Executive Mosaic is honored to recognize John Wasson, chair and CEO of ICF, in the 2023 edition of the Wash100 for his pivotal role in executing the company’s strategy to better position its federal digital modernization business for growth opportunities. Wasson has led the global consulting and technology services provider since October 2019 and has been selected three times to receive the annual Wash100 Award.
“John is solidly focused on managing the fundamentals of the business: achieving growth, building the opportunity pipeline, reducing debt and simultaneously buying back shares of ICF,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and creator of the Wash100 Award. “John drives consistency and successfully works to complement organic growth with acquisitions while strengthening ICF’s position in key growth markets,” Garrettson added.
In 2022, ICF closed a series of acquisitions in the information technology modernization/digital transformation and environmental consulting areas to complement the firm’s current portfolio.
Those transactions included ICF’s purchase of Creative Systems and Consulting, as well as the acquisitions of health IT company SemanticBits and Blanton & Associates, which specializes in environmental regulatory compliance and permitting services.
“Bringing on SemanticBits is key to our goal of helping federal health agencies meet their missions and scaling our open-source capabilities and cloud-native solutions,” Wasson said in a post-acquisition interview with ExecutiveBiz.
Meanwhile, Creative brought in cloud development expertise that complements ICF’s Appian and ServiceNow implementation work in the federal space.
“That was big for ICF in terms of significant capabilities it opened up around Salesforce and on the low-code/no-code side,” the three-time Wash100 awardee added.
Upon the completion of Blanton’s deal, Wasson said the two companies would help agencies carry out infrastructure projects and ensure adherence to environmental regulations.
In October, ICF disclosed it holds prime spots in four large contractor domains under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s $1.2 billion multiple-award contract and subcontractor positions in two other domains.
Wasson’s strategy to transform ICF into a “technology-forward company” drove the formation of an internal organization, led by Chief Technology Executive Mark Lee, to align tech offerings with the federal government’s digital modernization programs.
In its 2022 earnings statement, the company posted $1.78 billion in full year revenue to register a 14.6 percent growth from 2021 figures and reported government sales for the fourth quarter jumped 29.3 percent year-over-year to $354.3 million.
“In 2022, ICF made significant strides in executing on existing contracts and capturing opportunities in our high-growth markets, namely: IT modernization/digital transformation, public health, disaster management, utility consulting, and climate, environment and infrastructure services,” Wasson remarked.
“Our strategic decision to invest in these markets organically and through acquisitions has been a key element in margin expansion as well.”
Forbes named ICF among “America’s Best Management Consulting Firms” for 2022 in the energy and environment, public, nonprofit and education, and sustainability categories.
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