Kerry Hancock: returning to her management consultancy roots

Building on strong foundations for future growth

When Rachel Ellison was appointed as Mott MacDonald’s operations director for UK and Europe, Kerry Hancock saw the vacant role of managing director for advisory and programme delivery as her dream job. 

“It felt like the natural progression for me,” she says of the move from her previous position as regional development manager. “After six years in my current role, I was ready for a new opportunity and a fresh challenge, but I wanted that to still be in Mott MacDonald as I really love working here.”

While the new role comes with bigger responsibilities and a team of 1400 people working with her, it is very much a move that feels like coming home to Kerry. Before her regional position, Kerry spent over 15 years working in the advisory and programme delivery business in a number of different roles.

Foundations laid for growth

“The part of the business I lead delivers project, programme and commercial management (PPCM) services across all of the markets and clients that Mott MacDonald serves,” she explains. “Our success in this sector comes from knowing the markets we operate in really well and working closely with our engineering colleagues. Clients don’t want generic advice; they want to work with organisations that can offer technical depth across delivery and have people who truly understand their challenges.”

When asked about the flagship clients her team are currently working with, Kerry points to Cisco, Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Heathrow, United Utilities and East West Rail. Services offered by Kerry’s team to these clients and others cover the breadth of PPCM services, such as programme management of major infrastructure projects, project management, cost intelligence and advisory services for carbon and climate.

Kerry says that Rachel has done a great job in growing the advisory business and creating a successful team with a broad range of specialist capabilities. “My role is to build on that and leverage our market knowledge to deliver growth in both market share and the size of the projects we’re working on in an advisory and programme delivery capacity,” she explains.

I love helping clients to solve problems and seeing people be successful too

Focus on people

Although some of her team are people Kerry has worked with before, there are also new faces and she says she spent time during her first few months in post getting to know them better, as well as getting out to meet clients too. “I want to be a visible and accountable leader who people feel comfortable coming and talking to,” adds Kerry.

The visibility that Kerry brings is about more than just leadership of the advisory and PPCM business though as she will continue to be the sponsor for Mott MacDonald’s Advance Network for its LGBTQIA+ community and committee. “As a gay woman, who is now in a leadership role, it is really important to be visible and share my experiences,” she explains. “Earlier on in my career there weren’t role models who I could identify with, which means it is really important to me to be open about who I am and support the network.”

Kerry believes that people being true to who they are at work doesn’t just benefit the individuals though, it also delivers results for clients too. “Having diverse teams means we can deliver better outcomes for our clients – we need different perspectives to challenge our thinking,” she adds.

It is clear that inclusivity and culture are part of what leads Kerry to openly declare her firm affection for Mott MacDonald and it is a love affair that has spanned two decades so far. Kerry first joined Mott MacDonald 20 years ago in the energy business but her role then was still very much focused on management consultancy.

As she moved into other parts of the business, she worked on a broad range of projects in a programme management capacity. Kerry says that one of the highlights was her work with the Department for Education (DfE). Nonetheless, it was not just the projects that were delivered and the policy influence with DfE that she sees as a success, it was how she worked with the client to grow the business and nurture the capabilities of the team working with her that is a source of pride too.

She says that her career progressed through the business as a result of senior leaders championing her and giving her opportunities and she wants to support others in that way in her new role too. Kerry also says that she gained a reputation for strong leadership skills and a focus on delivery through working in different roles on the same project, which gave her different insights about what clients really need.

“I love helping clients to solve problems and seeing people be successful too,” Kerry explains. “I am quite competitive but not at a personal level, it’s about team success.”

Politics loss is Mott MacDonald’s gain

Before joining Mott MacDonald, Kerry worked for Vodafone in business development, which she describes as interesting, but she felt that the product sales focus did not quite meet her long-term career aspirations. Those dreams never included management consultancy as a child though – in her younger years Kerry thought that she might become a civil servant or go into politics.

Kerry was the first person in her family to go to university and gained a degree in politics at the University of Liverpool before completing a master's degree in European Union Policy and Politics. 

“I wanted to be able to make a difference to the world around me and I’ve able to do that through delivering national projects and guiding policy through working at Mott MacDonald,” she says.

Kerry believes that her academic background, as well as the expertise and insight she has gained over her 20 years in Mott MacDonald give her broad knowledge to support the advisory business to grow further. That growth is now her focus. Having spent her first six months immersed in the current business, its people and its clients, she is now looking ahead to determine how it should and could change over the next three to five years.

“Our teams and the needs of our clients are really critical to that, so it was important to get to know them well first,” says Kerry.