were founded on and put to practice every day to protect, create and recover value for our clients and to attract, support and build the best team in the consulting space.