In 2002, Lake Capital backed a group of Arthur Andersen consultants to create Huron Consulting Group, a world-class, independent provider of financial and operational consulting services.

Lake Capital recognized an opportunity: Corporate and other organizations are facing increasingly large and complex business disputes and lawsuits, a growing number of regulatory and internal investigations, and more intense public scrutiny. Concurrently, increased competition and regulation are presenting significant operational and financial challenges for organizations. It is unusual for organizations to have internal resources to respond effectively to these challenges and opportunities. In addition, the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has substantially limited the scope of non-audit services that large public accounting firms can provide to their audit clients. Consequently, Lake and Huron believed that these organizations would increasingly seek to augment their internal resources with experienced, independent consultants like Huron.

In addition to capital, jump-starting the business meant the rapid creation of a firm with multiple offices and more than 200 consultants. Lake Capital and the Huron executives, led by CEO and industry leader Gary Holdren, rapidly recruited a robust professional team. It was also critical to implement the executive and physical infrastructure quickly needed to sell, deliver, and support Huron's clients. In line with its commitment to operational involvement, Lake Capital recruited a professional chief human resources officer for Huron and worked with her to bring aboard a core team of consultants and corporate staff. Lake Capital also worked with Huron's leadership team managers to create necessary infrastructure and helped recruit a CFO and general counsel. By combining Lake Capital's resources and expertise with Huron's executive management team, we were able to jump-start the business and achieved rapid growth.

Huron went public in the fall of 2004 and now trades on NASDAQ under the symbol HURN and was named by Consulting magazine as one of its "Seven Consulting Jewels."  In 2004, Gary Holdren, Huron's CEO, was named Ernst &Young Business Services Entrepreneur of the Year for the Illinois region, and in 2005, Huron Consulting Group took the top spot in Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 100 List.