Barry Broaduschief financial officer of the ICF, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz about joining the company as its CFO, his strategic growth goals and how recent acquisitions and partnerships have helped drive innovation and mission goals in the federal sector during the latest Executive Spotlight interview
You can read the full interview with Barry Broadus below.
ExecutiveBiz: Congratulations on your new role at ICF! Why did you want to join the company and what were the characteristics of its mission that attracted you to the role? What do you hope to accomplish with the company?
Barry Broadus: “ICF has always been a company that caught my eye and based on their portfolio and performance, I had a natural curiosity about its work.
I’ve spent a large part of my career working for companies that provide technology solutions to federal agencies, and ICF has always been a prominent player in the space. From afar, I have seen ICF with good performances every year, but my interest in the company really increased in the last few years when they carried out an ambitious vision to increase the scope of their services and expand into new markets. .
As I started getting to know people here, the company became more interesting. I was excited at the prospect of joining the team for many reasons, but two stood out. First, they have an incredibly unique growth story, doubling in size every five years for the past 20 years. In the past eight months alone, ICF has completed four acquisitions and set the stage for further growth to come. On the heels of this momentum, I was drawn to the opportunity to be a part of this exciting future.
Second, ICF is known as a company that works to solve the world’s toughest problems. They have a strong reputation as a purpose-driven organization, with services spanning climate and energy initiatives, as well as health, environment, infrastructure, and more. In all of these areas, ICF provides game-changing transformational solutions to help clients make a difference. This drive to come up with solutions that help make the world a better place is another key reason why I wanted to join the company.
From a personal perspective, I am also attracted to the culture, which is associated with a focus on solving difficult problems. When I first joined, I was told that ‘we bring skills with heart.’ And now that I’m here, I see that to be true. In my role as CFO, I strive to use my financial experience to contribute to this mission and the work ICF does for its clients and markets. All the while, I will help us continue to pursue growth opportunities and support further value creation for the company.
ExecutiveBiz: What can you tell us about the company’s recent growth initiatives? What do you hope to accomplish and any new markets are you eyeing in the federal sector?
Barry Broadus: “During the first months at ICF, I made a point to assess the business from multiple angles — who are the key customers, what problems are we solving, where are there opportunities for new growth? Clearly our strength — and a key growth driver — is our broad and diverse portfolio.
As I mentioned before, one of the main characteristics of ICF is that we do so many different types of work for so many different types of clients. The fact that we have a highly diverse client base and a comprehensive solution set allows us to have stability and business stability as we look to further expand our capabilities.
We found that to maintain a strategic position—even with our long-standing clients—we needed to provide a stronger technology offering. We’ve done this organically in some areas, but also through a recent series of acquisitions. In 2020, ICF acquired ITG.
We brought in ESAC as well as Creative Systems and Consulting next year and acquired a company called SemanticBits in July 2022. All of these companies bring advanced, industry-leading technology capabilities to ICF . We now have improved, stronger capabilities in IT modernization, cloud migration, data analytics, infrastructure, energy, and more.
This month, we also announced the purchase of Blanton and Associates, marking our fourth acquisition in the past eight months. Blanton is helping us grow our environmental planning footprint in key geographic locations, like Texas, and better support state and local clients as they tackle new, more complex infrastructure projects.
The result of these growth efforts is the ability to provide end-to-end services for clients where we can step in and partner with them in solving bigger, more meaningful challenges.
Looking at our organic growth trajectory, ICF’s acquisition of these new capabilities allows us to continue to expand our horizons and enhance the value we provide to clients. It’s an ongoing, company-wide effort that we feel very well positioned to capitalize on.”
ExecutiveBiz: How have recent acquisitions and partnerships helped your company expand its position in the federal marketplace, drive innovation and new capabilities, and ultimately help complete your company’s mission?
Barry Broadus: “From a larger perspective, our recent acquisitions immediately expand our ability to rapidly support federal civilian agencies with larger and more complex data management projects.
One of the other interesting aspects driven by our recent acquisitions, such as Creative Systems and SemanticBits, is the expansion of our expertise in IT modernization and the relationships we have developed with Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Appian. The collaborative nature of these relationships has helped us expand our capabilities and offerings. Today, ICF is seen as one of, if not THE, leading provider of low-code, no-code solutions and use of these types of software applications for client services.
When we talk about growth in the public sector arena, a large part of why ICF has been successful is due to our deep technical knowledge and domain expertise. We speak our client’s language to help them understand everything, then we can develop solutions from the technical side.
SemanticBits, for example, represents the next step in our efforts to offer deeper domain expertise by growing our cloud-native, open-source portfolio of solutions. These initiatives will also help us deliver more positive impact, especially in areas like federal health services, a particularly important sector as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pursuing bigger and more complex projects also means facing bigger and more complex challenges. Our increased ability to support our clients in meeting their missions, in turn, helps us meet our own goal of building a more prosperous and resilient world for all.
At the corporate level, one of the more interesting challenges we’re all working on in today’s market is the need for talent, because the need for labor is at an all-time high for industry and the federal government. We all know how critical talent acquisition and retention is going forward.
As we move forward, there is a sense of urgency to be more adaptable and flexible in the overall workforce. I believe it is an advantage for companies or agencies to show that they are in fact flexible and adaptable to today’s market. That shows a lot to potential employees and top talent.
ICF has demonstrated, especially throughout the pandemic, our ability to be flexible to work across different platforms and work environments. We adapt to remote work or office work and everything on the client side of things. Where we can be flexible, the ICF is flexible. This mindset helps us stay in a position where we can source top talent in the industries we operate in and continue to push the envelope on the types of projects and expertise we can offer.
Overall, we are in a very exciting time at ICF characterized by rapid growth, expanded capabilities, and a solid client base. I’m excited to be part of the team and look forward to playing a part in helping the company continue to build its momentum in the months and years ahead.”