The 2024 Rising Stars of the Profession: Russ Lamb

Russ Lamb is an associate director with Protiviti's Technology Consulting practice, where he leverages his expertise in web technologies and enterprise data and analytics to design solutions that improve the quality and value of his clients' data through data transformation, data governance and data privacy risk assessments. Russ and his team focus on enabling audit and risk teams to accurately gauge privacy risk, develop control testing capabilities, and build custom applications to automate test procedures and integrate with client systems.

Russ has extensive consulting experience spanning the consumer products, social media technologies and manufacturing industries, among others. His strong technical background has positioned him to lead local and global teams from project start to finish in enterprise data warehousing implementations, ETL system migrations, new project scoping, and development and production support – both on premise and in the cloud.

Russ earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. He is an SAP Certified Application Associate for both BODS and HANA, and an AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate). Additionally, he is co-author of "Data Provisioning for SAP HANA" and has presented nationally numerous times on both ETL and cloud-based architecture best practices.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

Coming out of high school, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I was in art school and supplemented my financial aid by doing technical support jobs. It had never occurred to me that there was a connection between those two worlds.

Then, one day, I heard about consulting from some folks in the business school and it seemed really interesting. Eventually, I landed on consulting as a career path and embraced the idea that you don't have to settle on one thing – if you're interested in a bunch of things, consulting can be the perfect fit.

I attribute much of my success to my focus on mental plasticity. I'm able to gather information across a varying array of sources, skill sets and industries. And that has always been very helpful when speaking to clients – for example, talking at a dinner and finding something in common with a client or something we didn't realize was a pain point that our team has experience with.

Applying something from one scenario to another one and making connections has always aided me. I try to go deep, especially on things that are very interesting to me. But I also try not to limit myself. For example, I taught myself how to sail a couple of years back. That willingness to try new things has played very harmoniously with consulting as a career path.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

I enjoy diving in and trying to understand a hard concept that's not clicking. There's a great sense of satisfaction that comes from finally getting that breakthrough, the feeling of solving a very challenging problem after sometimes weeks of struggling to find the solution.

I equate it to running. I feel like most people don't like running 4 miles. But, if you've just run 4 miles, it's the best thing in the world. I feel the same way about some of our engagements and problems our team has had to overcome from a technical or overall engagement perspective.

Interestingly, this skill is very prevalent in art. With drawing and painting, you get immediate feedback. You draw a line, but maybe it's not the line you wanted to draw. So, you commit to doing it again and again until you finally get it right. I think persistence is key in the consulting profession. That has really helped blunt the fear of failure and encouraged me to try new things. I might not be great at something at first, but I'm going to get better, and – hopefully – I'll get a lot better.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

I would say my proudest achievement is building strong teams. I do a lot of one-on-one mentoring and spend time trying to bring people up with me. Our project is in the 60-to-80-person range, so I coach team members to ensure they have, at a minimum, a core understanding of whatever system they are assessing or working with. I also spend significant time making sure I understand a system and then work with my technology team to put together training materials for the broader team, as there is a skill to explaining very technical concepts in a clear, concise way that your audience understands.

As I've moved into an associate director role, I've started to coach my managers and senior managers to also do these things effectively. And I focus on helping team members, especially those newer in their careers, develop soft skills.

Recently, I've taken on an informal advisee role for a number of Protiviti colleagues across the country. As I meet people, I make sure they know they can always reach out to me – and they often do, which I appreciate.

I always say the value isn't in being the smartest person in the room. The value is being able to make everyone else smarter.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

When I was starting out in my consulting career, I made a mistake that I see a lot of folks make, which is the idea that turning work in earlier is a better show of capability. My principal at the time sat me down and told me I was going too fast. She let me know I didn't have to rush to the finish line and deliver early – that I had a runway and should use it. She talked me through how to iterate, iterate, iterate until the deadline. That way, I'm presenting my best work. And that really resonated with me.

I've found myself sharing that same advice with my team. I let them know that faster isn't necessarily better – because we live in a world of challenging and complex problems. There's not a guaranteed right answer. In fact, we might be able to do something five different ways. It's our job as consultants and trusted advisors to find the best solution. And that takes time and thoughtful consideration.

What does this recognition mean to you?

Being nominated was truly enough for me. In the first couple of years of my consulting career, the sky was the limit. I was willing to go wherever the company wanted to send me and be a road warrior.

But once I got married and started having kids, I felt like I had to choose between being a corporate man or a family man, and that was challenging. I've learned to optimize the time I spend at work to make it as impactful as possible, without falling into the trap of missing kids baseball games or an important social event. I've been able to find a balance between work and family, which makes me a better consultant as well as a better husband and father.

The fact that I've been able to focus so much on my family while earning this honor changes my world view a little bit. I'm very appreciative that Protiviti understands and values the importance of work/life balance. The constant stream of support I've received at every level has been phenomenal and has helped me thrive and deliver my best.