West Monroe acquires IT and business consultancy Pace Harmon
West Monroe Partners, a Chicago-based management and technology consultancy, has acquired Pace Harmon, a Washington, DC area-based IT and business services transformation and outsourcing advisory firm.
Founded in 2003, Pace Harmon is an employee-owned firm that helps large enterprises optimize the performance, cost, and responsiveness of IT and back-office business functions. The company has 75 employees across offices in McLean, VA, San Francisco, and Chicago.
West Monroe’s acquisition of Pace Harmon will give it a new office in McLean, while also adding new capabilities in IT strategy and business process outsourcing, procurement, and vendor management.
The acquisition is the largest in the firm’s 18-year history, and is a direct response to IT and back-office functions being increasingly impacted by cloud and digital transformation. The Pace Harmon team will add expertise in IT function redesign, optimization, and outsourcing to West Monroe’s capabilities in tech architecture, cloud advisory, business process redesign, and change management.
Co-executive managing directors Steve Martin and David Rutchik, who have led the firm for the past 17 years, will leave Pace Harmon as part of a transition plan initiated more than a year ago. The transaction will, however, add 10 new directors to West Monroe.
“Over Pace Harmon’s nearly two decades in operation, we built a solid reputation among major global enterprises as a trusted business transformation advisor with a client-first philosophy,” Martin said. “We saw an immense opportunity to continue Pace Harmon’s successful track record in combining capabilities with West Monroe – we couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome.”
This marks West Monroe’s third acquisition in the last 18 months. The firm in October 2019 acquired GoKart Labs, a Minneapolis-based digital product studio, and in April 2019 acquired Waterstone Management Group, a Chicago-based M&A strategy firm.
West Monroe earlier this year sold off its managed services division to private equity firm M/C Partners.
“West Monroe will finish 2020 with 13 consecutive years of top-line revenue growth and EBITDA growth. While 2020 has certainly brought more than its share of challenges, we are addressing those challenges through several offensive measures – including seizing opportunities like this to succeed in the post-Covid economy,” said Tom Bolger, chief strategy officer for West Monroe.
BDO USA served as financial and tax advisor to West Monroe on the deal.