Consulting with a Familiar Client
Seamus Donegan (MMM ‘20) spent four years as a client-facing consultant at Deloitte. Today, he leads Innovation and AI Transformation for Deloitte’s Brand, Marketing, & Communications organization, partnering with the CMO and leadership team to expand marketing’s impact on business growth.
Seamus Donegan (MMM ‘20) joined global professional services firm Deloitte soon after graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He liked the idea of helping clients grow, and he spent four years as a go-to source for problem solving.
When he decided he wanted to go from being an individual contributor to a team leader, he turned to Northwestern's MBA + MS Design Innovation (MMM) Program—a dual-degree program between Northwestern Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management.
“The MMM Program was the ideal precursor to my time as a Manager here at Deloitte, helping me test and hone my ability to effectively lead others and gather ongoing feedback to improve,” Seamus said. “Over my career, I have been the beneficiary of great leaders going out of their way to help me grow. Now, I enjoy paying it forward and helping my teammates grow.”
Today, Seamus leads Innovation and AI Transformation for Deloitte’s Brand, Marketing, & Communications organization. Instead of helping external clients, Seamus' “client” now is Deloitte itself, a firm that operates worldwide in more than 150 countries and territories.
He and his team partner with the CMO and leadership team on high priority projects seeking to improve marketing outcomes, accelerate speed to market, and ultimately expand marketing’s impact on business growth.
He and his team help inform strategy development and goal setting for the organization, as well as redesign processes, develop and launch new tools, and explore future-forward capabilities.
"The broad applicability of the MMM learnings was one of the most impactful lessons I graduated with," he said. "While MMM could prepare you for a career in innovation consulting for instance, the problem-solving toolkit we learned can be applied to a host of challenges, whether they be related to finance, marketing, or even personal challenges."
Seamus was initially attracted to the MMM Program because of its collaborative approach to education. He also said he was influenced by the leaders he'd encountered in his career—many of whom happened to be Northwestern alumni.
“I hoped to lead teams as they did. They were leaders that teammates sought out and wanted to work for, leaders people felt connected to and inspired by,” he said. “Once I learned about the MMM Program, I knew this was the program I wanted to be a part of.”
While in the MMM Program, Seamus practiced his own approach to leadership by serving as President of the Kellogg Student Association, a role that represents the students in all of Kellogg's full-time academic programs.
At Deloitte, he finds himself trying to emulate the environment he experienced in the MMM Program.
His goal is to create a team environment where he and his colleagues can experiment, ask questions, and openly challenge norms to uncover solutions that can benefit the organization.
“Our success is linked to key values strengthened in MMM—creative problem solving, empathy, clear communication, and the humility to change course when needed,” he said. “When our team can resolve a challenging process or add a new tool to improve the experience of our marketers, it is a great feeling.”