By Holly Fisher
Supplements Editor

Gary Holdren’s first taste of entrepreneurship was in 1965 when he helped his father sell auto parts from the back of a Pontiac station wagon.

Two years later Holdren’s father opened an auto parts store in southeast Ohio. Working with his father in the family business taught Holdren about dealing with customers and the importance of a customer-centric business.

Holdren has come a long way from selling auto parts. Three years ago he started Huron Consulting Group in Chicago; today he oversees a firm with about 800 employees, eight offices and more than $210 million in revenues.

Consulting Magazine named Huron to its 2005 Top 25 Most Influential Consultants list. Huron Consulting Group was ranked the fastest-growing company in Entrepreneur magazine’s Hot 100 list.

Holdren shared his story Nov. 11 at the College of Charleston, part of the Students in Free Enterprise speaker series. Holdren’s son is a student at C of C, and he is building a home on Hilton Head Island.

Holdren’s entrepreneurial spirit runs deep and was able to bring him through a tough time in his business career. Before launching Huron Consulting Group, Holdren spent 30 years with Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm made famous after the Enron scandal of 2001.

After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, Holdren took an entry-level position with Arthur Andersen—all the while thinking he would eventually return home to run the family store.

“It was such a great learning experience, I couldn’t leave,” he explained.

In 1983, Holdren became a partner in the firm, and a year later he was given the opportunity to lead a small group of employees in building a small consulting firm. “I was allowed to be an entrepreneur in a major company.”

But 2001 brought the Enron disaster. While Holdren personally had no involvement with Enron, he, and all Arthur Andersen employees, suffered. Holdren lost his job, all his capital and his retirement.

He and his colleagues simply wondered, “What should we do?” On March 17, 2002, they met and decided to start a consulting firm. Several of their personal contacts and other entrepreneurs were willing to take a risk and invested $10 million with Holdren and his former Andersen co-workers. They raised the money in two days.

In May 2002, they opened Huron Consulting Group with 200 employees with some no-frills office space, QuickBooks and zero clients. “Imagine going from a huge organization to that—it was pretty scary,” Holdren said.

And the employees all had the taint of Arthur Andersen and the Enron scandal hanging over their heads. So they had to work even harder to let people know they weren’t criminals but experienced professionals.

They made countless calls, hearing time and again: “Who’s Huron?” Their persistence paid off, and in early September, Huron was hired to consult for United Airlines in its bankruptcy lawsuit. After that, the phones started ringing, Holdren said.

The growth during the past three years has been tremendous. By the end of 2003, Huron had 572 employees and more than $100 million in revenues. And on Oct. 13, 2004, the company made its initial public offering.

By December 2004, Huron was up to 612 employees and annual revenues exceeding $150 million. A year later, almost another 200 employees had been hired and revenues were up $60 million.

Holdren’s prediction for the close of 2006: 1,000 employees and $370 million in revenues. One of the reasons Holdren was visiting C of C is to recruit new hires. He said the company plans to add 150 people next year, many of them fresh off college campuses.

That commitment to hiring quality employees is one of the key reasons Huron has been so successful, Holdren said.

“You have to surround yourself with people better than yourself who have the same goals and want to be successful. All great organizations are made up of great teams,” he said.

Holly Fisher is the supplements editor for the Business Journal. E-mail her at hfisher@charlestonbusiness.com.

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