West Monroe Partners names Kevin Smith head of Dallas office

North American business and technology consultancy West Monroe Partners has appointed Kevin Smith as the new lead of its Dallas office. Smith, who joins the firm from the recently acquired Etherios, has been tasked with further growing West Monroe’s local operations, with a particular focus on CRM services in the Energy & Utilities space.

Founded in 2002, in Chicago, by four former Arthur Andersen consultants, West Monroe Partners has since grown into one of North America’s larger consulting firms. Today West Monroe has around 600 employees working from twelve offices across the United States*.

In 2007 West Monroe Partners opened a hub in Dallas – its seventh office at the time – and since, the local operation has grown into a mid-sized player in the region. “The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is a vibrant economy with a unique blend of industries and balance between large corporations and middle-market companies. That fits perfectly with our business strategy and approach to serving clients”, said Dean Fischer, co-founder and executive chairman of West Monroe Partners, at the time of the opening.

In the early years the Dallas office was led by Jeff Margolies, a former senior consulting executive with PwC and IBM, and most recently the local business was overseen by Tom Hulsebosch, who also leads the firm’s Energy & Utilities practice.

The Dallas office recently added a new player to the team. Kevin Smith, a veteran with more than 25 years of business and technology consulting experience, has joined the firm and will take ownership of leading the office. Prior to joining West Monroe, Smith was a Vice President with Etherios, responsible for sales and operations. He also served as Etherios’ Chief Operating Officer and acting Chief Financial Officer for a two-year period in which the company grew from nine to sixty-five professionals.

Previously, Smith worked for Solutions to Order, a cloud specialist which he co-founded, The Snoring Center as COO, and Yahoo as Senior Director of IT, among others. Throughout his career he has built extensive and diverse knowledge – ranging from cloud computing and customer relationship management to analytics and infrastructure. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Pamplin College of Business.

In his new role as Managing Director of West Monroe’s Dallas office, Smith will focus on growing the firm’s footprint in two main areas. From a functional perspective, he will build out its CRM practice specialising in Salesforce.com, leveraging West Monroe’s US-wide team of around 125 CRM experts, while from an industry perspective he will in particular eye expansion in the Energy & Utilities industry. Other offerings earmarked as key growth drivers in the Dallas region include Mergers & Acquisitions and Advanced Analytics.

“Kevin’s proven leadership and ability to quickly grow an office will be instrumental as we expand our footprint in the Dallas market. His prior track record for serving clients in a business and technology capacity will be an asset to the firm and I’m looking forward to working closely with Kevin in growing West Monroe’s brand in Texas and beyond,” says Hulsebosch, who oversees the growth of West Monroe’s Texas presence in both Dallas and Houston.

Commenting on his new challenge, Smith says he is “excited for the challenge”, and adds: “I’ve seen the passion and dedication that the people have at West Monroe and the impactful change that we are bringing to clients. Expanding our reputation in the local market will be one of my main priorities. I look forward to growing our office and replicating a strong reputation for a people first culture locally.”

* West Monroe’s offices are based in Chicago (headquarters), Columbus, Seattle, New York City, Durham, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bentonville.