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Q&A, from page 3

TZL: What’s been your greatest challenge to date and how did you deal with it? JC: Navigating our way through the Great Recession with relatively few staff reductions and positioning our compa- ny for growth when the economy improved. Our diversity of services, client markets, and geographies, which we de- veloped in the years leading up to the economic downturn, allowed us to quickly shift gears as the economic winds changed. We also were not afraid to take some risk and add talent during that time. “We encourage a culture of calculated risk- taking along with the concept that if we don’t make an ‘oops’ once in a while, we are not taking enough risk.” TZL: Why do you think you were given the EY Entrepre- neur of the Year Award for the upper Midwest in 2015? JC: I’m blessed with a great team! Nobody could have pulled off what we have since I was appointed CEO without a great team. In addition to our story of growth (i.e., growing net revenues from about $38M in 2009 to nearly $138M pro- jected for 2016), the EY team recognized our ability to es- tablish ourselves as the consultant and employer of choice, and how well we are able to leverage those skills across mul- tiple markets and service sectors. TZL: Are you married? Children? Pets? JC: I’ve been married to my wife, Jean, for almost 25 years. We have three children, a dog, and a cat. TZL: What’s one thing most people at the firm don’t know about you? JC: Not much! I’m a rather transparent person. For exam- ple, I keep a photo on my office wall to remind me and in- form others of my angiogram in 2008 when I had a stent implanted following a mild heart attack. This life on Earth is short and special – we need to keep all things in balance. TZL: What’s the last book you read? JC: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson TZL: What’s the last movie you saw in the theater? JC: The Revenant . TZL: What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever gotten? JC: It was frommy Dad: “With patience and persistence you shall prevail.” TZL: Who is a leader you admire? JC: Abraham Lincoln. TZL: What do you enjoy in your spare time? JC: Skiing: alpine, Nordic, and water; traveling the world with my family; fishing and pheasant hunting; hiking and biking; tennis and golf.

z Business acumen z Command skills z Dealing with ambiguity

z Decision quality z Drive for results z Genuineness and empathy z High ethical standards and strong moral compass z Humility z Motivating others z Oral and written communications z Vision

These leadership qualities are critically important for the success of our firm. It’s important for our leaders to fully understand their strengths, and to leverage them to their fullest extent. Typically, our board and my direct reports rank me highest on my interpersonal, communication, and command skills. TZL: What’s your leadership style? JC: Collaborative and action-oriented. I try to balance my drive for results and how much the journey/process mat- ters. I’m also a strong believer in the value of mutually-ben- eficial, trust-based relationships. TZL: Tell me about the firm’s recent acquisition of Apex GeoScience (Tyler, TX). How’s it going? JC: Apex Geoscience Inc. is the largest of three consulting- group acquisitions we made in 2015. We also acquired Peer Engineering in the Twin Cities market, and the Kansas City office of Kleinfelder . Our acquisition strategy is heavily fo- cused on integration, so cultural fit is critical. The great- est challenge with the Apex integration has been migrating them to our systems (e.g., accounting, finance, HR/payroll, field-data collection), but this is also a great opportunity to accelerate the growth and development of the Apex team. “We understand why we want to grow, and we have an organizationally healthy reason for our growth – opportunity.” TZL: To what do you most attribute your firm’s growth? JC: We understand why we want to grow, and we have an or- ganizationally healthy reason for our growth – opportunity. Our vision is to be the consultant of choice for our clients and the employer of choice for our employees. We believe you can’t achieve one without the other. We also believe that growth must be sustainable, and our most important measure of sustainability is how well we are doing at main- taining and further developing our successful culture. Fi- nally, we encourage a culture of calculated risk-taking along with the concept that if we don’t make an “oops” once in a while, we are not taking enough risk.

THE ZWEIG LETTER April 4, 2016, ISSUE 1146

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