Time Well Spent

We Interview Keriann McSweeney at RGP

Keriann McSweeney is the new Managing Director of the Resources Global Professionals RGP office in San Antonio. We have a multi-year relationship with RGP so were interested in meeting the new Director.

RGP specializes in providing intellectual capital on demand to clients across industries.

Clients include 87 of the Fortune 100, and services include:

• Finance and Accounting
• Governance, Risk and Compliance
• Information Management
• Human Capital
• Supply Chain Management
• Legal and Regulatory

RGP is a publicly traded firm listed on the NASDAQ. RGP maintains 48 offices in North America, 12 in Europe, and another 12 in the Asia Pacific area. RGP provides over 3,000 seasoned professionals for firms across the disciplines listed above.

Management guru Peter Drucker described RGP’s service as “intellectual capital on demand.”

Ms. McSweeney is a native of Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with a degree in Management Information Systems.  She traveled with Oracle and Capgemini as a Project and Program Manager. Ms. McSweeney has been with RGP for more than eleven years in their Los Angeles, CA office. She served first as a consultant and then as a Senior Recruiting Director. The result was double-digit growth of the Information Management practice in Southern California.   The San Antonio office covers South Texas up to Austin.

Since arriving in April, Keriann is already getting involved in the San Antonio scene. She is participating in the San Antonio chapters of FEI, the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, SEC Professionals, National Association of Corporate Directors and ISACA. RGP will sponsor an upcoming Project Management Institute event, is joining Women in Energy (WEN) and is greatly looking forward to getting involved in the charity organization Dress for Success in conjunction with WEN.

Q Is this your first time to live in Texas?

A It is.

Q Is it what you expected?

A Actually it is better than I expected. I have enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people here in San Antonio, it reminds me of my Wisconsin roots. We also have a fantastic new team in our RGP San Antonio office. Kelly Kuhle is our Director of Client Service, Kristen Harris is our Director of Recruiting and Gabby Juarez is our Operations Coordinator for our Central Texas region. They are awesome and I am thrilled to have them as part of our RGP Family.

Q How does the business for RGP break down in San Antonio?

A In San Antonio, the majority of our engagements are related to our Finance and Accounting, and Governance, Risk, and Compliance practices. With my background, we expect to see an increase in projects that support our clients’ information management initiatives. By leveraging our subject matter experts across Texas, we are also expecting more work in the Human Capital and Supply Chain areas. RGP only works with seasoned professionals, and much of our talent comes out of the Big Four and global management consulting firms.

Q Tell us more about the IM practice

A In our information management practice area our clients typically come to us to support their business analysis, project management and program management needs. However, we also have exceptional professionals in project coordination all the way through C level executives. RGP prides ourselves in getting it right the first time.   That is a reflection of our core values.

Q Can you describe the RGP Core Values for us?

A Certainly, we call it TIEL, pronounced teal. That stands for

• Talent
• Integrity
• Enthusiasm
• Loyalty

Our people define us and embody TIEL. Our client service team and Consultants have 10 -20 years of operational, functional and professional services experience so they are able to be value-added business partners. The best thing we can hear from clients is, send us another just like (insert name of consultant).

Q Which is more difficult, obtaining an assignment with a firm, or finding the right consultant to provide that service?

A That’s a great question!  My answer would be neither and both.  The challenge is finding the right combination of the two.  Therefore, it is simply about having exceptional, seasoned talent and outstanding clients with long-standing, strong relationships and when a need arises we match the two.  The puzzle of matching the two at the right timing is occasionally a challenge.  

Keriann indicated a growth target for the San Antonio office over the next year. We won’t reveal that here but my bet is that her team will achieve it. We’ll check back in a year to see how things are going.

Thanks to Keriann McSweeney, Kelly Kuhle, Kristen Harris and Gabriela Juarez for their hospitality last Friday Morning!

Labor Day Weekend Sept 4, 2016

In today's SA Express News Michael Taylor note the Dallas Police and Fire Pension system has an unfunded liability per member of

$213,712. Houston is next at $128,576. In what is surely an hilarious , knee[slapping moment Moody's downgraded Houston  debt this last March 16, 2016 to

Aa3. With an unfunded liability like that I would think below investment grade at least  would be more like it.

More on Dallas Police Fire liability here.

Worse the problem is so bad in Houston, it may defy any solution.

Taylor reports that the Houston plan assumes an annual return of 8-8.5%. But only one of 127 pension plans earn that kind of return.

So what is going to happen?  I would guess the social securitization of the plans.  In short the pension liability is paid for by the current contributions of those working, a ponzi scheme to be sure with no Al Gore  lockbox in sight. The plans are under funded and will likely remain so.

When does the panic set in I wonder?

We study accounting for liabilities in Intermediate II Accounting . Clearly too many optimistic assumptions and lax accounting rules have let too many cities

dodge honest reporting on long term liabilities.