Inspirant Group Names New Leadership Team, Acquires Houston-Based Project Violet
Meighan Newhouse appointed CEO, Daniel Lai joins as COO, Amir Azarbad transitions to CGO
CHICAGO, Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Inspirant Group, a leading consulting firm focused on transformation, today announced changes to the leadership team with a new chief executive officer, chief operations officer and chief growth officer, and the acquisition of Project Violet, a boutique consulting firm based in Houston. Meighan Newhouse has been named chief executive officer, Daniel Lai joined as chief operating officer and CEO Amir Azarbad will become president and chief growth officer, effective immediately.
Newhouse, Inspirant Group co-founder, will focus her role as CEO on building the company's brand and growing the culture. She has been Inspirant's chief people officer since 2017, overseeing the company's talent and client alignment, playing an integral role in the growth of the company. Prior to joining Inspirant Group, Newhouse founded and ran Colette Allen Custom Learning, a boutique learning and development (L&D) consulting firm.
"I'm truly honored to lead this talented group as chief executive officer of Inspirant Group," said Newhouse. "My passion for putting people first – both our consultants and our clients – will guide my role as CEO. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with our team to revamp the consultant-client relationship and show organizations how small firms can bring big results. We continue to be the go-to organization for transformation, detangling the tech ecosystem and bringing exceptional value to our clients."
The acquisition of Project Violet presented an opportunity to expand Inspirant Group's network of best-in-class consultants and expands the company's portfolio of L&D offerings. As the founder and CEO of Project Violet, Lai brings significant experience in health care technology development, training and onboarding. Project Violet will be dissolved under Inspirant Group as of Jan. 1, 2021.
"The acquisition of Project Violet accelerates our growth strategy and aligns with our company's vision of approaching consulting differently," said Newhouse. "Bringing Project Violet into the Inspirant Group family allows us to better serve our clients, expand our L&D services and increase our network of consultants to meet our clients' needs."
Lai founded Project Violet in 2016, after serving as a manager at West Monroe Partners and senior consultant at Dell, Inc. At Project Violet, he managed large-scale business and technology programs with budgets of over $25 million and developed innovative talent development solutions. As COO, Lai will focus on the day-to-day operations, onboarding, account management, marketing and risk management.
"Daniel brings tremendous experience to the COO role and a vision for onboarding and talent that aligns perfectly with our direction," said Azarbad. "I've admired Daniel's work for a long time and the team he built with Project Violet. Our consultants will be better equipped in their careers from the beginning and our team stronger due to Daniel's leadership."
"The transformative work the Inspirant Group has produced is one of a kind, and I'm excited to join the team as COO," said Lai. "My goal is to develop our consultant team and bring organization to how we scale as well as build an informational ecosystem that will allow us to continue to improve our processes to how we execute."
Azarbad will transition to the CGO role to focus on diversifying Inspirant Group's client base, the growth strategy of services and solutions and, identifying market expansion opportunities. Inspirant has experienced rapid growth in their first three years of business, tripling both staff and revenue year over year in 2018 and 2019.
About Inspirant Group
At Inspirant Group, we are redefining consulting in the unique approach we use to help clients transform their business strategies and operations, learning and development, and technology and data. Through an end-to-end partnership, we guide clients from inspiration to transformation by designing, developing and delivering comprehensive initiatives to solve the organizational issues they face. Our team produces big firm results with small firm agility through a process that makes our clients' work easier. Headquartered in Chicago, our consultants work across industries to build solutions that meet our clients' specific needs. Learn how Inspirant Group turns consulting on its side at www.inspirantgrp.com.
SOURCE Inspirant Group
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