North Highland adds four senior hires in US

22 January 2018 Consulting.us

Management consulting firm North Highlands has brought in four new executives across multiple US offices. Bill Lawrence joins as Vice President, Sara Roberts joins as Managing Director and Service Line Leader, and Jeff Strain and Gail Sneed join as Client Executives in financial services.

North Highland is an Atlanta-based management consultancy with over 3,000 employees in 70+ offices worldwide. The firm endeavours to create close client-consultant relationships where its employees work with customers in their hometowns. North Highland’s emphasis on close client relationships based on honesty and integrity, according to the firm, has resulted in 94% of business coming from repeat clients. The firm prides itself on a positive and supportive work culture where its employees are also part-owners of the company; North Highland consistently ranks in the top five of Consulting Magazine’s Top Firms to Work For.

North Highland recently announced a string of high-ranking additions to its US operation, including the hiring of financial services executives Jeff Strain and Gail Sneed, the appointment of Bill Lawrence as Vice President, and the addition of Sara Roberts as Managing Director and Service Line Leader.

North Highland adds four senior hires in US

Jeff Strain and Gail Sneed

Based out of Charlotte, N.C. and St. Louis respectively, Strain and Sneed will serve as Client Executives in North Highland’s financial services practice. In their new roles, they will work with their teams in existing and targeted accounts, overseeing delivery engagements and supporting team member development.

“I am excited to welcome Jeff and Gail to our team,” added Jill Jacques, Global Financial Services Lead. “Their combined experience and expertise will be valuable to our clients looking to convert disruption and regulation into growth opportunities in this ever-changing industry. We also look forward to the impact they will have with their teams as they lead them through the continued growth in our financial services practice.”

Jeff Strain has over 23 years of experience developing and operating consulting-related business, with a focus on financial services. He has served in executive roles at several consulting firms – most recently NTT DATA Consulting – and is well-versed in transformative tech and digital solutions.

Strain holds a degree in Accounting and Accounting Information Systems from Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.

Gail Sneed has almost 30 years of experience in financial services, primarily focused on banking. She specializes in helping firms boost profits through improved client experience and performance improvement.

Sneed has an MBA with an emphasis on Finance from Webster University, Missouri.

Bill Lawrence

Bill Lawrence joins North Highland’s Atlanta headquarters as vice president, and will serve as the global lead of Sparks Grove, the firm’s marketing and design practice, and experience design agency.

Lawrence has more than 15 years of experience building digital marketing and customer experience businesses. Previously, Lawrence was the head of the Atlanta office of Nurun USA (now Razorfish), where he oversaw the firm’s evolution from providing 360 digital solutions to full-scale products and service design/ delivery.

 “We are excited to welcome Bill to North Highland and Sparks Grove as we work to further bring together creative execution and business strategy to solve the challenges our clients are facing,” said North Highland President Jim Arnold. “Bill has a great deal of experience delivering business results through customer insights and applied technologies, and we look forward to what this expertise will bring to the agency.”

Lawrence is a graduate of Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering.

Sara Roberts

Sara Roberts joins the firm’s San Francisco office as Managing Director and Service Line Leader, and will be responsible for driving the growth of North Highland’s four service offerings: Customer Experience, Performance Improvement, Technology and Digital, and Transformation.

Roberts, a leading business authority and author, has spent the last twenty years advising executives and leaders across almost a quarter of Fortune 100 companies. Her areas of expertise include leveraging culture and purpose to improve organizational agility; customer connection; employee engagement; and organizational innovation and growth.

“Sara brings an incredibly strong background to North Highland, helping organizations to clarify and activate their purpose to drive their most pressing business imperatives. We look forward to leveraging her experiences in strategic transformation and culture change with our clients,” commented Arnold. “As a firm that is known for our human-centered approach to consulting, her expertise will continue to enhance the value we bring to our clients as they make their next moves.”

Roberts is the co-author of best-seller Light Their Fire: Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance and Wow Your Customers. Her latest book, Nimble, Focused, Feisty: Organizational Cultures that Win in the New Era and How to Create Them, argues that successful companies utilize a customer-centric approach. Roberts is a frequent keynote speaker and has been featured and quoted in many publications, including Forbes and Businessweek.