ICF International

Early history

ICF was founded in 1969 as the Inner City Fund, a venture capital firm established to finance inner-city businesses. Its first president was C. D. Lester, a former Tuskegee Airman, who was joined by three U.S. Department of Defense analysts. The firm's consulting business proved more successful than its investments, and in 1972, it was reorganized as a consulting firm and renamed ICF Incorporated. ICF focused on energy issues for U.S. federal agencies throughout the 1970s.

During the 1980s, the firm expanded its environmental business and began to build its engineering capabilities. In 1988, the firm acquired Kaiser Engineers, which had originated as the engineering unit of Henry J. Kaiser's industrial empire and grew to rank among the largest engineering and construction companies in the world. The following year, the combined company went public and eventually traded its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The combined company operated as "ICF Kaiser," maintaining its consulting unit largely intact.

In 1999, ICF International ended its decade-long affiliation with Kaiser Engineers through acquisition by its management and CM Equity Partners, LP, an equity investment firm based in New York City.

Acquisitions

In 2002, ICF acquired two divisions of Arthur D. Little: Global Environment & Risk (Americas) and Public Sector Program Management.

In 2005, ICF acquired Synergy, Inc., a provider of strategic planning, analysis, and technology solutions in defense command and control, operations, and logistics.

In 2005, ICF acquired Caliber Associates, a Fairfax, Virginia, firm that provided high-end consulting services, primarily to U.S. federal clients.

In 2007, ICF acquired Energy and Environmental Analysis (EEA), a firm that specialized in energy market analyses, modeling, transportation and energy technology, and environmental advisory services.

In 2007, ICF acquired Advanced Performance Consulting Group (APCG), a firm that specialized in helping federal organizations develop and implement strategy, improve enterprise performance, manage change, support employee growth, and communicate effectively.

In 2007, ICF acquired Z-Tech Corporation, a provider of software engineering, web design and development, and scientific computing services in support of federal health agencies.

In 2007, ICF acquired SH&E, the world’s largest consulting firm dedicated to air transport.

In 2008, ICF acquired Jones & Stokes, an integrated planning and resource management firm specializing in the transportation, energy, water, and natural resource management sectors.

In 2009, ICF International acquired Macro International Inc., an advisory, implementation, and evaluation services firm providing research-based solutions to U.S. federal government agencies in health and other areas.

In 2009, ICF acquired Jacob & Sundstrom, Inc., an information technology firm specializing in cybersecurity and identity management services for U.S. federal civilian and defense agencies.

In 2010, ICF acquired Marbek Resource Consultants Ltd., a leading Canadian energy and environmental consulting firm.

In 2011, ICF acquired Ironworks Consulting LLC, an interactive web development firm that provided customer engagement solutions across web, mobile, and social media platforms to companies in the health, energy, and financial services industries as well as to U.S. federal government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

In 2012, ICF International acquired GHK Holdings Limited, a multidisciplinary consultancy headquartered in the UK serving government and commercial clients on environment, employment, health, education and training, transportation, social policy, business and economic development, and international development issues.

In 2013, ICF International acquired Ecommerce Accelerator LLC, a premier Hybris multichannel e-commerce integrator.

In 2014, ICF International acquired CITYTECH, Inc., a Chicago-based digital interactive consultancy specializing in enterprise applications development, web experience management, mobile application development, cloud enablement, managed services, and customer experience management solutions.

In 2014, ICF acquired Mostra S.A., a fully integrated communications firm headquartered in Belgium offering end-to-end, multichannel communications solutions to assist government and commercial clients in reaching out to their stakeholders and customers, and a key provider of strategic communications to European Union institutions.

In 2014, ICF acquired Olson, an integrated marketing technology and digital services provider offering digital marketing solutions around customer engagement and branding; widely recognized for its innovative strategic advisory work, its software-driven customer loyalty programs, and its analytics-based marketing.

Recent history

In 2006, ICF Consulting was renamed ICF International to reflect the firm's growing geographic presence and increased service offerings. The firm also pursued an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and now is a publicly traded firm listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol NASDAQ: ICFI .

In 2016, ICF International was rebranded as ICF, with a new logo and slogan, "We make big things possible."

Leadership

Services

In addition to professional services and technology-based solutions, ICF provides universal services throughout the project and program lifecycle in:

Markets

Contributions

ICF’s Integrated Planning Model (IPM®), a detailed model of the electric power sector, has been used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of its air regulatory analysis for more than 15 years. ICF provides support to EPA in applying the model.