Washington, D.C.

Our Washington, D.C. office opened in 2003, in the first year landed four major clients, and year over year has experienced 50% growth or more. Our client base has grown significantly in the last several years through grass-roots relationship building and now serves a market that spans the entire metro area, from the District to Maryland and five Virginia counties.

The exemplary consulting service and organic growth of new business are just two examples of the North Highland culture at work in our D.C. office. Bolstering the entrepreneurial and employee ownership spirit of the company, our entire office is involved in annual planning, including setting goals and determining initiatives to reach those goals. We value employee input whether it's in reference to an individual career path or to office-wide initiatives such as developing market-centric service areas or increasing revenue and profitability targets.

Leadership

Albert Rees

Vice President and Local Office Leader

Albert has over 18 years of human capital consulting experience in various industries. Specific areas of his expertise include developing HR and workforce strategies and strategic objectives, improving the performance of the HR function (from process improvements to transformation), and improving the performance of targeted workforces. His industry experience includes banking, consumer products, distribution and warehousing, education, electronics, energy, financial services, government (State/Federal), health services, manufacturing, technology products, transportation, and utilities. Prior to joining North Highland, Rees worked as a Partner in Accenture's Human Performance Global Service Line.

Diane Denholm

Vice President

Diane has extensive experience in strategic planning, enterprise performance management, organizational/business process improvement, quality management, and acquisition management. Prior to joining North Highland, Diane was a Senior Partner in Grant Thornton’s LLP Public Sector consulting practice and led their Enterprise Management Solutions group. She started her career at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as an industrial engineer and project manager. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and served on the Board of the National Council of Public Private Partnerships.

Vijay Desai

Vice President

Vijay has extensive experience in providing business strategy, change management and operational improvement expertise to both private and public clients. Prior to joining North Highland, Vijay was with: Capital One, where he was involved in M&A, infrastructure improvement and outsourcing/offshoring work; Booz Allen Hamilton, where he ran a Civil Aviation practice; and Wyle Labs, where he was an acoustical engineer. Vijay actively volunteers in child education efforts.

Denise Sughrue

Vice President

Denise has over 21 years of experience in life sciences, non-profit, healthcare, telecommunications, defense, and government in industry, government and consulting roles. Denise has extensive experience in helping organizations navigate the complexity of large scale change to include system and workforce transformation. Prior to joining North Highland, Denise was in the Human Performance practice at Accenture. Denise serves on Arlington Public School's Advisory Council on Instruction Math Subcommittee and is an active volunteer with the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital.

Kristen Vennum

Vice President

Kristen has extensive experience in enterprise performance management, strategic planning, customer relationship management, customer-focused process improvement, and organizational change management.  She partners with public and private clients with a specialization in healthcare and non-profit industries. Kristen was recognized in 2009 as one of Consulting Magazine's "Women Leaders in Consulting". Prior to joining North Highland, she led the marketing and new business development efforts for an urban planning firm. 

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