Newly Promoted SMD Rachel Rosenblatt on her 14 years at FTI

Based in New York, Rachel Rosenblatt is a newly promoted Senior Managing Director in FTI’s Strategic Communications segment, where she specializes in reputation management, crisis communications, corporate positioning, and communications training. She was even recently named one of PR News’ “Top Women in PR.” We sat down with Rosenblatt to discuss her 14 years at FTI Consulting and what she sees as the next step.

You recently were promoted to Senior Managing Director (SMD), congratulations! Walk us through your 14-year journey with FTI; what have you seen change and evolve? 

I joined FTI Consulting through the acquisition of Financial Dynamics in 2006, so this is a meaningful acknowledgment of the work I’ve done over the last 14 years and what I hope to contribute moving forward. Joining from the very beginning of the Strategic Communications segment allowed me to advance my career at a pivotal inflection point for the firm as we began to establish and build out our offering under new leadership. As the Strat Comm offering continued to change, evolve and improve, we no longer felt like Financial Dynamics employees and began to view ourselves as a part of FTI. I’m proud of the firm we built, our current client offerings and all the ways we can help address clients’ needs.

How important has mentorship been to your professional development over the years? And what lessons did they teach you? 

Mentors have been a huge part of my career development at FTI. I’ve had mentors who have been incredibly impactful: nudging me towards opportunities, helping me develop in the workplace, looping me into things before even I knew I was ready, and letting me take chances that would position my career on an upward trajectory.

In recent years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have people who are also what I consider to be a sponsor; individuals who took an interest in my work and helped me excel in different offerings I had never previously considered, whether those were ongoing matters or new business opportunities. Sponsors think outside of their traditional ventures, and seek new talent and perspectives to expand their teams’ capabilities. Mentorship is essential, but combining it with sponsorship is the thing that really makes an immense difference when creating the leaders of tomorrow.

March is the month of International Women’s Day. As a woman, and a mother, how has FTI fostered a culture of female advancement?

What I’ve always appreciated at FTI is that I’ve never had to think of myself as a female employee. I’m simply an employee, and gender has never been a factor. Where I do feel a responsibility, however, is as a mom and a role model to other new parents at FTI. I want other employees to see their career paths in those early years of parenthood because striking the right balance isn’t easy.

In professional services, hours are not always predictable, and demands are not always uniform, which can put a lot of pressure on new parents. The one thing I had always heard people say before I had a child was that as a parent, you learn to simply be more efficient; after I had a child my time management rose to an entirely new level. While that was somewhat borne out of necessity, it was encouraging to realize it was possible to excel at being both a mom and professional simultaneously.

Knowing that I had clients who were also new moms or parents to young children helped me relate to them more on a personal level and recognize that many of us are in similar places on our journey. Our clients often do realize the demands of having a young family and when everyone has a modicum of empathy for the challenges parents face, it makes things a lot easier.

What are your current areas of focus and where do you feel your team most excels at the moment?

Over the last few years specifically, I’ve worked hard to fine-tune the way I contribute to the Strategic Communications segment by aligning my passion for working at the intersection of corporate reputation and crisis/issues management with Strat Comm’s business strategy. Each client need is incredibly specific, but they all require a communications effort anchored in trust. What I tend to work on engagements that impact clients’ corporate reputation while ensuring that we also maintain the flexibility to work on what we deem “special situations” work, whether that’s the communications around restructuring or M&A, or litigation support.

I also do a lot of media training; which I love because I can spend just a few hours with someone and after that they can walk out the door with the ability to communicate more effectively. I love that immediate – or virtually immediate – gratification. It’s an intellectual challenge to learn about a company, a new industry, a new set of messages or a new story and help the company’s senior people communicate those messages.

So, where to from here? Do you do the “where will I be in 5 or 10 years?” thing?

Someone once said to me, “Forget about a five-year plan. Where are you now? Where are you going to be in six months? Are you okay with that? If not, you’ve got to change it.” And that’s pretty much advice I live by. Right now, I’m delighted with where I am, the clients I work with, the team around me, and the optimism in Strategic Communications. It’s a great place to find myself in, and I intend to make the most of it.