Kate Harris came out of semi-retirement in 2017 to become Stanley Consultants’ CEO and the sixth president in the firm’s 110-year history.
Founded in 1913, Stanley Consultants is an employee-owned consulting engineering firm with a history of helping clients across the globe solve complex challenges ranging from energy and transportation to water and industry. The firm has employees in more than two dozen offices worldwide and has worked in all 50 states and more than 120 countries.
Under Harris’ leadership, the company has more than doubled in enterprise value in the last four years, and the stock value has increased by more than 275%, outperforming the markets and competitors. She has made diversity and inclusion a priority, and women now comprise one-third of the board, nearly one in five of the officers and 30% of the management team. During the height of the pandemic, Harris added programs for employees to address mental health and financial issues. She spearheaded improvements in employee benefit packages, workspace changes and hybrid schedules.
Harris was named the 2022 CEO of the Year by the Environmental Financial Consulting Group in recognition of her leadership, focus on ethics and integrity, and innovative and effective approach. “The largest sacrifices almost always come from a leader’s support network, particularly their family,” Harris said. “Family members risk their security, home, school and work environments, as well as their passions, positions and friendships, to support those of us driven to lead. Whether dealing with changing situations, locations or countries, these sacrifices are often made with little complaint, even less gratitude, and always without guarantee of success. My work would not be possible without the selfless sacrifice of competing opportunities and priorities, time and talent of those closest to me.”
Harris is not an engineer, yet she has 30 years of international experience in the construction, engineering and consulting industry. A native of Wales, she graduated with a First-Class Honors degree in the U.K and completed the Advanced Management and Intellectual Property programs at Harvard Business and Law Schools.
Harris previously served in a commercial officer role with MWH Global, where she worked for 17 years. She is credited with integrating the company’s service lines and setting global policy, performance measures and business practices. She developed the firm’s first global innovation practice and developed and deployed a corporate-wide technology strategy, establishing a change management framework across functions to drive collaboration and communication to improve the firm’s portfolio and performance. She also led the firm’s program management and management consulting practices across the United States, Latin America and Canada.
“Her experiences and accomplishments made her the ideal changemaker to lead Stanley Consultants into the future,” Harris’ team said.
