Booz Allen Hamilton: An insider guide - Gymkhana

Besides working for commercial businesses, the new Booz Allen took on asignificant amount of consulting work for the federal government during WorldWar II, which laid the groundwork for Booz Allen’s modern-day WorldwideTechnology Business (WTB). Although many others vie for multimillion-dollargovernment consulting gigs, WTB has continued to be one of the mostsuccessful businesses in the field.Booz Allen continued to prosper over the years—so much so that its partnersdecided to take the firm public in 1970 under the guidance of a new chairman,Charlie Bowen. A poor showing in the stock market led to the repurchase of thecompany, and Booz Allen has been a privately held corporation ever since. Thetumultuous times continued well into the 1980s, when Michael McCullough putthe already unstable firm through a vast restructuring of everything from industryfocus to geographic areas. By 1988, a third of the partners had jumped ship.The FirmThe 1990s were much more prosperous for Booz Allen. William Stasior tookcharge in 1991, splitting its business into separate government (WTB) andcommercial (WCB) units. The next year, the company moved to McLean,Virginia, now the firm’s corporate headquarters as well as headquarters for itsgovernment business. The Booz Allen commercial-sector business isheadquartered in New York City.In April 1999, Ralph Shrader became the CEO of the company, and he assumedthe chairmanship in October of that year. Awaiting him was a chaotic newconsulting market, in which technology and the Internet were quickly changingthe landscape of the industry. To cope with the changing times, Booz Allenbegan to emphasize its technical savvy. (During the early stages of governmenttesting of the Internet, Booz Allen worked alongside the U.S. Department ofDefense.) One firm insider says, “Ralph Shrader has surfed well in chaotic times.He wasn’t elected for that. The wave of change just overtook the company, buthe incorporated that well into the plan.”15