2025 Vault Rankings
At a Glance
“The ability to advise and have real impact on individual leaders and the teams and institutions they serve.”
“Challenging work, top-notch colleagues, freedom to choose across engagements.”
“Lifestyle, comp, and high-level work with great colleagues”
“The people are extremely talented, but they are also nice. For real. You don't see that in top firms.”
“Imbalanced workload: The top performers are oversubscribed, and the others can be in the position of wanting more work. Plus, it takes some time to learn our work and do it well.”
“Freedom is a double-edged sword. Sometimes the extent of the freedom we have is overwhelming.”
“We're a distributed organization, so I don't get to see all of my colleagues as often as I might want to.”
“I miss seeing people in person sometimes!”
About ghSMART
For 30 years, ghSMART has been a trusted advisor to large private equity investors, as well as to CEOs and Boards of Fortune 500s and non-profits. Combining rigorous assessments with analytics, ghSMART supports its clients in building exceptional teams and achieving their most ambitious goals. Founded on the belief that leadership is the most powerful force for good, ghSMART remains a pioneer in leadership advisory, with a legacy of bestselling books and industry accolades to its name.
Freedom to choose
ghSMART is different—consultants have the freedom and flexibility to chart their own career paths within a firm full of opportunities—to choose what to work on, where, when, and with whom—while earning top compensation. As a 100% employee-owned firm, colleagues can buy stock and share in the success of the firm. The firm is a flat organization that values proactivity and ability over bureaucracy and tenure, and all decisions and actions are guided by its credo: “We exist to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world”.
Exclusive, Inclusive Team
ghSMART is consistently ranked #1 for Selectivity on Vault. Despite the team's exceptional caliber, the culture is defined by generosity and a shared commitment to mutual growth and development. The team’s unique mix of former strategy consultants and organizational psychology/PhD professionals presents a collective capability to connect business objectives to human behavior. ghSMART consultants get energy from answering the “who” questions, and care about helping leaders reach their personal and professional goals.
Meaningful Impact.
ghSMART only works at the top of the house, so their advisory drives decisions that are high-stakes, high-risk, and high impact. Consultants experience the challenge and privilege of becoming a trusted advisor—even a confidant—to influential leaders who run large, values driven organizations. They help our clients hire and develop talented, diverse teams that deliver valuable results. Its rigorous assessment methodology serves as the basis for all their work that includes CEO succession, leadership development, leadership selection, and team and board effectiveness.
COVID-19 Update
COVID-19 Update
At ghSMART, the health and safety of our team and clients remain our top priority. Given that we have always worked remotely, we are fortunate to have had less disruption due to the novel coronavirus than others. However, to support our team and better serve our clients during this time, we implemented a series of new processes to address the unusual challenges we have all faced.
Our Credo states that we exist to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world, and the work we do to help leaders has become more critical than ever. Global leaders consider ghSMART consultants among their trusted advisors and have relied on our team to help them figure out how to stabilize their own teams, minimize business disruption, and find a path forward. We take our responsibility for supporting our team, clients, and communities very seriously, and will continue to find ways to improve the situation for all of our stakeholders. ghSMART is a management consulting firm based in Chicago, with offices across the U.S. and in London. The firm was founded in 1995 by Geoff Smart after the publication of an award-winning Ph.D. dissertation study on management assessment in private equity.
Racial Equality and Diversity
ghSMART acknowledges that bias, prejudice, and violence against Black people and other underrepresented groups exist in the United States and around the world. We believe a key part of the solution is leadership—on all of our parts, in the public sector as well as in the private sector. We believe that a great leader, more than anything else, elevates the quality of life of the individual, group, and society. Not satisfied with the status quo, ghSMART is increasing its commitment of resources and time to hiring and developing more diverse leaders, including leaders of color, within our firm, within our clients, and around the world. We stand together with anti-racist people from all backgrounds, taking action to improve the state of freedom and justice for all.
203 N La Salle St
Ste 2100
Chicago, IL 60601
Employer Type: Private
Chairman: Dr. Geoff Smart
CEO: Jeff McLean
2025 Employees (All Locations): 167
National
Global
Leadership Advisory