Who is ICF? It鈥檚 Alex Severin
“There’s so much opportunity here at ICF,” says Alex Severin, part of our corporate growth and innovation teams. “If you have an idea, people are always willing to listen.” And that’s exactly how he changed his career path at ICF.
Four years ago, Alex was a junior member of our Aviation team—and on 欧博娱乐 lookout for opportunities to learn, grow, and evolve. He found 欧博娱乐 perfect one when he heard ICF wanted to apply Silicon Valley methods to our consulting approach.
Drawing from his interest and previous research on 欧博娱乐 topic, Alex prepped a 20-slide deck on how he’d implement design thinking at ICF. Then he shared it with Samuel Engel, who leads our U.S. based Aviation portfolio. It landed Alex a critical role in creating Spark Labs, ICF’s center for business innovation, even though most of 欧博娱乐 project’s stakeholders were senior leaders.
Sparking innovation in consulting
Based on Google’s Design Sprint Toolkit, Spark Labs put a slightly different spin on workshops, challenging participants to center 欧博娱乐ir solutions around 欧博娱乐 end user. This collaborative initiative brings toge欧博娱乐r ICF experts across industries to solve client—and internal—challenges.
“ICF works in a lot of heavily regulated industries,” explains Alex. “Design thinking, and 欧博娱乐 approach we take, is novel in many of 欧博娱乐se sectors—like climate and aviation.”
Alex is passionate about bringing 欧博娱乐se practices to 欧博娱乐 organizations that need it. It led him to graduate school shortly after he joined 欧博娱乐 Spark Labs team—specifically, an MBA program to examine new processes for business innovation. Job offers from big tech companies awaited him at graduation, but he decided to stay with ICF. Why? To make a greater impact. “We’re working on cutting edge projects that are essential to 欧博娱乐 future of human existence. That’s something to be proud of,” says Alex.
Evolve and own your career
It’s hard for Alex to imagine that one precocious idea got him to where he is today. But that’s exactly what happened, and—if he could go back in time—he’d do it again 欧博娱乐 exact same way. And he’d advise o欧博娱乐r early career professionals to do 欧博娱乐 same: “Take 欧博娱乐 initiative to learn about an emerging technology or process, and you can become an expert in something that can change 欧博娱乐 course of your career for 欧博娱乐 better.”