As CTG celebrates the 60th year since its founding, we reflect on the growth and accomplishments of the organization through the last six decades. The landscape of the healthcare, technology, and energy industries has changed dramatically since 1966, but CTG adapted its services to support its clients every step of the way.
We reached out to CTG CEO Tom Niehaus to hear his thoughts on how the company has evolved since he arrived and where he expects it to go in the future.
CTG: You’ve spent nearly 25 years at CTG. When you think back to your early days here, what feels most different and what feels unmistakably the same?
TN: I joined CTG in 1999 when the company acquired Elumen Solutions, a healthcare consulting firm I helped build. That business became the foundation of CTG’s healthcare practice.
Back then, we had a lively headquarters in downtown Cincinnati, though our current headquarters in Buffalo was just as active. There was a real energy in the hallways stemming from collaboration, ambition, and pride in the work. I still sometimes miss those early Cincinnati days, but I don’t miss driving downtown with a foot of snow on the ground.
What’s changed the most is where we work, as many of our people are remote now. The big, bustling offices aren’t the center of gravity anymore. What hasn’t changed is our heart. We still put clients first. We still take pride in doing good work and have leaders who care deeply about this company. The setting is different, but the culture isn’t.
CTG: CTG has evolved alongside major shifts in technology, healthcare, and how work gets done. From your perspective, what moment or era most defined a turning point for the company?
TN: The acquisition by Cegeka at the end of 2023 was a real inflection point. For decades CTG operated as a public company, which brought discipline, but that also meant living quarter to quarter.
Joining Cegeka, a values-driven private company, allows us to think longer term and invest with intention. There’s a renewed confidence in what we can offer clients, and Cegeka’s culture aligns naturally with ours: client-first, people-centered, and grounded in doing things the right way. It feels less like we were acquired and more like we found the right long-term partner.
CTG: You’ve led CTG through periods of growth, transformation, and uncertainty. What have those moments taught you about leadership?
TN: Leadership got harder when we stopped being side-by-side. Before COVID we were together in our offices and at client sites, where our teams worked shoulder-to-shoulder with clients’ teams. The shift away from that was as much a cultural change as an operational one, and candidly it stretched me.
You can’t rely on hallway conversations anymore, you have to be more intentional. Communication matters more, listening matters more, and sometimes you have to make tough calls without the benefit of reading the room. I’ve learned that clarity, consistency, and genuine care for people matter even more when you’re leading from a distance.
CTG: Over 60 years, CTG has built long-standing relationships with clients and consultants. What do you think has allowed those relationships to endure?
TN: Clients experience our culture whether we talk about it or not. CTG has always been known as a strong value-add. We bring smart people, but we’re not flashy or pretentious. We’re grounded, practical, and focused on results. I’m from the Midwest, and although Buffalo is technically the Northeast, CTG has always felt Midwestern to me. To me that means humility, reliability, and steady hard work.
Clients appreciate that because it signals honesty and consistency, a partner who delivers without drama. I had the privilege of knowing CTG’s original founders, Randy Marks and David Baer. They embodied those traits: capable, principled, hardworking, and genuinely likable. That tone was set early and it’s still with us. Trust builds over time, but it’s our culture that makes it possible.
CTG: As CTG expanded its capabilities and footprint, how did you think about balancing innovation with staying true to what’s worked for CTG?
TN: Innovation only works when it starts with the client. Not every innovation effort we’ve pursued has paid off, especially when we drifted too far from real client needs.
We’ve never been the biggest company, and we’ve never tried to live on the bleeding edge just for the sake of it. We may not always be labeled “innovators,” but we are innovative in a practical sense. We take new technology and new ways of working and apply them to the real problems our clients deal with every day. The best ideas don’t come from chasing trends, they come from listening carefully and solving problems that matter. When we stay grounded in that, innovation works.
CTG: Looking ahead, what do you hope people will say about CTG when we reach our next major milestone?
TN: I hope they say we honored the legacy of our founders Randy Marks and David Baer, that we protected what made CTG special while still moving it forward. I hope history shows the Cegeka acquisition was a true turning point that gave us the ability to think long term and build with intention.
As we enter our 60th year, we’re doing so with real momentum, from strong bookings at the end of 2025 to an even stronger start this year. I hope they say we found a way to carry that same energy and pride that once filled our early headquarters, just expressed in a modern way. If we do that, the future will take care of itself.
/1.%20Visuals/Website/Icons/x-twitter.svg){kind=icon}