Will McNamara Joins West Monroe

West Monroe Partners, a North American management and technology consulting firm, today announced that Will McNamara, PMP, has recently joined the firm’s Chicago office as a Senior Manager in the Energy & Utilities practice.

Mr. McNamara is a regulatory and legislative affairs expert with over 15 years of energy industry policy-making, project management, expert testimony, and stakeholder-relations experience. Mr. McNamara has unique expertise in developing Smart Grid / AMI policy and managing business plans and regulatory filings that have enabled utility clients to achieve regulatory and community support for their project initiatives.

Mr. McNamara comes to West Monroe from KEMA, Inc., where he served as a Senior Principal Consultant. In that role Mr. McNamara assisted utility clients such as Duke Energy, Consolidated Edison, Los Angeles District Water & Power, San Diego Gas & Electric, the Southern California Public Power Authority, and the Snohomish Public Utility District in managing their diverse AMI / Smart Grid deployments. Prior to KEMA, Mr. McNamara served as Regulatory and Legislative Policy Manager for Sempra Energy, where he developed the corporate policy response to energy-related matters before the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Legislature and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In addition to being a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Mr. McNamara is also a published author in the energy sector, having written an analytical account of the California energy crisis.

West Monroe Partner’s new Regulatory Support & Key Stakeholder Relations service offering expands the firm’s existing suite of management and technology services for utility clients. West Monroe has been active in the regulatory space through the preparation of AMI / Smart Grid business cases for utility clients and their key stakeholders, including public utility commissions, utility advisory boards, and city councils. The maturing of the AMI / Smart Grid industry is driving needs within utilities for regulatory and key stakeholder services, including operational & performance benchmarking analysis; regulatory compliance assistance; expert testimony in regulatory proceedings; mobilizing community and key stakeholder support for AMI / Smart Grid utility projects; internal management alignment within client organizations; and expanded services associated with federal and state grant opportunities for utilities, an area in which West Monroe is already well established. 

“Will McNamara adds a significant regulatory, community-relations, and key stakeholder management capability to West Monroe’s Energy & Utilities practice, as well as substantial hands-on experience guiding utility clients through the many regulatory and public-relations challenges that are becoming such a prominent consideration for Smart Grid deployments,” said Tom Hulsebosch, managing director of West Monroe Partner’s E&U practice. “We believe that our Regulatory and Key Stakeholder service offering will be valuable to public power, cooperative, and investor owned utilities alike. We are seeing a significantly higher engagement from all of the utility stakeholders, which if not managed properly can negatively impact a utility’s AMI/Smart Grid program.”

“I am thrilled to join West Monroe’s already-thriving E&U practice and contribute to the firm’s very compelling capabilities,” said McNamara. “My current perspective is what I refer to as the ‘second wave’ of utility AMI/ Smart Grid deployment, utilities across the U.S. facing increased regulatory and public challenges. This is a particular concern among smaller and mid-sized utilities that are still formulating their initial deployment strategies. One benefit we have is to learn from the experiences of the utilities that are further down the deployment path. I believe performance benchmarking, as one example, will become a very important and strategic tool in the regulatory environment going forward.”

Read more about West Monroe Partner’s work within the utility industry. If you would like additional information on West Monroe’s new practice area, please contact Tom Hulsebosch.

About West Monroe

West Monroe is a North American, full-service business and technology consulting firm focused on guiding organizations through projects that fundamentally transform their business. With the experience to create the most ambitious visions as well as the skills to implement the smallest details of our client’s most critical projects, West Monroe is a proven provider of growth and efficiency to large enterprises, as well as more nimble middle-market organizations. Our more than 300 consulting professionals drive better business results by harnessing our collective experience across a range of industries, serving clients out of offices across the US and Canada.