Trusted advisor to Fortune 500 leaders and private equity operating partners navigating high-stakes transformation and AI adoption. Twenty-plus years aligning people, strategy, and execution, now bringing AI fluency to the work.
Jesse's path through transformation work started inside a tech startup that operated an online global platform for the scientific research community, where he saw firsthand how technology reshapes the way knowledge moves. From there he joined Accenture, then Manpower, then Booz & Company, advising Fortune 500 leaders on operating model redesign, post-merger integration, and large-scale change. In 2010 he founded Emergent, a Denver-based transformation and change consultancy serving clients across industries.
Today he combines that consulting foundation with deep AI fluency. He's the creator of OrgChange.AI, an AI-enabled change management toolkit, the author of The Emergent Manager, and the maker of two free diagnostics used across the field: TransformationReady, which rates whether a single initiative is set up to succeed, and Change Accelerator, which measures whether an organization is built to deliver change again and again. He holds an MBA and an MS in Communications, sits on the alumni board of Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and contributes to PMI, ATD, Forrester, and TechTarget.
Most new managers are promoted for being great at their old job, then left to figure out the new one alone. The Emergent Manager is the field guide Jesse wishes every first-time manager received on day one: 22 core skills, more than 40 ready-to-use tools, and one concrete action to close every chapter.
Drawn from two decades of watching leadership transitions succeed and fail inside the world's biggest companies, it distills what actually works into steps you can put to use the same week you read them. Organizations moving several new managers through the transition at once run the New Manager Cohort Program, built on the same material.
Finds where AI will actually pay off in a single company, across twelve business functions and more than eighty processes, and what it takes organizationally to land it. Three presentation-ready deliverables, no survey guesswork.
See how it works →The build that follows the diagnostic: how roles change, what capabilities to grow or hire, who decides what as AI enters the work, and the change execution that turns findings into adoption.
The same method run across a private equity portfolio, producing an investment-committee-ready view of where AI capital should go first and what it will return.
For operating partners →Sequenced deployment across the portfolio, in the order the operating partner sets, so the value lands inside the hold period rather than after it.
Both are built from the same field experience as the paid work. Neither asks for a sales conversation, and both end with something you can hand to your leadership team.
Is this initiative set up to succeed? Rate it against 30 statements across six readiness conditions, in about five minutes, and see how it compares with other organizations.
Check your initiative →Is the organization built to deliver change again and again? Seven dimensions, about seven minutes, and you get a maturity level, a recommendation on where change management should live, and a roadmap to the next level.
Assess your capability →Custom engagements, scoped to the situation and run by the person who scoped them.
Redesigning how the business creates, delivers, and captures value across functions and teams.
Embedding AI into workflows to scale performance, insight, and decision-making.
Aligning people, processes, and systems to realize the full value of mergers and acquisitions.
Driving structural and operational efficiencies to improve margins and reinvest in growth.
Accelerating adoption and value realization from enterprise systems like ERP, CRM, and HCM.
Restructuring roles, reporting lines, and capabilities to better support business strategy.
Stakeholder alignment, leadership enablement, and adoption strategies that make change stick. Free readiness check →
Equipping leaders and teams with the tools and mindsets to lead and sustain transformation. See where you stand →
A representative sample of organizations Jesse has advised, directly or through Emergent.
Set a new standard for our company's transformation initiative.
CEO, Fortune 50 Retailer
The single best investment we made in our transformation effort.
CFO, Fortune 500 Manufacturer
A helpful mix of strategy, business acumen, and process management.
Senior Director, Fortune 50 Retailer
Left an impression on the organization that continues to pay dividends.
VP, Airline
Impressed us with bold, creative ideas.
Chief Technical Architect, Fortune 50 Manufacturer
Brings high energy, creativity, and passion.
Director, Fortune 50 Consumer Goods Company
Jesse takes on a small number of direct advisory engagements each year, typically with senior executives navigating a transformation, an AI rollout, or a leadership transition, and with operating partners deciding where AI belongs across a portfolio. For larger initiatives and full team engagements, work is delivered through Emergent.