Benton
Armstrong

The Profile

Running Point on America's Grid

There are two ways to become the CEO of a utility risk consultancy. One is to spend a career inside the utility sector, climbing through operations and engineering. The other is to spend 30 years building some of the most sophisticated data-and-compliance practices in global consulting - and then apply that toolkit to an industry that desperately needs it.

Benton Armstrong chose the second path. And if you're a public utility anywhere in the United States wrestling with wildfire liability, regulatory compliance, or the terrifying complexity of converting aging infrastructure data into something actually usable - there's a good chance Celerity Consulting is already in the room.

Armstrong grew up analytically. His undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University was in Applied Mathematics, earned magna cum laude in 1990. That's not the typical biography of a C-suite executive. It's the biography of someone who never learned to be afraid of data at scale - and who would spend the next three decades building practices where data at scale was exactly the problem.

The PwC Chapter: Building the Blueprint

He arrived at PwC in 1992, fresh from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business with an MBA in Operations Management. PwC wasn't just a job - it was a laboratory. Armstrong's domain was Forensic Technology Solutions, a field that barely had a name yet. His job was to make sense of legal discovery in an era when "document review" was quickly becoming "data management at impossible scale."

He served as Principal and Global and West Region Practice Leader - meaning he didn't just participate in building the global forensic technology business. He launched it. Over 16 years at PwC, Armstrong developed the operational architecture, the client relationships, and the methodology that would define how major organizations handle litigation-related data. When he left in 2008, he took that entire mental model with him.

Deloitte Discovery: A Global Machine

The Deloitte chapter is where the numbers get genuinely remarkable. As Principal of Deloitte Discovery, Armstrong didn't just join an existing practice - he launched the global business. What followed was one of those compounding growth stories that consulting firms love to tell but rarely achieve: a team of 1,100 professionals across 35 countries, with revenue growing 8 times over six years.

That kind of growth doesn't happen by accident. It requires building repeatable systems, training global teams in consistent methodology, and maintaining enough client trust that Fortune 500 legal departments are willing to hand over their most sensitive data management challenges. Armstrong ran this operation until 2019 - a full decade of scaling a global discovery enterprise before moving on.

The West Region Practice Leader role that followed at Deloitte wasn't a lateral move; it was Armstrong applying his system-building skills to rebuilding a regional practice from a different angle. By the time he left Deloitte, his resume contained a tutorial on how to build, scale, and operate large professional services practices across multiple geographies and regulatory environments.

The Pivot: From Litigation Data to Grid Risk

Between 2021 and 2023, Armstrong did something unusual for someone with his track record: he slowed down. He spent time as an independent consultant, and took on a Strategic Advisor role with JLL Partners, evaluating acquisition targets and developing business plans for a legal services industry rollup. It was, in effect, a real-time education in M&A, market structure, and what institutional investors look for when they back service-sector businesses.

That education paid off when Armstrong stepped into the CEO role at Celerity Consulting Group in 2023. Celerity had been acquired by Hastings in 2021 and had added Clear Path - a vegetation management specialist - earlier in 2023. The company was at an inflection point: a specialized consultancy with a clear value proposition and a market that was growing faster than anyone had anticipated.

Prepare. Prevent. Protect.

The philosophy Armstrong articulates for Celerity is deceptively simple: help utilities prepare for incidents before they occur, prevent them from recurring, and protect people and assets in the aftermath. That three-word framework - Prepare, Prevent, Protect - is doing a lot of work.

The practical translation of that philosophy runs across several service lines: electric and gas utility consulting, GIS services, wildfire mitigation support, estimating, project management office services, aerial inspections, and vegetation management through Clear Path. It's a vertically integrated risk practice - and its relevance to the utility sector is only growing.

The 2024 Rebrand: "We Empower Power"

In June 2024, Armstrong oversaw the launch of Celerity's new brand identity - a refresh that acknowledged the firm's expanded capabilities and sharpened its positioning in the utility sector. The new tagline - "We empower power" - is one of those rare pieces of brand copy that earns its simplicity. It says exactly what the firm does without requiring a footnote.

The rebrand also restructured Celerity's digital presence around three core service lines, and introduced plans for an educational content program: webinars, white papers, how-to guides, and blog articles aimed at improving the overall acumen of utility practitioners. It's an unusual move for a consulting firm - most guard their methodologies closely. Armstrong is betting that raising the floor of the whole industry is good for everyone, including Celerity.

The Analytical Edge

What sets Armstrong apart in a field of experienced executives isn't just the scale of what he's built - it's the combination of applied mathematical rigor and operational execution. His BS in Applied Mathematics (earned magna cum laude, a detail that doesn't make it into most executive bios but matters considerably) gives him a credibility with data scientists and analysts that most CEOs can't claim.

His MBA from Duke's Fuqua School gave him the operations management framework to translate that analytical instinct into scalable organizations. And his 30 years at PwC and Deloitte gave him the client relationship skills to navigate the regulated, risk-averse, politically complex environment that characterizes America's utility sector.

In an industry where bad data can mean downed power lines, regulatory penalties, or worse - a wildfire - that combination is genuinely rare.

Career Timeline

30 Years in the Making

Impact at Deloitte

The Numbers Behind the Practice

The Deloitte Discovery chapter wasn't just a career milestone - it was a proof-of-concept for building global professional services operations from scratch.

Track Record

What He's Actually Built

• Launched Deloitte Discovery's global practice from zero - grew it to 1,100 staff across 35 countries with 8x revenue growth over 6 years
• Built and led PwC's Global and West Region Forensic Technology Solutions practice from inception in 1992
• Advised JLL Partners on M&A strategy for legal services industry rollup, evaluating acquisition targets and leading negotiations
• Led Celerity's 2024 brand relaunch and digital restructuring, expanding the firm's public presence across three core service lines
• Over 30 years advising Fortune 500 companies on technology, risk, compliance, litigation, and data management challenges
• Applied mathematics foundation (magna cum laude, NC State) underpins a career-long edge in quantitative problem-solving

The Details

Numbers Worth Knowing