One on One with CohnReznick's Frank Banda

It's an interesting time to be a public sector consulting firm. Any change in presidential administration naturally leads to a shuffling of the national priorities deck, but this year's budget and several massive looming spending projects have consulting firms ready for action to clamor for their piece of the up to $500 million included in the 2017 federal budget for contractors including consulting firms. Consulting caught up with Frank Banda, newly named Government and Public Sector Lead for CohnReznick, to talk about his new role, the big government spending projects on the horizon and how public sector consulting firms can best position themselves to capitalize.

Consulting: What's been keeping you busiest in your new role?

Banda: This is an exciting time to be part of federal government. The 2017 federal budget is about $3.6 trillion, and half a billion of that is going to federal contractors, including consulting firms. With the president's aggressive agenda and really a desire to shrink the workforce it's likely these federal agencies, our current and potential clients, are going to need to leverage skills and expertise of the public sector, especially consulting firms. So what's been keeping me busiest really is positioning ourselves for some significant and sustainable growth and really making sure our team is organized for that. To do that and be positioned for that we work quite a bit on mission and vision just so we can ensure we've got the right strategy and our purpose is really clear to everyone.