Winners of 2019 MCA Annual Awards Announced

The Times Consultant of the Year and winner of the Outstanding Achievement award goes to Anjum Hakim, PwC
Project of the Year is awarded to EY with London Ventures
11 consultancy firms and their clients celebrate their award-winning projects transforming business and delivering better outcomes for society
5 individual winners celebrated with Young Consultant of the Year going to Rory MacDonagh from Arcadis

The MCA, the Management Consultancies Association, has announced the winning entries for its 2019 MCA Annual Awards at a ceremony in London. Overall 11 consultancy firms and their clients were recognised for their award-winning projects and 5 individual winners were selected by the panel of independent judges. The Awards were announced at a ceremony hosted by the BBC presenter Clive Myrie in front of over 700 guests from consultancy firms, client organisations, media and representatives from across Government.

Overall there were 21 award categories with 5 individual awards and 12 project awards. There were also prizes for the Best New Consultancy (Parker Fitzgerald), Consulting Excellence Firm of the Year (Arup), The Times Consultant of the Year (Anjum Hakim, PwC) and the Project of the Year (EY with London Ventures). 40 of the UK’s leading consulting firms were shortlisted in the MCA Awards and the growing diversity of the consulting sector was again shown by the 22 SMEs who got to the final stages. PwC and EY, as firms scooped up the most prizes both winning 3 awards respectively. Arup followed closely behind with 2 awards including the prestigious Consulting Excellence firm of the Year Award.

The Times Consultant of the Year 2019 is Anjum Hakim from PwC who was also awarded Outstanding Achievement Award by the judges. In awarding both prizes the judges said “she had demonstrated outstanding achievements throughout her career both in the projects she had worked on but also by inspiring the next generation of technology talent”. They went on, “she had shown immense personal resilience and worked on extremely difficult and sensitive projects including rehousing victims of a disaster and driving digital change with a defence and security client”.

Project of the Year 2019 went to EY with London Ventures for its innovation and digital technology programme driving sustainable change to 33 local authorities. In awarding the prize the judges said “it was purpose driven with a strong social contribution and they were praised for their innovative approach to the problems of finding new homes for vulnerable families.”

SME consultancies also performed strongly at the Awards with the following firms recognised for their outstanding work; Bourton Group with Cambridge Assesssment, Carnall Farrar with IPPR, Vendigital with Spectris, Gate One with Ucas, Cognizant with BBC Monitoring and Decision Technology with Schroders.

At the event the MCA launched a campaign to “bust some of the myths of consulting” and championed the work consultants were doing in every corner of business and national life. Tamzen Isacsson Chief Executive MCA criticised the media perception of consulting and the incorrect assumption that “even a penny of taxpayers’ cash spent by the government on consultants is in itself some kind of proof of misdemeanour.” She said that “engaging the expertise of consultants is a way of increasing value” which adds “capacity, expertise and experience in a way the country can afford.” A video championing the value of consulting was played at the event and can be seen here.

She also went on to promote the diversity of the consulting sector saying that “consultants now come from all types of universities – and none. Talent and potential are more important than the college tie.” Consultants were she said “champions of diversity for its own sake and because it makes business sense to make the best of people from all backgrounds and meet all our clients’ diverse needs.”

In the individual categories Rory MacDonagh from Arcadis won the Award for Young Consultant of the Year after his success in the delivery of one of the largest digital programmes in the utility sector. Other individual winners include Jon Ainger from IMPOWER, Edem Amooquaye from Curzon & Company and Laura Morroll from BearingPoint.

The MCA is delighted to partner with The Times once more for its 2019 MCA Awards. The Times produce the special MCA Awards supplement each year, covering some of the project and individual case studies from the Awards. The sponsors for this year’s Awards are Deltek, an Associate Member who deliver software and information solutions, Kelly OCG, a leading global advisor of talent supply chain strategies, Kimble, the leading cloud-based Professional Services Automation tool and Mindbench, an MCA Associate Member and specialist permanent and interim consultant recruitment provider for the management consulting industry. Other sponsors include Thales Cyber and Consulting, an MCA member and world-leading cyber and security consultancy and Vendigital, an MCA Member and leading cost experts in supply chain and procurement professionals.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

Dropbox file with photos from the night: http://bit.ly/2CFwXfj

Media Contact:

Jasmine Knight

Communications Executive

Management Consultancies Association

Email: jasmine.knight@mca.org.uk

Tel: 0207 645 7958

The Management Consultancies Association (MCA):

The MCA is the representative body for the UK’s leading management consulting firms. For over 60 years, the MCA has been the voice of the consulting industry, promoting the value of consulting to business, the public sector, media commentators and the general public. The MCA’s mission is to promote the value of management consultancy for the economy and society as a whole. The MCA’s member companies comprise over 60% of the UK consulting industry, employ around 45,000 consultants and work with over 90 of the top FTSE 100 companies and almost all parts of the public sector. The UK consulting industry is amongst the best in the world and a vital part of the business landscape. To see full list of current MCA members see link – https://www.mca.org.uk/consultancy_directory/

Compliance with the MCA’s tough entry criteria and adherence to the principles of Consulting Excellence means that MCA member companies are widely acknowledged to provide high quality services to their clients. Many of their achievements are recognised in the annual MCA Awards.

THE WINNERS

Project of the Year sponsored by Deltek

EY with London Ventures

The Times Consultant of the Year

Anjum Hakim

PROJECT WINNERS

Best Use of Thought Leadership sponsored by Kimble

Carnall Farrar with IPPR

Change and Transformation in the Private Sector sponsored by Vendigital

PwC with Ofgem

Change and Transformation in the Public Sector

Cognizant with BBC Monitoring