hurn-20241231
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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024
OR
For the transition period from ____ to ____
Commission file number: 000-50976
HURON CONSULTING GROUP INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
550 West Van Buren Street
Chicago, Illinois
60607
(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)
(312)583-8700
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share HURN Nasdaq Global Select Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YesxNo o
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. YesoNox
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. YesxNoo
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). YesxNoo
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its report. x
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes☐Nox
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2024 (the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter) was approximately $1,706,000,000.
As of February 18, 2025, 17,677,584 shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share, were outstanding.
Documents Incorporated By Reference
Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement to be filed with Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of its fiscal year are incorporated by reference into Part III.
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HURON CONSULTING GROUP INC.
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 1
Item 1A. Risk Factors 6
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 18
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 18
Item 2. Properties 19
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 19
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 19
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 20
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 39
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 40
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 40
Item 9B. Other Information 41
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 41
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 41
Item 11. Executive Compensation 41
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 42
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 42
SIGNATURES 47
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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “Huron,” “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Huron Consulting Group Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K that are not historical in nature, including those concerning the Company’s current expectations about its future results, are “forward-looking” statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “provides,” “anticipates,” “assumes,” “can,” “will,” “meets,” “could,” “likely,” “intends,” “might,” “predicts,” “seeks,” “would,” “believes,” “estimates,” “plans,” “continues,” “goals,” “guidance,” or “outlook,” or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations about our future requirements and needs, results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained herein include, without limitation: failure to achieve expected utilization rates, billing rates, and the necessary number of revenue-generating professionals; inability to expand or adjust our service offerings in response to market demands; our dependence on renewal of client-based services; dependence on new business and retention of current clients and qualified personnel; failure to maintain third-party provider relationships and strategic alliances; inability to license technology to and from third parties; the impairment of goodwill; various factors related to income and other taxes; difficulties in successfully integrating the businesses we acquire and achieving expected benefits from such acquisitions; risks relating to privacy, information security, and related laws and standards; and a general downturn or volatility in market conditions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including, among others, those described under Item 1A. “Risk Factors,” that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events, or for any other reason.
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
OVERVIEW
Huron is a global professional services firm that partners with clients to put possible into practice by creating sound strategies, optimizing operations, accelerating digital transformation, and empowering businesses to own their future. By embracing diverse perspectives, encouraging new ideas and challenging the status quo, we create sustainable results for the organizations we serve.
We are headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with additional locations in the United States and abroad in Canada, India, Singapore and Switzerland.
OUR STRATEGY
The combination of our deep industry expertise and breadth of our offerings is the foundation of our growth strategy and why our clients choose Huron as their trusted advisor. Key focus areas of our growth strategy include:
•Accelerating Growth in Healthcare and Education: Huron holds leading market positions in healthcare and education, providing comprehensive offerings to the largest health systems, academic medical centers, colleges and universities, and research institutes in the United States and abroad. The Company will continue to broaden its portfolio of offerings in healthcare and education to drive even greater impact on current and new clients as the needs in those industries further evolve due to competitive, regulatory, financial, and broader market changes.
•Growing Presence in Commercial Industries: Through its deep industry and capability expertise and nimble approach, Huron has grown its client base and expanded its credentials in the commercial industries. Huron’s commercial industry focus has increased the diversification of the Company’s portfolio and end markets while expanding the range of capabilities it can deliver to clients, providing new avenues for growth and an important balance to its healthcare and education focus.
•Rapidly Growing Global Digital Capability: As data and technology persist and evolve across industries, Huron’s ability to provide a broad portfolio of digital offerings that support the strategic and operational needs of its clients is at the foundation of the Company’s strategy. Huron will continue to advance its integrated digital platform to support its strong growth trajectory.
•Solid Foundation for Margin Expansion: The Company is well-positioned to further achieve margin expansion as well as strong annual adjusted diluted earnings per share growth. We are committed to operating income margin expansion by growing the areas of the business that provide the most attractive returns, improving the operational efficiency of our delivery for clients, utilizing our global delivery platform in India, and scaling our selling, general, and administrative expenses as we grow.
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•Strong Balance Sheet and Cash Flows: A resilient, flexible balance sheet is the foundation of our financial strength, and strong free cash flows have and will continue to be the hallmark of Huron’s business model. The Company is committed to deploying capital in a strategic and balanced way, including returning capital to shareholders and executing strategic, tuck-in acquisitions.
OUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
We provide our services and products and manage our business under three operating segments - Healthcare, Education, and Commercial - which aligns our business by industry. The Commercial segment includes all industries outside of healthcare and education, including, but not limited to, financial services, energy and utilities, industrials and manufacturing, and the public sector. We also provide revenue reporting across two principal capabilities: i) Consulting and Managed Services and ii) Digital, which are methods by which we deliver our services and products.
Operating Industries
For the year ended December 31, 2024, we derived 51%, 32% and 17% of our consolidated revenues before reimbursable expenses from our Healthcare, Education and Commercial operating segments, respectively.
•Healthcare
Our Healthcare segment serves acute care providers, including national and regional health systems; academic health systems; community health systems; the federal health system; and public, children’s and critical access hospitals, and non-acute care providers, including physician practices and medical groups; payors; and long-term care or post-acute providers. Our healthcare-focused services and products include financial and operational performance improvement consulting, which spans revenue cycle, business operations and care delivery transformation; digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services, including enterprise health record (“EHR”), enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) and enterprise performance management (“EPM”), customer relationship management (“CRM”), data management, artificial intelligence (“AI”) and automation, and technology managed services, and a portfolio of software products; organizational transformation; revenue cycle managed services and outsourcing; financial and capital advisory consulting; and strategy and innovation consulting.
•Education
Our Education segment serves public and private colleges and universities, research institutes, not-for-profit organizations and other education-related organizations. Our education and research-focused services and products include our digital offerings, spanning technology and analytic-related services, including student information systems, ERP and EPM, CRM, data management, AI and automation, and technology managed services and our Huron Research Suite product suite (the leading software suite designed to facilitate and improve research administration service delivery and compliance); our research-focused consulting and managed services; our strategy and operations consulting services, which span finance, accounting, operations and athletics to organization and talent strategy and student and academic strategy; and our global philanthropy consulting services, which were bolstered by the acquisition of Grenzebach Glier and Associates in March of 2024.
•Commercial
Our Commercial segment is focused on serving industries and organizations facing significant disruption and regulatory change by helping them adapt to rapidly changing environments and accelerate business transformation. Our Commercial professionals work primarily with six primary buyers: the chief executive officer, the chief financial officer, the chief strategy officer, the chief human resources officer, the chief operating officer, and organizational advisors, including lenders and law firms. We have a deep focus on serving organizations in the financial services, energy and utilities, industrials and manufacturing industries and the public sector while opportunistically serving commercial industries more broadly, including professional and business services, life sciences, consumer products, and retail. Our Commercial professionals use their deep industry, functional and technical expertise to deliver our digital services and software products, financial and capital advisory (special situation advisory and corporate finance advisory) consulting services, and strategy and innovation consulting services. In December 2024, we expanded our Commercial consulting and digital services offerings through the acquisition of AXIA Consulting, a leading provider of supply chain-focused consulting and technology solutions who has deep expertise in the industrials and manufacturing and retail sectors.
Capabilities
Within each of our operating segments, we provide our offerings under two principal capabilities: i) Consulting and Managed Services and ii) Digital.
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•Consulting and Managed Services
Our Consulting and Managed Services capabilities represent our management consulting services, managed services (excluding technology-related managed services) and outsourcing services delivered across industries. Our Consulting and Managed Services experts help our clients address a variety of strategic, operational, financial, people and organizational-related challenges. These services are often combined with technology, analytic and data-driven solutions powered by our Digital capability to support long-term relationships with our clients and drive lasting impact. Examples include the areas of revenue cycle management and research administration managed services and outsourcing at our healthcare, education and research-focused clients, where our projects are often coupled with our digital services and product offerings and management consulting services to sustain improved performance.
•Digital
Our Digital capabilities represent our technology and analytics services, including technology-related managed services, and software products delivered across industries. Our Digital experts help clients address a variety of business challenges, including, but not limited to, designing and implementing technologies to accelerate transformation, facilitate data-driven decision making and improve customer and employee experiences. We have invested organically and inorganically to expand our Digital offerings, which now span beyond traditional ERP implementations into a broader set of administrative systems, industry-specific systems of record and systems of engagement that act as the “digital front door” to an organization. We have grown our data, analytics, AI and automation offerings to deliver a unified and actionable technology ecosystem for our clients. Through our acquisition of AXIA Consulting, we have also expanded our supply chain management (“SCM”) offerings and broadened our technology portfolio with advanced Microsoft capabilities, while strengthening Huron's ability to empower clients to align their people and processes to support their digital-first goals.
We have expanded our ecosystem to work with more than 25 technology partners. For example, we are a Leading Modern Oracle Network Partner; a Summit-level consulting partner with Salesforce.com and a Premium Partner with Salesforce.org; a Workday Services, Preferred Channel, Extend, and Application Management Services Partner; an Amazon Web Services consulting partner; a Microsoft Solutions Partner, an Informatica Platinum Partner; an SAP Concur implementation partner; and a Boomi Elite Partner.
We have also grown our proprietary software product portfolio to address our clients' challenges with solutions that expand our base of recurring revenue and further differentiate our consulting, digital and managed services offerings. Our product portfolio bundles our deep industry expertise and unique intellectual property together to serve our clients outside of our traditional consulting offerings. Our product portfolio includes, among others: Huron Research Suite, the leading software suite designed to facilitate and improve research administration service delivery and compliance; Huron IntelligenceTM Rounding, the #1 ranked Digital Rounding solution in the 2024 Best in KLAS® report; and Huron IntelligenceTM Analytic Suite in Healthcare, a predictive analytics suite to improve care delivery while lowering costs.
OUR CLIENTS AND INDUSTRIES
We provide services to both financially sound organizations and organizations in transition across industries, including healthcare, education, financial services, energy and utilities, industrials and manufacturing, public sector and other commercial industries. Our clients span hospitals, health systems and academic medical centers; colleges, universities and research institutes; banks, asset managers, insurance companies and private equity firms; oil and gas and utilities companies; manufacturing organizations; not-for-profit organizations; and the public sector. In 2024, we served over 2,100 clients and our 10 largest clients accounted for approximately 17% of our consolidated revenues.
HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES AND MANAGEMENT
Our people are at the center of Huron’s strategy, and we are committed to providing a workplace where our talented team can thrive both personally and professionally. Success hinges on our ability to attract, engage, develop, reward, and retain highly skilled professionals. The cornerstone of our human capital strategy lies in both our mission-driven approach and an enduring belief that great leaders and engaged coaches cultivate a work environment where team members feel valued, create deep connections, perform meaningful work and see their future with Huron. Our unwavering focus extends across every aspect of the employee journey, from the recruitment phase to post-employment or retirement. We strive to craft a personalized experience for our employees, empowering them to have a meaningful impact on our clients, communities, and each other.
In 2024, Huron received widespread recognition as an employer of choice. For the fourteenth consecutive year, Consulting Magazine named Huron a ‘‘Best Firm to Work For,’’ acknowledging our strong commitment to our people, our values, our clients and the communities we serve. Additionally, we were recognized by;
•Glassdoor as a ‘‘Best Place to Work’’
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•TIME Magazine as one of ‘‘America’s Best Mid-Size Companies’’
•Forbes as one of the ‘‘World’s Best Management Consulting Firms’’, one of ‘‘America’s Best Management Consulting Firms’’, and one of ‘‘America's Best Employers for Women’’
•U.S. News and World Report as one of the ‘‘Best Companies to Work For’’ and one of the ‘‘Best Places to Work for Supporting Family Caregiving’’
•Vault as #4 in Consulting Internships
In addition to external recognitions, we monitor human capital-related internal metrics. Our leading measure is our yearly employee engagement score. In addition, we regularly review voluntary turnover across a number of key variables including business unit, individual performance, and geography in order to assess the effectiveness of our employee value proposition inclusive of employee development and total rewards programs.
Additional information on our people and programs follows.
Our People:As of December 31, 2024, our workforce was comprised of approximately 7,230 full-time professionals.
•Our nearly 270 managing directors and principals actively play a pivotal role in serving our clients, acting as strategic business advisors, coaches, and industry experts and collaborating with organizations and their leaders to tackle complex business challenges. Managing directors and principals lead our revenue-generating sales and client service efforts, innovation and the development of our intellectual capital, foster the growth of our people, and act as stewards of our organizational culture. Together, our managing directors and principals contribute significantly to our market reputation, addressing clients' challenges and ensuring the highest quality delivery of our engagements. In addition to the responsibilities listed above, our managing directors' primary focus is on propelling our business growth by selling our portfolio of offerings to generate revenue streams from both new and existing clients.
•Senior directors, directors, senior managers and managers are primarily focused on managing day-to-day client relationships and our engagement teams while overseeing the delivery and quality of our work as well as developing our people and nurturing our collaborative culture.
•Associates and analysts focus on meeting client commitments by gathering and organizing data, conducting detailed analyses, crafting materials that synthesize information to support our recommendations, and implement financial, operational, and technology and analytic solutions to execute on the recommendations we provide to clients.
•Our functional professionals, who are led by our executives and corporate vice presidents, comprise Huron’s enterprise functional teams, including corporate development, facilities, finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, legal, marketing and operations. These professionals offer strategic guidance and execute on initiatives on behalf of the enterprise to support our client-facing objectives and the achievement of our growth strategy.
In addition to our full-time employees, we engage temporary workers on an as-needed basis, primarily bringing specialized skills and/or experience to augment our capacity for delivering client engagements or internal initiatives.
Development:We know the ability to advance one’s career, growing both personally and professionally, is critical to employee retention and engagement. To facilitate this advancement, we offer a wide array of learning and development opportunities and experiences that can be tailored to personal needs and applied to individual context. We are committed to creating learning pathways that reflect the specific needs of our global population, engage them in a future at Huron, and enhance our culture of collaboration. We continue to:
•Facilitate an interactive two-day orientation curriculum for newly hired employees to ensure a smooth induction into the organization.
•Offer just-in-time, 1:1 coaching and training opportunities that inform and prepare leaders and coaches to excel in moments that matter for our employees.
•Strive to develop world class leaders, guided by our values and leadership principles, by delivering programs and opportunities, such as our Senior Director Cohort, Milestone schools and Sponsorship program, which focus on key leadership behaviors.
•Provide access to a variety of learning opportunities that are offered through multiple modalities to further develop employees’ skills, including technical knowledge, EQ capabilities, team dynamics, and a proficiency in coaching and developing others.
•Encourage employees to enhance their professional capabilities through external learning opportunities that certify and validate industry, functional and technical skills.
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•Match employees with internal onboarding stewards, performance coaches, mentors, and, in some cases, sponsors to facilitate their growth and expand their network of support.
Total Rewards:Our market-competitive total rewards package is a core element of our employee value proposition to attract, motivate, and retain top talent. Our philosophy is designed to pay for performance, rewarding and retaining our highest performing employees and paying competitively versus peer companies. To accomplish this, we offer employees a competitive base salary, short- and long-term variable pay incentives, and market-competitive and employee-focused benefits.
Engagement: We gauge our employee engagement success through various metrics, including:
•Employee engagement score, which was 82 in 2024 and surpassed the Glint Employee Engagement global benchmark of 74;
•Coach quality score, which was 83 in 2024 and above the Glint Coach Quality global benchmark of 82; and
•Volunteer hours in our communities, which was nearly 13,000 hours in 2024 delivered by 42% of our total employee population.
Diverse Culture and Community: Cultivating an environment in which everyone works together, feels included, and has the opportunity to thrive has been a hallmark since our founding. In 2024, we continued to expand our engagement, development and community building efforts to further strengthen the experience of our global, dynamic employee base. Specifically, we:
•Launched an enterprise-wide leadership development program for analyst, associate and senior associate levels that consists of open group discussions and a robust curriculum designed to align with the company's core competencies, values, and leadership principles.
•Expanded our Dinner and Dialogue series for our C-Suite to engage with, and learn directly from, small groups represented by our employee resource group (iMatter) teams as a way to build deeper connections.
•Hosted our first iMatter leaders’ summit to enhance collaboration among teams, provide an opportunity to plan for 2025, and recognize the dedication and achievements of iMatter Team leaders.
•Hosted the first integrated, open-access Women in Tech Summit in India marking an exciting expansion of the team's growth in that region, alongside a similar event in North America.
•Launched the First Gen Professionals network to provide a space for individuals to explore their identity, connect with others, and share best practices and career development resources.
To learn more about how we continue to execute on our employee and community commitments, refer to our annual Corporate Social Responsibility report, which is available on our investor relations website located at ir.huronconsultinggroup.com.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
As a mission-driven company, we recognize it is our collective responsibility to actively contribute to a sustainable and brighter future, benefiting our clients, employees, communities, and shareholders. We continue to publish an annual report highlighting the actions we have taken globally to strengthen our clients, our communities, and our people. Our Corporate Social Responsibility report reflects our efforts in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), that align with our values-driven culture and the work we do for our clients. As an addendum to our Corporate Social Responsibility report, we publish a Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (“SASB”) index in line with SASB’s Professional & Commercial Services standards. Our SASB index provides further quantitative and qualitative information regarding our data security programs, practices and policies, workforce metrics, and our approach to promoting professional integrity and ethical behavior among our workforce, commensurate with best practices for professional services organizations.
For additional information, refer to our annual Corporate Social Responsibility report, which is available on our investor relations website located at ir.huronconsultinggroup.com.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING
Our business development and marketing activities are aimed at cultivating relationships, generating leads, and building a strong brand reputation with offices of the C-suite and senior level influencers and decision makers of organizations within our core industries. We believe excellent service delivery to clients is critical to building and maintaining relationships and sustaining and strengthening our brand reputation, and we emphasize the importance of high-quality client service to all of our employees.
Currently, we generate new business opportunities through the combination of relationships our managing directors and principals have with individuals working at our prospective clients and with our technology partners and marketing activities. We also view market-based collaboration between our employees as a key component in building our business. Often, the client relationship of an employee in one area
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of our business leads to opportunities in another area, enhancing the opportunity to increase wallet share at a specific client. All of our managing directors and principals understand their roles in ongoing relationship and business development, which is reinforced through our compensation and incentive programs. We actively seek to identify new business opportunities and frequently receive referrals and repeat business from past and current clients. In addition, to complement the business development efforts of our managing directors, we have dedicated business development professionals who are focused exclusively on developing client relationships and generating new business.
COMPETITION
The professional services industry is extremely competitive, highly fragmented, and constantly evolving. The industry includes a large number of participants with a variety of skills and industry expertise, including other strategy, business operations, technology, and financial advisory consulting firms; general management consulting firms; the consulting practices of major accounting firms; technical and economic advisory firms; regional and specialty consulting firms; consulting divisions of our technology partners; and the internal professional resources of organizations. We compete with a large number of service and technology providers in all of our segments. Our competitors vary, depending on the particular industry and expertise area, and we expect to continue to face competition from new market entrants.
We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include reputation, the ability to attract and retain top talent, the capacity to manage engagements effectively and with the highest quality to drive value for clients, and the ability to deliver measurable and sustainable results. There is also competition on price, although to a lesser extent due to the criticality of the issues that many of our services and products address. Some competitors have a greater geographic footprint, including a broader international presence, and more resources than we do, but we believe our reputation, industry and capability expertise, and ability to deliver high-value, quality service and measurable results to our clients across a balanced portfolio of offerings and to attract and retain employees with broad capabilities and deep industry expertise enable us to compete favorably in the professional services marketplace.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements, and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). These filings are available on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.
Our website is located at www.huronconsultinggroup.com, and our investor relations website is located at ir.huronconsultinggroup.com. We make our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 available through our website, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
We provide information about our business and financial performance, including our corporate profile, on our investor relations website. Additionally, we webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Further corporate governance information, including our code of business conduct and ethics, corporate governance guidelines, and board committee charters, is also available on our investor relations website. The content of any referenced website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.
The following discussion of risk factors may be important to understanding the statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or elsewhere. The following information should be read in conjunction with Part II—Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Discussions about the important operational risks that our business encounters can be found in Part II—Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
Risks Related to Human Capital Resources
An inability to retain our senior management team and other managing directors would be detrimental to the success of our business.
We rely heavily on our senior management team, our industry and capability leaders, and other managing directors, and our ability to retain them is particularly important to our future success. Given the highly specialized nature of our services, the senior management team must have a thorough understanding of our service offerings as well as the skills and experience necessary to manage an organization consisting of a diverse group of professionals. In addition, we rely on our senior management team and other managing directors to generate revenues and market our business. Further, our senior management’s and other managing directors’ personal reputations and relationships with our clients are a critical element in obtaining and maintaining client engagements. Members of our senior management team and our other managing directors could choose to leave or join one of our competitors and some of our clients could choose to use the services of that competitor instead of our services. If one or more members of our senior management team or our other managing directors leave and we
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cannot replace them with a suitable candidate quickly, or if legal restrictions on non-competition agreements are put into place, we could experience difficulty in securing and successfully completing engagements, managing our business properly and executing on our growth strategy, which could harm our business prospects and results of operations.
If we are unable to hire and retain talented people in an industry where there is great competition for talent, it could have a serious negative effect on our prospects and results of operations.
Our business involves the delivery of professional services and is highly labor-intensive. Our success depends largely on our general ability to attract, develop, motivate, and retain highly skilled professionals. Further, we must successfully maintain the right mix of professionals with relevant experience and skill sets as we continue to grow, as we expand into new service offerings, and as the market evolves. The loss of a significant number of our professionals, the inability to attract, hire, develop, train, and retain additional skilled personnel, or failure to maintain the right mix of professionals could have a serious negative effect on us, including our ability to manage, staff, and successfully complete our existing engagements and obtain new engagements. Qualified professionals are in great demand, and we face significant competition for both senior and junior professionals with the requisite credentials and experience. Our principal competition for talent comes from other consulting firms and accounting firms, as well as from organizations seeking to staff their internal professional positions. Many of these competitors may be able to offer greater compensation and benefits or more attractive lifestyle choices, career paths, or geographic locations than we can offer. Therefore, we may not be successful in attracting and retaining the skilled consultants we require to conduct and expand our operations successfully. Increasing competition for these revenue-generating professionals may also significantly increase our labor costs, which could negatively affect our margins and results of operations.
If we are unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with our continued growth, we might be unable to achieve our business objectives.
As we continue to grow and evolve, it might become increasingly difficult to maintain effective standards across a large, global enterprise and effectively institutionalize our knowledge or to effectively change the strategy, operations or culture of our Company in a timely manner. It might also become more difficult to maintain our culture; effectively manage and monitor our people and operations; effectively communicate our core values, policies and procedures, strategies and goals; and motivate, engage and retain our people, particularly given the distribution of our employees across the U.S. and internationally, the rate of new hires, the breadth of skills and expertise across all of our solutions, and the fact that essentially all of our employees have the option to work remotely. The size and scope of our operations increase the possibility that we will have employees who expose us to unacceptable business risks, despite our efforts to train them and maintain internal controls to prevent such instances. For example, employee misconduct could involve the improper use of sensitive or confidential information entrusted to us, or obtained inappropriately, or the failure to comply with legislation or regulations regarding the protection of sensitive or confidential information, including personal data and proprietary information. Furthermore, the inappropriate use of social networking sites or AI by our employees could result in breaches of confidentiality, unauthorized disclosure of nonpublic company information or damage to our reputation. If we do not continue to develop and implement the right processes and tools to manage our enterprise and instill our culture and core values into all of our employees, our ability to compete successfully and achieve our business objectives could be impaired. In addition, effective January 1, 2022, we made, and continue to make, changes to our operating model, including how we are organized as the needs and size of our business change, and despite the operating model yielding positive synergies and impacts to date, if we do not continue to successfully implement the changes, our business and results of operation may be negatively impacted.
Risks Related to Business Operations, Growth and Development
We may incur costs to support our business and the inability to effectively build a support structure for the business could have an adverse impact on our growth and profitability.
We have grown significantly since we commenced operations and have increased the number of our full-time professionals from 249 in 2002 to approximately 7,230 as of December 31, 2024. Additionally, our considerable growth has placed demands on our management and our internal systems, procedures, and controls and will continue to do so in the future. To successfully manage growth, we must periodically adjust and strengthen our operating, financial, accounting, and other systems, procedures, compliance practices and controls, which may increase our total costs and may adversely affect our operating income and our ability to sustain profitability if we do not generate increased revenues to offset the costs. As a public company, our information and control systems must enable us to prepare accurate and timely financial information and other required disclosures. If we discover deficiencies in our existing information and control systems that impede our ability to satisfy our reporting requirements, we must successfully implement improvements to those systems in an efficient and timely manner.
Our international operations could result in additional risks.
We operate both domestically and internationally, including in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Although historically our international operations have been limited, we intend to continue to expand internationally. Such expansion may result in additional risks or increase the acuity of risks that are not present domestically and which could adversely affect our business or our results of operations, including:
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•compliance with additional U.S. regulations and those of other nations applicable to international operations;
•cultural and language differences;
•employment laws, including immigration laws affecting the mobility of employees, and rules and related social and cultural factors;
•losses related to start-up costs, lack of revenue, higher costs due to low utilization, and delays in purchase decisions by prospective clients;
•currency fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies;
•potentially adverse tax consequences and limitations on our ability to utilize losses generated in our foreign operations;
•different or more stringent regulatory requirements and other barriers to conducting business;
•different or less stable political and economic environments;
•greater personal security risks for employees traveling to or located in unstable locations;
•health emergencies or pandemics; and
•civil disturbances or other catastrophic events.
Further, conducting business abroad subjects us to increased regulatory compliance and oversight. A failure to comply with applicable regulations could result in regulatory enforcement actions as well as substantial civil and criminal penalties assessed against us and our employees.
In addition, expanding into new geographic areas and expanding current service offerings is challenging and may require integrating new employees into our company culture as well as assessing the demand in the applicable market. If we cannot manage the risks associated with new employees, new service offerings or new locations effectively, we are unlikely to be successful in these efforts, which could harm our ability to sustain profitability and our business prospects.
The Company has significant operations in India, which presents additional risks.
We have significant operations in India, including approximately 2,650 employees, which could subject the Company to country-specific risks or exacerbate certain other risks. For example, from time to time, India has experienced instances of civil unrest, terrorism and hostilities among neighboring countries. Terrorist attacks, military activity, rioting, or civil or political unrest in the future could influence the Indian economy and our operations by disrupting operations and communications and making travel within India more difficult and less desirable. Further, India has experienced natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides and drought in the past few years. The extent and severity of these natural disasters determines their impact on the Indian economy. Our operations and employees in India may be adversely affected by these or other social and political uncertainties or change, military activity, health-related risks, acts of terrorism or natural disasters. Additionally, as the overall population of India is large, and the cities in which we operate are dense, the impact of any such occurrences could have a disproportionate adverse effect on our operations.
Additionally, the challenges presented by India’s complex business environment and heightened risk for potential corruption may increase our risk of violating applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws. We face the risk that our employees or any third parties we engage to do work on our behalf may take action determined to be in violation of anti-corruption laws in any jurisdiction in which we conduct business, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and Indian Penal Code. If we violate applicable anti-corruption laws or our internal policies designed to ensure ethical business practices, we could face financial penalties and/or reputational harm that would negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations.
Additionally, since 1991, successive Indian governments have generally pursued policies of economic liberalization and financial sector reforms, including by significantly relaxing restrictions on the private sector. Nevertheless, the role of the Indian central and state governments in the Indian economy as producers, consumers and regulators has remained significant and there is no assurance that such liberalization policies will continue. A significant change in India’s policy of economic liberalization and deregulation or any social or political uncertainties could adversely affect business and economic conditions in India generally and our business and employees in particular.
Lastly, unfavorable fluctuations in the currency exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and Indian rupee could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. As we continue to grow our operations in India, more of our expenses will be incurred in the Indian rupee. An increase in the value of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar, in which our revenue is primarily recorded, could increase costs for delivery of services and decrease the profitability of our engagements that utilize our employees in India.
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Additional hiring, departures, and business acquisitions and dispositions, as well as other organizational changes, could disrupt our operations, increase our costs or otherwise harm our business.
Our business strategy is dependent in part upon our ability to grow by hiring individuals or groups of individuals and by acquiring complementary businesses. However, we may be unable to identify, hire, acquire, or successfully integrate new employees and acquired businesses without substantial expense, delay, or other operational or financial obstacles. From time to time, we will evaluate the total mix of services we provide and we may conclude that businesses may not achieve the results we previously expected. Competition for future hiring and acquisition opportunities in our markets could increase the compensation we offer to potential employees or the prices we pay for businesses we wish to acquire. In addition, we may be unable to achieve the financial, operational, and other benefits we anticipate from any hiring or acquisition, as well as any disposition, including those we have completed so far. New acquisitions could also negatively impact existing practices and cause current employees to depart. Hiring additional employees or acquiring businesses could also involve a number of additional risks, including the diversion of management’s time, attention, and resources from managing and marketing our Company; the potential assumption of liabilities of an acquired business; the inability to attain the expected synergies with an acquired business; and the perception of inequalities if different groups of employees are eligible for different benefits and incentives or are subject to different policies and programs.
Selling and shutting down certain operations present similar challenges in a service business. Dispositions not only require management’s time, but they can impair existing relationships with clients or otherwise affect client satisfaction, particularly in situations where the divestiture eliminates only part of the complement of consulting services provided to a client. Dispositions may also involve continued financial involvement, as we may be required to retain responsibility for, or agree to indemnify buyers against, liabilities related to a business sold.
Additionally, effective January 1, 2022, we modified our operating model to report under three industries, which are our reportable segments. The new operating model was designed to strengthen Huron's go-to-market strategy and support our growth. The full implementation across all areas of our business to effect this change may take place over several years. If we do not continue to successfully implement and refine this change to our operating model, our business and results of operation may be negatively impacted.
The healthcare and education industries are areas of significant focus for our business, and factors that adversely affect the financial condition of these industries could consequently affect our business.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from clients in the healthcare and education industries. As a result, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected by conditions affecting these industries, both generally and those specific to the types of clients we serve in these industries, including hospitals and health systems, academic medical centers, and higher education institutions. The healthcare and education industries are highly regulated and are subject to changing political, legislative, regulatory, and other influences. Uncertainty in any of these areas could cause our clients to delay or postpone decisions to use our services. Existing and new federal and state laws and regulations affecting the healthcare and education industries could create unexpected liabilities for us, could cause us or our clients to incur additional costs, and could restrict our or our clients’ operations.
Additionally, regulatory and legislative changes in these industries, or executive actions impacting these industries, could reduce the demand for our services, decrease our competitive position or potentially render certain of our service offerings obsolete, change client buying patterns or decision making or require us to make unplanned modifications to our service offerings, which could require additional time and investment. If we fail to accurately anticipate the application of the laws and regulations affecting our clients and the industries they serve, if anticipated changes in regulation or regulatory uncertainty impact client buying patterns, or if such laws,regulations, and executive actions decrease our competitive position or limit the applicability of our service offerings, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely impacted. Similarly, certain of our healthcare and education clients may experience or anticipate experiencing financial distress or face complex challenges as a result of general economic conditions, operations-specific reasons or uncertainty in regulatory schemes. Such clients may not have the financial resources or stakeholder support to start new projects or to continue existing projects.
Specifically with respect to healthcare, many healthcare laws are complex and their application to us, our clients, or the specific services and relationships we have with our clients are not always clear. In addition, federal and state legislatures have periodically introduced programs to reform or amend the U.S. healthcare system at both the federal and state level, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, and continue to consider further significant reforms. Due to the significant implementation issues arising under these laws and potential new legislation or amendments to existing legislation, it is unclear what long-term effects they will have on the healthcare industry and in turn on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our failure to accurately anticipate the application of new laws and regulations, or our failure to comply with such laws and regulations, could create liability for us, result in adverse publicity and negatively affect our business.
There are many factors that could affect the purchasing practices, operations, and, ultimately, the operating funds of healthcare and education organizations, such as reimbursement policies for healthcare and research-related expenses, student loan policies or regulations, federal and state budgetary considerations, increased taxes, internal stakeholders’ views of engaging third-party consultants, consolidation in either industry, and regulation, litigation, and general economic conditions. In particular, we could be required to make unplanned modifications of our products and services (which would require additional time and investment) or we could suffer reductions in demand for
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our products and services as a result of changes in regulations affecting either industry, such as changes in the way that healthcare organizations are paid for their services (e.g., based on patient outcomes instead of services provided), changes to Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements, changes to cost rates or reimbursement rates applicable to research grants, or a decline in the level of federal or state grant spending in general. Levels of government spending are difficult to predict and subject to significant risk. Considerable uncertainty exists regarding how future budget and program decisions will unfold, including the spending priorities of the new U.S. presidential administration and Congress and what challenges budget reductions will present for the healthcare and education industries generally. Pressures on and uncertainty surrounding the U.S. federal and state governments' budgets, and potential changes in budgetary priorities and spending levels, could adversely affect the funding for individual programs and delay purchasing or payment decisions by our customers.
In addition, state tax authorities have challenged the tax-exempt status of some hospitals and other healthcare facilities claiming such status on the basis that they are operating as charitable and/or religious organizations. If the tax-exempt status of any of our clients is revoked or compromised by new legislation or interpretation of existing legislation, that client’s financial health could be adversely affected, which could adversely impact demand for our services, our sales, revenue, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our digital offerings are a significant focal point for our business, including a focus on the adaptation and expansion of our services and products in response to ongoing changes in customer demand, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially affect our results of operations.
Our financial results depend, in part, on our ability to continue to develop and implement services and solutions that anticipate and respond to rapid and continuing changes in technology to serve the evolving needs of our clients. Examples of areas of significant change include digital and analytic services and products, which are continually evolving. Technological developments may materially affect the cost and use of current technology by our clients and some of these technological developments may reduce and replace some of our historical services and products. This changing technological landscape may cause clients to delay spending under existing contracts and engagements and delay entering into new contracts while they evaluate new technologies. Such spending delays can negatively impact our results of operations.
Technological developments, which may be rapid, also could shift demand to new services and products. If, as a result of new technologies, our clients demand new services and products, we may be less competitive in these new areas or we may need to make significant investment in our portfolio of software products to meet that demand. Our growth strategy focuses on responding to these types of developments by driving innovation that will enable us to expand our business into new growth areas and enhance our current portfolio of software products. If we do not sufficiently invest in new technology, adapt to industry developments, evolve and expand our business at sufficient speed and scale, or make the right strategic investments, or fail to timely deliver on our product roadmap for our portfolio of software products to respond to these developments and successfully drive innovation, our services and products, our results of operations, and our ability to develop and maintain a competitive advantage and execute on our growth strategy could be adversely affected. Additionally, as we expand our services and products into these new areas, we may be exposed to operational, legal, regulatory, ethical, technological and other risks specific to such new areas, which may negatively affect our reputation and demand for our services and products.
Many of our client contracts are short-term in duration and may be terminated by our clients with little or no notice and without penalty, which may cause our operating results to be unpredictable and may result in unexpected declines in our utilization and revenues.
Our clients typically retain us on an engagement-by-engagement basis, rather than under long-term recurring contracts, and many of our client contracts are 12 months or less in duration. The volume of work performed for any particular client is likely to vary from year to year, and a major client in one fiscal period may not require or may decide not to use our services in any subsequent fiscal period. Moreover, a large portion of our new engagements come from existing clients. Accordingly, the failure to obtain new large engagements or multiple engagements from existing or new clients could have a material adverse effect on the amount of revenues we generate.
In addition, a large portion of our engagement agreements can be terminated by our clients with little or no notice and without penalty. In client engagements that involve multiple engagements or stages, there is a risk that a client may choose not to retain us for additional stages of an engagement or that a client will cancel or delay additional planned engagements. For clients in bankruptcy, a bankruptcy court could elect not to retain our interim management consultants, terminate our retention, require us to reduce our fees for the duration of an engagement, elect not to approve claims against fees earned by us prior to or after the bankruptcy filing, or subject previously paid amounts to be returned to the bankruptcy estate as preferential payments under the bankruptcy code.
Terminations of engagements, cancellations of portions of the project plan, delays in the work schedule, or reductions in fees could result from factors unrelated to our services. When engagements are terminated or reduced, we lose the associated future revenues, and we may not be able to recover associated costs and investments or redeploy the affected employees in a timely manner to minimize the negative impact. In addition, our clients’ ability to terminate engagements with little or no notice and without penalty makes it difficult to predict our operating results in any particular fiscal period.
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Conflicts of interest could preclude us from accepting engagements thereby causing decreased utilization and revenues.
We provide services in connection with bankruptcy and other proceedings that usually involve sensitive client information and frequently are adversarial. In connection with bankruptcy proceedings, we are required by law to be “disinterested” and may not be able to provide multiple services to a particular client. In addition, our engagement agreement with a client or other business reasons may preclude us from accepting engagements from time to time with the client's competitors or adversaries. Moreover, in many industries in which we provide services, there has been a continuing trend toward business consolidations and strategic alliances. These consolidations and alliances reduce the number of companies that may seek our services and increase the chances that we will be unable to accept new engagements as a result of conflicts of interest. If we are unable to accept new engagements for any reason or must withdraw from an existing engagement as a result of an emerging or undetected conflict of interest, our consultants may become underutilized, which would adversely affect our revenues and results of operations in future periods.
Our ability to maintain and attract new business depends upon our reputation, the professional reputation of our revenue-generating employees, and the quality of our services.
As a professional services firm, our ability to secure new engagements depends heavily upon our reputation and the individual reputations of our professionals. Any factor that diminishes our reputation or that of our employees, including association with certain clients or industries, not meeting client expectations or misconduct by our employees, could make it substantially more difficult for us to attract new engagements and clients. Similarly, because we obtain many of our new engagements from former or current clients, or from referrals by those clients, or by law firms that we have worked with in the past, any client that questions the quality of our work or that of our consultants could impair our ability to secure additional new engagements and clients.
The consulting services industry is highly competitive and we may not be able to compete effectively.
The consulting services industry in which we operate includes a large number of participants and is intensely competitive. We face competition from other business operations and financial consulting firms, general management consulting firms, the consulting practices of major accounting firms, technical and economic advisory firms, regional and specialty consulting firms, consulting divisions of our technology partners, and the internal professional resources of organizations. In addition, because there are relatively low barriers to entry, we expect to continue to face competition from new entrants into the business operations and financial consulting industries. Competition in several of the sectors in which we operate is particularly intense as many of our competitors are seeking to expand their market share in these sectors. Many of our competitors have a greater national and international presence, and have a significantly greater number of personnel, financial, technical, and marketing resources. In addition, these competitors may generate greater revenues and have greater name recognition than we do. Some of our competitors may also have lower overhead and other costs and, therefore, may be able to more effectively compete through lower priced service offerings. Our ability to compete also depends in part on the ability of our competitors to hire, retain, and motivate skilled professionals, the price at which others offer comparable services, the ability of our competitors to offer new and valuable products and services to clients, and our competitors’ responsiveness to their clients. If we are unable to compete successfully with our existing competitors or with any new competitors, our financial results will be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Information Technology
Our business is becoming increasingly dependent on information technology and will require additional investments in order to grow and meet the demands of our clients.
We depend on the use of sophisticated technologies and systems. Many of our practices provide services that are increasingly dependent on the use of software applications and systems that we do not own and which could become unavailable. Moreover, our technology platforms will require continuing investments by us in order to expand existing service offerings and develop complementary services. For example, we have subscription-based offerings that require us to incur costs associated with upgrades and maintenance that could impact profit margins associated with those offerings and related services. Our future success depends on our ability to adapt our services and infrastructure while continuing to improve the performance, features, security, and reliability of our services in response to the evolving demands of the marketplace.
Adverse changes to our relationships with key third-party vendors or the business of our key third-party vendors could unfavorably impact our business.
A portion of our services and solutions depend on technology or software provided by third-party vendors. Some of these third-party vendors refer potential clients to us, and others require that we obtain their permission prior to accessing their software while performing services for our clients. These third-party vendors could terminate their relationship with us without cause and with little or no notice, which could limit our service offerings and harm our financial condition and operating results. Moreover, if third-party technology or software that is important to our business does not continue to be available or utilized within the marketplace, or if the services that we provide to clients are no longer relevant in the marketplace, our business may be unfavorably impacted. In addition, if a third-party vendor’s business changes, is reduced, fails to adapt to changing market demands, or experiences system failures, service interruptions, or security breaches, it could adversely
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affect our business. Additionally, our third parties may depend on their own third-party vendors, which would be fourth parties to Huron. We generally do not have direct contact, oversight, contracts, sometimes knowledge, of these fourth parties. If a fourth party were to be breached, we would be reliant upon our third party to provide information and manage the incident.
We could experience system failures, service interruptions, or security breaches that could negatively impact our business.
Our organization is comprised of employees who work on matters throughout the United States and around the world. Our technology platform is a “virtual office” from which we all operate. We may be subject to disruption to our operating systems from technology events that are beyond our control, including the possibility of failures at third-party data centers, disruptions to the internet, natural disasters, power losses, and malicious attacks. In addition, despite the implementation of security measures, our infrastructure and operating systems, including the internet and related systems, may be vulnerable to physical break-ins, hackers, improper employee or contractor access, computer viruses or malware, programming errors, denial-of-service attacks, cyberattacks, or other attacks by third parties seeking to disrupt operations or misappropriate information or similar physical or electronic breaches of security. While we have taken and are taking reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate the damage of such events, including implementation of system security measures, information backup, disaster recovery processes, and crisis response plans, and where possible, obtaining insurance against such events, those steps may not be effective and there can be no assurance that any such steps can be effective against all possible risks. We will need to continue to invest in technology in order to achieve redundancies necessary to prevent service interruptions. Unauthorized access to our systems as a result of a security breach, the failure of our systems, or the loss of data could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability, or regulatory penalties and disrupt operations, which could adversely affect our business and financial results. In addition, our clients and their third-party service providers are subject to technology failures, disruptions, malicious activity and cyberattacks, the result of which could cause a disruption in our ability to deliver services or to yield positive outcomes for our clients as well as potentially impact our network and systems. If such circumstances were to occur, our consultants may become underutilized, which could adversely affect our revenues and results of operations in future periods. Furthermore, these events could impact the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of our systems.
There can be no guarantee that our preventative and remediation efforts will be sufficient to protect the Company's information systems, information, and other assets from significant harm and that potential future cybersecurity incidents will not have a material adverse effect on the Company or our results of operations or financial condition or cause reputational or other harm to the Company. For more information regarding the Company's cybersecurity risk management, see Item 1C of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Issues related to the use of AI may result in reputational harm or liability that could adversely impact our business.
As with many innovations, AI presents risks, challenges, and unintended consequences that could affect its adoption, and therefore our business. We incorporate AI solutions into some of our information platforms, products and services, and these technologies may become increasingly important to our operations over time. AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving and the technologies that we use or develop may ultimately be flawed or we may be unable to leverage AI capabilities as quickly as the market and our clients demand. Additionally, leveraging AI capabilities to potentially improve our information platforms, products and services presents further risks and challenges. If we experience an actual or perceived breach of privacy or security incident because of the use of AI, we may lose valuable sensitive or confidential client or employee data which could damage our reputation. Further, dependence on AI without adequate safeguards to make certain business decisions may introduce additional operational vulnerabilities by impacting our relationships with customers, partners, and third-party vendors, by producing inaccurate outcomes based on flaws in the underlying data, or other unintended results.
While we have taken and are taking reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate risks, further incorporating AI gives rise to litigation risk and risk of non-compliance and unknown cost of compliance, as AI is an emerging technology for which the legal and regulatory landscape is not fully developed (including potential liability for breaching intellectual property or privacy rights or laws). While new AI initiatives, laws, and regulations are emerging and evolving, what they ultimately will look like remains uncertain, and our obligation to comply with them could entail significant costs, negatively affect our business, or entirely limit our ability to incorporate certain AI capabilities into our offerings.
While we aim to use and develop AI responsibly and attempt to mitigate ethical and legal issues presented by its use, we may ultimately be unsuccessful in identifying or resolving issues before they arise.
Risks Related to Legal Matters
Our reputation could be damaged and we could incur additional liabilities if we fail to protect client and employee data through our own accord or if our information systems are breached.
We rely on information technology systems to process, transmit, and store electronic information and to communicate among our locations around the world and with our clients, partners, and employees. These locations include India, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, all of which have their own either recently updated or potential new data protection laws. The breadth and complexity of this infrastructure increases the potential risk of security breaches which could lead to potential unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.
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In providing services to clients, we may manage, utilize, and store sensitive or confidential client or employee data, including personal data and protected health information. As a result, we are subject to numerous laws and regulations designed to protect this information, such as the U.S. federal and state laws governing the protection of health or other personally identifiable information, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and international laws such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In addition, many states, U.S. federal governmental authorities and non-U.S. jurisdictions have adopted, proposed or are considering adopting or proposing, additional data security and/or data privacy statutes or regulations. Continued governmental focus on data security and privacy may lead to additional legislative and regulatory action, which could increase the complexity of doing business. The increased emphasis on information security and the requirements to comply with applicable U.S. and foreign data security and privacy laws and regulations may increase our costs of doing business and negatively impact our results of operations.
These laws and regulations are increasing in complexity and number. If any person, including any of our employees or third-party vendors, negligently disregards or intentionally breaches our established controls or contractual obligations with respect to client or employee data, or otherwise mismanages or misappropriates that data, we could be subject to significant monetary damages, regulatory enforcement actions, fines, and/or criminal prosecution. We maintain certain insurance coverages for cybersecurity incidents through our professional liability insurance policy, in amounts we believe to be reasonable and at a cost that is included in our general insurance premiums, but the policy limits and the breadth of coverage may be inadequate to cover any particular claim or all claims plus the cost of legal defense.
In addition, unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential client or employee data, whether through systems failure, employee negligence, including the misuse of AI, fraud, or misappropriation, could damage our reputation and cause us to lose clients and their related revenue in the future.
Our engagements could result in professional liability, which could be very costly and hurt our reputation.
Our engagements typically involve complex analyses and the exercise of professional judgment. As a result, we are subject to the risk of professional liability. From time to time, lawsuits with respect to our work are pending. Litigation alleging that we performed negligently or breached any other obligations could expose us to significant legal liabilities and, regardless of the outcome, is often very costly, could distract our management, could damage our reputation, and could harm our financial condition and operating results. We also face increased litigation risk as a result of an expanded workforce and should litigation arise, our potential liability may increase as our projects expand in size, breadth, and complexity. In addition, certain of our engagements, including interim management engagements and corporate restructurings, involve greater risks than other consulting engagements. We are not always able to include provisions in our engagement agreements that are designed to limit our exposure to legal claims relating to our services. While we attempt to identify and mitigate our exposure with respect to liability arising out of our consulting engagements, these efforts may be ineffective and an actual or alleged error or omission on our part or the part of our client or other third parties in one or more of our engagements could have an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we carry professional liability insurance to cover many of these types of claims, but the policy limits and the breadth of coverage may be inadequate to cover any particular claim or all claims plus the cost of legal defense. For example, we provide services on engagements in which the impact on a client may substantially exceed the limits of our professional liability insurance policy. If we are found to have professional liability with respect to work performed on such an engagement, we may not have sufficient insurance to cover the entire liability.
Our business could be materially adversely affected if we incur liability in connection with service offering innovation, including new or expanded service offerings.
We may grow our business through service offering innovation, including by entering into new or expanded lines of business beyond our core services. To the extent we enter into new or expanded lines of business, we may face new risks and uncertainties, including the possibility these new or expanded lines of business involve greater risks than our core services, that we have insufficient expertise to engage in such activities profitably or without incurring inappropriate amounts of risk, that the required investment of capital and other resources is greater than anticipated, and that we lose existing clients due to the perception that we are no longer focusing on our core business. Entry into new or expanded lines of business may also subject us to new laws and regulations with which we are not familiar and may lead to increased litigation and regulatory risk. Any investigation or proceeding related to these laws, even if unwarranted or without merit, may have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our intellectual property rights in our “Huron Consulting Group” name are important, and any inability to use that name could negatively impact our ability to build brand identity.
We believe that establishing, maintaining, and enhancing the “Huron Consulting Group” name and “Huron” brand is important to our business. We are, however, aware of a number of other companies that use names containing “Huron.” There could be potential trade name or service mark infringement claims brought against us by the users of these similar names and marks and those users may have trade name or service mark rights that are senior to ours. If another company were to successfully challenge our right to use our name, or if we were unable to prevent a competitor from using a name that is similar to our name, our ability to build brand identity could be negatively impacted.
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Risks Related to Financial Management and Performance
Our financial results could suffer if we are unable to achieve or maintain adequate utilization and suitable billing rates for our consultants.
Our profitability depends to a large extent on the utilization and billing rates of our professionals. Utilization of our professionals is affected by a number of factors, including:
•the number and size of client engagements;
•the timing of the commencement, completion and termination of engagements, which in many cases is unpredictable;
•our ability to transition our consultants efficiently from completed engagements to new engagements;
•the hiring of additional consultants because there is generally a transition period for new consultants that results in a temporary drop in our utilization rate;
•the use of independent contractors as a substitute for hiring additional consultants;
•unanticipated changes in the scope of client engagements;
•our ability to forecast demand for our services and thereby maintain an appropriate level of consultants; and
•conditions affecting the industries in which we practice as well as general economic conditions.
The billing rates of our consultants that we are able to charge are also affected by a number of factors, including:
•our clients’ perception of our ability to add value through our services;
•the market demand for the services we provide;
•an increase in the number of engagements in the government sector, which are subject to federal contracting regulations;
•the introduction of new services by us or our competitors;
•our competition and the pricing policies of our competitors; and
•current economic conditions.
If we are unable to achieve and maintain adequate overall utilization as well as maintain or increase the billing rates for our consultants, our financial results could materially suffer.
Our quarterly and annual results of operations have fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate in the future as a result of certain factors, some of which may be outside of our control.
A key element of our strategy is to market our products and services directly to certain large organizations, such as health systems and acute care hospitals and public universities, and to increase the number of our products and services utilized by existing clients. The sales cycle for some of our products and services is often lengthy and may involve significant commitment of client personnel. As a consequence, the commencement date of a client engagement often cannot be accurately forecasted. As discussed below, certain of our client contracts contain terms that result in revenue that is deferred and cannot be recognized until the occurrence of certain events. As a result, the period of time between contract signing and recognition of associated revenue may be lengthy, and we may not be able to predict with certainty the period in which revenue will be recognized.
Fee discounts, pressure to not increase or even decrease our rates, and less advantageous contract terms could result in the loss of clients, lower revenues and operating income, higher costs, and less profitable engagements. More discounts or write-offs than we expect in any period would have a negative impact on our results of operations.
Other fluctuations in our results of operations may be due to a number of other factors, some of which are not within our control, including:
•the timing and volume of client invoices processed and payments received, which may affect the fees payable to us under certain of our engagements;
•client decisions regarding renewal or termination of their contracts;
•the amount and timing of costs related to the development or acquisition of technologies or businesses; and
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•unforeseen legal expenses, including litigation and other settlement gains or losses.
Furthermore, we base our annual employee bonus expense, in part, upon our expected annual adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) for that year. If we experience lower adjusted EBITDA in a quarter without a corresponding change to our full-year adjusted EBITDA expectation, our estimated bonus expense will not be reduced, which will have a negative impact on our quarterly results of operations for that quarter. Our quarterly results of operations may vary significantly and period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful. The results of one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance.
If our quarterly or annual results of operations fall below the expectations of our annual and long-term forecasts, and therefore fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially.
Revenues from our performance-based engagements are difficult to predict, and the timing and extent of recovery of our costs is uncertain.
We have certain engagement agreements under which our fees include a significant performance-based component. Performance-based fees are contingent on the achievement of specific measures, such as our clients meeting cost-saving or other contractually-defined goals. The achievement of these contractually-defined goals may be subject to acknowledgment by the client and is often impacted by factors outside of our control, such as the actions of the client or other third parties. To the extent that any revenue is contingent upon the achievement of a performance target, we recognize such revenue using a process that requires us to make significant management judgments, estimates, and assumptions. While we believe that the estimates and assumptions we have used for revenue recognition are reasonable, subsequent changes could have a material impact to our future financial results. A greater number of performance-based fee arrangements may result in increased volatility in our working capital requirements and greater variations in our quarter-to-quarter results, which could affect the price of our common stock. In addition, an increase in the proportion of performance-based fee arrangements may temporarily offset the positive effect on our operating results from an increase in our utilization rate until the related revenues are recognized.
The profitability of our fixed-fee engagements with clients may not meet our expectations if we underestimate the cost of these engagements.
When making proposals for fixed-fee engagements, we estimate the costs and timing for completing the engagements. These estimates reflect our best judgment regarding the efficiencies of our methodologies and consultants as we plan to deploy them on engagements. Any increased or unexpected costs, expansion in scope of work without a commensurate increase in fees, or unanticipated delays in connection with the performance of fixed-fee engagements, including delays caused by factors outside our control, could make these contracts less profitable or unprofitable, which would have an adverse effect on our profit margin.
Our business performance might not be sufficient for us to meet the full-year financial guidance that we provide publicly.
We provide full-year financial guidance to the public based upon our expectations regarding our financial performance. While we believe that our annual financial guidance provides investors and analysts with insight to our view of the Company’s future performance, such financial guidance is based on assumptions that may not always prove to be accurate and may vary from actual results. If we fail to meet the full-year financial guidance that we provide, or if we find it necessary to revise or suspend such guidance during the year, the market value of our common stock could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Capital Resources
Our obligations under our senior secured credit facility are secured by a pledge of certain of the equity interests in our subsidiaries and a lien on substantially all of our assets and those of our subsidiary grantors. If we default on these obligations, our lenders may foreclose on our assets, including our pledged equity interest in our subsidiaries.
We have a Third Amended and Restated Security Agreement with Bank of America (the “Security Agreement”) and a Third Amended and Restated Pledge Agreement (the “Pledge Agreement”) associated with our Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, dated as of November 15, 2022 (as amended to date, the “Amended Credit Agreement”). Pursuant to the Security Agreement and to secure our obligations under the Amended Credit Agreement, we granted our lenders a first-priority lien, subject to permitted liens, on substantially all of the personal property assets that we and the subsidiary grantors own. Pursuant to the Pledge Agreement, we granted our lenders a security interest in 100% of the stock or other equity interests in all domestic subsidiaries and 65% of the stock or other equity interests in each “material first-tier foreign subsidiaries” (as defined in the Pledge Agreement) entitled to vote and 100% of the stock or other equity interests in each material first-tier foreign subsidiary not entitled to vote. If we default on our obligations under the Amended Credit Agreement, our lenders could accelerate our indebtedness and may be able to exercise their liens on the equity interests subject to the Pledge Agreement and their liens on substantially all of our assets and the assets of our subsidiary grantors, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, operations, financial condition, and liquidity. In addition, the covenants contained in the Amended Credit Agreement impose restrictions on our ability to engage in certain activities, such as the incurrence of additional indebtedness, certain investments, certain acquisitions and dispositions, and the payment of dividends.
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Our indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations and obligations, expose us to interest rate risk to the extent of our variable-rate debt, and adversely affect our financial results.
As of December 31, 2024, we have a $600 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolver”) and a $275 million senior secured term loan facility (the “Term Loan”), both of which fully mature on November 15, 2027. As of December 31, 2024, we had outstanding indebtedness of $357.7 million, of which $93.0 million was outstanding under the Revolver and $264.7 million was outstanding under the Term Loan. Our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal, to pay interest, or to refinance our indebtedness, depends on our future performance. If we are unable to generate cash flow from operations sufficient to satisfy our obligations under our current indebtedness and any future indebtedness, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as reducing or delaying investments or capital expenditures, selling assets, refinancing, or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or dilutive. Our ability to refinance our current indebtedness or future indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on the current indebtedness or future indebtedness.
In addition, our indebtedness, combined with our other financial obligations and contractual commitments, could have other important consequences such as exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates because our borrowings are at variable interest rates; making us more vulnerable to adverse changes in general U.S. and worldwide economic, industry, and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation; or reducing our capacity to obtain additional financing and flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry. Under the Amended Credit Agreement, we are obligated to pay interest, at our option, at either one, three or six month Term SOFR or, in the case of the Revolver, at an alternate base rate, in each case plus an applicable margin. SOFR is a relatively new reference rate, has a very limited history and is based on short-term repurchase agreements backed by Treasury securities. Changes in SOFR can be volatile and difficult to predict, and there is no assurance that SOFR will perform similarly to the way LIBOR, our previous benchmark rate, would have performed at any time. Any of these factors could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Asset Impairment
Our goodwill and other intangible assets represent a substantial amount of our total assets, and we may be required to recognize a non-cash impairment charge for these assets if the performance of one or more of our reporting units falls below our expectations.
Our total assets reflect a substantial amount of goodwill and other intangible assets. At December 31, 2024, goodwill and other intangible assets totaled $704.8 million, or 52%, of our total assets. Goodwill results from our business acquisitions, representing the excess of the fair value of consideration transferred over the fair value of the net assets acquired. We test goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level, annually and whenever events or circumstances make it more likely than not that an impairment may have occurred. Intangible assets other than goodwill represent purchased assets that lack physical substance but can be distinguished from goodwill. Our intangible assets primarily consist of customer relationships, trade names, technology and software and non-competition agreements, all of which were acquired through business acquisitions. We evaluate our intangible assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the assets may not be recoverable. During 2024, 2023 and 2022, we did not record any impairment charges on our goodwill or other intangible assets.
Determining the fair value of a reporting unit requires us to make significant judgments, estimates, and assumptions. While we believe that the estimates and assumptions underlying our valuation methodology are reasonable, these estimates and assumptions could have a significant impact on whether or not a goodwill impairment charge is recognized and also the magnitude of any such charge. The results of an impairment analysis are as of a point in time. There is no assurance that the actual future earnings or cash flows of our reporting units will be consistent with our projections. We will monitor any changes to our assumptions and will evaluate goodwill as deemed warranted during future periods. Any significant decline in our operations could result in goodwill impairment charges.
We may incur impairment charges with respect to our convertible debt investment in Shorelight or our preferred stock investment in a hospital-at-home company.
Since 2014, we have invested $40.9 million, in the form of 1.69% convertible debt, in Shorelight Holdings, LLC (“Shorelight”), the parent company of Shorelight Education. Our investment is carried at its fair value of $62.3 million as of December 31, 2024, with unrealized holding gains and losses reported in other comprehensive income. As of December 31, 2024, our investment in Shorelight is in an unrealized gain position. If the investment were to be in an unrealized loss position due to significant credit deterioration of Shorelight, we would recognize an allowance to decrease the carrying value of the investment to the fair value, which may be reversed in the event that the credit of Shorelight improves. As of December 31, 2024, we have not recognized any credit allowance on our investment. In the future, if there are adverse developments in Shorelight's business that may be the result of events within or outside of Shorelight's control, we may incur impairment charges with respect to our convertible debt investment, which could materially impact our results of operations.
In 2019, we invested $5.0 million, in the form of preferred stock, in a hospital-at-home company. Since our initial investment, we have recognized cumulative unrealized gains of $28.6 million and cumulative unrealized losses of $26.3 million. Our investment is carried at its fair
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value of $7.4 million as of December 31, 2024, with unrealized holding gains and losses reported in our results of operations when an observable price change for preferred stock issued by the company with similar rights and preferences to our preferred stock investment occurs. As of December 31, 2024, our investment in the company is in a net unrealized gain position. If there is significant deterioration in the earnings performance, credit rating, or business prospects of the company, or a significant adverse change in the regulatory, economic, or technological environment of the company, we would evaluate our investment for impairment. If during such evaluation it was determined that the fair value of our investment was below its carrying value, we would recognize an additional unrealized loss for such difference, which could materially impact our results of operations.
General Risk Factors
Expanding our service offerings may involve additional risks and may not be profitable.
We may choose to develop new service offerings or eliminate service offerings because of market opportunities or client demands. Developing new service offerings involves inherent risks, including:
•our inability to estimate demand for the new service offerings;
•competition from more established market participants;
•exposure to new legal and operational risks;
•a lack of market understanding;
•unanticipated expenses to recruit and hire qualified consultants and to market our new service offerings; and
•unanticipated challenges with service delivery.
Changes in capital markets, legal or regulatory requirements, and general economic or other factors beyond our control could reduce demand for our services, in which case our revenues and profitability could decline.
A number of factors outside of our control affect demand for our services. These include:
•fluctuations in U.S. and global economies;
•the U.S. or global financial markets and the availability, costs, and terms of credit;
•changes in laws and regulations or uncertainty in regulatory schemes;
•political unrest, war, terrorism, geopolitical uncertainties, trade policies and sanctions, including the ongoing repercussions of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas; and
•other economic factors and general business conditions, including inflation and rising interest rates.
For example, some portion of the services we provide may be considered by our clients to be more discretionary in nature, as the demand for the services may be impacted by economic slowdowns.We are not able to predict the positive or negative effects that future events or changes to the U.S. or global economy, financial markets, or regulatory and business environment could have on our operations.
If we are unable to collect our receivables or unbilled services, our results of operations, financial condition, and cash flows could be adversely affected.
Our business depends on our ability to successfully obtain payment from our clients for the amounts owed to us for work performed. We evaluate the financial condition of our clients and usually bill and collect on relatively short cycles. We have established allowances for losses of receivables and unbilled services. We may not accurately assess the credit worthiness of our clients or macroeconomic conditions could result in financial difficulties for our clients, including bankruptcy and insolvency, such that clients may delay payments to us, request modifications to their payment arrangements that could increase our receivables balance, or default on their payment obligations to us. Actual losses on client balances could differ from those that we currently anticipate and as a result we might need to adjust our allowances. Timely collection of clients' contractual payments also depends upon our ability to complete our contractual commitments and bill and collect our contracted revenues. If we are unable to meet our contractual requirements, we might experience delays in collection of and/or be unable to collect our client balances, and if this occurs, our results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected. In addition, if we experience an increase in the time to bill and collect for our services, our cash flows could be adversely affected.
Changes in U.S. and foreign tax laws could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, results of operations and financial condition.
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We are subject to income and other taxes in the U.S. at the state and federal level and also in foreign jurisdictions. Changes in applicable U.S. state, federal or foreign tax laws and regulations, or their interpretation and application, could materially affect our tax expense and profitability.
The overall tax environment remains uncertain and increasingly complex. Future changes in tax laws, treaties or regulations, and their interpretation or enforcement, may be unpredictable, particularly as taxing jurisdictions face an increasing number of political, budgetary and other fiscal challenges. In the U.S., various proposals to change corporate income taxes are periodically considered. Tax rates in the jurisdictions in which we operate may change as a result of macroeconomic and other factors outside of our control, making it increasingly difficult for multinational corporations like ourselves to operate with certainty about taxation in many jurisdictions. As a result, we could be materially adversely affected by future changes in tax law or policy (or in their interpretation or enforcement) in the jurisdictions where we operate, including the United States, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, results of operations, financial condition, as well as our effective income tax rate.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has released guidance establishing a global minimum tax of 15% of reported profits applied on a country-by-country basis for multinational entities (“Pillar Two”). As of December 31, 2024, multiple countries in which we operate have enacted legislation to adopt Pillar Two model rule concepts into their domestic laws. The adoption and effective dates of these changes vary by country and increase tax complexity and uncertainty and may adversely affect our provision for income taxes. We currently do not expect a material impact to our tax expense and profitability. We will continue to monitor regulatory developments with respect to this initiative for potential impacts.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.
None.
ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY.
Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy
We recognize the importance of assessing, identifying, and managing material risks associated with cybersecurity threats, as such term is defined in Item 106(a) of Regulation S-K. Accordingly, the company takes a comprehensive approach to identifying and managing cybersecurity risks that involves the company's Information Security functional team, senior management, and our board of directors in coordination with the Technology and Information Security (“T&IS”) Committee and the Audit Committee of our board of directors. Our cybersecurity risk management function is a component of our overall approach to risk management, including coordination with our Enterprise Risk Management Committee.
Our cybersecurity risks include, among other things: operational risks, malicious attacks, improper employee or contractor access, harm to employees or customers and violation of data privacy, intellectual property or security laws. Although, as of the date of this Form 10-K, Huron has not experienced a cybersecurity incident that resulted in a material adverse impact to our business or operations, there can be no guarantee that we will not experience such an incident in the future. Further details about the cybersecurity risks we face are described under Item 1A. “Risk Factors.”
We have a cybersecurity program that focuses on implementing risk-based controls, technologies, and other processes. We aim to incorporate industry best practices throughout our cybersecurity program, including the frameworks established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”), and other applicable industry standards. To augment our in-house capabilities, we leverage expertise from professional services firms and/or outside counsel, as needed, to assess our cybersecurity controls, and collaborate on an ever-changing landscape. Our cybersecurity program conforms with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and our most recent recertification was in 2024.
We use various mechanisms to detect and monitor cybersecurity threats, including monitoring unusual network activity, conducting annual security awareness training for employees, deploying phishing test campaigns, maintaining containment and incident response tools, and reviewing, updating and improving our Incident Response Plan annually. We also conduct tabletop exercises to simulate responses to cybersecurity incidents. During these exercises, our team of cybersecurity professionals collaborate with technical and business stakeholders across the organization to further analyze the risk to the company and form detection, mitigation, and remediation improvements.We also engage third parties, including assessors, consultants, and auditors to assess our cybersecurity control environment and to test the vulnerability of our cybersecurity infrastructure at least annually.
Our risk management program also assesses risks associated with third-party service providers. Such providers are subject to an onboarding process and may be reevaluated periodically. We use a variety of inputs in such risk assessments, including information supplied by the providers themselves and other third parties. In addition, our contracts with our service providers require them to adhere to mutually agreed upon security requirements, controls and responsibilities, as applicable.
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Cybersecurity Governance
Our cybersecurity program is overseen by the leaders of our Information Security functional team, which is led by our Chief Information Officer (“CIO”) who has over 30 years of relevant work experience. Prior to joining Huron in 2018, our CIO served in various information security and information technology roles in the professional services industry for several large, public companies and executed large-scale, global implementations of business applications and infrastructure technologies in a manner designed to mitigate cybersecurity risks. Our CIO reports on a quarterly basis to Huron's internal Information Security Management System (“ISMS”) Committee, which has the primary responsibility for assessing and managing material cybersecurity risks. The ISMS Committee, which includes members of our executive and senior leadership teams, our CIO and other functional team leaders, reviews, approves and establishes ISMS specific goals and objectives, reviews policy updates and approves the annual IT risk assessment, which identifies impacts, threats and controls related to IT assets utilized across the enterprise.
Our board of directors, in coordination with its T&IS Committee, oversees the governance of the Company’s technology-related risks, including information security, data protection, cybersecurity, vendor, fraud, and business continuity risks, and technology-related strategies. The T&IS Committee receives quarterly updates from the CIO, including existing and new cybersecurity risks, the management and/or mitigation of such risks, material cybersecurity incidents (if any), and status on key cybersecurity initiatives. Our board also actively participates in discussions with management on cybersecurity-related news events and discusses any updates to our cybersecurity risk management and strategy programs.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES.
We do not own any real estate or other physical properties. Our administrative and principal executive offices are located at 550 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607. We believe that our office facilities are suitable and adequate for our business as it is presently conducted. See Note 5 “Leases” within the notes to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information on our office facilities.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference from Note 18 “Commitments, Contingencies and Guarantees” included within the notes to our consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
From time to time, we are involved in legal proceedings and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business. As of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we are not a party to any litigation or legal proceeding that, in the current opinion of management, could reasonably be expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations. However, due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in legal proceedings, actual results could differ from current expected results.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.
Not applicable.
PART II
Market Information
Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “HURN.” As of February 18, 2025, there were 298 registered holders of record of Huron’s common stock. A number of Huron’s stockholders hold their shares in street name; therefore, the Company believes that there are substantially more beneficial owners of its common stock.
Dividends
We have not declared or paid dividends on our common stock since we became a public company. Our board of directors re-evaluates this policy periodically. Any determination to pay cash dividends will be at the discretion of the board of directors and will be dependent upon our results of operations, financial condition, capital requirements, terms of our financing arrangements, and such other factors as the board of directors deems relevant. In addition, the amount of dividends we may pay is subject to the restricted payment provisions of our senior secured credit facility. See the Liquidity and Capital Resources section under Part II—Item 7. “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for further information on the restricted payment provisions of our senior secured credit facility.
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Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
The information required by this item appears under Part III—Item 12. “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholders Matters.”
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
On December 2, 2024, as partial consideration for our acquisition of AXIA Consulting, we issued 98,156 shares of our common stock, par value $0.01 per share, with an aggregate value of $12.2 million. The issuance was exempt from registration under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, as a transaction by an issuer not involving a public offering.
Our Stock Ownership Participation Program and 2012 Omnibus Incentive Plan permit the netting of common stock upon vesting of restricted stock awards to satisfy individual tax withholding requirements. During the quarter ended December 31, 2024, we reacquired 5,614 shares of common stock with a weighted average fair market value of $111.81 as a result of such tax withholdings.
In November 2020, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program permitting us to repurchase up to $50 million of our common stock through December 31, 2021. The share repurchase program has been subsequently extended and increased, most recently in the second quarter of 2024. The current authorization extends the share repurchase program through December 31, 2025 with a repurchase amount of $500 million, of which $64.5 million remained available as of December 31, 2024. The amount and timing of repurchases under the share repurchase program were and will continue to be determined by management and depend on a variety of factors, including the trading price of our common stock, capacity under our credit facility, general market and business conditions, and applicable legal requirements.
The following table provides information with respect to purchases we made of our common stock during the year ended December 31, 2024.
(1)The number of shares repurchased in the first, second and third quarters of 2024 included 212,745 shares, 1,627 shares, and 3,814 shares, respectively, to satisfy employee tax withholding requirements. Additionally, 3,972 shares in October, 674 shares in November and 968 shares in December were repurchased to satisfy employee tax withholding requirements. These shares do not reduce the repurchase authority under the Share Repurchase Program.
(2)As of the end of the period.
ITEM 6. [Reserved]
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This Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes appearing under Part II—Item 8. “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.” The following MD&A contains forward-looking statements and involves numerous risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, those described under Part I—Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.
The following information summarizes our results of operations for 2024, 2023 and 2022; and discusses those results of operations for 2024 compared to 2023. For a discussion of our results of operations for 2023 compared to 2022 refer to Part II—Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, which was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2024.
OVERVIEW
Huron is a global professional services firm that partners with clients to put possible into practice by creating sound strategies, optimizing operations, accelerating digital transformation, and empowering businesses to own their future. By embracing diverse perspectives, encouraging new ideas and challenging the status quo, we create sustainable results for the organizations we serve.
We provide our services and products and manage our business under three operating segments: Healthcare, Education and Commercial. We also provide revenue reporting across two principal capabilities: i) Consulting and Managed Services and ii) Digital. See Part I—Item 1. “Business—Overview—Our Services” and Note 19 “Segment Information” within the notes to our consolidated financial statements for a discussion of our segments and capabilities.
COMPONENTS OF OPERATING RESULTS
Total Revenues
Revenues before Reimbursable Expenses
Revenues before reimbursable expenses are primarily generated by our employees who provide consulting and other professional services to our clients and are billable to our clients based on the number of hours worked, services provided, or achieved outcomes. We refer to these employees as our revenue-generating professionals. Revenues before reimbursable expenses are primarily driven by the number of revenue-generating professionals we employ as well as the total value, scope, and terms of the consulting contracts under which they provide services. We also engage independent contractors to supplement our revenue-generating professionals on client engagements as needed.
We generate our revenues before reimbursable expenses from providing professional services and software products under the following four types of billing arrangements: fixed-fee (including software license revenue); time-and-expense; performance-based; and software support, maintenance and subscriptions.
•Fixed-fee (including software license revenue): In fixed-fee billing arrangements, we agree to a pre-established fee in exchange for a predetermined set of professional services. We set the fees based on our estimates of the costs and timing for completing the engagements. Fixed-fee arrangements also include software licenses for our research administration and compliance software.
•Time-and-expense: Under time-and-expense billing arrangements, we invoice our clients based on the number of hours worked by our revenue-generating professionals at agreed upon rates. Time-and-expense arrangements also include speaking engagements, conferences and publications purchased by our clients.
•Performance-based: In performance-based billing arrangements, fees are tied to the attainment of contractually defined objectives. We enter into performance-based engagements in essentially two forms. First, we generally earn fees that are directly related to the savings formally acknowledged by the client as a result of adopting our recommendations for improving operational and cost effectiveness in the areas we review. Second, we earn a success fee when and if certain predefined outcomes occur. Often, performance-based fees supplement our fixed-fee or time-and-expense engagements. The level of performance-based fees earned may vary based on our clients’ risk sharing preferences and the mix of services we provide.
•Software support, maintenance and subscriptions: Clients that have purchased one of our software licenses can pay an annual fee for software support and maintenance. We also generate subscription revenue from our cloud-based analytic tools and solutions including our cloud-based revenue cycle management software and research administration and compliance software. Software support, maintenance and subscription revenues are recognized ratably over the support or subscription period. These fees are generally billed in advance and included in deferred revenues until recognized.
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Time-and-expense engagements do not provide us with a high degree of predictability as to performance in future periods. Unexpected changes in the demand for our services can result in significant variations in utilization and revenues and present a challenge to optimal hiring and staffing. Moreover, our clients typically retain us on an engagement-by-engagement basis, rather than under long-term recurring contracts. The volume of work performed for any particular client can vary widely from period to period.
Our quarterly results are impacted principally by the total value, scope, and terms of our client contracts, the number of our revenue-generating professionals who are available to work, our revenue-generating professionals' utilization rate, and the bill rates we charge our clients. Our utilization rate can be negatively affected by increased hiring because there is generally a transition period for new professionals that results in a temporary drop in our utilization rate. Our utilization rate can also be affected by seasonal variations in the demand for our services from our clients. For example, during the third and fourth quarters of the year, vacations taken by our clients can result in the deferral of activity on existing and new engagements, which would negatively affect our utilization rate. The number of business work days is also affected by the number of vacation days taken by our consultants and holidays in each quarter. We typically have fewer business work days available in the fourth quarter of the year, which can impact revenues during that period.
Reimbursable Expenses
Reimbursable expenses that are billed to clients, primarily relating to travel and out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with client engagements, are included in total revenues. We manage our business on the basis of revenues before reimbursable expenses, which we believe is the most accurate reflection of our services because it eliminates the effect of reimbursable expenses that we bill to our clients at cost.
Operating Expenses
Our most significant expenses are costs classified as direct costs. Direct costs primarily consist of compensation costs for our revenue-generating professionals, which includes salaries, performance bonuses, share-based compensation, signing and retention bonuses, payroll taxes and benefits. Direct costs also include fees paid to independent contractors that we retain to supplement our revenue-generating professionals, typically on an as-needed basis for specific client engagements, and technology costs, product and event costs, and commissions. Direct costs exclude amortization of intangible assets and software development costs and reimbursable expenses, both of which are separately presented in our consolidated statements of operations.
Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of compensation costs for our support personnel, which includes salaries, performance bonuses, share-based compensation, signing and retention bonuses, payroll taxes, benefits and deferred compensation expense attributable to the change in market value of our deferred compensation liability. Changes in the market value of our deferred compensation liability are offset with the changes in market value of investments that are used to fund our deferred compensation liability, which are recorded within other income (expense), net. Also included in selling, general and administrative expenses are third-party professional fees, software licenses and data hosting expenses, rent and other office related expenses, sales and marketing related expenses, recruiting and training expenses, and practice administration and meetings expenses.
Other operating expenses include restructuring charges, other gains and losses, depreciation expense, and amortization expense related to internally developed software costs and intangible assets acquired in business combinations.
Segment Results
Segment operating income consists of the revenues generated by a segment, less operating expenses that are incurred directly by the segment. Unallocated corporate expenses not allocated at the segment level include costs related to administrative functions that are performed in a centralized manner, as well as restructuring charges, depreciation and amortization, and interest expense that are not attributable to a particular segment. The administrative function costs include corporate office support costs, office facility costs, costs related to accounting and finance, human resources, legal, marketing, information technology, and company-wide business development functions, and costs related to overall corporate management.
Non-GAAP Measures
We also assess our results of operations using the following non-GAAP financial measures: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”), adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues before reimbursable expenses, adjusted net income, and adjusted diluted earnings per share. These non-GAAP financial measures differ from GAAP because they exclude a number of items required by GAAP, each discussed below. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, any measure of performance, cash flows, or liquidity prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP financial measures may be defined differently from time to time and may be defined differently than similar terms used by other companies, and accordingly, care should be exercised in understanding how we define our non-GAAP financial measures.
Our management uses the non-GAAP financial measures to gain an understanding of our comparative operating performance, for example when comparing such results with previous periods or forecasts. These non-GAAP financial measures are used by management in their
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financial and operating decision making because management believes they reflect our ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful period-to-period comparisons. Management also uses these non-GAAP financial measures when publicly providing our business outlook, for internal management purposes, and as a basis for evaluating potential acquisitions and dispositions. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating Huron’s current operating performance and future prospects in the same manner as management does and in comparing in a consistent manner Huron’s current financial results with Huron’s past financial results.
These non-GAAP financial measures include adjustments for the following items:
Amortization of intangible assets: We exclude the effect of amortization of intangible assets from the calculation of adjusted net income, as it is inconsistent in its amount and frequency and is significantly affected by the timing and size of our acquisitions.
Restructuring charges: We have incurred charges due to restructuring various parts of our business. These restructuring charges have primarily consisted of costs associated with office space consolidations, including lease impairment charges and accelerated depreciation on lease-related property and equipment, and employee severance charges. We exclude the effect of the restructuring charges from our non-GAAP measures to permit comparability with periods that were not impacted by these items. We do not include normal, recurring, cash operating expenses in our restructuring charges.
2024 litigation settlement gain: In the second quarter of 2024, we settled a litigation matter in which Huron was the plaintiff for $15.0 million, on a pre-tax basis. This $15.0 million settlement gain was recorded as a component of other gains, net on our consolidated statement of operations. We have excluded from our non-GAAP measures $11.7 million, which is the value of the settlement gain that exceeds the third-party legal costs of $3.3 million incurred during 2024 specific to this litigation matter, as this net gain is not indicative of the ongoing performance of our business. Third-party legal costs incurred for this litigation matter in 2023 and 2022 were $4.0 million and $2.0 million, respectively. Our third-party legal expenses are recorded as a component of selling, general and administrative expenses on our statement of operations.
Other losses (gains), net: We exclude the effects of other losses and gains, which primarily relate to changes in the estimated fair value of our liabilities for contingent consideration related to business acquisitions and litigation settlement losses and gains, excluding the 2024 litigation settlement gain presented separately, to permit comparability with periods that are not impacted by these items. These items are recorded as a component of other gains, net on our consolidated statement of operations.
Transaction-related expenses: To permit comparability with prior periods, we exclude the impact of third-party advisory, legal, and accounting fees and other corporate costs incurred directly related to the evaluation and/or consummation of business acquisitions.
Unrealized losses (gains) on preferred stock investment: We exclude the effect of unrealized losses and gains related to changes in the fair value of our preferred stock investment in a hospital-at-home company arising from observable price changes or impairment losses. These unrealized losses and gains are included as a component of other income (expense), net. We believe that these unrealized losses and gains are not indicative of the ongoing performance of our business and their exclusion permits comparability with prior periods.
Losses (gains) on sale of business: We exclude the effect of non-operating losses and gains recognized as a result of sales of businesses as they are infrequent, management believes that these items are not indicative of the ongoing performance of our business, and their exclusion permits comparability with periods that were not impacted by such items. The 2024 gain relates to the divestiture of our Studer Education practice in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Foreign currency transaction losses (gains), net: We exclude the effect of foreign currency transaction losses and gains from the calculation of adjusted EBITDA because the amount of each loss or gain is significantly affected by changes in foreign exchange rates.
Tax effect of adjustments: The non-GAAP income tax adjustment reflects the incremental tax impact applicable to the non-GAAP adjustments.
Income tax expense, interest expense, net of interest income, depreciation and amortization: We exclude the effects of income tax expense, interest expense, net of interest income, and depreciation and amortization in the calculation of EBITDA, as these are customary exclusions as defined by the calculation of EBITDA to arrive at meaningful earnings from core operations excluding the effect of such items. We include, within the depreciation and amortization adjustment, the amortization of capitalized implementation costs of our ERP and other related software, which is included within selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations.
Revenue-Generating Professionals
Our revenue-generating professionals consist of our full-time consultants who generate revenues based on the number of hours worked; full-time equivalents, which consists of coaches and their support staff within the culture and organizational excellence solution, consultants who work variable schedules as needed by clients, and full-time employees who provide software support and maintenance services to clients;
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and our Managed Services professionals who provide revenue cycle management and research administration managed services and outsourcing at our healthcare, education and research-focused clients.
Utilization Rate
The utilization rate of our revenue-generating professionals is calculated by dividing the number of hours our billable consultants worked on client assignments during a period by the total available working hours for these billable consultants during the same period. Available working hours are determined by the standard hours worked by each billable consultant, adjusted for part-time hours, and U.S. standard work weeks. Available working hours exclude local country holidays and vacation days. Utilization rates are presented for our revenue-generating professionals who primarily bill on an hourly basis. We do not present utilization rates for our Managed Services professionals as most of the revenues generated by these employees are not billed on an hourly basis.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Executive Highlights
Highlights from the year ended December 31, 2024 include the following:
•Revenues before reimbursable expenses increased 9.1% to $1.49 billion in 2024 from $1.36 billion in 2023.
•Net income as a percentage of total revenues increased to 7.7% in 2024, compared to 4.5% in 2023.
•Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues before reimbursable expenses increased to 13.5% in 2024 from 12.3% in 2023.
•Diluted EPS increased 96.6% to $6.27 for 2024, compared to $3.19 for 2023. Results for 2024 include a litigation settlement gain related to a completed legal matter in which Huron was the plaintiff, which had a favorable impact of $0.60 on diluted earnings per share in 2024; and results for 2023 include a non-cash unrealized loss related to our investment in a hospital-at-home company, which had an unfavorable impact of $0.99 on diluted earnings per share in 2023.
•Adjusted diluted EPS increased 31.8% to $6.47 for 2024, compared to $4.91 for 2023.
•Net cash provided by operating activities increased 48.8% to $201.3 million for 2024, compared to $135.3 million for 2023.
•Returned $122.2 million shareholders by repurchasing 1,218,434 shares of our common stock in 2024.
Revenues before reimbursable expenses increased $124.0 million, or 9.1%, to $1.49 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024 from $1.36 billion for the year ended December 31, 2023. The overall increase in revenues before reimbursable expenses reflects continued strength in demand for both our Consulting and Managed Services capability and Digital capability within our Healthcare and Education segments, and reflects our focus on accelerating growth in our healthcare and education industries. These increases in demand were partially offset by a decrease in demand for Commercial's Digital and Consulting and Managed Services capabilities.
Revenues before reimbursable expenses within our Consulting and Managed Services capability increased 10.5% to $863.9 million in 2024, compared to $782.0 million in 2023; and reflected strengthened demand in our Healthcare and Education segments, partially offset by a decrease in demand in our Commercial segment. The utilization rate within our Consulting capability decreased to 73.6% in 2024, compared to 76.6% in 2023.
Revenues before reimbursable expenses within our Digital capability increased 7.3% to $622.2 million in 2024, compared to $580.0 million in 2023; and reflected strengthened demand in our Healthcare and Education segments, partially offset by a decrease in demand in our Commercial segment. The utilization rate within our Digital capability increased to 76.0% in 2024, compared to 75.3% in 2023.
Our total number of revenue-generating professionals, excluding Managed Services professionals, increased 5.0% to 4,694 as of December 31, 2024, compared to 4,469 as of December 31, 2023, as a result of hiring to support the overall increase in demand for our services. The number of Managed Services professionals increased 45.7% to 1,530 as of December 31, 2024 from 1,050 as of December 31, 2023. We proactively plan and manage the size and composition of our workforce and take actions as needed to address changes in the anticipated demand for our services as employee compensation costs are the most significant portion of our operating expenses.
Net income increased $54.1 million, or 86.7%, to $116.6 million, or 7.7% of total revenues, for the year ended December 31, 2024 from $62.5 million, or 4.5% of total revenues, for the same period last year. Results for 2024 include an $11.1 million litigation settlement gain, net of tax, recognized in the second quarter of 2024 related to a completed legal matter in which Huron was the plaintiff. Results for 2023 include a non-cash impairment loss of $19.4 million, net of tax, related to our investment in a hospital-at-home company. As a result of the increase in net income and a reduction in diluted shares outstanding resulting from share repurchases made under our share repurchase plan, diluted earnings per share increased 96.6% to $6.27 for 2024, compared to $3.19 for 2023. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, which excludes the impact of the litigation settlement gain in 2024 and the non-cash impairment loss on our investment in 2023, increased 31.8% to $6.47 for 2024 from $4.91 for 2023.
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Adjusted EBITDA increased $33.8 million, or 20.2%, to $201.2 million, or 13.5% of revenues before reimbursable expenses, in 2024, compared to $167.3 million, or 12.3% of revenues before reimbursable expenses, in 2023.
Net cash provided by operating activities increased 48.8% to $201.3 million in 2024, compared to $135.3 million in 2023. The increase in net cash provided by operating activities primarily related to an increase in cash collections in 2024, a $15 million litigation settlement received in 2024, and a decrease in payments for contractor expenses in 2024 compared to 2023; partially offset by an increase in payments for salaries and related expenses for our revenue-generating professionals, an increase in the amount paid for annual performance bonuses in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023, and an increase in payments for selling, general and administrative expenses in 2024 compared to the prior year.
During 2024, we deployed $122.2 million of capital to repurchase 1,218,434 shares of our common stock, representing 6.6% of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2023.
Summary of Results
The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, selected segment and consolidated operating results and other operating data, including non-GAAP measures.
Healthcare:
Education:
Commercial:
Total Huron:
Items not allocated at the segment level:
Earnings per share
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Other Operating Data:
Number of revenue-generating professionals by segment (at period end)(1):
Revenues before reimbursable expenses by capability:
Number of revenue-generating professionals by capability (at period end)(6):
Utilization rate by capability(8):
(1)During the first quarter of 2024, we reclassified certain revenue-generating professionals within our Digital capability from our Healthcare and Education segments to our Commercial segment as these professionals are able to provide services across all of our industries. This reclassification did not impact the total Digital capability headcount for any period. The prior period headcount has been revised for consistent presentation.
(2)The majority of our revenue-generating professionals within our Commercial segment can provide services across all of our industries, including healthcare and education.
(3)We have separately presented the total number of revenue-generating professionals within our Managed Services capabilities of our Healthcare and Education segments. Our Healthcare Managed Services professionals provide revenue cycle billing, collections, insurance verification and change integrity services to clients. Our Education Managed Services professionals provide research administration managed services and outsourcing at our education and research-focused clients. See footnote 7 below for additional information on the number of Managed Services professionals within our Healthcare and Education segments.
(4)During the first quarter of 2024, we reclassified one of the offerings within Education's Consulting capability to Education's Managed Services capability. This reclassification did not impact the aggregate revenues before reimbursable expenses for any period, and the prior period Education Managed Services capability revenues before reimbursable expenses and headcount in the following footnotes have been revised for consistent presentation.
(5)Managed Services capability revenues before reimbursable expenses within our Healthcare segment was $77.5 million, $70.1 million and $67.6 million for the years ended 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Managed Services capability revenues before reimbursable expenses within our Education segment was $28.2 million, $29.6 million and $30.6 million for the years ended 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
(6)During the fourth quarter of 2024, we revised the presentation of our revenue-generating professionals by capability to separately present our revenue-generating professionals in our Consulting capability from our revenue-generating professionals in our Managed Services capability. This change in presentation did not impact the headcount by capability for any period, and the prior period headcount has been revised for consistent presentation.
(7)The number of Managed Services professionals within our Healthcare segment was 1,420, 924 and 715 as of December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
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The number of Managed Services professionals within our Education segment was 110, 126 and 160 as of December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
(8)Utilization rates are presented for our revenue-generating professionals who primarily bill on an hourly basis. We do not present utilization rates for our Managed Services professionals as most of the revenues generated by these employees are not billed on an hourly basis.
Non-GAAP Measures
Reconciliation of Net Income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA
Year Ended December 31,
Net income as a percentage of total revenues 7.7 % 4.5 % 6.5 %
Add back:
Add back:
Unrealized loss (gain) on preferred stock investment — 26,262 (26,964)
Gain on sale of business (3,597) — —
Foreign currency transaction losses (gains), net (2,138) 476 (655)
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Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share
Year Ended December 31,
Diluted earnings per share $ 6.27 $ 3.19 $ 3.64
Add back:
Unrealized loss (gain) on preferred stock investment — 26,262 (26,964)
Gain on sale of business (3,597) — —
Adjusted diluted earnings per share $ 6.47 $ 4.91 $ 3.43
Year Ended December 31, 2024 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2023
Revenues before Reimbursable Expenses
Revenues before reimbursable expenses by segment and capability for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 were as follows:
Segment:
Capability:
Revenues before reimbursable expenses increased $124.0 million, or 9.1%, to $1.49 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024 from $1.36 billion for the year ended December 31, 2023. The overall increase in revenues before reimbursable expenses reflects continued strength in demand for both our Consulting and Managed Services capability and Digital capability within our Healthcare and Education segments, and reflects our focus on accelerating growth in the healthcare and education industries. These increases in demand were partially offset by a decrease in demand for our Digital and Consulting and Managed Services capabilities within our Commercial segment. Additional information on our revenues before reimbursable expense by segment follows.
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•Healthcare revenues before reimbursable expenses increased $82.3 million, or 12.2%, driven by continued strength in demand for our performance improvement, revenue cycle managed services, culture and organizational excellence and strategy and innovation solutions within our Consulting and Managed Services capability and our technology and analytics services within our Digital capability. These increases in demand were partially offset by a decrease in demand for our financial and capital advisory solution within our Consulting and Managed Services capability. Revenues before reimbursable expenses for the year ended December 31, 2024 included $0.6 million of incremental revenues before reimbursable expenses from our acquisition of Roundtable Analytics completed in September 2023.
On December 31, 2024, we completed the divestiture of our Studer Education practice within our Healthcare segment. This business generated revenues before reimbursable expenses of $13.7 million and $12.3 million in 2024 and 2023, respectively. The Studer Education practice was not significant to our consolidated financial statements and did not qualify as a discontinued operation for reporting under GAAP.
The number of revenue-generating professionals within our Healthcare segment, excluding Managed Services professionals, grew 8.2% to 1,218 as of December 31, 2024, compared to 1,126 as of December 31, 2023.
•Education revenues before reimbursable expenses increased $44.6 million, or 10.4%, and includes $18.6 million of incremental revenues from our acquisition of Grenzebach Glier and Associates, Inc. (“GG+A”) completed in March 2024. The increase in Education revenues before reimbursable expenses was also driven by continued strength in demand for our technology and analytics services and software products within our Digital capability and our strategy and operations solution within our Consulting and Managed Services capability.
The number of revenue-generating professionals within our Education segment, excluding Managed Services professionals, grew 5.6% to 1,141 as of December 31, 2024, compared to 1,080 as of December 31, 2023. Our acquisition of GG+A in March 2024 added approximately 70 revenue-generating professionals.
•Commercial revenues before reimbursable expenses decreased $2.8 million, or 1.1%. Revenues before reimbursable expenses for the year ended December 31, 2024 included $3.1 million of incremental revenues before reimbursable expenses from our acquisition of AXIA Consulting, Inc. (“AXIA Consulting”), which was completed in December 2024. The decrease in revenues before reimbursable expenses was primarily due to the decreases in demand for our strategy and innovation solution within our Consulting and Managed Services capability and our technology and analytics services within our Digital capability, partially offset by an increase in demand for our financial advisory solutions within our Consulting and Managed Services capability.
The number of revenue-generating professionals within our Commercial segment, the majority of which provide services across all of our industries, grew 3.2% to 2,335 as of December 31, 2024, compared to 2,263 as of December 31, 2023, including our acquisition of AXIA Consulting in December 2024 which added approximately 130 revenue-generating professionals.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2024 increased $79.6 million, or 6.2%, over the year ended December 31, 2023.
Operating expenses and operating expenses as a percentage of revenues before reimbursable expenses were as follows:
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Direct Costs
Direct costs increased $67.4 million, or 7.1%, to $1.01 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024 from $942.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The $67.4 million increase primarily related to a $79.1 million increase in compensation costs for our revenue-generating professionals and a $4.0 million increase in technology costs, partially offset by a $14.4 million decrease in contractor expenses. The $79.1 million increase in compensation costs reflects our investment to grow our talented team to meet increased market demand and is primarily attributable to a $76.7 million increase in salaries and related expenses driven by increased headcount and annual salary increases that went into effect in the first quarter of 2024 and a $5.5 million increase in performance bonus expense; partially offset by a $2.8 million decrease in signing, retention and other bonus expense. As a percentage of revenues before reimbursable expenses, direct costs decreased to 68.0% during 2024, compared to 69.2% during 2023, primarily attributable to the decrease in contractor expenses and revenue growth that outpaced the increase in performance bonus expense for our revenue-generating professionals; partially offset by an increase in salaries and related expenses for our revenue-generating professionals, as a percentage of revenues before reimbursable expenses.
Reimbursable Expenses
Reimbursable expenses are billed to clients at cost and primarily relate to travel and out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with client engagements. These expenses are also included in total revenues. We manage our business on the basis of revenues before reimbursable expenses, which we believe is the most accurate reflection of our services because it eliminates the effect of reimbursable expenses that are also included as a component of operating expenses.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $28.7 million, or 11.1%, to $286.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 from $257.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The $28.7 million increase primarily related to a $16.1 million increase in non-payroll costs, driven by a $5.9 million increase in software and data hosting expenses, a $3.3 million increase in practice administration and meetings expenses, a $2.7 million increase in bad debt expense, and a $1.3 million increase in promotion and marketing expenses, partially offset by a $1.3 million decrease in training expenses. Additionally, selling, general and administrative expenses increased $12.7 million due to an increase in compensation costs for our support personnel driven by a $14.5 million increase in salaries and related expenses and a $1.2 million increase in performance bonus expense; partially offset by a $1.6 million decrease in share-based compensation expense and a $1.2 million decrease in signing, retention and other bonus expense. As a percentage of revenues before reimbursable expenses, selling, general and administrative expenses increased to 19.3% during 2024, compared to 18.9% during 2023. This increase was primarily attributable to increases in salaries and related expenses for our support personnel and software and data hosting expenses, as percentages of revenues before reimbursable expenses; partially offset by a decrease in share-based compensation expense for our support personnel.
Other Gains, Net