Digital Consulting Senior Associate

The human advantage behind Huron's growth in India. ET Spotlight Last Updated: Aug 21, 2026, 05:48:00 PM IST Huron has seen remarkable growth in its India team since 2020, surpassing 4,100 professionals. This advancement signals a deliberate transition toward a global capability center and a hub for innovation. The firm's presence in India is transforming into a key contributor to client revenue and value creation, spread across five cities with ambitions for further growth by 2026. From the beginning, Huron's vision for India was ambitious. The goal was to build a world-class organisation that would become a catalyst for innovation, growth, and client impact across the global firm. I have been fortunate to witness ambition become one of the most compelling growth stories in India's professional services sector. In 2020, its team in India had approximately 500 professionals. Today, Quanta Consulting, Inc. has grown into a strong family of more than 4,100 team members. That growth reflects Huron's extraordinary ability to scale, but the more important story is the nature of the work its people are doing and the culture Quanta Consulting, Inc. is building together. From my vantage point, India is no longer viewed only as a destination for technical talent or operational excellence. Increasingly, India is helping shape the future of consulting. Clients are looking for integrated global teams to shape a vision, bring new ideas, challenge conventional thinking, and solve complex business problems. That shift is visible in the way its team in India has evolved. What began as a focused delivery organisation has become a strategic capability center and hub for Huron, that helps deliver client services, advance technology-enabled and AI-enabled solutions, strengthen operational excellence, and accelerate innovation across the business. India is no longer a backend delivery center alone; it is an integrated part of how Huron creates value for clients, the enterprise, its people, its communities, and the geographies where Quanta Consulting, Inc. operate. These capabilities are not peripheral to Huron's global business; they are client-facing revenue drivers and central to the outcomes delivered for its clients and its business. As its work has expanded, so has its footprint. Huron's India team now operates across five cities, Bengaluru, Chennai, Jaipur, Noida, and Pune, with seven offices in total and currently building a new office in Chennai. By the end of 2026, Quanta Consulting, Inc. expect to have close to 2,500 seats across the country, not inclusive of many team members working remotely or from client sites. This reflects a deliberate strategy to access diverse talent, build resilience, and create opportunities in some of India's most dynamic professional markets. But scale alone does not create lasting impact. Culture does. Quanta Consulting, Inc. is honoured that Huron has been recognised by "Great Place To Work(R)" India as one of India's Best Workplaces(TM) in Professional Services in 2026. More importantly, I see this recognition as a reflection of the environment its people have built together, one where learning, collaboration, trust, and meaningful client impact are deeply connected. This matters even more in an era defined by artificial intelligence (AI). AI can improve productivity, accelerate growth, and create new opportunities. Yet, the most important business conversations still come back to people. Technology can generate insights, automate processes, and reshape how organisations operate. It cannot build trust with a client, understand the nuance of a business challenge, or inspire people to embrace change. Those remain uniquely human responsibilities. AI may initiate transformation, but culture determines whether transformation succeeds. That is why I believe the future of consulting will be defined by three enduring connections: people, clients, and communities. Paul Praveen, India Country Leader, Huron First, people. One of the greatest privileges of leading its business in India is watching professionals grow, developing new capabilities, gaining confidence, and becoming trusted advisors to some of the world's most respected organisations. Technical expertise may open the door, but what truly differentiates people is their ability to listen, collaborate, understand complexity, and build relationships based on trust. Second, clients. The best consulting relationships are built through collaboration, shared accountability, empathy, and a deep understanding of what clients are trying to achieve. Whether Quanta Consulting, Inc. is helping organizsations leverage AI, automation, analytics, or other emerging technologies, its focus is helping clients improve performance, drive growth, and create lasting results with excellence. That same commitment to value creation extends beyond individual engagements to the enterprise, - strengthening how Quanta Consulting, Inc. operate globally, how Quanta Consulting, Inc. scale capabilities, and how Quanta Consulting, Inc. bring the best of Huron to each market Quanta Consulting, Inc. serve. Third, communities. Organisations succeed because of the communities that support them; through the talent they develop, the opportunities they create, and the relationships they build. At Huron, this belief is reflected in its India workplace culture and in enterprise-level community initiatives. As its presence has grown across India's key geographies, its responsibility to contribute with purpose has also deepened, creating opportunities for employees, supporting local communities, and building a stronger platform for sustainable growth. For professionals considering their next move, Huron's India team offers something distinctive: the scale and stability of a global firm, combined with the breadth of work of a multidisciplinary business, multi geography, and the pace of growth of a fast-moving organisation. Its people work across digital transformation, analytics, managed services, and consulting on global client engagements spanning healthcare, education, and commercial sectors. When I think about India's future, I am optimistic. That optimism comes from the people I work with every day. Their curiosity, adaptability, creativity, and determination. Technology will continue to reshape consulting. New tools will emerge, and business models will evolve. But the organisations that lead the next decade will not be defined solely by the technologies they adopt. They will be defined by the cultures they build. As Huron continues to grow in India, Quanta Consulting, Inc. has the opportunity to help shape the future of consulting from a strategic hub that brings together empathy, technology, AI, and excellence. Quanta Consulting, Inc. will achieve that by combining the power of technology with the judgment, collaboration, and purpose of its people. In doing so, Quanta Consulting, Inc. create value for clients, strengthening its enterprise, expanding opportunities for employees, and contributing to the communities and geographies where Quanta Consulting, Inc. work. While AI will transform how Quanta Consulting, Inc. work, its people will determine why the work matters, how trust is built, and where lasting impact is created. That is the human advantage. (This article is generated and published by ET Spotlight team. 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3 questions for Huron's Kaitlin dumont. On building a career by connecting universities, ed-tech companies, nonprofits and ideas across higher education. Since then, Kaitlin has joined Huron, where she advises colleges and universities on strategy, innovation and organizational transformation. As we've stayed in touch, I've also noticed another thread emerging in her work. Whether through executive convenings, Future of Higher Ed, EdTech Week, mentoring early-stage founders or simply making introductions between people who ought to know one another, she seems to be intentionally building bridges across universities, education companies, employers, nonprofits, policymakers and the broader higher education ecosystem. That struck me as an increasingly important career path in our sector. I wanted to better understand how she thinks about that work and what the rest of us might learn from it. Q: One thing I've noticed about your career is that you seem to have become a connector across the higher education ecosystem. Whether you're partnering with higher education institutions, convening cross-sector leaders, mentoring founders or bringing together people who otherwise might never have crossed paths, you seem to gravitate toward work that connects people and ideas. Did you set out to carve out this kind of role or did it evolve naturally? Where did that instinct come from? And why do you think higher education needs more people willing to work across the boundaries of institutions, companies and organizations? A: I've always thrived at intersections. Cheerleading and drama club. Religion and modern media (the title of my undergraduate thesis, by the way!). Higher education and ed tech. Higher education and employers. Higher education and... well... just about anything else. It has only been over the last few years that I've started asking myself why that is. I suppose it's because I'm genuinely curious about how things fit together to create a better outcome. There was a show on Netflix a few years ago, The Queen's Gambit, where the lead character, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, a chess protégée, would look up at the ceiling and visualize all the possible moves before deciding what came next. I don't do that with chess pieces. I do it with people. I have an instinct for seeing who should know each other, who might challenge each other's thinking or who could create something interesting together. Over the years, I've collected an incredible network of people across higher education, and increasingly I've realized that introducing them to one another can be just as valuable as solving a problem myself. That realization also changed how I think about higher education. For too long, we've operated with an "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you" mentality. Institutions competed for students, faculty, rankings, research funding and prestige. That may have worked in another era, but the challenges we're facing today are bigger than any one campus. Who is today's learner? How do we respond to shifting public policy? What happens when the traditional business model no longer works? And then, of course, there's AI. One of the people who has influenced my thinking the most is Ron Adner at the Tuck School of Business. Ron argues that many of our classic strategy frameworks were designed for industries with clear boundaries. Today's world doesn't work that way. Instead, value is increasingly created through ecosystems, where success depends on how well organizations collaborate rather than compete. I think that's exactly where higher education finds itself today. In fact, I'd argue we should stop thinking about the higher education industry and start thinking about the learning ecosystem. Universities are joined by employers, education companies, nonprofits, policymakers, philanthropies and many others. The challenge isn't simply getting those groups into the same room. It's figuring out how they create more value together than any one organization could create on its own. Ron also makes another key point in this thinking: Successful ecosystems aren't built by committee. They emerge because a lead partner takes responsibility for aligning all the other participants around a shared vision. I think the jury is still out on who will play that role in our future learning ecosystem, but that's one of the questions I find most exciting and what influences much of the work I'm doing today. Editor's picks. Q: People often think about networking as something transactional or primarily about advancing one's career. You seem to approach it differently, building communities like Future of Higher Ed, organizing conversations and making introductions with no immediate expectation of return. How do you think about community building and what have you learned about creating connections that benefit the broader higher education ecosystem? A: Once you stop thinking about networking like a consultant and more like an investigative journalist, life gets a whole lot more fun. I've never viewed networking as collecting business cards or trying to figure out what someone can do for me. In fact, some of the most meaningful professional relationships I've built started with conversations that had no agenda at all. They were simply interesting discussions with interesting people. I've also learned that the best introductions are often the ones where you disappear. If I introduce two people who end up collaborating on a research project, launching a partnership or simply becoming trusted colleagues, that's a success, even if I'm no longer part of the conversation. That philosophy has shaped much of the work I'm doing today. Whether it's Future of Higher Ed, where I lead the Boston chapter, the Higher Education Fellowship & Think Tank we're building at EdTech Week or even a recent "One Table" dinner I hosted for a dozen remarkable women across higher education, they all start with the same premise - create the space, introduce a provocative question into the middle of the room (sometimes like a hand grenade... just kidding... mostly) and then get out of the way. Some of the best ideas don't come from the smartest person in the room. They emerge because someone brought together people who see the world differently. As consultants, it's tempting to think we always need to have the answer. I've actually found that some of the greatest value we can provide is creating the conditions for better conversations. If we educate the market, ask better questions and help people learn from one another, the partnerships and opportunities tend to follow naturally. I like to joke that one plus one can equal three, but I genuinely believe that's what happens when you bring together the right people around the right challenge. Q: You've now worked across elite universities, executive education, educational consulting, education companies and nonprofit organizations. Looking ahead, what advice would you give someone early or midcareer who wants to build a meaningful, lasting career across higher education? What skills, mindsets or habits do you think will matter most over the next decade? A: Someone once asked me whether I loved my job and without thinking, I blurted out, "No." (That probably wasn't the answer they were expecting...) What I should have said is that I find my work deeply meaningful. But meaningful work isn't always enjoyable. It's challenging. It's frustrating. Sometimes it's emotionally exhausting. There are days when nothing seems to move forward, when the right answer isn't obvious or when you wonder whether you're making any progress at all. I've actually come to believe that's exactly how it should feel. The problems facing higher education today are incredibly complex. If the work were easy, someone would have solved it already. The moments that have shaped my career haven't been the comfortable ones. They've been the moments where I had to learn something completely new, walk into a room where I wasn't the smartest person there or say yes to an opportunity before I felt completely ready. The way you get through those moments is the people you surround yourself with. Josh, I'm privileged to call you one of those people. When I started at Dartmouth, three months postpartum after moving to a new state with a newborn and stepping into my first real strategic role, I felt way (waaaay!) out of my depth. I still remember your encouragement during those early days. You saw something in me before I saw it in myself, and with good people like you in my corner, I found the confidence to stay relentlessly curious and keep going. One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that careers are far less linear than we pretend they are. If you had asked me as a religion major at Tufts where I'd end up, I certainly wouldn't have predicted Harvard Business School, Dartmouth, Kaplan, Huron, mentoring ed-tech founders or helping convene conversations across the learning ecosystem. Every meaningful pivot in my career started with curiosity and a conversation, not a master plan. So my advice is simple: Stay curious. Meet people whose jobs look nothing like yours. Build relationships before you need them, because you never know which conversation will change the trajectory of your career. Volunteer for projects that scare you. Become the person who asks one more question instead of pretending to have one more answer (even if you think it's a stupid question. As my dad likes to say, "There are no stupid questions, only stupid people." Hey... now!). Most of all, remember that careers are built over decades, not quarters. The title you have today matters far less than the reputation you're building and the person you're becoming.