One on One with West Monroe Partners' Kevin McCarty

Chicago-headquartered West Monroe Partners is a regular on our Best Firms to Work For list, making its fifth appearance this year. And there's a good reason for that. The firm has been on an impressive growth track—38 percent so far year-to-date—it also recently gave the company to the employees, implementing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan structure, and is looking to aggressively scale its operations on both coasts. Co-founder Kevin McCarty, who assumed the role of CEO just last month, sat down with Consulting to talk about his new title, the future, and West Monroe's quest for 1,000 employees.

Consulting: You co-founded the firm and have been president for two years, talk about the transition to the CEO role.

McCarty: I co-founded firm with Dean Fisher in 2002, who was my boss and mentor back in the Arthur Andersen days and it continued that way as Dean and I grew the firm. Two years ago I took on the formal title of President, which gave me operating responsibilities for all the offices and practice lines across the firm. When the Employee Stock Ownership Plan conversion was transacted in December of 2013, that set the wheels in motion for Dean to step back and take on the Executive Chairman role and allowed me to start preparing for the role of CEO.

Now I report to the board instead of reporting to Dean himself. I'm accountable for achieving the vision we set forth not just for next year but the years to come. I'm responsible for deriving, setting and delivering on the strategy that the board wants to see executed. Part of that is continuing rapid growth. We're up 38 percent year-to-date, on top of last year where we grew 28 percent. Our next stop is 1,000 people. We're at 550 now, and we're looking to get it to 1,000 over the next 2-3 years.