From IIT to Washington DC: How Sudhakar Kesavan built ICF, a ~$2bn consulting giant

Anand & Dhananjay show, a show about business, investing, and the real life stories of business superheroes —Welcome to episode 2, with Sudhakar Kesavan, former CEO and Chairman of ICF International —Sudhakar is currently chairman of New York Stock Exchange Listed ABM Industries, a Fortune 500 company. This is his story about how he studied at IIT, IIM, and traveled from India to the US to study at MIT, joined a small consulting firm in Washington DC in 1983, became it’s CEO in 1999, took it public in 2006 and grew the company from 50 million dollars in revenue to 2 billion dollars plus! ICF International is a global consulting and technology services firm with 90+ offices worldwide, serving both government and commercial clients. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, ICF specializes in strategy, analytics, cybersecurity, public health, and digital transformation. 00:00 Intro 04:14 Growing years in Delhi 09:52 Time at IIT and IIM 13:11 Early career in India 18:02 Off to the USA at MIT 20:40 Early years at ICF 24:57 Becoming CEO and leading Management Buyout 45:17 Going Public 54:31 Running a public company 57:44 Mergers and Acquisitions 01:02:04 Takeaways